John 9:1-41
As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some were saying, “It is he.” Others were saying, “No, but it is someone like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ Then I went and washed and received my sight.” They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”
They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.” Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And they were divided. So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” He said, “He is a prophet.”
The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” His parents answered, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.” He answered, “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” Then they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” The man answered, “Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?” And they drove him out.
Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” He said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped him. Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.
I thought it was comical that the lectionary (the assigned list of weekly readings for worship) worked out to have a “healing miracle” on tap for the second week of our world-wide COVID-19 pandemic. It’s not surprising, really, but comical. It’s not surprising, because there are lots of healing stories in scripture to choose from. There’s this one, from John’s gospel, where Jesus spits in the dirt, makes a mud pie and uses it to give this guy – who’d been blind his whole life – his eyesight back.
And there’s the one where he heals a little girl. There’s the one where he heals Peter’s mother-in-law, who’s in bed with a fever. There’s the one where he casts out the demon from that guy in the synagogue. There’s the woman who had been hemorrhaging for 12 years, the one about the leper who’s made clean, and the one about the lame guy who gets up from his mat and walks again. And there are others.
But, when I think about all of that, I wonder, too, about all those people – in Jesus’ day and in ours, especially at times like this – who never get healed: the demon that never leaves; the fever that never breaks; the blindness that never goes away; the leprosy, the deafness, this damned virus, for crying out loud.
Which is why, I have to say, right out of the gate, that I think Jesus is up to something much more profound than giving this blind man his sight back. So if you hear this Gospel reading at a time when the world is running scared from the pandemic that currently plagues us, and expect me to suggest we make a mud-pie, rub some dirt on it, say a prayer, and wait for a miracle, I’m not your guy. (I think there’s a church in Louisiana open for business today, selling miracles, if that’s your thing.)
And don’t get me wrong. We should pray our hearts out. We should believe that the power of God can do some miraculous, amazing things. And we should also do what the scientists, doctors, and nurses tell us to do. We should employ and empower the full force of our common sense and our common humanity and we should take our medicines. We should follow doctors’ orders. We should wash our hands. We should keep our distance. And we should trust and hope and pray that God can work a miracle through all of this if God chooses to do that.
But, again, I think Jesus is up to something even more profound and hopeful than that this morning.
But we miss it sometimes, because, just like the Pharisees, we get caught up in the “who, what, how, when and where” of what Jesus did for this blind man and we ignore – or we don’t care, so much – about what Jesus tells us – right at the beginning of it all – about the WHY of what he had done that day.
This guy had been born blind, remember. And to his parents, to his neighbors, to the Pharisees, certainly, and even to the blind man himself, perhaps, that meant he was sinful in some way. And we know, medical science back in the day wasn’t what it is for us now. When someone was sick or flawed or broken or a-typical or differently-abled in some way – whether it was leprosy, leukemia or whatever it is that makes a lame person unable to walk – their ailment was understood to be proof that they were being judged by God and punished for their sinfulness, whether they could name those sins or not.
You can hear it in the disciples’ question to Jesus, even before the healing occurs: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?” (Apparently, your physical diseases could also be the result of someone else’s sins, not just your own. What a racket!) But Jesus doesn’t break out the medical books or unroll the scientific scrolls or give the blind man an eye exam, either. Because he knows better. He says, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.”
And then Jesus gets to the business of doing “God’s work.” And if “miracle” means supernatural, irrational, unexpected, unexplainable – or something like that – here… to me… is where the real miracle of this morning’s Gospel occurs. Jesus pulls that stunt with the mud and the spit, yes. But what he accomplishes in the process – the miracle, here – is to restore this poor soul to his family and to his community and to his God in way no one thought possible.
And the miracle of what God accomplishes through Jesus, not just for the blind man on the roadside that day, but for every one of us – and our neighbors out there in the world, too – is that God forgives sins and gives us eternal life, in spite of them.
Because, what the disciples, the Pharisees, the blind man and his family, friends and neighbors were meant to witness that day wasn’t just a healing. The real joy for this man who once was blind but now could see, wasn’t that he could throw away his walking stick or fire his guide dog or read the last line on the chart for the ophthalmologist. The real miracle and true joy for the blind man who received his sight was that God transformed what had been considered sinful, into forgiveness; God turned judgment into freedom; God made what was thought to be broken, whole; God made one who was unworthy to the world around him, worthy… and loved… and liberated… and allowed into the Kingdom, just like the rest of them.
And that’s a miracle. And it’s our miracle, just the same.
The miracle of Jesus Christ is that God’s grace is big enough for the whole lot of us – sick, sinful, broken and needy as we can be. That which the world can’t overlook, God forgives. That which the world calls worthless, God claims and cherishes. That which the world considers to be unlovable, God loves. That which the world nails to a cross, God raises from the dead. That which the world calls a sin, sometimes, God declares otherwise. Did you hear that? THAT WHICH THE WORLD CALLS A SIN, SOMETIMES, GOD DECLARES OTHERWISE. (Do you know anyone who needs to hear that little bit of good news today?)
See, God’s greatest gift – God’s most amazing miracle – comes in the healing of our souls and in the salvation of our spirits. No matter what happens to our bodies – to our lives, in this life and in the world as we know it – Jesus’ healing reminds us that none of it will last forever; not this virus, not that cancer, not that addiction, not any of it.
Jesus’ ultimate healing comes in the promise and in the realization that mercy and love; forgiveness and grace; resurrection and new life overpower whatever threatens us; whatever pains us; whatever scares us or even ends our lives in this world.
And this is how we are truly healed. This is how we are actually made whole, even in the midst of so much sickness that surrounds and threatens and scares us silly too much of the time. This is how we are made well… through an everlasting, unconditional, undeserved love that flows from the cross, that flows through the tomb that flows into our lives – for our sake, for the sake of this sick and broken, hurting world, and into God’s kingdom that is sure to come.
Amen
