We continue to our final discussion of the man born blind (from John 9).
Poor guy! After seeing the way his neighbors, family, and church folk acted – he probably wondered whether gaining his sight was worth the trouble.
Well, the crazy church folk were not done, yet.
“Give God the glory for healing you,” the leaders say to the man.
Of course, that’s not what they meant. What they meant, was, “Give us some dirt that we can use against Jesus, and we will leave you alone. Tell us the truth right now that this man, Jesus, had nothing to do with you being healed. We know this man is a sinner.”
Notice that their knowing is a lie.
Notice that their seeing is blind.
Notice that their certitude is a sin.
Listen to their declaration: “We KNOW!”
As soon as they said that, they revealed their BLINDNESS!
The man responds: “Whether this man is a sinner or not, I do NOT know. All I do know is this: Once I was blind, but now I can see.”
The man does not comment on what he doesn’t know.
He ONLY says what he knows.
The Pharisees are LOOSING sight (insight). Meanwhile, the man born blind is starting to SEE – not only physically, but spiritually.
“How did he do it?” the Pharisees continue. “How did he heal you?”
Now the man is just getting frustrated. Watch as he becomes the inquisitor.
“I’ve already told you that once: ‘I was blind, but now I can see!’ Did you miss that, or are you thinking about being one of Jesus’ disciples as well?”
HOW DARE HE CHALLENGE THEM!
“Who do you think you are? You may be one of this man’s disciples, but WE ARE NOT. We are disciples of Moses. God speaks to Moses. We don’t know anything about this man and what he’s all about?”
The formerly blind man is up to their challenge: “This in incredible. You say you don’t know where this man comes from. Yet he opened my blind eyes. Nobody has ever been able to heal a man born blind, but this man did. He couldn’t do such a thing if God were not with him!”
The Pharisees curse the man again, and kick him out of the synagogue, saying: “You have been steeped in sin and blindness since the day you were born. You have no business lecturing us.”
Did you notice whose been missing throughout all these exchanges? That’s right – it’s Jesus. He did the healing deed and vanished from sight. Now he reappears. He goes to the man and says: “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
The man answers: “Tell me who he is that I may believe?”
Jesus says: “You have seen him with your eyes. In fact, the man you are talking too right now is him. I am the Messiah!”
“Lord, I believe,” the man says, and he then kneels and worships him.
When you see Jesus like that – it brings about a moment of crisis. It demands that we made a decision, a judgment, or a choice.
What’s happened? God has given us grace, mercy, forgiveness, and life. God has given us light and sight. What are we going to do with it? Do we turn toward and live into the light, or turn away and remain in darkness.
We can’t stay where we are. We must decide. We either open our eyes to the light, or we close them tighter and stay in the dark.
“We aren’t blind, are we?” the Pharisees ask.
That’s the kind of question we must ask. We must, because it is a question that opens us up to God. It opens us up to healing. It opens us up to move from darkness to light, from blindness to sight.
Jesus has come to us. He has anointed us. Then he says, “Go wash in the pool of Siloam.”
We cannot see him, but we feel the wet clay on our eyes and we hear his voice: “Go, wash!”
Will you do that? Will you go and wash?
Let’s go back to my daughter, Michelle, who I mentioned a few posts ago. She was visually impaired – but she didn’t know it. It wasn’t until she put on her first pair of glasses that she actually saw stars. She thought she knew all about them. She had spoke about them. She had sung: “Twinkle, Twinkle, little star.” But it wasn’t until her vision was made clear by the lenses that she could look up, see stars, and say, “Oh, they are so beautiful, Daddy. I always wondered what they looked like!”
That’s the revelation we should have each day with the rising of the sun. Whatever we thought yesterday about God’s love and grace was too small.
Today is a new day.
Today we can see better.
Today we can wash and see even more about the Father in heaven, the grace we are given in Jesus, and the love that is at work in the whole world through the goodness of the Holy Spirit.
We can pray to the Father, “Oh, Abba, your grace is so beautiful!”
Or, I guess, we could be like the Pharisees. We could opt for the myth that says that says God’s grace is safe and secure, boxed up in the confines of our little religion.
