The Story of the Man Born Blind
The Rev. Mark Sherwindt, Pastor
Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church
Lent 4: March 2, 2008
[The Gospel Lesson for this Sunday was so long that I decided to take my time in reading it, while also inserting some commentary along the way. I have taken a few liberties in using translations here and there that bring out the meaning of the story. The scripture verses are in italics, while my commentary is in regular type.] We don't normally think of the Bible as humorous, a book intended to be funny. It is the revelation of the Word of God. It is the focus of ritual and reverence. But I've got to confess that I find this Gospel reading from the 9th Chapter of John to be delightfully humorous, the kind of story you can imagine Garrison Keillor entertaining us with in sharing the many tales of Lake Woebegone. It's not slapstick humor like that of the Three Stooges. It's not about Henny Youngman's one-liners. It's a story with enough reality to make us laugh, but with enough truth to make us think. This might take awhile, so why don't you all sit down as I walk us through the Gospel Lesson for the 4th Sunday in Lent.
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?' This is a tough question. Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be punished by being born blind? We know that it is not the right question to ask; but still, we ask it all the time. Whenever tragedy strikes, our first thoughts wonder why we are being punished. Is God mad at us? What did I do wrong? All of us remember that Job had three friends who forced this question upon him. Job, you know things like this don't happen without some kind of reason. You must have done something wrong, in a major way, to bring all this tragedy and suffering upon yourself.
'Lord, 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.' Get your focus off yourselves. Why me? Woe is me! Why is this happening to me? Get the focus off you, and turn your focus and your faith to God. Don't ask, Why is this happening to me?, but What is God trying to accomplish? That's what Jesus is trying to say. God is working in all the actions acting upon us. What is God trying to do? How can I become a part of that? Fill us with your wisdom. Use us for your purpose. Enlighten us through our faith. Lead us, and help us to follow.
Here is where the fun begins. 'As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.' When Jesus had said this, he spat on the ground, made mud with his spit and spread the mud on the man's eyes, saying to him, 'Go, wash in the pool of Siloam' (which means Sent). Wouldn't it have been enough to issue a verbal command? Man, I say to you, See! Or, if he wanted a biblical precedent, how about the Creator in Genesis, Let there be sight! But no, we have the mystery of magic mud, and being sent to wash in the pool of water, whose very name refers to the One who sent him to wash in the pool of water, whose very name refers. Well, you get the idea. The pool of Siloam creates a loop that leads back to the one who was sent, referring both to the One who was sent by God to be the light of the word, and to the one whom He sent turning his blindness into sight.
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.' Yes, it might be someone who looks like him in every respect, except that now he sees! It is as if they are the ones who were blind! All the while the man is standing right there, and he kept saying, 'I am the man. I'm the one. I am he.' 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.' Why do you need to see him? I am right here in front of you. If you have any questions about my sight, ask me!
In any event, a man born blind at birth is made to see: that seems like a good thing, something worth celebrating. But no, that would be too obvious. They brought the man - formerly known as the man who had been born blind - to the Pharisees. Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. So, the Pharisees began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, 'He put mud on my eyes. I washed, and now I see. It's as simple as that.' Some of the Pharisees said, 'This man is not from God, for he breaks God's laws and does not observe the Sabbath.' But others wondered, 'How can a man do such things if he is just an ordinary sinner, or worse, an extraordinary sinner?!' So, they were divided. They asked the blind man, 'What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.' He thought, Hmm, ordinary sinner, sent by God: I'd say he was sent by God, and then said, He is a prophet. It seemed that nobody was looking at what was right there in front of them.
The Jews became skeptical about whether the man - formerly known as the man born blind - had been blind until the moment he received his sight, and 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 about the matter of how it is that now he sees, we know nothinnng. Nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him. He is of age. Of age for what? Of age for being found guilty of saying something nice about Jesus. John explains through a parenthetical insertion. John says that his parents said this because they were afraid; for behind closed doors with cigar smoke everywhere, Jewish insiders had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Christ would be put out of the synagogue, excommunicated from God's people, exiled from Israel! That's why his parents said, He is of age; ask him.
So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, 'Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.' The man - formerly known as the man who had been born blind - answered, 'I am just a man born blind. I didn't go to school to study such things. I don't know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that once I was blind, and now I see.' They said to him, 'What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?' Dripping with sarcasm, he answered them, 'Like I told you, I'm just a man who was born blind. I didn't go to school to study such things. I was blind, and now I see. You're not listening. Do you want me to tell you again? You are so interested in hearing about this man. Do you also want to become his disciples?' The battle of the blind was on: the man blind from birth versus the men blind by choice.
They reviled him. They rebuked him. They objected. They protested. They were not going to stand for it. 'You may be 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 - formerly known as the man born blind - rose to the challenge, 'Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, a mere matter of geography, and yet he opened my eyes, a miracle from God. 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 blind, and have never been to school to study anything, 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.' What a wonderful story. In the span of just a few short verses, the man born blind learns to see Jesus as a man, then as a prophet, and finally as his Lord. That's what it means to go from blindness to sight. But the Pharisees chose their blindness, even though they had been given every opportunity to see. They grew up with the Word of the Torah. They were right there in Jerusalem with the Temple and their traditions and all the signs to remind them of God's faithfulness, God's promises, and God's call to be a light to the nations. And here is the light of the world standing right in their midst, and they close their eyes, and their minds, and their hearts, and their lives.
Here's how Raymond Brown, the author of the definitive two-volume commentary on John's Gospel, puts it: The care with which the evangelist has drawn his portraits of increasing insight and hardening blindness is masterful. Three times the former blind man, who is truly gaining knowledge, humbly confesses his ignorance. Three times the Pharisees, who are really plunging deeper into abysmal ignorance, make confident statements about what they know. The blind man emerges from these pages as one of the most attractive figures in the Gospels, whose confounding of the Pharisees is one of the most cleverly written dialogues in the New Testament. (Raymond E. Brown, S.S., The Gospel According to John, 2 volumes, The Anchor Bible Commentary, Doubleday, 1966, p. 377) Archeological digs and historical investigations have made it clear that this text was often used with baptismal candidates, who, upon coming up out of the water, having been washed from sin and enlightened by faith, stepped forward to say, Lord, I believe, an affirmation that led to a fuller confession of faith using one of the historic creeds. Raymond Brown talks about this baptismal rite and John 9:38 in his commentary on pages 380-381.
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, of all people, as God's people, are not blind, are we?' How easy it is to take heart in pointing the finger at others. They chose to be blind. They closed their lives to the light of the world, and sin festered, mold grew, and death consumed them. But the scriptures are never just about taking heart in the sins of others, and saying to ourselves, Boy, I'm glad I'm not like those guys! We are on the verge of entering into Holy Week. We will not learn to see any more clearly simply by pointing to the blindness of others. We've got to get ourselves into the story, and become like the man - formerly known as the man born blind - and grow in our knowledge of Jesus, so that we, too, can say, I can see, and I believe in Jesus' name. Amen