John 9:24-41

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.

Spiritual Blindness

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 worshipped him. Jesus said, ‘I came into this world for judgement 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 don’t like to talk, write or think about ‘sin’, it was overdone in my more hard-line, Protestant past. I don’t deny my failings though, both large and small. Jesus’ approach to this question, as with many others, is rather different. It seems that we don’t really follow him, we don’t think and act like him. If we can put aside our dogma and theological frameworks, we may see that the glass which offers a dim reflection (1 Corinthians 13) begins to clear. In short, he says, don’t worry about, and especially don’t label, those who you think may be sinners, if you do then you’ve gone completely wrong. He is consistent on this in both the Synoptics and in John’s Gospel, a rare example of him speaking with the same voice in both sets of writings.

Jesus’ message is human-centred, or even, being human-centred is the message. In our selected text ‘We see’ is a competitive statement, telling others that we know or see better. A similar story in Mark’s Gospel tells us that it is the ‘righteous’ who really need saving but take great pains to exclude themselves. He even says, “I came into this world for judgment [ie to identify and discriminate between] so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.”

Another reason for highlighting this issue of the problem with ‘seeing’ (i.e. realizing) is to avoid perpetuating ableist language and messaging when reflecting on Scripture. Being ‘blind’ is not a problem and those people who are physically blind are not illustrations of what it is like not to respond to the Gospel. As so often, Jesus turns things on their head, being ‘able’ to do something, but not ‘seeing’ our problem (realizing that we don’t really understand at all), though we claim to prevent us from responding.

Blessings as we pray that our eyes may be open to see the glory of God reflected in Jesus, the Christ.  Be safe!  Be well!  The Spirit has come!

 To Ponder:

• Why does Jesus spend so much energy challenging the explicitly religious?
• What is he telling us as religious people?