John 9.1-41 The man born blind

Okay, time for honesty. How many of you stop reading this passage at verse 7 or 12?

When I looked at the lectionary this week, my first thought was oh good Lord, 41 verses? Why? Where can I cut some verses out or stop? Even my Bible divides this into 3 pericopes, or sections. How am I supposed to preach on that much material?

Truth is, I’ve preached on this passage before and I do generally shorten it. When I write sermons, I often make a note of things that stand out to me and sometimes even just stop reading that point or a few verses further to make sure whatever I am writing isn’t contradictory to the text.

You know what happens when we don’t know the whole story? We miss things! Sometimes we get the whole point of the story wrong.

The Bible is one of the best-written works in existence. An English teacher is going to tell you that there is a format for writing anything. There is at the very least an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. I tell you what I’m going to tell you, then I tell you about it, then I summarize it. We can feasibly do that with each pericope in today’s lectionary.

Part one: A man born blind receives sight. Great title. Very descriptive. A man is born blind, disciples want to know why. In true human fashion, not going to lie, I want to be sexist and say manly here, but I am going to tell you that the politically correct, inclusive way to say this that isn’t sexist is just to say, in true human fashion, instead of insulting or glorifying either gender as superior. At any rate, in true human fashion, because we all do it far more often than we should, rather than asking an open-ended question like “Jesus, why is this man blind?”

The disciples instead ask “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” I could preach an entire sermon on this line alone but we’re going to move on because we’ve a lot of ground to cover. The disciples have not asked a question; they have given Jesus the only two choices they could think of and are trying to force him to pick one as if one of them is right and the other is wrong. A great tactic if you are working with small children, people who get overwhelmed by too many options, or if you’re trying to manipulate someone, but inappropriate for autonomous adults.

Jesus answers appropriately, neither; he was born blind so that God’s work might be revealed in him.” At first glance, this might seem problematic. God does not create flawed or malformed people just so they can serve as examples for the rest of the world. What Jesus is saying here is much bigger and quite opposite to that.

You are born the way you are born, however you are born, so that God’s work might be revealed in you. That is your purpose: to reveal God. There is nothing about you that is punishment, unjust, or any more problematic than the person sitting next to you, across the room, or on the other side of the world. You are designed the way you to be fully capable of revealing God to the world through your words, actions, and deeds.

Some are born physically blind; most are also born spiritually blind. But we wouldn’t know this was the point if we stopped reading after just this section. If I only read this section, I might get caught up in its lessons on how no one believes we’ve changed when we really have or how we have to do what God tells us to do, not just sit here and expect faith alone to fix the world. Note how the title describes what happened but not the lessons contained within. While those lessons are important, I read on, and so should you.

When we don’t read on we’re prone to getting stuck and focusing on that God healing someone is the end of the message. This has all kinds of problems and has led to all kinds of problems surrounding assumptions that if God doesn’t heal you or your loved on, God doesn’t exist. Terrible place to stop reading. But, it is our introduction, our summary of what is to come and a truth that is to be revealed.

Part Two: The Pharisees Investigate the Healing. A nice way of saying, the Pharisees seek to persecute Jesus for performing miracles without a permit on a no-miracles allowed day. Everyone doubts. The Pharisees doubt. The Jews doubt. The disciples doubt. The people doubt.

The Pharisees engage in yet another manipulative questioning tactic. First, they tell you that you’re wrong and then they ask you what happened. It’s like our authors watch crime TV. “This man isn’t from God. God doesn’t work on Sundays. Those who work on Sundays are sinners. Therefore, since this work was performed on a Sunday by a sinner, who is he?” Of course, the Pharisees are intimidating both the man and his parents to get the answer they want. These are coercive tactics TV police use all the time.

Didn’t get the answers they wanted, so they call the man in again for questioning. When he still doesn’t give them the answer the want, they accuse him of heresy and make it known clearly that they do not believe Jesus is the Son of God. The man is obviously a sinner because he let someone else heal him on a Sunday!

The body of our story: Doubt, false accusations, not getting the answer we want.

Part Three: Spiritual Blindness. Who titles these sections? We have two nice descriptive titles like they belong on fictional books and then this one, which seems more like a nonfiction title. “Spiritual Blindness” sounds like it should have cover art depicting shadowy characters, mystery, and murder. Reality is that this is our conclusion. The part that seems to hardest to believe is true.

Jesus comes in and interrogates our man again but more like how a defense attorney that assumes innocence rather than guilt would ask questions of their client. “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” The man has no idea who he is talking about and says so. I would like to point out that he was blind when Jesus healed him, left Jesus’ presence to go to wash in the pool of Siloam, and only then could he physically see. There is no way this man could have known what Jesus looked like.

Our story concludes with a disturbing line from Jesus, “I came into this world for judgment.” Let’s pause there for a moment. This line should scare you. It’s meant to. Jesus came into the world to judge. Jesus however, is as described, a defense attorney not a prosecutor. He wants you to be innocent. He wants to hear your story. He isn’t trying to prove your guilt but to prove your innocence. A very different tactic than Satan or the Pharisees, or most human beings. He actually believes in innocence.

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.”

Whose picture is depicted on our courthouses? That would be Lady Justice, Iustitia, or Justitia, and she is blind. She holds in her left hand, generally uplifted, the side of intuition and emotional connection; she holds scales in balance. In her right hand, the side of action and authority, she holds a sword. Not a sword wielded for battle. Her right hand is lowered, and the sword is pointed downward. She is not preparing for a fight; the battle has ended. Justice is not served with a weapon but with an open heart. The guilty are not convicted by what the eyes can see in the external world, but with what God sees inside you.

Our story is titled “Spiritual Blindness” because those who think they seek truth are often relying upon their own judgment, while those who seek love see with their souls. Those who see with the Spirit do not rely solely upon the vision which their eyes provide. Instead, they do as Jesus did and ask questions about deeper things. They don’t manipulate others with dichotomous choices and closed-ended, misleading questions designed to prove what they want to hear rather than seeking deeper knowledge and understanding.

Those who can see stop reading at verse 7 or 12 when they have heard what they want to hear “God heals!” But those who are blind, keep reading until they have the whole story, withholding judgment, presuming innocence, knowing that every single person on this earth was created with the capacity to reveal God. John 9:4 reads “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work.” This line doesn’t make a lot of sense if we don’t read all the way through to know that we are meant to be blind. Soon, Jesus will depart this world, this earth, and only exist in the spiritual sense. No longer will he physically walk as a light to his disciples but they will be left to walk blindly on their own. And this is a good thing.

Jesus came to teach us not to rely solely upon what our eyes think they see. True justice, judgment, is blind. It is not seeking a fight. Justice is seeking peace. Believing in the innocence of others. Aren’t you glad God cares more about what They don’t see than what they do? God cares about what is in your heart, your motivation for your actions.

God wants to know the whole story. God listens no matter how long the tale you tell is. God wants to hear the beginning, the middle, and will hang on until the end as if your life is the greatest cliffhanger to have ever been written. God made you so that you could reveal God to others. Sadly, for us mere humans, more often than not, we see God through the reparation of that which we have perceived to be flaws.

It is up to us to be the change we want to see. It is up to us to read the whole story not just the parts we want to hear that we agree with. It is up to us to be willing to see with our spirits not just with our eyes. It is up to us to drop our swords and choose instead to lift the scales of justice high. It is up to us to presume innocence and accept innocence as the answer, even if the scales appear balanced rather than tilted. Only the blind have no sin to see only what we perceive with our eyes, our sin remains.