Sermon John 9: 5-42 Blindness/Sight/Insight
In the gospel of John,
Light is
LIFE.
And darkness
Is
…
Death.
And, as to people (?)
You either lived in the light,
OR
You lived in darkness.
It’s a pretty stark contrast, I know,
But John’s gospel takes us there --
In the story I just read,
We get to “see” both
Light and darkness at work.
The story begins
When Jesus “sees”
A man
who is
blind.
The man’s been without sight,
His eyes dead,
Since … he was born.
And because of it,
His life has been reduced
To sitting at the side of the road
And begging for scraps.
Through no fault of his own,
He lives in darkness.
His darkness --
It’s not something he chose
Or a consequence of something he did.
It simply
“is.”
The disciples don’t
“See” it that way.
In fact,
At their first sight of him,
They want to have
a theological discussion with Jesus,
Not that THAT will do the man any good.
In fact, all it really amounts to is a
Blame game.
“It’s his fault.
It’s his parent’s fault”
Of course, I can recognize it as that --
Because I know we all do the same thing.
In the face of tragedy,
Whether its for an entire nation
Or something much more intensely personal,
In the face of disease or sickness,
We want someone, something
to “blame.”
“It’s their fault.
Or their fault
Or their fault.”
But, Jesus doesn’t do that!
Jesus was sent into the world
To do the works of God,
So, he gets right down
to the holy business
Of doing something about the man’s condition.
Now, I note for you
That up till now,
The blind man
has said nothing,
Asked for nothing,
Done nothing.
We don’t know what he believed
Or didn’t.
But that doesn’t stop Jesus
From doing something good for him.
So, let it be known --
that all that follows,
It flows from
grace.
All that happens --
To the man who lived in darkness.
It’s a pure gift
From
Jesus.
Interestingly enough,
The gift begins
when Jesus spits -
into the dirt.
Does spit count as “holy” water (?)
In any case,
Jesus puts a little of himself into the earth,
mixes his spit and the dirt together,
smears it on the blind man’s eyes,
Here’s to mud in his eyes!
And then Jesus -
The one who told
Nicodemus
That he must be born of water and the Spirit,
The one who told
The woman at the well
That he had living water to give her
The one who had just put spit and dirt
on a blind man’s face,
Jesus told that very man,
“Go, wash in the water I’m sending you to. ”
Clearly, Jesus has given
The man that’s standing there
with the dirty, muddy face
A command that he might want to obey.
So, he does.
The blind man
Goes to a pool fed by a fresh flowing spring,
And he washes himself in the water.
And when the
dirt and spit and mud come off,
The man gains his sight
For the very first time.
He’s cured.
He’s free of the blindness
He’s lived in
All his life.
Praise be to Jesus!
Now, that might have been
A good enough place
To end the story.
Jesus cures the blind man!
But, the story --
It Didn’t end there.
It didn’t just come to a stop
With this amazing miracle,
Because … that’s not really point in the story.
The issue
Is not just whether or not
the man can “see”
with his own two eyes.
It’s not just whether or not
His (or anyone else’s) vision is 20/20
It’s whether or not he has really truly
Left the darkness behind
To live in the LIGHT of LIFE.
And that still remains to be seen.
Now, you’d think that maybe
Somebody somewhere somehow
would celebrate the miracle:
a man, who once was blind
Can now see!
But … they don’t.
Turns out, certain religious leaders,
Aren’t happy that the man
Can now see.
In fact, THEY’RE upset!
They can’t believe -- It’s the same guy.
They want to know
What happened,
Who did it
And why.
So instead of rejoicing with him,
The man who was born blind
is questioned
And questioned again
Then his parents are questioned,
And then, for the THIRD time,
he’s questioned AGAIN.
Mind you,
The man with new sight
hasn’t even really seen Jesus at all
He’d only felt his wet, muddy fingers
touch his face.
But every time he is questioned
his understanding of who Jesus is
Seems to grow richer, deeper.
First time he’s asked
“How were your eyes opened?”
He just called Jesus,
“Jesus … The man … who made mud …”
But then, he will say of Jesus,
“He is a prophet.
And then, despite the objections,
he’ll bear witness to Jesus
As a man sent from God.
Who apart from God,
Could do nothing.
The more the man bears witness to Jesus
What Jesus did, who Jesus is,
The less the authorities want to listen and see.
It’s a bit of this: [eyes closed, fingers in ear] lalalalala
Until finally, despite what the authorities Can SEE
With their own two eyes,
They decide to trade the TRUTH for a lie,
And they convince themselves
that the miracle didn’t happen,
And that Jesus, absolutely
was NOT
from God.
No way. No how.
So, they throw
the man
OUT.
For a brief moment,
It seems the man with new sight
Despite his miraculous cure,
Is
Alone.
His witness,
His truth,
His miracle has been rejected
And in their eyes,
It amounts to nothing.
It doesn’t even look like his parents
want that much to do with him either.
But, then what happens?
Jesus
goes looking for
The man with new sight,
Until he finds him.
In love and grace, Jesus
Will Come to him.
And for the first time,
The man who was born blind,
Will See Jesus -
With his own eyes.
And then with his heart.
Of course, having never seen him before,
he doesn’t know
who Jesus is, not at first.
But a moment later,
When he not only sees Jesus,
But hears Jesus say,
That he is the Son of Man,
the Son of God,
He believes.
The man born blind --
He believes and trusts
In Jesus,
And the man with new sight
falls at the feet of Jesus,
Lays his life down before him,
Giving himself completely to Jesus,
And worships him.
So, Has the man who was born blind
gone from darkness
To the light?
It didn’t happen instantly.
It didn’t even happen when he was cured of his blindness.
But, consider this:
Now, He’s with Jesus.
He’s with
The light of grace and truth,
The light the darkness Can NEVER put out.
Not even the darkness of a cross,
Not even the darkness of death.
He’s with
The very LIGHT of LIFE
The very light of the world (!)
He’s with Jesus
He’s with
The light that saw a blind beggar
And stopped to do something about it.
The light that cleanses and heals,
The light of love and grace,
that seeks out the rejected and abandoned.
And makes them children of God.
And he believes.
So NOW
it’s
Yes!
Absolutely!
Positively YES!
He walks and lives
in the LIGHT of life!
He’s with Jesus.
All along the way,
the man
who once was blind,
But now can see
Has been on a journey:
Not just
From blindness to sight,
But from sight
to insight.
From darkness
to light,
From life as a beggar,
To life with Jesus.
His was a journey toward Jesus,
That had to be taken in faith and trust.
Sure, it began with that first gracious touch
Of Jesus’ fingers upon his face,
The smearing of dirt and spit and mud,
The washing in the water.
But it didn’t stop there.
It went on,
Step by step
Question by question,
Through deepening faith,
And growing insight,
Until he fell before the light of the world
And worshipped at Jesus’ feet.
But, now, I ask you,
Do you live in the darkness of death?
Or live in the Light?
It’s not hard to be caught
In darkness --
The kind of darkness
That can just suffocate the LIFE
Right out of you.
It may have a variety of causes.
Pride. Anger. Greed. Lust. Jealousy.
Apathy. Fear. Hate.
It doesn’t matter what kind of darkness or shadow it is.
It doesn’t matter who or what’s to blame for it.
It doesn’t matter
How long its lasted -- even if it’s a lasted a lifetime.
Because Jesus is the light
That can pierce ANY darkness,
And restore you to LIFE.
And you can have that light in your life,
When you’re ready to believe,
Ready to trust, in Jesus.
May we all be able to say:
I once was in darkness. I once was blind.
But now I see. The Light.
Now I see, Jesus.
