We Choose to See Differently
Deep in Lent, we continue to look at ways that we are able to become disciples of Jesus. We are watching for practices, for work, for pathways. To be a disciple is not just to follow, but to follow with intent – intent to grow, intent to emulate, to learn. Once again today we turn to John’s gospel to see how we might learn something from Jesus…how we might learn something about following Jesus.
John’s gospel is noticeably different from the other gospel accounts – for example, it doesn’t have birth narrative about a star and a family in Bethlehem and angels visiting shepherds. Instead John’s gospel begins “in the beginning…”, words which echo Genesis, the very first book of the Hebrew bible. John’s gospel places “the Word of God,” Jesus, in the beginning with God…in the very beginning…you know, when God was separating light from dark, heavens from earth, water from land, and breathing life into dust to create the first human.
The longer stories we find in John’s gospel can be complicated and confusing, often because of the way pronouns are used. I modified our text a bit today for clarity, and I hope that having it read in two voices also helps. We all learn differently. Some of us are visual learners, some of us are aural learners, some of us are kinetic learners. Perhaps as you consider that, you have ideas about how we might experience the word of God in different ways that help everyone learn in worship – I could really use your help with that. Reach out, let’s talk.
Let’s dive into the text. It is not lost on my that the very first line of today’s text reads: Jesus SAW a man born blind from birth.
We begin with the fact that JESUS SAW a man who could not see.
I want to connect this to our passage from the past two Sundays:
Nicodemus came in the dark of night so as not to be seen by other pharisees.
The woman in the well came at midday so as not to be seen by others in her village.
But Jesus saw them both – Nicodemus and the woman.
And Jesus saw the man born blind – who at first could not see him.
This Jesus SEES people.
And he SEES people differently than others do.
Let’s pay attention to words that are repeated over and over again in this text. In 41 verses, we have:
See, seen, sees or saw – 11 times throughout the text
Blind – 14 times throughout the text
Eye or eyes – 10 times throughout text
Sin, sinner, sinned – 9 times throughout text
There is also am important echo in this story that echoes an earlier story that we haven’t focused on this season. Just before this text, in chapter 8, the scribes and pharisees, learned men who knew the law, brought a woman who had been caught in adultery before Jesus. They asked Jesus to render a judgement and instead, he suggested that any in the crowd who is without sin throw the first stone at her (which would have been the “legal” punishment for a women guilty of such accusations). After they all leave because they are presumably not without sin, Jesus returned to a conversation with the pharisees and says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
In today’s text, Jesus has echoed this claim, just 52 verses later. He’s walking along with the disciples, and they encounter a man who has been blind since birth. In that time, society would interpret such a disability as divine punishment.
(Jesus makes a claim that we might struggle to work through. He says that the man was born blind SO THAT God’s work might be revealed in him. Let’s be careful not to read this as, “God created this man with blindness so that God could prove God’s own power.” Let’s instead LOOK to SEE how this man’s changed life might open our eyes to something about who this Jesus is, and thereby open our eyes to something about God.)
Jesus goes on to say, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” So there it is again. I am the light of the world.
I want us to pay close attention to those repeating words about vision and sin and this theme of Jesus as light. Because light has something to do with seeing, doesn’t it? Light helps us see differently.
Setting the disciples straight by assuring them that neither of the man’s parents had sinned, Jesus bends down to the ground and spits into the dusty earth…making mud with his saliva.
Remember what I said about John’s gospel placing Jesus, the WORD of God at the beginning with God when God was creating? In Genesis 2:7 we read: “then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”
And now this man JESUS takes the dust of the ground and mixes it with some saliva and smears it on the man’s eyes, sending him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. He comes back able to see – something he’s never before been able to do.
His life has been completely changed. Because now he can see. He has physically regained his sight.
Remember two weeks ago in that story about Nicodemus when Jesus says a person has to be born again…
And now Jesus has in some way “recreated” this man who was born blind.
Ooooo…I do love John’s gospel…because it is like this everywhere. Complicated, interwoven, full of echoes and connections. Maybe we need a study group on John soon.
The story doesn’t end with the man’s physical ability to see. When he’s questioned about what happened, first by crowds in his community and then by the pharisees, he tells the story of the mud placed on his eyes and washing in the pool, regaining his vision.
The pharisees are confused. First, this healing happened on the Sabbath – and so some of them assume that no one who was from God would do such a thing – because you know, the Sabbath is far more important than any one person’s life. Some others argue that no one but one from God could perform such a miracle. So how is it that in spite of breaking the Sabbath, this man can perform such a miracle. Why isn’t Jesus’ power diminished by his law breaking?
They are puzzled.
They cannot SEE the truth.
They ask the man who can now SEE and he says that Jesus is a prophet.
Still disbelieving, they call the now-sighted-man’s parents. The parents can SEE that their son has his sight now, but they don’t know how it happened. And they are worried about the fallout of believing in this Jesus character who has broken the law…and so they refer back to their son’s testimony, preferring not to align themselves with his story.
The pharisees go back to the healed man…they keep pushing him…how did it really happen? How did this man, a sinner, restore your sight? If you follow the text closely, you can hear the man’s growing frustration with those questioning him:
I’ve told you and you won’t listen. Do you want to hear the story again? Maybe you want to become this Jesus’ disciple too?
And then the man begins to teach the pharisees:
“Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but God 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.”
The man teaches the pharisees from what he has experienced, from what he now SEES and understands, that as he sees, he is now alive in a different way.
Jesus comes to the man who now sees and asks if he believes in the Son of Man – that is God’s messiah. The man asks Jesus to tell him who this might be. And Jesus says, you’ve SEEN him. You are speaking to him. He restored your sight.
At this point, the man SEES that he has been healed by God through Jesus’ actions. He professes his belief that Jesus is the Son of Man, and he worships Jesus. Jesus makes the vital claim, “I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see may see and those who do see may become blind….”
And the pharisees who overhear this ask one another – surely we are not blind, are we?
Because they are unwilling or perhaps unable to SEE what is right before them. Because it doesn’t fit into their tidy worldVIEW of laws and order, rules and punishment, right and wrong.
Jesus offers a different kind of sight. Jesus sees what others cannot. Jesus invites the man born blind to wash the mud from his eyes and SEE who Jesus really is. And in that changed vision, the man who now has sight SEES the whole world differently.
In a season when we are exploring what it means to become a disciple of Jesus, we are called by this story to be willing to SEE differently. We are called to see the way Jesus sees. To see a new way of being born. To see the humanity in those the world calls sinful or stained. To see the ability in those the world sees as unfit. To offer love where the world often calls for judgment.
This is revolutionary stuff. It is not comfortable stuff. It requires daily work. Opening our eyes again and again to see anew.
I want to see the brightness of God.
I want to look at Jesus.
Clear Sun of Righteousness shine on my path,
And show me the way to the Father…
In him there is no darkness at all,
The day and the night are both alike.
The Lamb is the light of the city of God.
Shine in my heart, Lord Jesus.
May it be so.
Amen.
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