Reflections on the Story of the Man Blind from Birth

Many churches will not have services this week.  In the case of churches continuing to hold services, many people will opt not to attend for health concerns.  As a way to support the spiritual journey of Christians during this Lenten Season, for the remaining Sundays of Lent, I will post reflections on the gospel readings assigned in the New Common Lectionary for that day.   

Today’s sacred story from the Christian tradition found in the Gospel attributed to John is very timely during the current pandemic.  While it provides us with many things to consider, one question it asks directly is whether sinfulness or wrongdoing is the cause of disease.  Jesus is clear:  NO!  Explore the story for yourself.  I’m providing a link to the entire story in a contemporary translation of the Bible along with reflective commentary. 

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+9&version=NRSV

I.  The Cause of Sickness and Suffering

In 1981, Rabbi Harold S. Kushner’s, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, quickly became a best seller.  In this book, Kushner explores the experience of faith when people are confronted by tragic events in life.  Indeed, since the time of Job until today, people have struggled to understand why suffering, hardship, and sickness are part of life.

            The opening verses of the story of the man born blind, provide a very clear examination of the problem of sickness and suffering.  The disciples understand suffering and illness as being caused by sin.  But Jesus sees it differently:  sin is not the cause of suffering.  Instead, suffering and sickness are opportunities in our lives to experience God’s works.

            While that sounds like a nice response to suffering, what does Jesus answer mean?  Perhaps part of what Jesus is saying is that sickness and suffering are part of life and somehow connected to the natural order of things.  Just as the season’s change, and storms or earthquakes are part of creation, so, at times, we experience pain.  Moments of pain are times when we have the opportunity to experience God’s life in a new way.  They are times when God’s presence is available to us uniquely and differently than at other times.

            Yes, the grace of God is available to us at every moment.  The challenge in difficult times is to allow that grace to work in our lives to sustain us and hold us in God’s care.

II. Responding to the Call

The man washed in a pool named, “One who is sent.”  And he was healed of his blindness.

            In reading this passage, it is important to remember that as with every part of the Bible there are many levels of meaning in a story.  One of these levels that is interesting to notice in this passage in the connection between being sent and healing.  When the man responded to the voice of Jesus which sent him to the pool, he was healed.  In other words, when the man responded to God’s call and lived out his mission, he found new sight and healing.

            Similarly, when we respond to the voice of Jesus which sends us to go to a place in life where we belong and where our gifts can be best used, we experience new sight and healing.  The wholeness and fulfillment we often desire are found when we live out the unique vocation we are given by God.  That vocation may be to do something very simple — like washing in a pool of water.  But it is when we live in consonance with the inner stirring of God’s voice that we have our vision renewed and the fullness of life restored in us.

III. Breaking Out of Our Routines

            Generally, people go through the daily events of their lives and understand what’s happening around them by placing those events in familiar categories.  For instance, we assume that when people smile or laugh, they are happy or that when people cry, they are sad.  The truth is that our behavior is never this simple or easily defined.

            The religious leaders of Jesus’ day had familiar categories through which they understood life.  Holy people kept the Sabbath laws; people who broke the Sabbath were sinners; God wouldn’t work through a sinner.  Just as a person laughing or smiling may be nervous and not happy, how the religious leaders categorized how God would work limited their perception of what was happening around them.

            Our faith is meant to open our eyes to unseen possibilities.  Faith breaks through the convenient categories with which we normally view life and empowers us to see new possibilities.  Faith causes us to look in a new way at the world around us and see God at work in every moment.

            The vision of faith is available to us only when we are willing to see.  The religious leaders believed.  But their insistence on putting life into certain categories blinded them from perceiving all the ways God could work.  May it not be so for us today!

IV.  The Problem of Family Dynamics

Don’t talk.  Don’t feel.  And don’t trust.  These are the rules which govern what has been called a “dysfunctional family.”

            For those who come from families where alcoholism, abuse, neglect, or silent non-affirmation was the norm, this section of the story should provide some comfort.

            After having had something wonderful happen to him, the parents of the man born blind could not accept the fantastic event of his healing.  How could they not be happy for their son?  Why would they refuse to support their son by testifying to the truth of his experience?  The answer is simple:  it’s because of fear.

            As in the family of the man born blind so in many families of today fear dominates behavior.  It may be the fear of what others will think of the family or its members, the fear of facing an unwanted piece of truth, or the fear of the unknown.

            Yet, while facing the lack of support from his family, the man breaks the cycles of fear and the patterns with which he must have been raised.  He speaks the truth of his life with integrity.

            For many of us, learning to speak that truth even when our families fear being shamed by others is an important lesson.  It is the lesson we need to learn to break the cycle of dysfunction which is often passed from generation to generation.

V. Claiming One’s Truth

            It must have been quite frightening for the man in this story to have faced the religious authorities of his day and be challenged about the work of God in his life.  While this account surely doesn’t represent everything that was said in the interrogation, it does convey one fact:  the man would not, could not deny how God was working in his life.

            It is often difficult to understand the working of God in our lives.  We are often tempted to discount or rationalize it.  We wonder if our spiritual experiences represent some psychological need for importance or affirmation.  We question our intentions or motivations.  (On the other hand, there are times when we quite inappropriately inflict our momentary insights on any who will listen rather than exploring the depth of the voice of God who speaks within us.  And we must acknowledge that, too.)  And yet, God continues to cajole and persuade us to live in the truth of Divine Love.

            The man in this story gives us an example of responding simply and concretely to the spiritual truth we experience in our lives.  His ability to trust confidently in his experience of God is indeed remarkable.  From that confidence of his own experience, he not only speaks with great authority but is given the vision to see through the arguments which were used to try to trap him.  His new sight also proved to be an amazing insight into the working of God.

VI.  Faithful Living

Following a call.  Living by faith.  Responding to a vocation.  Resting in the assurance of God’s plan for life.  We often think that these things will bring peace and contentment in our lives.  And perhaps they will in so far as they create a sense of inner peace and fulfillment.  The message of Jesus in this passage is clear:  he came into the world to divide it.  In other words, when living in accordance with the vision of faith, we experience division, separation, and discord in very real ways.  For example, while the man born blind was healed and given new sight, the events surrounding his healing must have been traumatic and confusing; while the ministry of Jesus was life-giving for the world, his death must have been painful and agonizing;  and while we are called to be followers of Christ and live out a new vision of reality, we must expect that there will be a great cost in this process. 

            In his famous work, The Cost of Discipleship, Lutheran pastor Deitrick Bonhoeffer plunged into his own experience of what it meant to be faithful to the call he received.  Ultimately for Bonhoeffer, the cost required of him for discipleship to Jesus was the loss of his life at the hands of the Nazis.

            We are faced with two basic questions:  are we willing to embrace what it means for us to be followers of Christ and live by faith?   And can we in faithfulness believe that the cost we will pay for discipleship will be worth it in the end?