Sermon John 9:1-17 (18-41) March 8, 2015 Lent
Along the Way…the Blind Man
I love hearing and reading about miracle stories. I’m amazed
at the stories of survival from incredible circumstances. I must not be the
only one since a television series called ‘in an Instant’ just started this week on ABC.
But, the miracle stories of healing are the ones that still
catch me with a lump in my throat.
Maybe I’m cued into these stories
because of all my years working as a nurse. And as a nurse I became acquainted
with the wonder of healing from disease, illness and accidents. So, when I hear
about the healing stories in the Bible, the miracles that Jesus performed, my
ears are tuned a little closer to what is said.
SO when I started into the study of these verses (which by
the way go a lot further than verse 17-the story doesn’t get close to ending
until verse 41).
I discovered that the story doesn’t start with a
person asking Jesus for his help.
It doesn’t start with Jesus taking pity on someone
who he encounters along his way.
My eyes and ears got a jolt because
it starts with the disciples debating
the question
of why
do bad things happen to people,
who is at fault for all the things
wrong in the world.
They witness a blind sitting on the roadside
and
all of a sudden
this man is
the object of discussion.
The man never
asked to be part of the debate about sin
and yet
he was entered
into this encounter at
no request of his
own.
Has that ever happened to you?
Have you ever been somewhere sitting by yourself minding
your own business and the next thing you know you overhear people talking about
you
and your situation
and you wonder how you ever got into their conversation
without an invitation?
I think we do this more often than we realize.
We witness all around us circumstances and conditions that
make no sense to us and we ask the questions,
“Whose fault is it that there
are poor
and suffering,
homeless
and diseased,
unemployed
and disabled,
abandoned
and addicted,
imprisoned
and prejudiced,
angry and hurtful, hateful
people in this world?”
We, like the disciples, walk along the way and ask Jesus (and
each other) these very questions.
We ask these questions as if we
can find an answer through the process of debate and discussion. We assume
there is a moral solution to all of these situations that still exist today.
Jesus looked at his disciples as they asked the question
about sin and let them know that looking at this man on the side of the road
was not a question of morality.
This man’s disability had nothing to do with any moral dilemma.
Nor, is this
man’s disability a purpose of God.
That’s right.
I said this man’s
disability is not God’s purpose.
We have too often used it that way.
Our modern translations make the words of Jesus awkward.
And the words
of Jesus weren’t meant to come out that way.
What is the purpose of God
is the need of the moment for God’s works to be made known.
God must be revealed!
And God is to be revealed through
Jesus’ act of healing.
Jesus takes the initiative and
performs a pure act of grace.
Jesus astonishes the crowd and the leaders, once again,
through the miraculous signs he performs.
The man does what Jesus says and
washes the mud from his face in the pool of Siloam and he receives his sight.
His eyes have been opened and he has experienced healing. When he is questioned
by the crowd he lets them know it was Jesus who gave him his sight.
The rest of the story that doesn’t make it into our reading
this morning is in the rest of the chapter. The man becomes the subject of
debate again!
This time among the religious authorities.
They question him and his parents.
They want to know who is responsible for this man’s
sin.
They want to know who the sinner is, is it his
parents, Jesus or this man.
They are caught in the moral dilemma of defining sin for the
world. According to the understanding of the day, sin was anything that was
bad, any act that was against the commandments, any disorder that was not
perfect was defined as sinful.
Yet, the writer of this gospel makes it known from the
beginning that Jesus has come into the world to take away the sin of
the world (1:29).
Jesus has come into the world to give access to the
Light of God and the Love of God. That love and light has come through the very
act of grace given to this man through his healing.
His ability to see goes beyond the gift of physical sight.
As the story progresses he comes to the realization that Jesus is more than a
prophet, or a man that comes from God. By the end, through all the pushing and
shoving and challenging that he gets from these authorities he comes to the
point where he sees Jesus as the son of God in verse 38 and says to him, “Lord,
I believe.”
The disciples witness the power
of God at work through Jesus as he brings healing to this man. They
witness the grace and love of God revealed as the blind man receives the
sight of faith in Jesus. They receive their answer to the question about
sin as they witness this man restored to new life and made whole.
Sin is not about actions or
moral behavior,
it is not about conditions of birth or
looks.
Sin is about a person’s
relationship to God.
Through God’s incarnate Word
revealed in the life of Jesus one is able to see the Light of God come into the
world.
When the eyes of those who witness
God at work through the presence of Jesus come into the Light they move away
from darkness.
They move away from judgment, they
move away from blind accusations.
Now you might be sitting there thinking, ‘that’s a lot of
lovely fluff you just spilled out.’ You might be asking me how any of what I
said can make sense today. So let me share a story of my own experience.
I remember being
blinded by my judgments when I worked as a nurse in the Burn Intensive Care
Unit. One of our patients had a 90% burn injury. She was a young woman in her
20s. I worked night shift and often in the middle of the night she asked me to
read the Bible to her. I did in those wee hours and it brought comfort to both
of us. She eventually recovered after about 3 months in our unit. Back in the
1980’s this was a miraculous recovery. She was discharged to go home and begin life
out there in the big wide world.
However, this woman was badly disfigured.
I remember begin angry at God. I remember telling God how
unfair this was for this woman. I argued with God about her return to the ‘real
world’ and wondered how she could have a productive life and a full and rich
life knowing she would always have trouble facing the public looking the way
she did.
A few years later I was working in the hospital clinic doing
examinations of children.
A woman walked in pushing a stroller.
I saw her via my peripheral vision. I caught a glimpse but
that was all.
She walked with confidence.
Her voice was cheerful.
She recognized me before I realized who she was.
She came to me and told me all about her life over the past
few years since her discharge from the hospital.
She talked all about the grace and kindness of her family
and friends.
Her eyes were full of light and life.
She talked about how she was accepted in her community and
how the children in the neighborhood were scared at first but then they fell in
love with her. She said she knew God loved her because love was all around
her.
Because of the circle of love surrounding her she became a
childcare worker and was now in charge of caring for children. That is how she
came to the clinic that day.
My eyes
were opened that day!
I saw the
Light of God at work.
I saw God revealed to me in that moment.
In that moment the work of God healed my spiritual
blindness and gave me sight again.
As she talked with me I no longer saw a disfigured face.
I saw a woman full of joy.
I saw a woman fully restored to new life.
And her story of relationships and new life restored my
relationship with God and brought me into new life.
Our questions and comments to Jesus can change
from
wondering
whose fault it is, who is the one with sin, who’s to blame
to
show us God’s love,
reveal
to us the glory of God,
shine
your Light so we may see!
Yes, I love to hear about miracle stories.
Our God through the presence of Jesus offers us new life and
an opportunity to be made whole in his Light.
May we see what God has for us today. Amen.
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