Barbara Woodruff
John 9:1-41

I Once Was Blind, But Now I See

Wow, That's a Lot of Story! With such a long and complex story, it can be hard to find a focus, a way into the story, a way to hear it that brings meaning. For me, one way to do that is to think about the historical context of the gospel. Who was John's audience? Who would be hearing this story when it was first written down? John's Gospel was the last one written, probably many years after Jesus' death. It seems likely that his audience was the early Christians, primarily the Jewish converts living in Israel. His Gospel references many Jewish traditions and festivals, as well as Hebrew scripture. And I think they would have seen themselves very clearly in this story. These were people who for the most part had been born ordinary Jews, living life unaware that the Messiah was about to be revealed. You might even say that they were blind until they were given their sight by Jesus. Was it their fault or their parents' fault that they didn't yet know Jesus? Neither - their ignorance was necessary to show the glory of God.

Once they had a life-changing encounter with Christ, once their eyes were opened to the truth, they tried to tell other people, only to be met with questioning and disbelief. They tell their story again and again to no avail. In many cases, I'm sure families were divided by this new belief, just as in the Gospel story, the man's parents don't really support him. And the Pharisees, the religious leaders were openly hostile.

One of the biggest issues in the early church was whether the followers of Jesus were just another Jewish sect, or whether they were a new religion, whether they would continue to worship in the Jewish traditions and temples, or if they would be forced to split off. This is exactly the issue facing the man born blind. First he just tells his story, telling of his life-changing encounter with Jesus. Then he says that Jesus is a prophet, which would be within the Jewish tradition, but when he was questioned further and pressed harder, he refuses to deny Jesus' power and says that he must be from God. At that point, he is thrown out of the synagogue. A choice which was almost certainly facing the early Jewish converts, also. You can imagine then nodding to themselves as they heard this story read. "That's right. That's what happened to us."

But the story doesn't end there. The man encounters Jesus again, or rather Jesus finds him, in a scene which to me resonates with echoes of Mary's encounter with the risen Lord in the garden. Jesus finds him and says, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" The man doesn't recognize Jesus, of course, since the last time he encountered him, he was still blind. (Just the same way Mary doesn't recognize the risen Jesus, thinking him to be the gardener.) Jesus says that he is the one standing before him. The man says simply. "Lord, I believe," and worships him. John ends the story in the Gospel with Jesus' condemnation of the unbelieving Pharisees, and doesn't really say what happened to the man, but I'd like to think that he continued on his journey, no longer a blind beggar, or an outcast from the synagogue, but as a follower of Jesus. Even as the early Christians continued on their walk of faith, following the path set out for them by Jesus, led by the Holy Spirit.

And just as the early Christians saw themselves in this story, I believe we can see ourselves also. As I see it, this is the story of a journey, of the evolution of faith, of the finding of vision, and life-changing effect that an encounter with the divine can have. The blind man started out not knowing Jesus. After his encounter with Jesus, he goes from saying that Jesus had opened his eyes, to saying that he was a prophet, to declaring that Jesus must be from God, and finally to worshipping Jesus as the Messiah.

After being given sight, the man's relationship with Jesus grew and evolved. He went from sitting alone on the side of the road, an outcast, a beggar, to walking the road with Jesus as a disciple. But it didn't happen in the blink of an eye. Even his healing didn't happen right away. And it depended on him doing something. Jesus put the mud in his eyes and told him to go to the Pool of Siloam, apparently some distance away, to wash. Although in other cases, Jesus' miraculous healing is instantaneous, in this case there is a process. Healing can happen in more than one way. The man's road to worshipping Jesus isn't straight even after he regains his sight. First he has to pass through a gauntlet of questions and disbelief. But for him, it ultimately didn't matter what the others believed, whether it was the neighbors, the Pharisees, or even his parents. Their arguing and nitpicking don't matter. What matters is what he believes. He can see the road ahead now, and he recognizes Jesus speaking to him.

The idea of a journey of faith following a transformational, "mountaintop" experience is certainly not a new one, and it resonates throughout the Bible. Last week Tedd talked about the Israelites lost in the desert, complaining, even though they had been rescued from Egypt, received manna to eat and water from the rock. As Tedd said, they lost their vision - their ability to see God in their midst. And he didn't mention that the next big event coming up for the Israelites is the building of the Golden Calf while Moses is up on the mountain receiving the Commandments. Talk about losing their vision! The Israelites' journey of faith would be a long one, and they will have to be awakened from their blindness over and over down through the centuries, until the time of Jesus.

And Jesus is on a journey here, too. One that will ultimately take him to death on the cross. These weeks of Lent are our way of commemorating that journey, of Jesus' walk through that lonesome valley. He had a clear vision of what was ahead, and even though he prayed for it not to happen, he knew that his road led to the cross and beyond.

We have all been journeying as well, both as individuals and as the church. Our road may be long and winding and may lead through the valley of the shadow, but we have Jesus, the Good Shepherd to guide us. We may not have Jesus' clear vision of the road ahead and we may all be at different places on that road, but as when the man born blind met and finally recognized Jesus, we can leave all the nitpicking and naysaying behind and begin to walk with clear vision. For the first century Christians who heard this story, it must have been a great message of hope - that even though they were leaving behind the traditions of their birth, they were being transformed into something wholly new by their encounter with the Savior.

I believe it contains a great message of hope for us, too. When we encounter Jesus on the road of life, he sees not our sin, but our need. When presented with the question of whether the man's sin or that of his parents caused him to be born blind, Jesus addresses this, essentially saying, this man doesn't need to be forgiven, he needs to see! If you are oppressed, you need liberation; if you are hungry, you need food. Jesus can provide the healing that we need, and in turn we can provide that for others. But the journey doesn't end at the miracle - in reality, it is just the beginning. Like the man born blind, like the early Christians, we must move on from the moment of transformation, though the crowd of obstacles in our path. Once we have regained our vision, we must learn to interpret what we see, so that we will know Jesus and be able to follow him through all the journeys of our lives. Amen.

Jesus heard that they had thrown him out of the synagogue, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" "Who is he, sir?" the man asked. "Tell me so that I may believe in him." Jesus said, "You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you." Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him.