Open My Eyes
Psalm 130; John 9:1-17
March 22, 2020, 4th Sunday in Lent
John is very intentional and systematic in the way he writes his gospel. There are often multiple levels of meaning, ranging from the simple to the complex. Chapters 2-12 in the book of John are often called The Book of Signs, because the many miracles in this section are “signs” thatultimately point to Jesus, the Messiah.
In today’s lesson, Jesus went to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles. (7:1-10) “As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth” (v. 1). The fact that Jesus sees this blind man is in itself remarkable. People preferred to pass by beggars without seeing them–– pretending they didn’texist.
The man – blind since birth – sits on the side of the road and becomes the center of a theological controversy. Jesus took this occasion to teach something about God. When Jesus acted, the blindman’s life was changed forever.
You have probably heard the story of how the blind man came to see. Jesus spat on the ground, made some clay, put it on his eyes and said, “Now, go wash yourself.” The man did as he wastold and after he had washed, he opened his eyes and could see! He had been blind since birth, and now for the first time he could see!
The good news is that by the power of God, those who were blind today can also see.
He opens our eyes and changes our hearts. I saw on the news a while back where a young boy who was blind was outfitted with a special pair of glasses that allowed him to see his father for the first time. It was amazing and filled with joy.
It gives us a better idea of how the man born blind felt when he was miraculously cured by Jesus.But there’s a second, even more spectacular miracle that takes place in the story of the blind man. It is the miracle of faith — or spiritual sight–that Jesus confers on the man.
In this second miracle, the gift of faith causes the man to fall to his knees and address Jesus as“Lord.” Significantly, it is this second miracle of faith that John stresses in today’s gospel.Let’s take a closer look.
- The first thing we notice about this miracle is that it takes place gradually. It does not happen all at once. For example, the man’s first reaction to Jesus is to regard him as just another man.When some people ask the blind man about his cure, he replies: “This man called Jesus made some mud, rubbed it on my eyes, and told me to go to Siloam and wash my face. So I went, and as soon as I washed, I could see.”
- The blind man’s second perception of Jesus comes when he is quizzed by the Pharisees. They ask him, “You say Jesus cured you of your blindness— well what do you say about him?”The man replied, “He is a prophet.” The blind man’s answer clearly shows that his perception ofJesus is undergoing a giant leap forward. The more he thinks about what happened, the more convinced he is that Jesus can’t be just another man, but a prophet.
- But there is yet another, more significant level of the blind man’s perception of Jesus.
Later in the day the blind man meets Jesus face to face. Perhaps there was something striking about the countenance of Jesus that the man was now able to see. He had returned from washing in the pool of Siloam. Now Jesus looks straight into the man’s eyes, and says, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” The man answers, “Tell me who he is, sir, so that I can believe in him!” Jesus responds, “You have already seen him, and he is the one who is talking with you now.” “I believe, Lord!” the man replies, and he falls on his knees before Jesus.
The man’s progression of faith was complete. He perceives that Jesus is Lord over all things in heaven and on earth as he falls on his knees. The man’s gift of faith, or “spiritual sight” was even more miraculous than his gift of physical eye sight.
The same can be true for us. Speaking of blind, I met my wife on a “blind” date, but soon
thereafter my eyes were opened and I recognized it was God at work. How about you? Are youreyes “open” on every level – physical and spiritual? Beware — sometimes when your eyes are opened life becomes more complicated. You begin to see more clearly with spiritual eyes the world around you – people frightened that they may have the corona virus; healthcare workers put their lives at risk to care for others.
There are questions, but not always answers. When your eyes are open, you see suffering . . . you notice stories on the nightly news, and realize God’s heart must be breaking. You see clearly the vacant eyes of a young person whose brain has been fried on drugs. When your eyes are opened, you notice the confused woman wandering in her large house from room-to-room withAlzheimer’s erasing her memory, and her husband of sixty years wringing his hands in despair, wondering what to do. You begin to see the world as God sees it, and you catch a glimpse of what God sees all the time.
Who wants to see? Does the blind man in today’s story really want to see? Perhaps he had grown
comfortable with his blindness. His world was familiar. Sometimes I wonder if the blind man wishes that he could go back to a more predictable existence and sit by the side of the road again. Sometimes ignorance is bliss, he might say. All the conflict, the pain, the suffering, and the internal religious bickering that was a result of the miracle when Jesus healed him – he hadn’tcounted on that. Imagine that. A miracle had just occurred, but all the Pharisees could see werethe “broken rules” and infractions of the law.
Do you ever have a day when you wish you could go back to childhood when life was a box filled with baseball cards or collectable dolls?
Do you ever see “too much” and wish things could be different? Sometimes we choose not to see– even when our eyes are open, because it is too painful … too harsh. T.S. Eliot got it right whenhe said, “Humankind cannot bear too much reality.” But when we block out the burdens, we also block out the blessings. That is the dilemma and the paradox.
It must have appeared to the blind man that gaining his sight created more conflict. When the religious authorities saw the miracle, it created a theological controversy: They would not leave him alone. The Pharisees came to the man and questioned him as to who healed him and how it happened.
When the Pharisees were told about how Jesus cured the man of blindness, they would notbelieve it. They said, “This man is not from God,” and “He healed on the Sabbath,” thusbreaking a law.
Sometimes we miss the miracles because we argue about how it happened and who should receive the credit. But at the end of the ninth chapter of John, some Pharisees do begin tobelieve, for they caught a “glimpse” of Jesus. They begin acknowledge their own spiritual“blindness.” They say to Jesus, “Surely we are not blind, are we?”
But they were, and sometimes we are too. Jesus plays a lot with the concept of blindness, light and darkness. He suggests that sometimes those who can “see” are blind, and those who are “blind” can see. The first step towards moving from blindness to sight is to realize we are blind. All of us are blind to one thing or another. Jesus wants us to see. Jesus wants us to notice what is right in front of us every day as we pass by on our way to work or school. We can be like the blind man when he was given spiritual sight.
He began to see that this indeed was the messiah. After the man was healed, Jesus approached him and said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.” Jesus said, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” He said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped him. (9:36-38) Only when that happens do we truly “see.”
But there is a cost to seeing the world as Jesus sees it. It always brings the cross, and with the cross comes crucifixion. Are you ready for that? God’s love is like the laser that cuts away the cataracts that blind us. How can Jesus help you to see more clearly today?
We can take our cue from the blind man who, when asked to explain his new-found gift of sight, finally came to the point where he could simply say, “One thing I do know, I was blind, but now I see.” It was God’s amazing grace. When you can see like that, your eyes will be opened, and you will be able to see Jesus for yourself. AMEN