A WILDERNESS OF BLINDNESS & BLAME
John 9:1-42
4th Sunday in Lent, March 19, 2023
The Rev. Dr. Ritva H. Williams
Good morning. Today we continue with episode 4 of our Lenten story of Jesus. We have journeyed with Jesus in the wilderness, listened in on Jesus and Nicodemus’ conversation on a rooftop beneath the stars, sat with Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well at high noon. Today we catch up with Jesus just as he and his disciples encounter a man who was blind from birth.
The disciples ask Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” The idea that sin causes suffering was very common in the world of Jesus. Sad to say, there are still many folks who try to explain personal illness, misfortune, and natural disasters as God’s punishment for human sin. Sometimes illness and disaster are the result of sin. A train derails because the railroad company fails to maintain safety features. A person dies in a car crash because the other driver was under the influence. Sometimes the situation is complicated. A baby is born with AIDS, but is it the mother’s fault, or are both mother and infant the victims of the father’s promiscuity?
It is also true that a lot of the time bad things happen and no one is at fault. When God created the world, God give everything — earth, seas, skies, animals, humans, and even invisible life forms the power to grow, change, mature, regenerate, die, and be reborn. All of creation lives and moves and has its being in, with, under and through God. God is the source and sustainer of all life, but curiously God does not exercise authoritarian power over creation and the inhabitants of the earth.
Our NRSV translation has Jesus responding to the disciples with, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” This is one of the most egregious examples of bad translation in the New Testament. Not only is it inaccurate — Jesus never said, “he was born blind so that” — but it sounds as if God made the man blind on purpose just so Jesus could come along and heal him. Where is the good news in that?
Here’s a literal translation of Jesus’ words, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned. But in order that God’s works might be revealed in him, we must work the works of the one who sent me…” Eugene Petersen’s explanatory paraphrase is even clearer:
Jesus said, “You’re asking the wrong question. You’re looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do. We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent me here, working while the sun shines. When night falls, the workday is over. For as long as I am in the world, there is plenty of light. I am the world’s Light.”
Jesus categorically denies any connection between this man’s visual impairment and sin, and also denies the idea that God made the man blind to show off God’s own power.
The disciples are wrong is asserting that a disability is the result of sin.They are also wrong to initiate that conversation in the man’s hearing, as if his visual impairment renders him deaf and without feelings. Jesus shows them how to do God’s work compassionately for the man’s benefit. (1) Jesus touches the man. He uses his fingers to apply a paste of saliva and mud to his eyes. In the ancient world, sharing saliva was a form of “blood covenant” that was believed to protect and heal (post COVID we know that’s not what saliva does). The importance here is the establishment of the covenant relationship). Mud evokes images of God forming the first earthling from the earth, as if Jesus is re-creating the man’s eyes. (2) Alongside these tactile actions, Jesus speaks directly to the man.
Notice what happens: the man hears Jesus’ voice, feels Jesus’ fingers on his eyes, receives the saliva-mud salve that establishes a covenant relationship between them. The man trusts Jesus’ words and touch, and faithfully does what Jesus asks. He exemplifies what Jesus says to another disciple later in this gospel, “Blessed as those who believe even though they don’t see” (John 20:29). The man goes and washes in the pool of Siloam, and comes back able to see! That is a mystery beyond explanation.
The neighbors can hardly believe their eyes — is this really the blind beggar they know or someone who just looks like him? The religious leaders freak out because the healing occurred on the Sabbath — this Jesus fella cannot be from God; he too must be a sinner! They interview the man who says that based on his personal experience Jesus must be a prophet. Suspecting a hoax, the religious leaders question the man’s parents who affirm that this man truly is their son who was born blind. They have no idea how his sight was restored, he can speak for himself. The religious leaders turn on the man, ranting that they know Jesus is a sinner — just admit it. The man repeats his story only to be told “You were born entirely in sin, and are trying to teach us!” The religious leaders drive the man out of the synagogue community. Hearing what happened, Jesus finds, welcomes, and leads the man through conversation into an ever deepening faith and relationship.
So in episode 4, Jesus shows us how God wants us to treat persons experiencing physical impairment. No blaming them for their own circumstances, just lots of compassion and caring, grace and mercy, seeking and welcoming those who are labeled and excluded because of any disability or ailment, any real or imagined sin.
In John’s Gospel, this healing is called a “sign.” That means is this story points beyond the “miracle” of the recovery of sight to the causes and consequences of “spiritual blindness and blame.”
Bishop Michael Rinehart writes in his blog on today’s scripture, “the irony is, the more we try to be good … the greater the danger of feeling morally superior, which is perhaps the greatest sin of all.” Moral superiority is also known as self-righteousness and emerges from a legalistic quid quo pro understanding of religion. We see it when people tell themselves that those who experience disabilities, illness, and disasters are being punished by God for their sins. We see it when some white folks try to justify their racist ideas and behavior by cherry picking scripture, and when some cisgender, heterosexual folk do the same regarding our LGBTQ2IA+ siblings. As Jesus tells the religious leaders at the end of this story, “If you were really blind, you would be blameless, but since you claim to see everything so well, you’re accountable for every fault and failure” (John 9:41, MSG). In other words, it is they who are wandering about in a wilderness of spiritual blindness and blame, while the man who was born visually impaired heard, touched and now sees the good news of God in the face of Christ.
Blessing the Body by Jan Richardson
This blessing takes one look at you and call it can say it holy.
Holy hands. Holy face. Holy feet. Holy everything in between.
Holy even in pain. Holy even when weary.
In brokenness, holy. In shame, holy still.
Holy in delight. Holy in distress.
Holy when being born.
Holy when we lay it down at the hour of our death.
So, friend open your eyes — your holy eyes.
For one moment see what this blessing sees,
this blessing that knows how you have been formed
and knit together in wonder and in love.
Welcome this blessing
that folds its hands in prayer when it meets you;
receive this blessing that wants to kneel in reverence before you —
you who are temple, sanctuary, home for God in this world.
Amen.
