Pause with me as I reflect on the Gospel for the Fourth Sunday in Lent... (Be sure to listen carefully to God's Word through the voice of your Pastor, Priest or Minister, this Sunday, as you worship and witness the presence of God together with other disciples)
This passage of Scripture is about a man born blind that receives sight. As I read the 9th chapter of John, research pointed me to a couple of bits of information that jumped out at me.
The setting of this action of Jesus was on a Sabbath in Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles. This is a seven day Jewish celebration on the fifteenth day of the month of Tishrei... that is the September-October timeframe in the Gregorian calendar. This is one of three Pilgrimage Festivals of which people came to the temple in Jerusalem. This was a festival that prompted one to leave behind material things and seek spirituality.
So, Jerusalem was a busy place of travelers and the religious leaders of the day.
Jesus and his disciples were walking along and the disciples saw a man born blind and asked Jesus a question about who sinned, the man or his parents. Jesus' answer in a nutshell was that neither of them sinned. The man's blindness was an opportunity for God to reveal himself.
Jesus never seems to answer the question like I want it to be answered. The answer always seems to penetrate straight into the depth of my own sinfulness. Jesus always seems to reach out and in and pull me straight back to him with forces beyond my will and my way and my control.
Through my questions and the questions of the disciples, the answer points me to myself and away from the other... in this case the man born blind, or his parents, or anyone else dealing with some issue of this world for that matter. Jesus makes me realize that I that need God's help, and I need it dearly.
Jesus turns blindness into more that an inability to see, but an unwillingness to understand. Jesus turns blindness into a revelation of my own stubborn attitude to see things as I wish them to be rather than a revelation of God, right before my eyes.
So, Jesus takes some spit and some dirt and makes a little mud and smears it on the blind man's eyes. Jesus tells the man to go wash off this mud in the pool of Siloam. Jesus doesn't delay his love. It's the Sabbath and the rules would indicate that the making of mud was a sin. Jesus love goes beyond this.
But something more than the making of mud is taking place here. God is coming to the blind throughout the ages who not only can't see, but refuse to understand, and brings them salvation through the command of Jesus and some mud. What a weird thing to do!
The pool of Siloam was the principle source of water for Jerusalem from a tunnel set up years ago. It provided life for the people of Jerusalem during difficult times of war and likewise during times of peace.
God uses some weird tactics with earthly elements and spiritual commands to guide people and capture them in his love. God loves his creation and wants communion with all creation. Like in the waters of baptism, I come before God and God comes to me in spirit and water to call me his own forever.
This blind man went with the mud on his eyes, washed and could see. God called him from dark to light forever. The blind man and all who refuse to see now see that Jesus is the Light of the world that opens eyes to see the saving love of God through Jesus.
And... what happens? The blind man testifies! He testifies to the people and anyone else. The people take him to the religious leaders to say... What's up with this? How? Why?
After some questions, once again, about sin... who sins... how is it sin... work on the Sabbath day... and so forth; the man is tossed out of the presence of the Pharisees (religious leaders).
I like how the man responds in front of the religious leaders. Read it... it's entertaining. But the result of all this, for me, is that I see that God's will is done in and among us, in spite of what we think, or anyone else thinks should take place.
In this man's testimony before the people and the Pharisees; I realize that God acts upon me, I can't ignore my own experience with Jesus. At the water of my baptism, in communion, and in the forgiveness of sin, I know that Jesus has saved me. Jesus has come to me to wash me, forgive me, and to make me his own. Not because of anything that I have done. Really more because Jesus sees my situation and loves me so much that he is willing to save me from my own sinful self and death and the evil of this world.
So... I too testify! Testify to the wondrous love of Jesus in my life.
So, the man is cast out by the Pharisees and into the arms of Jesus. This guy hasn't even seen Jesus with his physical eyes.
The blind man was thrown out and it seems to me that Jesus hunts him down. Jesus hunts him down and he hunts me down with a question and a statement.
"Do you believe in the Son of Man?"
I think this question applies to the blind man, myself and to the people of this world.
And the statement?
“For judgment I (Jesus) came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”
If I think I can take care of my sin by being good, by obeying rules or by anything that I do... I'm blind!
My sin blinds me, but the everlasting love of Jesus, even on a Sabbath, leads me to see Jesus... the Light... the salvation... the only one who can take away my sin and lead me out of darkness into his everlasting Light and Life.
Lord, thank you for sending this blind man into my life and the life of all the people. I believe because you have made it all so clear that it is in you alone that I can see the Light of God... today... tomorrow... and forever. Thanks be to God!
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