“Regaining Sight” Fourth Sunday of Lent March 2, 2008

(First, read the text for this sermon: John 9:1-41)

This is such a great story, in the ninth chapter of John! There’s the disciples’ assumption that the man has been blind from birth as punishment for sin. There’s the muddy paste Jesus makes and spreads on the man’s eyes. (How physical is God’s healing presence!) There is the Pharisees’ angry reaction to the healing Jesus has performed, because it’s the sabbath, and kneading is an expressly forbidden type of work (which is what Jesus has done with the mud). There are the comical scenes of courtroom-like questioning: with the Pharisees interrogating the healed man himself; and then his parents (those weasels!); and then the healed man again (whose sarcasm this second time gets him thrown out of the synagogue community).

It’s a story about regaining sight – so that one can see that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, the one who enlightens a world of darkness.
It’s a story that asks us: “What prevents you from seeing that Jesus is the Messiah?”

In the story, the physical ability to see is not very important! The man blind from birth is physically healed – but that is just the beginning of his journey towards sight. In the story, the man’s parents are also blinded: by their need to protect themselves from the temple authorities, because they want to remain among the chosen people. The Pharisees are blinded too: by their need to maintain control while managing a situation that threatens their religious system. And so, the story asks of you and me: “How are you blinded to the presence of Jesus among you in daily life?”

Look at the halting stages of the healed man’s journey towards regaining sight. We can chart his progress by noticing how he refers to Jesus in three places in the story. In verse 11, the man has just received his physical sight, and when he is questioned by curious neighbors who wonder how he was healed, he refers only to “This man Jesus.” Later, when the man is first called on the carpet by the Pharisees, his increasing sight is revealed in his further claim about Jesus: “He is a prophet.” And, of course, at the climax of the story, he says to Jesus, “Lord, I believe.” By the end of the story, the man has regained his sight.

The story asks of you and me: “Where are you, along the way of regaining your sight?”

It’s a story about conversion, isn’t it? I don’t know about you, but I have never known conversion to be an instant thing by any means! Instead, it is a life-long process: of drowning the old creature each day so that the new person God created me to be in those baptismal waters can arise. It’s a daily, life-long journey of repentance: of re-turning to God, of turning again to God. It is a journey that progresses in fits and starts – through periods of lively spiritual growth as well as long periods that feel routine and mundane, perhaps even arid. Conversion is the gradual identification and relinquishment of self-delusion and blindness, discovering the person one really is (created by God), and becoming comfortable with that person. It includes, as well, seeing through the false identities I have assigned to God, and discovering who God really is!

We regain our sight as a result of years of listening to God in solitude: through faith practices such as daily reading of the Bible and, in prayer, paying attention to the phrase which catches your attention and listening for what the Spirit might be saying to you; and through the Scripture and song of communal worship; and through openness to each other, as we guide each other into God who is love. Over the years of our spiritual journey, any degree of restored sight is a gift of God’s grace, the Spirit leads us more and more deeply into the joy of seeing that Jesus the Christ is the one who brings light to a darkened world.

In the story from the ninth chapter of John, the parents cannot receive that joy because they are terrified of the dangerous consequences of responding to the risk that God asks of them through their son. In the story, the Pharisees cannot receive that joy because their pre-conceived ideas about God keep them blind to what God is doing, and because they so desperately need to reassure themselves that they are in control. They cannot let go – which is necessary for faith, isn’t it?

The story ends in this way. The man healed of his blindness declares, “Lord, I believe”; and Jesus said, "I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind." Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, "Surely we are not blind, are we?" Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, 'We see,' your sin remains.”

Remember that sin is brokenness. Sin is the brokenness of our relationship with God. It is our brokenness from each other. It is our brokenness that blinds us, so that we cannot perceive and receive the joy of God, who has entered into our human flesh through the human flesh of Jesus the Christ.

Are you joyous in your faith? What prevents you from receiving such joy?

That is the subject for your prayer: offering that up, listening for what comes, as your blindness is revealed by the One who yearns to heal you.

Blessings on your continuing journey through Lent.

In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia