Seeing is Believing
John 9:1-41
Sermon preached at Peace Mennonite Church
4th Sunday of Lent, 2004
I have been teaching a course in World Religions this semester at Brookhaven College and this past week we finished our unit on Christianity which included a look at the Protestant Reformation. While that history tells us how different denominations were formed, I actually like this story from a United Methodist minister:
The story concerns two blind men who had been healed by Jesus, who happened to meet one day, and they were so excited to meet someone else who had been healed. They talked about the wonder of sight, the color of flowers, the beauty of butterflies, the glory of sunrises, the faces of children and grandchildren. They talked about the wonder of having seen the face of Jesus. They were laughing and having a great time together, when one of them said, "And do you remember how Jesus took that mud, spit on it, and put it into your eye?"
The other fellow looked kind of stunned, and answered, "Why no, he simply said, 'Receive your sight,' and I could see."
The first fellow said, "Wait a minute - now just wait a minute here. You mean he didn't use any mud?"
"No."
"Well, did he at least have you wash in the pool of Siloam?"
"No - of course not - who ever heard of anything so ridiculous as mud in your eye?!"
"Well," said the first man, "if he didn't put mud in your eyes and have you wash in the pool of Siloam, you are still blind! Blind - do your hear me? Because that's the way Jesus healed me; that's the way he does it!"
Then the second man began to get angry. He shouted, "Mud, mud, mud! Who ever heard of using mud?! That's the dumbest thing I have ever heard! You still have mud in your eyes. You're the one who's still blind!"
They got into a big argument - their relationship was destroyed, and right then and there, they formed the first two denominations: the Mudites and the Antimudites!
This story is not too far off from our gospel lesson for today. How could such a powerful experience of healing get lost in a theological debate?? Imagine yourself as the man born blind in chapter 9 of John’s gospel. You have experienced this wonderful healing and no one will believe you! The irony of this whole episode is that the man who can now see literally becomes invisible as people discuss whether or not he is the one who has been healed!
Why is it so hard for people to believe this man has been healed? As I read this story more closely I ask , “What keeps us from being healed? What keeps us from seeing?” I believe this story operates on two levels: physical and spiritual. The man born blind is physically healed—he is able to see. And as we follow him through the story, he also becomes spiritually healed.
So what keeps us from physical and spiritual healing? The man in the story from John doesn’t resist his healing, but his neighbors, parents, and religious leaders do. I believe we may find some clues to the ways we resist healing in their responses.
After Jesus heals the man by putting mud on his eyes and telling him to go and wash in the Pool of Siloam, the man returns to his home town and immediately encounters his neighbors. The man’s healing creates an argument among them: “Isn’t this the blind guy who used to beg?” “Yeah, that’s him.” “No way! That can’t be him, it’s someone who looks like him.”
All the time the man keeps saying, “It’s me! It’s me!” And the neighbors want to know how—how did the man called Jesus heal you.
What keeps us from our healing? Sometimes it is lack of faith. Instead of trusting in our healing, we get
caught up in the how. If we can’t
explain how it happened, or if the explanation doesn’t suit us, we fail to
recognize healing in our midst.
The neighbors bring the man who had been formerly blind to the Pharisees, who begin their interrogation. “How did you receive your sight?”
“This man Jesus made mud and put it on my eyes, I washed and received my sight.”
The Pharisees are aghast! This activity was done on the Sabbath!!?? “This man is not from God, he does not observe the Sabbath. How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?”
Sometimes our theology keeps us from
healing. If our experience doesn’t fit
the tradition, or established theological categories—if our healing breaks the
rules—we often deny it. The invitation
is to trust our experience more than the rules.
I am just floored by what happens next in the story. The way they denied the man’s experience to keep their rules intact was to claim that he had never been blind in the first place! There are times we will do anything to keep the rules in place. So they call the parents in and ask them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?”
“He is our son, and he was born blind…but we don’t know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Let him tell you, because we are afraid you will punish us if you think we are followers of Jesus.”
Sometimes our fear keeps us from
healing. We are afraid of how our healing
may change us. We get so accustomed to
our lives the way they are. Healing may
mean giving up some habits, being reconciled to someone, letting go of an
identity.
So for the second time they call the man who had been blind and reluctantly they say, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.”
“I don’t know if he is a sinner, but one thing I do know: once I was blind and now I can see.”
The man speaks from his experience not the rules. When I get to this point in the story I think, “finally, someone has recognized this man’s healing. Finally someone has offered praise.” How odd that celebration of the man’s healing has been withheld. And even when it is given, it is reluctant rejoicing.
The Pharisees, like the neighbors, are still stuck on the how of the healing. “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
The healed man can’t stand it any more. “I’ve told you already and you wouldn’t listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?”
Well, this made the Pharisees go ballistic. “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses—as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.”
All bets are off now. The man who had been born blind speaks with authority from his experience: “This is amazing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but God does listen to one who worships and obeys God’s will. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
The Pharisees retort, “How dare you! You were born entirely in sins, and you are trying to teach us!” And they drove him out.
Sometimes our defenses keep us from
healing. Look at how defensive the
Pharisees get when they can’t deny that the man has been healed. Reluctantly they admit it but they still
want to discredit Jesus as a sinner.
And when the man gets too close with the truth of who Jesus is the
Pharisees invoke their pedigree—we are followers of Moses. And finally they just throw him out!
Sometimes a person, or a truth, or a
situation hits just too close to home and our defenses go up before we can
experience them as a pathway to our healing.
The climax of the whole story happens in the last six verses of chapter 9. Jesus finds the man after the Pharisees have thrown him out. He says, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
“And who is he sir? Tell me that I may believe in him.”
This seems odd coming from the man. He has given such moving testimony about Jesus’ opening his eyes to neighbors, parents and Pharisees. All along the way we have seen how people have resisted his healing. And now we realize there is still yet another seeing to be had. The man through his physical healing can see Jesus with his eyes, but the eyes of the man’s spirit have yet to be opened.
Jesus said to him. “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.”
He said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshipped him.
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.”
I just love this next part…Some of the Pharisees are standing close by and they say to Jesus, “Surely we are not blind, are we?”
I wonder what caused them to ask that question. Was there just a brief moment when some of them began to “see?” Did their defenses drop just long enough to ponder the thought that they might be blind? Maybe the question was sarcastic.
Jesus responds with ironic words that sum up the whole story: If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.
This is a story about healing. Physical healing, but more importantly spiritual healing. After all his encounters with his neighbors, his family, and the Pharisees, he finally sees Jesus as the One Sent from God. It is a story of transformation from blindness to clear-eyed discipleship.
Healing comes in a variety of ways: physical, spiritual, emotional, relational. What keeps us from our healing? Lack of faith when we can’t explain the how? Rules of tradition that drown out our experience? Fear that we might have to change? Defensiveness when the truth gets too close? Like the blind man, the more we are able to claim our healing the more clearly we see and experience the source of our healing—Jesus the One Sent from God.