John 9:1-41
The light of true judgement

It was just around the time that I was sixteen, when I realized for the first time that I truly needed glasses to see well. I had probably needed glasses for a long time, but where I was growing up, we got to see the doctor only when we got sick to the point of not being able to get up from bed. So, I managed without a 20/20 vision for a long time. I taught myself to recognize people from their walks, learned to distinguish voices real well and my vision was not so bad that I couldn’t read or write. The day that I realized I absolutely must go to the optometrist was when I thought I saw one of my friends walking toward me as I was on my way to school. I called her name excitedly and ran toward her, only to come face to face with a total stranger who was rather annoyed with me. So, finally I had to tell my parents that I was having difficulty seeing things clearly. To say the least, when I got my glasses it was like a cloud of mist had been lifted from the horizon for me. Not only did I see more clearly, my perception of the environment around me changed. Colors became more distinct, images became sharper and the constant hazy horizon that I had been seeing began to reveal its depth and complexity to me. And of course, I knew for sure that I couldn’t possibly go chasing after people who appeared somewhat like my friends or relatives, because now there was no way I could not see the difference between strangers and friends.

As we walk through this Lent, hopefully examining our lives and reorienting it toward God once again, how do we view and understand sin? I could be wrong, but for most of us nowadays sin is not something that occupies our mind all that much. “Sin” seems so final, so judgmental and dark that in order to soften the meaning and maybe to diminish our accountability of bearing sin, we have skillfully managed to make it synonymous with desserts. So instead of our sinfulness we talk about eating that wonderful warm pecan pie as sin. Now, if only our sinfulness could disappear as quickly as pies from the tray!

I believe we have never been good at understanding sin, and this is not only a present day problem. John writes that as Jesus was walking along he saw a man blind from birth. Notice that John does not write Jesus saw a blind man, he is very intentional in making the point that Jesus saw the man for who he was apart from his blindness. But for the disciples, they see the blindness of the man as the overall qualifying factor in his life. They ask Jesus, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" For the disciples, there are only two possibilities that this man could be blind, either his parents or he sinned, which resulted in his blindness. The disciples’ understanding of sin was one of cause and effect, which was actually the more prevalent understanding of sin at that time. So most physical disabilities and sickness would be viewed as the result of sinning. But in keeping with the overall theme of this story, Jesus gives a new insight into suffering as well as sin, when he tells his disciples, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him.” Jesus is not saying that the man is sinless, he is saying that the blindness is not a result of sin.

We may ask, just like I am sure the disciples were wondering, what is sin then? Like a lot of times when Jesus perceives questions and confusions in people’s minds, he goes on to tell his disciples, “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." In other words, not doing the work of God when the opportunity is given to us is a sin. So sinfulness has to do with disobeying God. But how do we know what it means to obey God? As always, Jesus is our lead, the example when it comes to understanding God’s will for our lives. To demonstrate what it means to obey God, Jesus does a most unexpected thing. John writes, “When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man's eyes, saying to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam". Then he went and washed and came back able to see.” The disciples had judged the blind man as sinful and condemned by God without even knowing him, later on the Pharisees too judged him and went so far as to throw him out of the synagogue. And very interestingly Jesus talks about judgement too, but the judgement he is talking about is in a totally different light. 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." Jesus’ judgement had to do with revealing things in the true light of God. In fact, he says that he is the light of the world, which means that it only in the light of Christ that we can truly understand what it means to sin or not to sin.

The unexpected thing that Jesus did to demonstrate obedience to God was to touch the blind man in his suffering and give him the gift of sight. God’s purpose and will for Jesus was and is to be present in human suffering, furthermore, beyond his presence is also his gift of light and insight in our situation of suffering. The promise of Jesus’ presence and his gift of insight to us are meant for us to recognize the true light of this world, which and who is Jesus.

Like this man who received his sight, seeing and accepting Jesus as the only true light in this broken world may not always turn out to be a smooth ride for us. We may be discredited, ridiculed, disowned by our own family and friends and even shunned completely, but it is only in the light of Christ that we can see healing and hope that reaches way beyond immediate circumstances. And it is only in the light of Christ that we can see the path of obedience to God. The thought of obedience to God often brings pictures of being tied down, of being restricted and enslaved. But I want to tell you that it is only within the will of God that we can truly see our world as the place where God walks, where God cares, where God heals and brings hope and deliverance. By nature we are selfish and concerned with only our needs, and so if we do not choose to follow God we would never see or understand that the blind man can and will not only see, but that he will definitely see the real picture, beyond the horizon in all its depths. With all the suffering in the world, with all its injustices, with all the finger pointing and blaming, and with all its idols of Sabbath rules and regulations, it would be a sin not to follow God as He brings hope and light in the midst of darkness. It would be a sin to settle for a fuzzy representation of the real picture, and it would be a sin not to get and put on the glasses we need to see well.

It is the light of Christ that shows us the possibility of what Saint Frances prayed for:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen