As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. 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.” 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” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some were saying, “It is he.” Others were saying, “No, but it is someone like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ Then I went and washed and received my sight.” They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.” They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.” Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And they were divided. So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” He said, “He is a prophet.” The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” His parents answered, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.” So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.” He answered, “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” Then they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” The man answered, “Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his 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.” They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?” And they drove him out. Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” He said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped 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.” 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.
(John 9:1-41)
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This is a story that I'm able to look at with what you might call "fresh eyes." When I did my doctoral degree a few years ago, the Dean of the program I was in was Dr. Craig Satterlee - who happens to be legally blind. His approach to his blindness opened my eyes. He saw blindness not as an affliction that needed to be healed but rather as an integral part of who he was, and it did not stop him from accomplishing anything he set out to accomplish. He was a husband and father, and an ordained Lutheran priest, and over the years he had been a pastor, an author and a professor. In the years since I graduated from the program, he also graduated in a sense - he was elected to serve (and is currently serving) as the Lutheran Bishop of the North/West Lower Michigan Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Yes - I'm Facebook friends with a real live bishop! His attitude to his blindness - that it was simply a part of who he was and not a limitation or curse or anything else - had a big impact on how I see people with all of their unique characteristics. Our passage today is about a blind man. It's a long passage, and I considered just using a part of it or only selected verses, but all of it seems so very relevant - and to cut anything out seemed to do violence to the divinely inspired word. This is actually the first time I've preached from this passage since I graduated from Dr. Satterlee's program, and as I said, I see the story a little differently now. I find myself focussing not so much on the miraculous "healing" that took place - but on the more mundane way in which Jesus approached his encounter with this man, who had been blind from birth.
Really - what could be more mundane than spit? If I was going to paraphrase this image, I'd say that Jesus chose to get down and dirty with the work of God. A lot of Jesus' followers don't want to get down and dirty. Those disciples didn't want to get down and dirty. They just wanted to judge - "who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" There was no sense of helping this man or of even showing him kindness. There was just a jump to an assumption: somebody must have sinned. This blindness has to be a punishment from God for something. Either this man had sinned and was being punished - or, more likely since he had been blind from birth, he himself (his very existence) was a punishment to his parents. I wonder how that thought must have made the blind man feel? The disciples wanted to use the man as an excuse to have a theological or philosophical conversation with Jesus, but they didn't see the man as someone worthy of reaching out to and helping. There are those times when the followers of Jesus - and I do not exempt myself from this problem - look past the obvious needs we see around us. We can talk about the social causes of those needs; we can advocate for programs or policies that might help to alleviate the problems; or we can simply condemn those who have the problems as being responsible for them and so wash our hands of any responsibility - but whatever our rationale may be, when we come face to face with needs we're often not willing to get down and dirty (into the mud) to actually meet a need that confronts us. As I say, I'm as guilty of that as anyone. Maybe the needs are too overwhelming. Maybe we don't think we can make a difference. Maybe we don't think the need is important enough for us to respond to. Maybe (just every now and then) we fall into judgment of the person with the need. "Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" And we do that in our society all the time. We blame the poor for being poor. We think that those who are different are dangerous or sinful. In a previous church that I served I had to go to a meeting shortly after I started my ministry. The room the meeting was being held in was just down the hall from my office. As I left the office, someone else attending the meeting walked past and said "make sure you lock the door because those people are in the building." I hadn't been there long enough to know who he was referring to. It turned out to be the local AA group that met in the basement every week. I wonder how many different groups there are in our society who get marked with the title "those people"? The blind man was one of "those people" - one of those who weren't worthy of being helped and who weren't trusted. One of those simply seen as responsible for his own problems.
But Jesus refused to buy into that way of thinking. There are no "those people" to Jesus - there are just children of God. And so Jesus got down and dirty - into the mud where no one else was willing to go. In fact he not only got into the mud - he made the mud with his own spit and hands. And he changed this blind man's life. The focus is almost always on the blind man receiving his sight - and I don't deny that might have happened. I don't deny miracles. If God can't do things that I can't do - if God can't do things that amaze me - then God isn't much of a God. I choose not to construct a God in my own image. I choose to believe in a God who is vastly different than I am and who can do the most amazing things that I can't even imagine doing. So I have no reason to dismiss the story. The blind man could see. But I look at the story a little differently now. I'm no longer sure that it was the blind man receiving his sight that's the key to what happened. That's only a tiny part of the story that we focus on because it's exciting and dramatic - and I get that. But is it the most important part of the story? I'm no longer convinced.
This man had been looked down on for his entire life. He had been shoved aside and pushed down and rejected. His only way to survive was to lower himself by begging and hoping day by day that enough people might toss him a scrap of bread or a coin that he could survive until the next day when he could start begging all over again. The Pharisees were among those who had no time for this man and no interest in this man and who just assumed that in some way he was responsible for his own plight. They had neither respect nor compassion for him. Their treatment of him was a way of keeping people under their thumb by showing them what happened to people they declared to be sinners. But what happened to this man after Jesus touched him? Did you notice that this man - who was not only sightless but also probably voiceless in this society and who had been constantly demeaned by the Pharisees - was suddenly debating the Pharisees; even arguing with the Pharisees. His own parents were passing the buck and cowering in fear of the Pharisees. This man was taking them on!
The Pharisees said to the man about Jesus, "we do not know where he comes from." And that was all the man needed to hear. He leapt to Jesus' defence: "Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. ... If this man were not from God, he could do nothing." And the Pharisees were furious. And they drove this man away. But the man had not only gained his vision; he had found his voice. He would not be victimized anymore. He would not just lay down and take it anymore. He went to Jesus, and he said "Lord, I believe!" He knew the difference Jesus had made in his life. More than that, he knew the risk that Jesus had taken to do it. He understood that when Jesus made the decision to get down and dirty on his behalf there would be unpleasant consequences awaiting him and all who followed him. And the man wouldn't cower in fear anymore. "Lord, I believe!" Perhaps, then, the story here isn't just about the man being healed - perhaps it's even more about the man being empowered.
I loved the words of Father Rick Morley that I shared in today's bulletin: “Let's not look on people like they're poor slobs, and wonder at how blessed we are. Let's reach out - into the dirt - if we have to. Let's dirty our hands. And let's bring the Life that Jesus brings.” Yes! Absolutely! Down and dirty. Down in the mud. Making the mud. Standing up. Being counted. Making a difference! Giving a voice to those who have no voice! Lifting up those who are cast down and cast aside! That is the work of Jesus - and that should be our work as well! To see those who are invisible to others. To hear those who are ignored by others. To accept those who are judged by others. To welcome those who are cast aside by others. To love those who are hated by others. That is the dirty work of the gospel - dirty because it means that by doing it we align ourselves with causes and people that to many will be unpopular; causes that will stain us in the eyes of some who are self-righteous and self-absorbed and think that they're better than everyone else.
But just as it is for Jesus, so it should be for those of us who are followers of Jesus - to us, there should be no "those people." There should be only children of God whom we are called to serve and to love!
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