“New Eyes”
March 19, 2023
John 9: 1–41 The bible reading for this Sunday is the story of Jesus healing a man who had been blind from birth. It has a good dose of drama, intrigue, conflict and beauty. It is also an entire chapter long. Here is the chapter summarized like a three-act play:
Act 1. Disciples and Jesus. The disciples are walking down the street and notice a blind beggar. They ask: “Jesus, who sinned and caused this man to be blind, the man himself or his parents? It was common to blame blindness on some sin in those days. Jesus’ response: “Neither. His blindness gives opportunity for God’s works to be revealed in him. I am the light of the world.” Exit Disciples.
Act 2. Enter Blind man. Without any request by the man, Jesus speaks to him, applies “mud made with saliva” over his eyes and tells him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. It is the Sabbath day — when Jewish law required that no one was to work. Exit Jesus.
Act 3. Enter Neighbors and Village people The man washes the mud off his eyes and he can see! Those who witness ask how this happened? The man once blind says “Jesus did it.” The neighbors are unsure this is really the guy once blind. The Pharisees, the religious authorities of the day, are also unsure if this is really the man who had been blind. They question the man’s parents and the man himself. The result leads to the man once blind being thrown out of the synagogue.
Conclusion: Enter Jesus. He seeks out the healed man and teaches that he came to bring sight to the blind and to reveal the blindness of those who think they see. ***
In the last years of her life, my beautiful mom struggled with diminishing eyesight. It started about ten years earlier when a retinal procedure failed. Over time, the other eye developed retinal problems, too. Thanks to a fine ophthalmologist, periodic injections maintained a minimal, yet ever declining amount of vision in one good eye until her death at age 95.
Despite limited vision, my mom chose to be a positive person. Her love of reading continued until she could no longer see the largest font possible on a Kindle even when teamed with a magnifying glass. She attended weekly Bible studies and worship every Sunday. Even when she could not read the bulletin, see the screen, or hear clearly the preacher, she wanted to be there. She continued to perceive all the goodness connected to worship and the community of faith. Her life, its challenges and concerns about eyesight and hearing were cushioned and encouraged by a deep faith in Jesus — who she knew as the Light of the World.
My mom had the ability to perceive lots of good around her, despite the challenges. She fit the quote by Irving Berlin: “Life is 10 percent what you make it and 90 percent how you take it.” She resolved to live out a truth found in this story of the blind man — that it’s a choice to see that Jesus is God, the Light of the world who comes for all people.
This biblical account shows the difference between how people’s perceptions result in very different views. The village people couldn’t believe their eyes that the miraculously seeing man was the same blind beggar they had passed on the street for years. The Pharisees, those upright, rule-keeping religious leaders couldn’t bear the man’s story of how Jesus healed him with some spit-moistened mud.
Perception makes all the difference in this miracle story. It makes a huge difference in our lives, too. Perception (from the Latin percipio) is organizing and identifying information gained through our five senses in order to understand the world around us. How we interpret what we gain through our senses determines our actions and responses, even our beliefs.
Think about how perception impacts human life. We can look at the poor and see lazy people who refuse to work and are happy for government support, or we can see victims of circumstance or poor choices, or we can see decent human beings making the most of tough situations.
We can look at climate science and see a natural cycle which has just happened to come upon this planet or we can see human action putting it under pressure and changing its climate.
We can look at so many other things: issues of wealth and income inequality, consumption, energy, racism, living together without marrying, immigration, health care, sexuality, abortion, capital punishment and every person’s perception of such issues can be different.
In the bible story, the Pharisees and some of the blind man’s neighbors choose one perception of his miraculous healing. At first, they refuse to believe it is really the blind beggar they had ignored for years. In doing so, they choose to remain blind to the reality of Jesus’ power to heal as the Light of the World.
In our daily lives we all make choices, consciously or subconsciously, about what we will see and what we won’t. It’s tempting to choose not to see the dire impact of the war in Ukraine and its impact on the world, most keenly upon the people of that country. It’s tempting to switch off the news and ignore reports of mass shootings, racism, and hunger. It is tempting to avoid seeing certain people, allowing them to be faceless, removing their need and struggle from our thoughts. It’s tempting to avoid seeing some validity in those with whom we disagree, instead of seeing them as just plain wrong. It’s tempting to avoid seeing our money’s power for making a difference in the lives of others — and rather choose to believe “I’m only one person and so I couldn’t do much anyway.”
But, if we have perceived Jesus as the Light of the World, truly God, then our seeing will be informed by God’s perspective where the last are first, the greatest are the least, and where everyone has merit and worth.
The blind man used his newly functioning eyes to see Jesus as the Light and to worship Him. If we are to follow Him into a world of justice, we must necessarily live our lives with the Christ-like mission of helping others to see, and be blessed, by the extravagantly good, inclusive and healing love made known in Jesus.
Image: hail.to/tui-motu-interislands-magazine;
