As we march through John’s Gospel we continually find stories of people having profound encounters with Jesus…
not stories of ordinary life, but extraordinary life
—God in the flesh, face to face
First Nichodemus came to Jesus at night,
then Jesus met the Samaritan Woman at High Noon…
and now Jesus sees this Man Born Blind,
and transforms night into day for him.
Prayer
This man is born blind from birth
—he’s never seen the sun that warms his face,
More than that,
he may not be able to
discern the difference between day and night.
He has lived with a particular set of circumstances,
and he’s probably been pigeonholed into a single role in his community.
He’s been made into an object lesson,
a prop used to make a point,
an example to be trotted out to talk about the questions of the day.
Both the Pharisees and Disciples use him in this way
—let’s talk about sin...
using his life and identity as an in
seeing him as nothing more than a conversation starter.
But Jesus,
he sees this man differently
—he sees him as a disciple to be,
one who will be sent to witness the good works of God,
sent to testify to the Light of the World.
So, Jesus
—like God in genesis chapter 2
—gets down in the dirt and creates something new
—packs the man’s eyes with mud,
and sends him to be washed in the water called Sent.
Washed in the water called sent…
Washed in the water,
sight given,
and sent
to witness…
You know this story isn’t only about this man… right?
As folk washed in the waters of Baptism,
we see differently
and we are sent out into the world
to witness to the Goodness of God
in word and in deed…
He sees,
and is surrounded by neighbors packed with questions.
This man sees, and receives a new identity, right?
He is no longer “The Blind Man”
that role,
that relationship with those around him,
is no longer his…
and as such he becomes unidentifiable to his neighbors…
They don’t know what to do with him…
they had confused his disability with his distinctive identity.
They’d invested every aspect of their relationship with him,
on that one feature of who his was…
Bet the whole relationship on his blindness
and now that has changed,
and they can’t handle it!
“It can’t be him!”
Kindly enough, he explains what has happened,
both to the crowd gathered there
and then to the religious authorities…
he re-tells his story
again and again
until he believes it himself…
That’s one of the best things about:
telling people about your faith,
teaching it on to the next generation,
hearing faith stories…
it transforms us,
it strengthens and develops our own faith.
Through such actions our faith seeks understanding.
By the end of these conversations this man, formerly blind, told these folk about Jesus six times:
-“The man called Jesus made mud…
-“Then I washed…
-“He is a Prophet…
-“I was blind, now I see…
-“…Do you also want to become his disciples?
-“…If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
What begins as a conversation about who he is,
and how it all happened,
becomes a conversation about discipleship…
following Jesus…
They push him into it,
walk him logically through what has happened…
their own logic
—used on him as an object of their theological speculation
—swings back around,
like a door pushed too hard,
The logic flies back at ‘em.
-“You don’t know from where Jesus comes.
-God listens to those who worship and obey…
-Only God could open my eyes.
-Jesus opened my eyes.
-Jesus is from God.”
To this they respond by forcing the man back into an object,
a prop,
an example of sin,
and its dispersion.
They expel him.
They drive him out,
they can’t handle a healed man,
having to deal with his whole identity,
having to come to grips with God’s grip on his life…
Expelled by his community,
he finds himself among the community of the expelled…
those who follow Jesus.
-Jesus too is labeled a sinner,
-Jesus too is grilled by the religious authorities,
-Jesus too is weighed down by questions about his identity and his origins,
-Jesus too is driven out,
…Jesus, crucified outside the gates of Jerusalem.
Expelled by his community,
he finds himself among the community of the expelled…
those who follow Jesus.
He is driven out,
and again encounters the one who healed him…
He is found by Jesus Christ.
There he confesses, witnesses to Jesus,
two more times…
Like the Samaritan Woman before him, he does so with a question mark:
She asked, “He couldn’t be the messiah, could he?”
This man asks, “Who is the Son of Man? For I want to believe!”
The Son of Man…
-He is the Teacher and Prophet.
-He is the Giver of Sight and Revealer of Truth.
-He is the Light of the World.
-He is the One who is from God.
-He is to be worshipped.
-He is the I AM.
“Lord, I believe!”
Amen.
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