From the Daily Lectionary for Tuesday in the Fifth Week of Lent
John 9:18-41
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 judgement 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.”
This passage always makes me laugh. It’s kind of like the “Who’s on First” shtick. The Pharisees here are a perfect example of how willful ignorance operates. They go to great, almost absurd, lengths to disbelieve in Jesus’s healing of the man born blind. They represent the institution, the elite power structure, and therefore, because of their self-interest, they are blind to possibility, blind to the “new thing” that God is doing.
Indeed, this passage is about seeing and blindness. Seeing requires at its heart humility. One must be open to possibility in order to see. One must be open to new knowledge, new revelation to apprehend the truth as it is ever unfolding. Blindness is a choice, and it is fueled by arrogance. Arrogance undermines our true humanity, and, when institutionalized, it serves as the engine of oppression and callous disregard of the other, and finally violence. Arrogance is idolatry, the sin that persistently plagued the people of Israel over their history. It plagues us.
We would do well to take this teaching to heart. Hold lightly what we think we know. God has not cast the truth in stone. God is rather allowing the truth to evolve and grow. Can God experience discovery? I want to think so. As the world is still in the process of being created, so too does truth become, contingent to circumstances, events, and decisions… begotten, as it always is, of mystery.
Keep awake for the truth, good people, as it takes on flesh and blood. In all humility be vigilant and open to possibility, and trust that as the truth unfolds we will know it when we see it.
A Prayer for Quiet Confidence (BCP p. 832)
O God of peace, who has taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be our strength: By the might of your Holy Spirit lift us, we pray, to your presence, where we may be still and know that you are God; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
