March 2, 2008 At Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK
1 Samuel 16:1-7, 10-13 + Psalm 23 + Ephesians 5:8-14 + John 9: 1-41
This is a thrilling and exciting story. It is dramatic in the typical way John constructs his stories. There are details that excite the imagination, and those details tell most of the story. This is not simply a story about a blind man who bumped into Jesus. Do not miss the detail that Jesus went looking for him not just once, but twice. This not a story about sight being restored. The man was blind from birth, from the beginning. There are unmistakable references to creation here.
Get that little detail about dirt. Think of creation. Then remember where the man is sent: to the Pool – the Water – and the name of the pool is “Sent.” Then recall what God does on the first day of creation: bring light out of darkness. Suddenly this is not about a cure. This is about creation, about what God has done, and what God is still doing. It’s about what is happening now with Jesus, and what is happening those Jesus seeks. That man did not simply have blind eyes cured. He came to the realization that God’s creative power was at the center of his being. No story here about a blind man, no story about something Jesus did; this is a story about conversion as a new creation; how it works, and what it brings about.
It is a spiritual experience, a spiritual cure far more significant than getting 20/20 vision. Throughout the Gospel of John, the theme of Light and victory of light over darkness weaves its way through every scene. From the first chapter to the Passion,
there is a constant movement from darkness to light. Right up to the dramatic moment when darkness covers the earth in the middle of the day as the sun is darkened.
What John would have us understand is this truth: that Christ the Light has come to seek those who live in darkness. Now darkness itself is neither bad nor sinful. Jesus deals with that through the discussion of this man’s blindness: did it come from his parents and their sin? No. Darkness is simply the stuff in which creation happens. What is wrong and sinful is to choose to remain in darkness and refuse the light when it comes.
This is the heart of our Lenten story today. Sin is a stubborn attachment to darkness. When the Pharisees refuse to change, refuse to open their eyes to the Light in their midst, when they accuse others of sin who clearly see the creative work of God in their midst, they are in trouble. Avoid Jesus as light, then meet him as judge. The Pharisees had an investment in darkness in keeping things the same, in keeping things in control, their control. When they see this man who is so different, they see a threat. We must understand this story my friends: that blind man did not ask for anything. Jesus went looking for him. The gift did not make his life easier at first. He ended up expelled from the synagogue. But this story reveals that through human weakness the power of God enters human life, and the power is creative. Light comes to those who recognize that life is blindness without Christ; and comes through their weaknesses. Darkness comes to those who without Christ claim to see. It is a message for Lent. It is a call to choose Christ, to make him first and more important than others or the approval of others. We have been to the pool, the “sending pool” of Baptism. We have been enlightened. Why should any still live in darkness unless they have chosen it?