“A man named Jesus made a paste and rubbed it on my eyes and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ I did what he said. When I washed, I saw.”
“So where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
They marched the man to the Pharisees. This day when Jesus made the paste and healed his blindness was the Sabbath. The Pharisees grilled him again on how he had come to see. He said, “He put a clay paste on my eyes, and I washed, and now I see.”
Some of the Pharisees said, “Obviously, this man can’t be from God. He doesn’t keep the Sabbath.” Others countered, “How can a bad man do miraculous, God-revealing things like this?” There was a split in their ranks.
Jesus then said, “I came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day, making all the distinctions clear, so that those who have never seen will see, and those who have made a great pretense of seeing will be exposed as blind.”
Some Pharisees overheard him and said, “Does that mean you’re calling us blind?”
Jesus said, “If you were really blind, you would be blameless, but since you claim to see everything so well, you’re accountable for every fault and failure.”
When we say something like "Oh I see!" it doesn't always mean we saw something, it can mean we understand something. Something has been revealed to us in a way that helps us to make sense of what seemed confusing. In this account from the Gospel of John, the Pharisees are taking particular issue with the fact that Jesus is healing someone on the Sabbath. If he was a real man of God, he would not work on the Sabbath. "Oh, I see," they seem to be saying, he can't possibly be from God. And yet, there's a division among them because he has clearly healed a man. Hmm. How could that miracle happen if he is NOT a man of God?
Jesus implores them to see with their hearts. He says he is coming to show who is really blind and who is really able to see. He says that if you claim to be so clear on what is going on around you while nitpicking the lives of others and choosing law over care and concern, then you will be exposed as blind.
We can become self-righteous and complacent. We can say we are not the kind of Christian who does X or treats people in ways that are not holy. We are the kind of Christians we wish others would see. And yet, we all fail to be truly righteous in the eyes of God. In our prayer of confession when we say we fail to be an obedient church it is because we refuse to think obedience is something God calls us to be. We prefer to be obedient only to ourselves and want no other person, no God, telling us what to do.
This passage suggests that the moment we feel that way, we have become blind like the Pharisees. And somewhere among our pride and arrogance is a person Jesus has touched who can see right through us. Someone who, despite the fact that we did very little to bring God's kingdom, allowed Jesus to spit in the mud and wipe a little paste on his eyes and give him gritty, new vision.
This week, I ask you to bring old things that you can see through for our altar display. Eyeglasses, sunglasses, telescopes, View Masters, binoculars... preferably old, that offer a way to see the world in a different way.
We are called to bring sight to the blind, recognizing that we, ourselves, may be the blind who need to see.
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