|
March 21, l999
THE REST OF THE STORY (John
9:l-4l)
The Pastor's Message was preceded by a dramatic
reading of John 9:l-4l:
Thank you Helena, Billy, Adam, Chi Chuen and
congregation for bringing more alive this
reading.
As you have heard the healing of the blind man takes
onlytwo verses; the remaining 39 verses relate to the
rest of the story.
I
Among the characters in the story just read my
admiration goes to the blind man for he alone is pleased
with his healing and he alone shows respect for Jesus and
spunk against the critics of Jesus. The blind man has the
great line of this story: ONE THING I KNOW, I WAS BLIND
AND NOW I SEE.
As modern people we would tend anyhow to empathize
with this handicapped man who from the very first day he
was born was unable to see. Our compassion, in principle
at least, is with those who lack some aspect in their
humanity which prevents them from being considered
"normal" by regular society. This man could hear, taste,
smell and feel. In every other way he was perfectly
normal, perfectly human, but the Gospel story tells us
that sight was a gift he did not have and the lack of
that single gift placed him off limits to mainstream
society. He had a double handicap of not only being blind
but being poor.
We could be romantic and argue that there was virtue
in his blindness: He probably didn't have the prejudices
which sighted people have. Unable to see, skin color made
no difference. He would not have been impressed with
extravagant clothing or expensive jewellery or what model
of the latest chariot the privileged drove when they
passed by his beggar's station.
More to reality, his situation was in two ways quite
similar to modern sighted Christians:
l) He came under Jesus' care and influence without any
insistence on possessing a previous merit of his own. He
was aware he was blind and poor in both the material and
spiritual sense.
2) And he would not have known, nor been influenced,
by Jesus' appearance. For him Jesus was a voice as Jesus
is also for us a presence unseen. In that way we are all
blind when we first encounter Jesus.
II
People have always treated handicapped people a little
differently than they treat anyone else. Even the
disciples of Jesus suspected that something was awry:
"Looking at the man born blind, the disciples ask, 'Who
sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?'"
The question is legitimate if your understanding of life
is based on cause and effect.
Cause and effect: Bad things happen to bad people Good
things happen to good people. In a cause and effect
world, everything is orderly, predictable,
understandable, categorical. In a cause and effect world,
those who study the hardest, excel; those who work the
longest, prosper. Christians need not abandon the
rational appeal of cause and effect thinking, but it only
scratches the surface of reality. The fact that Jesus
died an unjust death tells us that God operates at deeper
levels than cause and effect.
Jesus resisted the notion of there being any cause and
effect relationship between this man's moral behavior and
his blindness. "IT WAS NOT THAT THIS MAN SINNED, OR HIS
PARENTS, BUT THAT THE WORKS OF GOD MIGHT BE MANIFEST IN
HIM!"
Then Jesus, spitting upon the ground, takes come clay,
wipes it across the man's eyes. The blind man goes and
washes the mud off and, behold, he can see. What a
wondrous change now to see the colors blue and yellow,
the birds diving in the sky. He can see the waves rolling
across the lake. Is the adjective "ecstasy" too large to
capture his delight!
But as we have heard, the story has no depth of
general joy. Only the blind man is thrilled with his
healing. Neither his parents, nor the townspeople rejoice
in his blessing, and the Pharisees turn vicious because
of this healing.
A bitter town meeting ensues in the synagogue to
pursue issues of legitimacy, authority, or the old game
of poisoning the well, "Where is this blind man from?"
"Where is this rabbi from?" "What illustrious rabbinical
school did this upstart rabbi attend? " "From whom did he
learn to debase the Sabbath Law?"
If they can discredit the healer, they can dismiss the
healing.
From the argument there emerges only one clear and
pertinent and courageous statement: "I know I was blind,
and now I see." That healed man states a physical change
in his condition and suggests he is also crossing the
faith threshold with Jesus.
His bold acknowledgement that Jesus is the source of
good, really ticks off the Pharisees who now revile him
openly. They condemn him as being a sinner, as they also
condemn Jesus, and excommunicate the healed one from ever
coming to the synagogue again, as Jesus was to be
likewise banished from the synagogue.
III
We know from other debates with other Pharisees that
Jesus held his own in such arguments. But here he is
absent from the main debate and the formerly blind man,
not literate, not trained in theological argument, is
left alone to defend the legitimacy of his healing. He
lacks the knowledge for this debate but he has one great
attribute in addition to his courage: he is able and
willing to acknowledgement Jesus over against the
Pharisees' knowledge of the law and ignorance of
Jesus.
He does not know all the correct religious phrases
with which to interpret his salvation. He was not pious
in the traditional sense and, as we've seen, not even
respectful of his spiritual elders for he challenges
them: "Hey, you guys, are you asking me all these
questions because you, too, want to become his
disciples!" ONE THING I KNOW IS THAT I WAS BLIND AND NOW
I SEE. He acknowledged Jesus as the source of his radical
change, new sight, and new hope.
Likewise, believers have echoed a testimony like that
of the blind man as they have through the generations
given their suffering and handicaps over to Jesus:
…ONE THING I KNOW I WAS STRUGGLING THROUGH THE
PAIN OF MY DIVORCE BUT SOMEHOW I GOT THROUGH IT AND I
KNOW THAT SOMEHOW WAS MY FAITH IN JESUS.
…ONE THING I KNOW IS THAT I LOST MY JOB AND
THE BOTTOM FELL FROM UNDER MY AMBITION BUT I WAS ABLE TO
GO RIGHT ON BECAUSE I KNOW WHO IS JESUS.
…ONE THING I KNOW I WAS ENDURING BURDENS TOO
GREAT FOR ME BUT JESUS GOT ME THROUGH THEM.
ONE THING I KNOW….If there is only one thing any
one of us can know, hadn't it better be to know who is
the source of our salvation.
IV
The healed man paid a terrible price for his
salvation, cast out of the only fellowship that mattered
in his town, the synagogue. Shut off from Torah, family,
the sweet smelling incense of the Sabbath, the certitude
of the Law all because he looked deeply into Jesus and
acknowledged the Light.
Some schools believe that this story reflects the
historic parting of the Jews, who believed in Jesus, from
their families and friends who clung to the Torah faith
and stayed with the synagogues. We were once so close,
and Christians must always remember how very close we
once were with Jews.
Indeed, the scene ends sadly: Jesus and the healed man
are talking, but they are talking outside the synagogue.
The division between the two faiths is symbolized in
John's placement of their final conversation outside the
synagogue.
That tragedy of separation continues, not only between
Jews and Gentiles, but more often among Gentiles who
confronted with the Light of Jesus, turn away to pursue
some alternative way. Whatever their good reasons may be,
it is a tragedy when, like the townspeople and the
Pharisees, modern people are exposed to His Light but
choose to remain blind.
Even believers are not immune from this experience of
separation. We may let Jesus come close enough to help us
with our immediate needs or griefs and then after a
little while forget about him. The one comfort I can
seize from this story at its ending is that just as Jesus
spoke within the synagogue as long as he could, but then
was wholly willing to continue dialogue outside the
synagogue; so the Lord of the Church speaks to us within
the congregation but he also engages in dialogue with
those outside the congregation.
Pastor Gene Preston
Archives: Sermon
Texts
|