BLINDNESS OF THE EYES, BLINDNESS OF THE HEART

(Preached on Sunday, March 2, 2008)

AWe must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work.  As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.@                                                                          -John 9:4-5

 

ARabbi, ,who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?@  What a question!  This poor fellow.  It is not enough that he is blind.  Not enough that he had to beg for his living.  On top of all that, he had to be the subject of speculation, the subject of public ridicule.  Compounding his pain and suffering, he was held up as the subject for a theological debate.  One can imagine the disciples blurting out their question while standing there looking at the man, not even bothering to wait until they were out of earshot.

 

It is amazing what we do to people who are suffering, who are living in pain.  We treat them as objects, no longer as full human beings with feelings and thoughts and capabilities.  Will Willimon experienced this from some colleagues at a church meeting one day.  He woke up that morning with a wretched sore throat.  At that meeting he said to some of the gathered participants, AI=ve got a horrible sore throat.  I can hardly talk.  Don=t know how much good I=ll be able to contribute to this meeting.@  With that the two people to whom he said this launched into an energetic conversation on the origins of sore throats: AI=ve heard that if you don=t intake enough vitamin C you are a candidate for lots of sore throats.@  The other said, APeople just don=t take good care of themselves anymore.  At this time of year people ought to know that with the constant changes of weather a sore throat is always a possibility.@  One and one they went C he finally turned away in disgust.  What he wanted was a modicum of sympathy, not a debate on how he had failed to take good care of himself and now had no one to blame by himself for his sore throat.  AJesus, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he has been struck blind?@

 

We have this problem with human suffering.  We have this illusionary hope that if we can understand what causes suffering, then maybe, in some way, we will be able to head it off and prevent it.  We also like to make it somebody=s fault, either the one who is sick, or some bad, evil person who did bad things to innocent people, or God.  We don=t like the idea of random acts or diseases that cause pain and suffering.  After all, if they are random, then they become very difficult to protect ourselves from or to prevent. 

 

In Jesus= day the Sadducees held that suffering was the fault of the sufferer.  If you experienced great suffering, then you must have been a great sinner.  The problem in this case, though, was that this man was born blind.  What could he have done to deserve this affliction?  Some rabbis, however, did teach that it was possible for a child to sin while still in its mother=s womb.  

 

We prefer to debate the origin of human suffering because it is another way we can insulate ourselves from the suffering.  It is much more enjoyable, and much safer, to theorize about suffering than to get down in the dirt with the poor blind man in the midst of his suffering.   It is much safer to focus on some theory than to deal with actual suffering human beings. 

 

But Jesus never allowed himself to be drawn into these senseless debates.  Jesus was concerned with people more than theological or philosophical discussions.  He took action to help people where ever he went.  Because Jesus understood that God was in the blindness just as much as God was in the healing.  Jesus understood God was present in every situation, in every human life.  God could be glorified in the life of a blind beggar just as much as God could be glorified in the life of a priest or a king.  As such Jesus understood that this blind beggar was a child of God, worthy to be treated with respect and dignity as any human being deserved to be treated.  So he healed the man.  He never asked the man if he wanted to be healed.  The man never asked Jesus to heal him.  But Jesus saw his need, knew that he could bring a better life to the man through the light of day, and healed him.  That is the power of God in action.  It is already there for us.  We don=t have to ask for it.  We don=t have to earn it.  That is the truth of God=s grace and salvation.  God didn=t ask if we wanted to be saved.  God didn=t ask if we wanted to be healed of our blindness.  God just sent the light of the world to shine in our darkness.

 

Even though it is God=s action that is critical in this process God does not act in such a way that dehumanizes or objectifies us.  Jesus healed the man in such a way that the man was an integral part of the process of his own healing.  The man had to help with the healing process.  He had to go and wash his eyes.  Had he not, had he just let the mud dry on his face and eventually crumble off, he probably would not have been healed.  But when he was obedient, when he went and washed, he was healed.  The power of light broke fully into his life.

 

For the power of God=s salvation to break fully into our lives, we need to respond to God=s grace and love.  We don=t have to fully understand it.  The man was healed, but he knew nothing about the one who had healed him.  He just knew that this man called Jesus had come along, touched him, and his life was changed.

 

That is what we must hold on to, the reality of God in our lives through Jesus the Christ.  We don=t have to have all the answers.  We don=t have to have it all figured out. But when God becomes real in our lives through Jesus, then we will share the joy and light and new life which are ours through him.  We will want to share it with the whole world.

 

Jesus said, AI am the light of the world.@  Light is a phenomenon which physical scientists cannot fully explain.  It has the characteristics of both a particle and a wave.  Many of these characteristics are hard to understand together.  So the best the scientists can do is describe light as both a particle and a wave.  But, even though it cannot be fully explained, light is very real and very beneficial in our lives.  Even so with Jesus.  We may not be able to explain Jesus.  We may not understand Jesus. We probably don=t know all we would like to know about Jesus.  But when Jesus becomes real in our lives, then we experience a power to be able to act.  A power that will focus us not on esoteric, philosophical debates and discussions, but will focus us on getting down into the mud with those who are suffering, including ourselves, in ways that make a real difference in human lives.

 

Two stories to illustrate.

Paul Coutinho, a Jesuit priest from India, reports that the year before he was ordained his godmother discovered she had cancer.  At first she was depressed and scared, but then she had a deep experience of God that led her to say, AToday I do not pray for a cure for myself.  I pray that God will help someone find a cure for cancer so that the thousands who come after me will profit and benefit from that cure.@  She had only one prayer for herself, that she would Alive one day at a time and live as fully as I can,@ which she did.  One of her last acts was to ask her husband for paper and a pencil.  He thought she wanted to write her last will and testament, but instead she wrote down simple recipes he could use to feed their children.   A woman who faced her suffering square-on with the assistance of God who was in the suffering with her so that she did not face it alone.