The Fourth Sunday in Lent ----- 26 March 2017

(As the Scripture passage is quite lengthy, I'm only going to provide the citation here: John 9:1-41) 

As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

§  The story of the Man Born Blind is the third of five “Signs” in the Gospel of John. The signs start with the changing of water to wine at the Wedding at Cana. The second is the conversation with the woman at the well in Samaria. This story today is the third. What follows are the raising of Lazarus and the Crucifixion and Resurrection.

§  Here, blindness and sin of some sort are equated. Jesus has something new to say about that and about blindness where clarity and illumination are supposed to be.

§  In this sign, we hear of blindness and not simply physical blindness. In this sign, a number of kinds of blindness are brought to light.

§  The man himself – the fellow whose eyes were smeared with mud by Jesus and who washed in the Pool of Siloam… This man is truly blind. He cannot see at all. Jesus does what other healers of the day would do; that is, do a healing action and tell the person to wash. The spit and the mud would be the unusual procedure or even ritual, if you’d like.

§  The Pharisees are called blind by Jesus. They make all sorts of objections to what happened.

§  It can’t be good because it happened on the Sabbath.

§  It can’t be good because the person who did it wasn’t part of our party.

§  It can’t be good because we judge this healer to be a sinner.

§  It can’t be good because this person was not blind to begin with.

§  I’m sure you all know the old saying that “there are none so blind as those who will not see.” We all know how true that is.

§  The real contrast here is between light and darkness. The blind man sees now. The seeing Pharisees remain blind while proclaiming their proprietary corner on who is blind and who sees.

§  Where does the light come from? It comes from Jesus who is “the light of the world.” The physical blindness of the man is being used as a symbol for blindness of heart and spirit.

§  Blindness is not unknown in our own day and time. People still suffer from physical blindness despite advances in medicine. There are also many who will not see and there are many who don’t want to see. Seeing is painful – like the light of dawn hitting your eyes before you’re ready for it. The light of day can dispel favourite ideas that are neither healthy nor based on reality – scattering them like bugs or field mice scatter when the lights are turned on. 

§  Are we blind? I know that I am in certain ways. I’m blind to certain things that go on around me, some because I don’t see them for what they really are and some because I’d rather not acknowledge what I know they really are.

§  We can be blind to our own prejudices, calling them “preferences.” So we avoid the outsider and the stranger.

§  We can be blind to the suffering around us, often because it is too painful for us to admit to the reality of that suffering. So we don’t see what others are going through.

§  We can be made blind by judgement, for our judgement blinds us to our own faults and to the grace of God that may be found in others.

§  We can even be blind to our own sinfulness, saying “we’re not that bad” when compared to “real” sinners. In that is the way of pride and the way of rejection of Jesus’ sacrifice for our good.

§  As we hear in today’s Gospel reading, Jesus is the light of the world. Like the light we all are used to, he illuminates and shows what is wrong, but also what is right.

§  Like the light we all need to move – whether the light of the sun or the light of our car’s headlights, his light illuminates our path. On this score, there is something odd. Yes, Jesus lights our path (as Psalm 119: 105 says Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.) However that light is often only on the next step rather than on the entire path. Often the light shines on the next step and on the destination with some (or we might say “a lot”) darkness in between. If we keep our eyes on where the light shines, we won’t go astray.

§  Calling Jesus the light of the world also means that he is the light we follow. Very often we don’t see the path, but we see the one we follow and that will be enough. Martin Luther is supposed to have said “I know not the way God leads me, but well do know my Guide.”

§  Think on that for a moment: The Light of the World is our guide. We know what we’ve been through. We also know what he’s been through. If we admit our own blindness – in whatever way it manifests itself in our lives – we will be given light. We may feel that we are blind us again, but that is blindness as the sunlight blinds us as we come out of a darkened place. Blindness may also come from the abundance of light. Still in that, we know our guide is near and we can hold fast to him, whose healing is sure and whose illumination lights all our lives.

§   “I know not the way God leads me, but well do I know my Guide.”

As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.