Welcome Pastor Matt. I just had a nice walk in the warm sun with the dogs. Maybe Spring will come after all. In last week’s sermon Pastor Matt stated a good point about the women at the well. She had been rejected by five families and the man she was living with now didn’t seem in a hurry to marry her. In that day divorce was instigated by the husband. When the couple married they lived with the husband’s family so five husbands and their families had rejected her and she was probably living with a man now because the alternative would have been prostitution. Jesus doesn’t rebuke her because he knows this; he elevates her. He accepts her which changes her life. Interesting enough we expect people to change their life and then accept them.
Our text for this Sunday is still in John. We have read some of the themes of John and in this text there is a new one. John uses the number 7 throughout his gospel. It first appears in chapter one when John echo’s the seven days of creation. Our story for Sunday has seven scenes and this is the sixth miracle, out of seven, in John.
Scene 1 (9:1-7) Jesus is in the vicinity of the Temple. In chapter eight Jesus states “I am the light of the world”. The Pharisees then refute this and question where he gets his authority from to make this statement. After a dialogue back and forth the Pharisees and Jews accuse Jesus of having a demon and attempt to stone him but he left the Temple. He is walking along and sees a man blind from birth. The Jews though to have a defect or illness was a result of sin so the disciples want to know who had sinned; the man or his parents. Jesus replies that the man’s blindness isn’t connected to a sin by anyone but God will use it to reveal his glory. While Jesus is alive it is his working day, he is the light of the world but night will be coming. Jesus then spit on the ground, made mud and rubbed it on the man’s eyes telling him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. This takes place on the Sabbath when no work was to be done. Jesus is healing, doing work, on the Sabbath. The man is blind, in darkness. Jesus is the light of the world. Jesus will bring light into the man’s darkness by curing him. The outward physical cure is a sign of the inward healing taking place in the man. With this inward healing comes restoration to God, community, family and forgiveness. If in the Jews mind affliction was caused by sin, curing the man would indicate that he had been forgiven by God.
Scene 2 (9:8-12) The people notice that the blind beggar can see and they try to figure out if it is truly the beggar or a different man. He then replies that the man called Jesus healed him.
Scene 3 (9:13-17) The people bring the man to the Pharisees and they began to question him as to who had healed him. The Pharisees comment that Jesus isn’t from God because he doesn’t observe the Sabbath; he is a sinner. The people are confused because if this man, Jesus, is a sinner how can he heal? The audience becomes divided. They again ask the man about Jesus and the man says Jesus is a prophet.
Scene 4 (9:18-23) Since there is so much confusion over the healing the Pharisees call the man’s parents to get their comments. They want the parents to explain how he was healed. The parents are evasive in their answer and direct the Pharisees back to their son. The parents are afraid of being kicked out of the synagogue if they are associated with Jesus. To be removed from the synagogue was to lose all connections and associations to the community.
Scene 5 (9:24-34) For a second time the Pharisees call the man and question him. Again they call Jesus a sinner (relating back to Jesus being called a demon in the previous chapter). Again they press the man for the “real” story, maybe he will recant it. They want him to give God the Glory. Again the man repeats his original version but he asks sarcastically if the Pharisees are questioning him because they want to become Jesus’ disciples. The Pharisees explode and claim that the man is Jesus’ disciple (from the demonic) but they are disciples of Moses. The man answers them in surprise, they don’t know where Jesus is from yet Jesus has healed him? They know God works through those whom he chooses and not sinners (demons). Never before has anyone been healed of blindness. Only God could have healed this man. If Jesus was from the demonic he wouldn’t have been able to heal the man from blindness, but he has Divine power to heal so God must have given him that Divine authority. The Pharisees have no reply so in desperation to show their authority they abuse him, insult him and drive the man out. They imply his blindness was a curse from God. He is excommunicated from everything (community, economics, family) and alone. Israel was to be the light of the world drawing everyone to God. Instead, as in this story, they are excluding people and driving them from the community of God. They have confused their mission; they are denying the people a relationship with God. They are ignoring what God is doing through Jesus by healing a blind man and clinging to their own authority desperately. Ritual has trumped human need.
Scene 6 (9:35-39) Jesus heard that the Pharisees had driven the man out so he found him and asked him if he believed in the Son of Man (from Dan 7:13, the true representative of Israel)? The man asks who that is. Tell me. Jesus replies that the man is looking at the Son of Man. The man then calls him Lord and worships him. His eyes have been truly opened. He is seeing the light of the world. Jesus is including him in the new Israel, community, around himself. He has been removed from one community but accepted into another.
Scene 7 (9:40, 41) The Pharisees question Jesus on his statement that they are blind. They refuse to Jesus for who he is so they remain blind, spiritually blind, in darkness. Jesus is the light of the world, drawing people to God and helping people to “see”.
The Pharisees are so intent on keeping ritual that they ignore a rare healing in their midst. In order to suppress the event they insult and humiliate the man; they insult and deny Jesus. They should have been rejoicing with him. The blind man however has made a progression in his healing. First he is physically cured (an outward sign of an inward change) then the healing begins; in verse 11 he calls Jesus the man, in verse 17 he calls him a prophet and in verse 38 he calls him Lord and worships him. The man can answer who Jesus is by this progression and he can answer who a sinner is by their refusal to accept Jesus.
Do we rejoice at the miracle or complain about the rituals broken? Do we see or are we blind? Do we bring people to God or leave people out? If changes happen in our church will we accept them or will we bristle at them? If we, as a church, can change and draw more people to God; will we?
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