“More than one kind of blindness”
Meditation – Tuesday, April 8, 2025
John 9: 18-41 (Forward, p. 69) CEV p. 1114
I have often been astounded at how some people can look at plain facts in the face, absolutely convincing facts, and still say ‘no’ to them. This has often amazed me, but then, the stubbornness, the bone-headedness, of many of Jesus’ opponents also amazes and astounds me.
Here, in today’s account, Jesus has ‘done the impossible’, or so it would seem. He has restored sight to a man who was born blind. This is incredible and unheard of. According to the text, the primary reason the Jewish experts rejected this miracle was because Jesus performed it on the Sabbath, which, according to their own human-devised rules and regulations, was not allowed.
But maybe there was an additional reason. Joe Amaral, in his book, Understanding Jesus, points to a long-held tradition of the Jews of Jesus’ day, namely that there were five things that only the Messiah would be able to do. Back in Mark 1:40-45, Jesus performed the first one, the healing of a leper. (This was seen as miraculous, for leprosy was seen as God’s punishment for sin.) Then, in Matthew 12: 22-23, Jesus casts out a mute demon, which was generally thought to be impossible, because the demon in a mute man, by definition, could not speak and give out its name, thereby enabling the exorcist to address the demon by name. And then, here in today’s passage, He restores sight to a man born blind. The reason this was considered exceptional, was that being born blind was generally seen as an instance of God’s judgment upon sin. And, so, to undo that, was to lift from the person God’s own sentence, to undo it, and certainly, this was not something that just anyone could do. It had to be God’s chosen one, His anointed one, His Messiah.
But for these religious authorities, this was too much. To admit that Jesus was the Messiah would be to admit that they were wrong—and worse still,
it would force them to change, to change their thinking and actions, and decide to listen to Jesus and follow Him. But, for them, that was an enormous leap, far more than they were willing to undertake. And so, to attack Jesus, belittle His followers and browbeat anyone who sided with Him, all because of an infraction of their human laws, was their only resort. And sad to say, they are not the only ones that resort to such tactics. Those tactics continue even to this day.
Forward notes: “’Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ He answered, ‘And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him’” (verses 35b-36).
“Continuing from yesterday’s gospel, we hear that some people did not believe the man Jesus healed had actually been born blind, so the interrogation began. It appears that when these faith leaders got frustrated, they drove the blind man out of the temple. But Jesus went and found him and asked him the question in today’s excerpt from John: ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ The answer reminds me of the little children I teach as chaplain at a small country day school: ‘Tell me, so that I may believe in him.’
“The student body comprises children of all religions and faiths, and we teach character foundations from a spiritual perspective tinged with Christian understanding. When I tell them about Jesus and God’s love for every one of us, they beam and often say, ‘Who is Jesus? What else does he do?’”
Moving Forward: “Share the love of God with someone today.”
A concluding note: Here’s a thought: what if we simply loved, cared for, and did the best we could for the nay-sayers? We should be doing that anyway, but might not this change their hearts, and thereby changed their minds? It has been done.