Blind Faith

John 9:1-41

Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth...

If you are a professional librarian, teacher or professor who reads this blog then you probably cringe at the fact that I use Wikipedia consistently as a reference. I will continue this dangerous practice in this post. In it's definition of Blindness, Wikipedia describes it as "the complete lack of form and visual light perception and is clinically recorded as NLP, an abbreviation for 'no light perception.'" In it's definition of Photography it describes it as "the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light... either chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film, or electronically by means of an image sensor." The tie that binds photography and blindness together is light. It actually doesn't tie them together but rather repels them apart, since photography requires light and blindness cannot perceive light. I included this extended prologue so that my introduction of Sonia Soberats would be that much more impactful. Sonia Soberats is a blind photographer. She was not always blind but rather lost her vision after losing her son to Hodgkin's Disease and her daughter to Ovarian Cancer in a three year span. She was left alone in a dark world. After these traumatic events she picked up photography and started to provide light to those with vision. She works with an assistant who sets up the tripod and camera but she is the one that provides the light that creates the image (using a process called light painting which has been used by other artists such as Pablo Picasso). Actually there are several blind photographers who are presently garnering fame with this same technique. Sometimes those who cannot physically process light can understand and share more about the beauty of light than the sighted can. Sometimes those with vision are the ones who live in the dark. In today's scripture reading we find Jesus (who described himself as the Light of the World) encountering a blind man who reveals the same truth.         

Blind From Birth                                                                  

 

...And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And He said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing.

Therefore the neighbors and those who previously had seen that he was blind said, “Is not this he who sat and begged?”

Some said, “This is he.” Others said, “He is like him.”

He said, “I am he.”

Therefore they said to him, “How were your eyes opened?”

He answered and said, “A Man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed, and I received sight.”

Then they said to him, “Where is He?”

He said, “I do not know”...

In every culture and age the blind have been known by their aid. This blind man in scripture was a beggar, receiving the aid of those who passed by. Today we see blind people empowered to work by the aid of a walking stick or a seeing eye dog. Jesus healed many in his earthly ministry. Yet this story of the man blind from birth stands out amongst the others. The author of the gospel has taken 41 verses to show us the story of the healing and its aftermath. It all starts when Jesus' Disciples ask him why this man was blind from birth. The prevailing thought of the day was that sin brought about sickness as judgment from God. Since this man was always blind the Disciples asked if the assumed judgment was due to some spiritual error of his parents. Jesus understood that life isn't as black and white as they thought: the chain of cause and effect has a nuance of shady gray. Maybe Jesus thought about the story of Job in the Old Testament, where all of Job's friends see his loss of health, fortune and family as the judgment of God for his sin. We as readers know that Job is suffering due to a wager between God and Satan (based on God's trust of Job's character) but Job is never given such an answer. His health and possessions are eventually restored but God is silent as to giving Him a reason. His answer is more of a "I have my reasons" response. In the end that is the answer to much of suffering in life: God has His reasons. Truly they are usually past our comprehension, hence the saying "the Lord moves in mysterious ways." Jesus had more insight into this particular case in specific, stating to his Disciples that "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. I must work the works of Him who sent Me..." Maybe that is the answer to any suffering that we encounter as Christians and people of goodwill: God has allowed these things to occur so that He might be revealed through our good works. We are called to aid those in distress even as Christ once aided us in our spiritual distress.   

  Vision Test   

 

...They brought him who formerly was blind to the Pharisees. Now it was a Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. 15 Then the Pharisees also asked him again how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.”

Therefore some of the Pharisees said, “This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.”

Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them.

They said to the blind man again, “What do you say about Him because He opened your eyes?”

He said, “He is a prophet.”

But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind and received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight. And they asked them, saying, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?”

His parents answered them and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but by what means he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes we do not know. He is of age; ask him. He will speak for himself.” His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that He was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

So they again called the man who was blind, and said to him, “Give God the glory! We know that this Man is a sinner.”

He answered and said, “Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.”

Then they said to him again, “What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?”

He answered them, “I told you already, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become His disciples?”

Then they reviled him and said, “You are His disciple, but we are Moses’ disciples. We know that God spoke to Moses; as for this fellow, we do not know where He is from.”

The man answered and said to them, “Why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where He is from; yet He has opened my eyes! Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him. Since the world began it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind. If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing.”

They answered and said to him, “You were completely born in sins, and are you teaching us?” And they cast him out...

In between the general practitioner and dentist, in the hierarchy of medical professionals that people reverence, is the eye doctor. Just like the other two medics we visit the eye doctor yearly (or so) and go through a ritual that measures our health and sickness. The eye doctor puts us through a series of tests involving pictures of backwards letter E's and hot air balloons in the distance. In the ornate dance of attaining the right glasses, we go through several rounds of lying to him about being able to remember which lens is better... and he miraculously delivers the correct prescription! After the blind man was healed by Jesus the Pharisees put him through a series of tests. Spiritual tests are more like trials and this one takes the form of the constant back and forth of a classic episode of Matlock (minus the gray suit that Matlock wore everyday). Sometimes I think that my fellow American Evangelical Christians can go overboard on the whole "culture war" thing. We complain a little too often about suffering the ire of Hipsters due to our strange beliefs...yet when we do this for simple misunderstandings we cheapen the true persecution that our brothers in other countries (and throughout the ages) have suffered in real blood for their beliefs. Choosing to follow Christ always comes with repercussions... for you, your family and those around you. It should! Being spiritually healed by Christ makes you different, not better (you are still a sinner saved by Grace) but blessed in a unique life-giving way. Don't allow the persecution or misunderstanding that you go through be the catalyst of "us versus them" thinking on your part. Refrain from retreating to your own little Christian commune (be it real or imagined). Let this trial of your faith be a time of witness: through conviction, love and mercy. Share the Light that you once could not see. make the invisible God visible to them through your loving actions. Use it the Light to make beauty for those around you.

Spiritual Blindness

...Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, “Do you believe in the Son of God?”

He answered and said, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?”

And Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you.”

Then he said, “Lord, I believe!” And he worshiped Him.

And Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.”

Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, “Are we blind also?”

Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.

The key to vision is not only being able to see what is around you but also being able to focus. Problems with focus leads to a distorted view. After Christ restored the blind man's vision he asked if he believed in the Son of God, to which the blind man asked "Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?” His physical vision was intact but he needed a focal point for his spiritual vision. When Christ is depicted as healing the blind in any of the Gospels it is usually surrounded by displays of faithlessness of others surrounding him (often the Pharisees or even his own Disciples). This contrasts with the people of simple faith that Christ has just healed. It is used to show the distinction between physical and spiritual blindness. Both are conditions where Light cannot be perceived and Christ is presented as the remedy to both...yet, the spiritual blindness is treated as a much more serious condition. Obviously the Disciples were not fully spiritually blind (since they were Jesus' closest followers) but it may surprise you that the Pharisees (Jesus' fiercest adversaries) were not completely void spiritual perception. Jesus, the Disciples and the Pharisees were all Jews and recognized God as their spiritual Father and His Scripture as truth. Yet beyond those basic tenets of faith is where they differed. The Pharisees, although astute students of Scripture, could not see the running thread of mercy that weaved throughout it. They proudly practiced their faith in the working out of God's Word and Law and missed the physical manifestation of God's Word and fulfillment of God's Law: Jesus Christ. They had a type of spiritual vision of the Law but without the focal point of God's Law, which still left them legally blind. When I say these things about Jesus, I am not just speaking of Christ the religious deity to believe in but also the message of Jesus the prophet who preached peace. The two are not separate but rather joined together in a union that brings peace between God and mankind. This is the Light that the Disciples grew humble enough to accept. This is the Light that blind eyes were willing to see but sighted eyes became blind to. This is the Light that casts darkness upon your sins of the past but illuminates the God of forgiveness. He is the focus of God's Word.

Out of Darkness

 

There is one part of the story that I've left: my part. In my junior year in college as an art major I discovered that I was slowly going blind. I was diagnosed with Keratoconus: "a degenerative disorder of the eye in which structural changes within the cornea cause it to thin and change to a more conical shape than the more normal gradual curve." While I was studying painting my perception of light and images was eroding. Over the years I visited several different doctors and specialists and eventually underwent surgery for the Holcomb C3-R procedure with Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler. Unlike the man blind from birth in the Gospel of John, I developed my problems with processing light later in life. However, much like the Pharisees in this story, I was born with a problem with perceiving spiritual Light. I imagine that  this sounds like your part of the story as well, because we were all born with Original Sin. Its our collective spiritually-genetic birth defect. God doesn't punish anyone by cursing their children with blindness, Down's Syndrome, Diabetes, Tay–Sachs disease or any other condition that genetics throw your way. Life just comes with its challenges. Yet we punish our children by cursing them with the ignorance of superstition, unacceptance and conditional love. We punish our brothers with persecution and judgment that comes from a heart not enlightened by the love of God. We punish our neighbors by not perceiving the Light of Christ and expressing it through humility and mercy. Blind Faith isn't about becoming blind to facts in following the Church and its leadership. It is realizing that we are blind outside of Divine illumination. It is locking arms with another believer in a community of support as you feel your way around a dark world while walking toward the Light. When we do not understand this Light in our daily interactions with God and His children then it is then that we have embraced darkness. Walk in the Light.