John 9:1-7, 13-17, 34-39 (Lent 4A)

John 9:1-7, 13-17, 34-39 (Lent 4A)                                                             
St. John, Galveston 3/15/26
“Eyes that See”
Rev. Alan Taylor
 
+ In Nomine Jesu +
 
Grace and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

    In this morning’s Gospel reading, Jesus healed a man who was born blind. John first takes up of the issue of why the man was born blind in the first place. Jesus’ disciples, and others, speculated that it was either because the man himself had sinned, or because his parents had sinned. Quickly Jesus cleared up the confusion. It was neither. The man’s blindness, or our own maladies and suffering, for that matter, are not necessarily the consequence of a specific sin on our part, or on the part of anyone else. They are a consequence of living in a fallen world, but they are also opportunities for the work of God to be made manifest in our lives.  

Let us pray…

“Christ Jesus, be our present joy
Our future great reward;
Our only glory, may it be
To glory in the Lord!”
 In the name of Jesus.  Amen.
 
    As God’s dear child in Christ Jesus, if you have suffered in life, you have partaken, though perhaps bitterly, of the blessings that God has bestowed on you in and through that suffering. That is the way God works in the world. “He causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him and have been called according to His purpose.” And so, as the Scriptures say elsewhere, ”we  rejoice in our sufferings (not because of our sufferings, but in them), knowing that suffering  produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and  hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love  has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”    
 
    Since God is at work in our sufferings to bless us, it important for us to dispatch with the notion that He punishes us in our suffering. The truth is, while sin has its consequences, for instance, you rob a bank, you go to jail, God has none the less, laid the punishment for our sin on His dear Son. As the Scriptures tell us, “He (that is, Jesus) was pierced for our transgressions; 
he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” 
 
    Beyond God’s place in the suffering in our lives, John addresses the Pharisees reaction to the blind man who regained his sight. This is, of course, the bulk of the reading for this morning. In short, in the Pharisees reaction, we see, once again, that nothing stirred up their anger and hatred against Jesus like a good, old fashioned healing!    
 
    Jesus, they thought, couldn’t have healed the man because, from their perspective, He (meaning Jesus) was a sinner, and no sinner could do such marvelous things. Their vision, we would say, was obscured by their preconceptions about Jesus. Since He was sinner, He couldn’t work a miracle of healing. Do you see how that works?  Since Jesus was sinner, the Pharisees rejected everything He said and did.

    When I was around 40, or so, I went to the eye doctor for some glasses. I couldn’t read things if they were close up. I asked the doctor if my condition is what is called “far sightedness?” I thought I had made my own diagnosis of my condition. She said, no it’s not farsightedness, it is called being over 40. My preconception was wrong and I was left with the cold, hard fact that I was simply getting old and I couldn’t see very well. I think the proper term for it is presbyopia. I confess, in my own sort of twisted way, I thought for a moment I couldn’t have that, because I’m Lutheran.    
 
    In adamently refusing to see the glory of God in Jesus, the Pharisees were left with the cold, hard fact that it was they who were blind. In their case, however, blindness was a choice, a choice they made in order to protect their place in the religious order, to protect their power and their position. It was when those things were threatened that their blindness became most apparent. They saw that which is good as evil, and that which is evil as good.  They considered it a good thing that they should persecute the man who had regained his sight. Why? Well, because they believed that Jesus was a sinner, and no sinner could work such miracles! Therefore, the whole supposedly miracle, was really a ruse put on by a mad man, Jesus, who was trying to take away their power and control.
 
    This miracle in John 9 is, of course, only one of many miracles worked by Jesus. John had a particular way of referring to the miracles of Jesus, this one included. He referred to them as “signs.” Signs, as you know direct our attention to something. For instance, approaching a sharp curve in the road, you’ll probably see a sign that gives you safe speed limit. It’s telling you something. If you go faster than the posted speed it may be unsafe. Signs direct, or catch our attention.    
 
    When Jesus restored the blind man’s sight the “signs” was clear.  John says elsewhere, “these things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ and that believing you may have life in His name.”  The blind man made his confession. “Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind.  If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”  The miracle, the “sign” pointed people to the deity of Jesus. Who could do such a thing but God?  The fact is, every miracle of Jesus pointed to the one great miracle, namely, that “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.”  
 
So, when the man regained his sight, the question that should have arisen in the minds of everyone was, “who could do such things but God, and God alone!?”  And yet, the Pharisees stood adamantly behind their bias. They weren’t interested in who Jesus was, rather, they wondered whether it was the blind man himself who had sinned, or his parents, that he should be born blind. And so, when the blind man made confession regarding Jesus, they said to him,  “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they  cast him out.”
 
    What can we say, but, no one is so blind as the person who will not see. Even when the light comes to pierce the darkness it cannot break through. The person is left groping in a world of his own creation, a creation where darkness is bliss and the light is to be feared. He perceives the world he has created as “good,” and the good that Christ gives as “evil.” His knee does not bow, and his tongue does not confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father.
 
    And yet, hope in Christ Jesus springs eternal. The evil of the world and humanities zeal for power have never been able to put out the light of Christ.  “In him was life, and  the life was the light of men (John says). And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never been able to put it out.” Good triumphs over evil, even the evil of our brokenness, as our Lord opens our eyes with soothing baptismal water that we might see, that we might repent of our quest for power, our quest for control, and that we might confess Him as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Our knees bow in willing obedience to God who is worthy of all glory, honor and praise. 
 
As God’s dear children, “(been) delivered from  the domain of darkness and transferred to  the kingdom of  his beloved Son,  in whom (you) have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” As the baptized of God, you have been born anew. While you still struggle with the desire for power, whether it is over others, over your future, or perhaps even over your past, you are, by God’s grace willing, in fact, you are compelled to forsake it all for the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, who has delivered you from a tortuous life of groping in the darkness of sin.       
 
    “What do you see?” the little boy asks impatiently as his brother peered into a telescope. “Tell me what you see!” His brother, with the wisdom of the ages, took his eye from the telescope and from the comet he had been looking at, a comet that was light years away, and he said, “This you have to see for yourself.” It is that way with seeing Jesus, isn’t it? Each of dwell in the darkness of sin and death, until God opens our eyes, our hearts and minds.  

“Amazing Grace—how sweet the sound—
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind but now I see!”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
 
The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.
 
+ Soli Deo Gloria +