“Open Our Eyes Lord”
John 9: 1-41
Pastor Deb Troester, STHPC, March 19, 2023
When we hear this story of Jesus healing the man born blind, we can’t help but think, “Something is wrong here.” A man born blind is given his sight – a miracle! You would think everyone would rejoice, that his family, friends and neighbors would be celebrating. But no. Instead we see suspicion, fear, and even hatred; people try to discredit the miracle, saying “No, that was some other man, not the blind beggar; it was someone who looks like him.” Even his own parents are not willing to stand beside him and thank Jesus for the miracle he performed for their son – instead they are afraid they will be “put out of the synagogue” which was the Jewish equivalent of being excommunicated.
Throughout the rest of the gospels, whenever Jesus does a miracle there is normally a positive reaction. Just a few chapters earlier, Jesus heals a little boy, who was at the point of death. Because of that, the boy’s father and his whole household rejoice and believe in Christ. At the wedding of Cana, when Jesus changes the water into wine, people exclaim how good the wine is, and his disciples “believed in him.” After Jesus feeds the five thousand, people are excited, saying, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.” They wanted to make him their king. Yet here, only a few chapters later, no one rejoices that a man born blind is given his sight – only the man himself believes and worships Jesus. His family, neighbors, and the religious leaders don’t seem very happy. What is going on here?
I’d like to think that if I had been there, I would have rejoiced with the blind man and proclaimed that Jesus is the Messiah, but…what if I had been a Pharisee, nervous about losing my power to some upstart rabbi from Galilee? What if I had been like the blind man’s parents, afraid of losing my place in the synagogue, maybe losing my friends? What if I sincerely believed that the man deserved to be blind because of some sin he or his parents had committed? Here in this story we see how certain attitudes or beliefs can blind us to who Jesus is, and to what he is trying to teach us, to what he is doing in the world. Jesus constantly reminds his disciples, “Let those who have ears to hear, hear!” If it were easy to hear, see, and understand what Jesus had to said and did, he would not have had to constantly remind his disciples to pay attention.
Many of the people who witnessed this healing miracle were blinded by prejudice or preconceived ideas. Prejudice can be defined as a: “preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience,” for example, a prejudice against foreigners; against people of another race; against disabled people or anyone who is not like us. Even Jesus’ disciples were not immune to this kind of prejudice. They had been taught that illness and physical disability were the result of sin. In verse 2, they ask Jesus, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” But Jesus sets them straight: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” Actually, all of us are born so that God’s works might be revealed in us – so that we may glorify God in all we are and all we do. The disabled are no different than anyone else – we are all created in the image of God. Yet sometimes we need the help of the Holy Spirit to see this. Yes, prejudice can make us blind.
The man’s neighbors suffered from other kinds of pre-conceived ideas. In verses 8 and 9 they ask, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some were saying, “It is he.” Others were saying, ‘No, but it is someone like him.’” Apparently people were so used to seeing the blind man as a beggar, that they couldn’t recognize him after Jesus healed him and changed his life. Some people are so used to thinking things will never change, that when a miracle happens right in front of them, they can’t see it. How many miracles have we seen, right in front of us, that we have missed? Jesus did a great miracle that day, but some people were too blind to see it.
We used to live in Puerto Rico. In the walled city of Old San Juan, there is a statue called “La Rogativa.” It pictures a bishop followed by several women, all holding torches. In 1797 the British invaded and were set to overrun the city. Fearing for their lives and the lives of their families, a group of women approached the bishop and begged him to lead them in a prayer vigil – a rogativa – around the city walls that night. They lit torches and marched around the walls, praying as they went for God to protect them. The British in their ships in the bay saw the torches and thought the Spanish army had come to the city’s rescue. By morning, they had left, leaving the surprised inhabitants thanking God for a miracle. Some would say, “What a coincidence!” Others saw an answer to prayer. If the women of San Juan had thought it was hopeless, that God would not answer their prayer, and had stayed home, in fear, the miracle would not have happened. Instead they did not give up hope, and God used their faith to do a real miracle, and many lives were spared.
Fear can keep us from seeing what Jesus is doing in our lives and what Jesus wants to do. Most parents would be overjoyed if their child who was blind was given his sight, but these parents are afraid of what others might think, afraid of the religious leaders, afraid they would be thrown out of the synagogue. Their fear kept them from seeing Jesus for who he really was – the Messiah. Sometimes we know the truth, but we are afraid to speak it and afraid to act on it. We fear that if we follow Jesus and do what he is asking us to do, our whole world will be turned upside down, people may reject us, it may cause some problem or trouble. The blind man’s parents were themselves blinded by their fear. Perhaps that fear was even worse than physical blindness itself.
The Pharisees’ reaction to this miracle was not one of fear, but rather of pride and arrogance. They thought they knew the correct way to worship and serve God and they weren’t willing to learn anything different. The Pharisees thought Jesus could not possibly be the Messiah because he had healed on the Sabbath. To them, minute obedience to the law was all that mattered; whether or not a man born blind was given his sight had nothing to do with their religion. After all, the Sabbath was for rest, not for work, even if that work was healing the blind. They knew they were right. This past week I had the privilege of hearing to Pastor Ruth Santana-Grace, co-moderator of the PCUSA, speak at Los Gatos Presbyterian Church. Something she said that stuck in my mind was, “Being right all the time is over-rated.”
In Luke 11.42 Jesus denounces some Pharisees for their self-righteous attitude: “Woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds, and neglect justice and the love of God.” Jesus taught that the two most important commandments are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength; and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
So, who is truly blind? Jesus implies that the spiritual pride of the Pharisees has blinded them to the truth of who he is and what he is teaching – love of God and love of our fellow human beings, no matter who they are. The old saying The old saying, “None is so blind as he who will not see,” seems to apply to them. Does it sometimes apply to us?
Lent is a good time to examine our lives. Let’s ask ourselves: “What is keeping me from seeing Jesus as he really is? What is keeping me from learning what Jesus is trying to teach me? What is it that is keeping me from seeing what Jesus wants me to see and from doing what Jesus wants me to do? Maybe it is prejudice, or preconceived ideas of who God is or what God will or won’t do? Maybe it’s fear or pride, maybe the need to always be right? Or something else? These are good questions to meditate on this week.
Jesus came to free us from our sins and to show us how to live. He has given us the antidotes to prejudice, fear, and pride: compassion, love, humility and faith. We must admit that we, too, are often blind to the truth. We don’t know everything. We need to ask Jesus to help us to see. The blind man knew he was blind. That is why Jesus was able to perform a miracle and open his eyes so he could see. Maybe whether or not God performs a miracle in our lives is up to us – can we admit that we, too, are blind, and need God’s help?
We can ask Jesus to teach us how to see the truth of who he is. We can ask him to open our eyes and see people as he sees them: “To weep for the things that Jesus weeps for,” and to rejoice in what makes God’s heart rejoice. Compassion means seeing life through the eyes of the “other.” We are all more alike than we are different.
I John 4.18 tells us, “Perfect love drives out fear.” If we know God loves us, that Christ paid the ultimate price so we can belong to Him, we don’t need to be afraid of anyone or anything. As the apostle Paul said, “If Christ is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8.31).
So today, on this fourth Sunday of Lent, I want to leave us with a challenge – what is keeping us from seeing what Jesus wants us to see? What is blinding our spiritual eyes? What is preventing us from acting on what we know Jesus wants us to do? Jesus healed the man born blind. Let us pray that Jesus will open our eyes as well. Amen.
© Deborah Troester, 2023