4 Lent
March 19, 2023
John 9:1-41, Ephesians 5:8-14, Psalm 23
Our Lenten Gospel readings from John are lengthy narratives of signs Jesus performs as part of his saving mission and the aftermath of how his works are received by those who are the direct recipients of his ministry, those who are witnesses, and also the religious leaders who tend to be quite suspicious about him. I thought it might be helpful to give a brief outline of the Gospel of John, so that you see where in John’s arrangement of the good news of Jesus these signs and lengthy discourses take place.
John is 21 chapters long. Chapter 1 sets the stage by telling us of the pre-existent Word of God, who becomes incarnate, takes on flesh, and comes into the world as Light shining in the darkness. Chapters 2-12, which include today’s reading from chapter 9, tell about Jesus’ work in the world to bring Light into the darkness. The third section is Chapters 13-19, seven chapters to tell what happened on the night before Good Friday and of his suffering and death on Good Friday itself. It is so central to John’s message that ⅓ of his gospel story is of that roughly 24-30 hour period. The final section is Chapters 20 and 21, the Resurrection and post-Resurrection appearances of Jesus.
Now you can place the healing of the man born blind in its place as part of John’s telling us about Christ’s work to bring Light into the world’s darkness. In this case, it is not metaphorical, for this man has lived in darkness his entire life. It begins with an unfortunate assumption and question by the disciples, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus responds that the man’s condition is so the works of God can be revealed. God’s work is to overcome darkness with Light, the beautiful Light that shines from the very Being of God, the same Light that shines from Jesus, God in flesh.
The darkness of our world is caused by the human rebellion that we call sin, through which a thick pall comes to inhabit and foul God’s good creation. Sin gives rise to works of darkness that are antithetical to God’s intention to give Life. And so, Jesus comes into the world because God so loves the world, to confront the darkness of sickness, disability, cruelty, injustice, greed, war, poverty, abuse, addiction, waste, pollution, decay, death, and every manifestation of darkness that plagues our world.
To confront the darkness of this man’s eyes, Jesus brings healing. He spits in the dirt, rubs it into a paste, and then salves the man’s eyes with it. This was definitely before modern medical standards for infection control. Then, “Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam.” Suddenly, the eyes that have never seen come to life. At first it’s just shafts of light, then he looks down and takes in the sight of water that he has previously only known by how it feels or tastes. Looking into the water, he sees someone staring back at him. It’s him! The man returns to where Jesus waits. He looks at Jesus with surprised gratitude, but the scene quickly descends into a series of questions, interviews, and interrogations by the religious leadership, for whom the incident is problematic because it happened on the sabbath day. Spitting on the dirt, kneading it into paste, and anointing the man’s eyes with it definitely qualifies as work, so this Jesus has no regard for keeping holy the sabbath day. God’s work, though, is to cast light on darkness. At a deeper level than the physical actions he took, Jesus, the Light of the World, is simply shining, and the darkness that keeps the man in blindness retreats before him. The controversy with the religious leaders continues, as Jesus tries to point out to them that their way of being faithful to God has disintegrated into a legalism that only leads to becoming spiritually blind to the works of God.
We are now well into the Season of Lent, a time when the Church asks us to be especially intentional about spiritual practices, not in order to become spiritual superheroes, but to grow in faith, to focus our vision, to allow our practice of the faith to be freed from religiosity, doing all the right things but with the wrong motivation. The practices we take on during Lent, and hopefully take with us into the rest of the year, are intended to help us
recognize Jesus as the Light of the world, the light of our lives so that we live as children of Light who follow him, our Good Shepherd, leading us to green pastures and still water, leading us by his goodness and mercy that stays with us always, even when we walk through the valley of the shadow, to Light the way, to guide us home, where a table is spread.