John 9:1-41

I was a Pharisee, a well-brought-up Pharisee, with all the proper training and education. I knew the Hebrew Scriptures inside out. I could quote any passage someone wanted and explain both its background and what it meant to people in his time.

I knew the midrash, what earlier scribes and priests had written about the scriptures, how they had been and were being interpreted. And I followed the rules, dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s.

I have read the prophets like Micah, what he wrote about doing justice and loving kindness and walking humbly with God.

But that day I was caught in the conflict between the rule of the Sabbath and loving kindness. What if doing the loving thing went against honoring the Sabbath? What if the loving thing went against the will of God?

It all began when they brought in a man who claimed he had been born blind. When we saw him, he could see very well. So right away, we had two problems. First, this healing, if that’s what it was, happened on the Sabbath. Now if this man was blind from birth, then the healing, if that’s what it was, did not have to occur on the Sabbath. The next day would have worked perfectly well.

Secondly, God controls everything, so if this man was born blind, it was the will of God. Whether it was punishment for what he did before being born or for something his parents did does not really matter. God had willed him to be born blind. So giving him sight was counter to what God wanted.

So that’s it, right? The one who healed him was doubly guilty for breaking the Law of Moses. Of course, there was the problem of what to do with the man before us. Could we verify that he was born blind? Would it make a difference if an accident caused his blindness?

I’m not a young man anymore, but I’ve never faced this kind of problem. How does one do the lovingly kind thing in this situation and still follow the Law?

The ones who brought him to us questioned his story. “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ I mean,” the spokesman added, “mud on his eyes and wash? Why do we have any blind people if it’s that simple?”

That was the same story he told us. We had heard, of course, of this man called Jesus. This was not the first time he had violated the Sabbath. Some called him the Messiah, but I never heard that he used that word for himself.

My friend Samuel voiced my thoughts when he said, “This man is not from God, for he does not observe the Sabbath.”

Jeremiah, on the other hand, seemed to defend him. “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?”

And that was a good question. So I was torn between the two.

So I asked the man before us, “What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.”

“He is a prophet.”

Now I could think about that. The prophets often did and said things to upset the rulers. Like Amos, “I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.” That stirred up some anger. So maybe this Jesus was a prophet.

But we needed to verify that the man before us had been born blind. He claimed he had, but some of his neighbors said this was not the same person. This was someone who only looked like him. In that case, there had been no healing, so we had no problem.

None of us knew this man, so we had to take someone else’s word for his identity. We didn’t trust him to tell us the truth, so we found his parents and called them in. They verified his identity and his blindness, but they didn’t know how he could see now.

“Ask him,” they said. “He’s of age.”

So we called the man back in. Samuel was never afraid to express an opinion, and he had a strong opinion on this matter.

“Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.”

Samuel did not mean this man standing before us, although, of course, he was too. If he had been blind, he was a beggar, a nobody. Someone who would hide behind his cloak, the only thing he would call out in a loud voice was begging for alms. He would never speak what he thought because nobody would listen. But he did now, with a confidence that surprised me.

“I don’t know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”

Samuel continued his interrogation. “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”

The man stood up straighter. “I’ve told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?”

Now that attitude struck me wrong. Here he was addressing a group of well-learned, law-abiding Pharisees, with that kind of disrespect. So I glared at him and spoke up.

“You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we don’t know where he comes from.”

And then he lectured us! Him! A beggar! Lecturing us, the cream of the crop of Pharisees!

“Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

Samuel stood up, enraged, and pointed his finger at the man. “You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?”

And we sent him away.

Some of the other Pharisees got up and stomped out. Others of us sat where we were, stunned, trying to understand what had just happened.

I dropped my head into my hands and tried to think. Giving the man back his sight was a good thing, a loving-kindness thing. And he was right. If that Jesus were not from God, he could not do anything like this.

But … what about God’s will? What about being born blind as a punishment from God? Did God really make the man blind in his mother’s womb? Then how could this Jesus, if he were from God, undo what God had done?

It was too much for me. When I woke up this morning, I knew what I knew. Right was right and wrong was wrong. The Law was the Law, and sin was sin. It was all simple. But now?

Now I understood what my friend Nicodemus had been through. He had gone to see Jesus at night, when nobody would be around, when they could have a good conversation. And he came away confused.

“How can I be born again, Joseph?” he asked me. “Jesus talked about being born again. About the wind blowing where it chooses. He claimed to be talking about earthly things, but they didn’t make sense.”

We talked a long time, but I hadn’t been there, so I hadn’t heard what Jesus said. This time, I was here. Not a witness to the healing, but still … Jesus did something to this man, something more than give him sight.

And now I was confused. How could I hold loving kindness with God’s punishment and Jesus undoing that? And how could Jesus make a blind man see without God? So who was God? And who was Jesus?

And who am I? What do I know? Am I defending the festivals God despises? Where is justice in this matter? Where is the loving kindness Micah talked about?

So I spent more time listening to Jesus. Not just to what others said about him, but the words that came out of his mouth. And I began to wonder. What could an infant in its mother’s womb do to deserve punishment? Or why punish the infant for what its parents did? Should I go along with what everyone around me believed? How does anyone know what to believe?

And then I remembered what Jonah yelled at God when Ninevah was not destroyed. “For I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.”

And something Jesus told Nicodemus, “For God did not send the son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

If God wanted to save the world, if God was ready to relent from punishing, maybe we should be too.

So after the crucifixion, I went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. We wrapped it in linen cloths with the spices Nicodemus brought. Then we put his body in a new tomb in the garden.

And I wondered if that was the end.

For consideration:
General Questions
1) How does this story follow its Scripture?
2) How does this story expand its Scripture for you?
3) What is the message of this story?
4) How does the message apply to us today?

(Sorry that these questions show up in a different way than the previous ones.)

• Specific Questions
• What was Joseph’s conflict after hearing the blind man’s story?
• Does God cause people to be born blind as a punishment?
• Why was Joseph surprised when the former blind man stood up to the Pharisees?
• When have you struggled with a conflict between living kindness and what you understand to be God’s will?