John 9:1-41
Today’s gospel shows us what Jesus said to correct the view…of many in his day…that the cause of physical disability was the sin of one’s parents.
- Jesus said that the man’s blindness was not the result of sin at all.
- It was not punishment.
- It was…in fact…a manifestation of grace.
- Through his blindness…this man would come to God…and others would follow Jesus.
This miracle story is telling us something about the nature of faith.
- There is an idea floating about…in the world…that faith is warm and fuzzy…good natured gullibility.
- That people who have faith are susceptible to ideas which go against common sense.
- But here’s the thing:
- The healing of the blind man is showing us that faith is actually the result of accepting the facts of our own experience.
- Faith is the product of honesty…not gullibility.
OK then… Jesus gives the blind man his sight.
- And then we see the inevitable reaction of the world:
- A person who has had a faith experience may assume that the world will be interested in hearing about it…and affirm it.
- More often…though…those around us move in to persuade him…or her…that they are mistaken.
- That they have misinterpreted the facts.
- The world does not encourage spiritual awakenings.
And then…we see the man’s faith take shape…when he validates his own experience…simply by refusing to lie about it to himself.
- The man who had been given his sight refused to be convinced that he was a victim of some kind of hallucination.
- The man’s honesty enabled Jesus to reveal himself to him.
All of us…who have a faith relationship with Christ…have a personal life-history…made up of significant experiences.
- Many of our experiences are so personal…that when they are told to others…they tend to lose their power.
- They may not be at all that dramatic to others.
- These experiences forge the facts upon which our relationship with Christ is based.
I have a friend who was once on a motorcycle trip in the Southwest…in a very remote…arid region…when his engine suddenly lost power and quit.
- He later found out he had burned out both of his valves.
- In a state of utter helplessness…he sat down in the meager shade of a boulder…and thought to himself:
- “Well God…how are you going to get me out of this one?
- No food…no water…no shelter.
- You say you will always provide…but it looks like I’ve got you this time.”
- In a strange way…he was enjoying the situation.
A short while later he saw a figure in the distance moving toward him.
- It was a small Indian boy carrying a plate of tortillas and beans.
- The boy informed him that he had seen him coming down the road…and then stop…and realized he was in trouble.
- The boy’s mother had sent him with food…and asked him to come to the house…where they would put him up for the night.
- The following day…the boy said that his father and uncle would put his motorcycle on a trailer and get him to town.
Our friend strained his eyes toward the horizon.
- With difficulty…he could just barely make out the boy’s house on a distant hill.
- It was a mere speck.
- He wondered: how had the boy been able to see him?
- He has told this story to people who have said to him:
- “It was just a coincidence.”
- But this experience is part of his own personal…spiritual…story.
- And if he were to agree that it was “only a coincidence”…he would be lying to himself.
- A moving forward of faith requires that we honor facts as we have witnessed them.
- It requires that we not deny our own experience.
Here we go then…the Pharisees wanted the man who had received his sight to deny his experience.
- Their attitude shows us how people of the world…while claiming to respect facts and objectivity…are in reality…highly prejudicial and subjective.
- They are only willing to integrate facts which accord with their prevailing bias.
Speaking personally for a moment:
- There have been those times in my life when I have experienced doubt and uncertainty.
- At such times faith has never been restored to me by an act of my own will.
- But only by taking a survey of my personal life story with Christ.
- This has taken the form of a recounting…of all that has happened to me…in my faith relationship…since the beginning.
- What was the seed of my belief?
- What were the directives that I received?
- When I stood at points of transition, what leadings was I given?
- Did I…in any way…invent the things that happened to me?
- Did I misguide myself…or were the feelings I had clear and definite…and as far as I could honestly say…not of my imagining?
Running through this kind of internal review leads me to say this:
- I cannot prove the existence of God.
- But…because of my own experience…if I were to say: “God does not exist.”
- I would feel…deep down…in every fiber of my being…that I was lying.
So…like the neighbors and Pharisees in our story…the world will try to get us to lie.
- Not only the world…but our own worldly self…which is conditioned and socialized and trained to conform.
There is satire here:
- It is comical…the way the Pharisees insist on denying an undesirable fact that has presented itself in an undeniable form.
- Jesus told his followers in various ways that the kingdom is not unknown or mysterious.
- But…that it remains invisible to us only because…deep down…we are determined not to see it.
- We see here that there are forms of willful blindness that result from basic dishonesty.
- Dishonesty of this kind comes because of having enough sight to see what we do not want to see.
- This is why there is guilt attached to it.
- The blindness of being unaware.
Christ gave this man his physical sight.
- But it was his honesty that allowed Jesus to reveal himself to him as his Lord and savior.
- Faith does not ask us to believe the incredible.
- Faith asks only that we believe our own eyes…ears…and experience.
- If we have that kind of honesty…then…Jesus has a footing to communicate with us.
- He has a way of reaching us.
- He has a way of making himself real to us.
- To have faith…the first thing we must do…is to open our eyes…to what is really going on.