I am posting devotions that I have created for my Parish in Yankton, South Dakota because, as so many places of worship around the world have done, we have had to close our doors for the foreseeable future. These devotions utilize elements of our parishes prayer book, portions of the lectionary assigned for the Sunday the devotion is written for. I am offering them here, to those readers of this blog around the world. God's blessings on all of you.
THE FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT *
John 9:1-41
A HOMILETIC STUDY AND REFLECTION ON TODAY’S LESSON
By Norm Wright
+In the Name of loving God who is ever present and comes to us in our time of need+
Amen
STUDY
Building on last Sunday’s study regarding the story of the Samaritan Woman at the Well and the historical context in which the Gospel of John was written, we are presented in today’s lesson a story that underscores the deep division that existed between Jews who were struggling to maintain Judaism and Jewish Christians who were struggling with their religious identity after being excluded from the synagogues at the end of the first century AD. This particular story vividly portrays that division in a visceral way, which maintains its pathos to this very day.
Before unpacking this story, I want to make some general observations about the Gospel of John. This is the most influential Gospel in the New Testament canon and has had the most profound impact on Christian thought, practice, and theology to the extent that it colors how we understand everything else found in the New Testament. It is what I would call an in-house Gospel written for those of us who are Christian in order to affirm that we are the beloved chosen of God in Christ Jesus.
The Gospel of John is a complex theological work written from a sacramental perspective. Water, bread, wine and light are significant elements in its narrative. It employees literary devices; such as, self-identification, in the sense that Jesus is at times both the narrator and the subject of his narration; often referring to himself in the third person. [See John 3] The author of John inserts editorial comments to provide meanings not apparent in a story’s narrative to prevent the hearer or reader from getting lost in one’s own interpretation of events.
The Gospel of John is probably the most quoted, the most loved, the most referenced, and the most misunderstood piece of Christian literature in the Holy Bible.
For example, in today’s lesson we run into language and sentiments that are blatantly anti-Judaic. The use of the term “the Jews” is found only in this Gospel and is language that has led Christians, both past and present, to harbor and validate anti-Semitic views. Let me be clear, the Gospel of John does not advocate anti-semitism. The Gospel of John was written with Christian Jews in mind. The term “the Jews” is being employed to identify those practicing Judaism as opposed to those Jews who were practicing Christians.
Let’s review today’s lesson:
There is much in this story that requires definition and explanation; some of which will be found in this homily’s footnotes. Something one might not pay attention to in this story is that the blind man never asks to be healed and Jesus never asks the blind man if he wants to be healed. Jesus just heals him.
This lack of approach on the part of the person being healed and Jesus just healing someone without being asked to do so is a literary trait in the Gospel of John that differentiates it from the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, where the ill and those in need are depicted as approaching Jesus. For the most part, Jesus does the approaching in the Gospel of John in order to reveal who he is.
Why is this?
The answer is simply that the Jewish Christians who were being thrown out of the Synagogues felt that they were being deprived of their status as God’s Chosen People because of their acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah when this Gospel was being written. The Gospel of John has Jesus assuring these Christian Jews that they are the “true” Chosen People, chosen by God Incarnate, Jesus Christ himself.
Depicting the man as being born blind so that Jesus could heal him is an editorial comment to allow Jesus to make the theological point, “I am the light of the world.” We need to be careful to avoid seeing this description as confirming that God caused this man to be blind or causes bad things to happen to people just so Jesus can do things to prove who he is. God works with and through what we present and offer, including our infirmities, weaknesses, and strengths.
This story continues with Jesus, in essence, recreating this man by making a clay poultice of his own salvia and dirt (a reference to God’s method of shaping the human form from the earth) and then asking him to wash in a pool (a reference to baptism.) The man does what Jesus instructs him to do, but Jesus is not present when his physical sight is returned. The absence of Jesus at that moment is used to help differentiate the man gaining his physical sight from the spiritual sight he will receive later in the story.
Unique to this healing story is that when the blind man receives his sight, the people who knew him as a blind beggar do not recognize him as one who sees; implying they have become blind to who he is and what he has become (one seeking Jesus).
The healed blind man is brought to the Pharisees (the Judaic community) to be examined. He explains his being cured of blindness, but instead of being happy for this man, the Pharisees accuse him of receiving his sight by Jesus who they said does not “observe the Sabbath” and question whether he was ever blind. At that point, his parents are brought in. When they confirm that he is their son and are questioned how he can see, they defer the question to their son because they were afraid of being thrown out of the synagogue.
When personally questioned a second time, the man professes his joy at being given sight and questions why they need to ask him again. He then accuses them of not listening to his message (referencing Judaism’s refusal to allow the Gospel being preached in their synagogues). When he asks his interrogators if they too want to be Jesus’s disciples, he is thrown out of the synagogue.
Apart from the man being healed and accepted by Jesus as his disciple, there is nothing happy taking place in this story. The man’s community no longer recognizes him and his parents fear that they will be kicked out of the synagogue because he was healed by Jesus.
Notice how after the man is thrown out of the synagogue, Jesus approaches him and asks him if he believes in the Son of Man. The healed man does not recognize Jesus by normal sight (normal understanding). The return of man’s physical sense of sight allows him to seek Jesus (a reference, perhaps, to catechists of the early church who, as new converts, were not fully oriented in their faith or fully received into the church). When Jesus comes to the man and reveals himself through “speaking” to him, the man understands Jesus to be God Incarnate and worships Jesus as such.
This story has an odd ending in which Jesus explains this parable-like story about himself by saying that he “came into the world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” In other words, those who are given sight to know Jesus as the Christ, the Incarnate Word are the chosen to be his followers as opposed to those who claim to have sight via the law and the prophets and remain “in their blindness” for their failure to hear the message of the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ. This differentiation between those called to be in the church and those who are not seems harsh, but as an in-house Gospel it was written to give hope and support to an early church struggling to survive and in need of “direct”validation coming from Jesus himself through its message.
REFLECTION
Today’s lesson presents a very sad story intended to draw one towards the intimate care demonstrated by Jesus approaching this individual twice; the first time to give him sight as a means to seek Jesus and the second time to personally reveal himself as God Incarnate. The early Christian Jews for whom this Gospel was being written would have immediately recognized themselves in this story, and this man serves as an iconic figure of the struggles they faced at the time of its writing.
For today’s Christian, it is important see and embrace the pathos this story presents in order to fully appreciate the grace of God demonstrated through it. It is important to understand the cost involved in becoming a Christian in many parts of the world today and particularly in a world that was hostile to both Jews and Christians in the early days of the church.
We are living in a time far different than those early Christian lived in. We are living in a time when Christianity is a part of the status quo woven into the cultural fabric of most Western nations. To a large extent we have become immunized from what the Lutheran Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer described as “The Cost of Discipleship” in his book by that title.
The question for us today is whether Christianity, when part of the status quo, results in Christians tending to act more like the Pharisees depicted in this story rather than embracing those living on the fringe of religion and on the edge of society; those ripe for being recreated by the love of God in Christ.
Is what we see different from what God, through the eyes of Jesus, sees?
Are we truthfully seeing things as they are or are we seeing what we want to see and remain blind to what we need to see?
In this lesson, Jesus is presented as coming to judge the world to prevent us from judging others like the disciples in this story did when they assumed that the cause of the man’s blindness had to be the result of some sin he or his parents committed. Jesus debunks that understanding of illness throughout all the Gospels
Jesus as the one who comes to judge the world in the end times is found throughout all the Gospels. Unfortunately this portrayal of Jesus has often been distorted and used by some as permission to condemn others in the name of God. It is important to understand when Jesus is presented as the Judge in the New Testament, that we are not being called to take on the role of being the jurors. The Court of God is not the court of man. God does not need a jury to discern what is true about humanity.
At a time when our world is dealing with a pandemic, it is essential that we do not engage in judgmental theories as to its cause and point to those deemed our ideological enemies or those living on the edge of society; those most vulnerable as the reason for its existence.
To be polite, STUFF HAPPENS.
It was never a question where this pandemic would start. It has always been a matter of when it would occur. Scientist (the prophets of our day) have been warning of a looming outbreak for some time. It was bound to happen sooner or later.
Now is that time.
Viruses don’t recognize borders, race, creed, political party, or social status but, much to our discredit and shame, some of us continue to do so.
This pandemic underscores the fundamental truth that we are interconnected; that we are all in this together, living on the same small planet to which we are bound. This pandemic demonstrates that a threat to one is a threat to all and hopefully will prove that the accomplishments of one will be an accomplishment for all.
It is important to recognize that God is at work through the work we do and the care we give to one another. Such work has taken on a new meaning at a time when many of us are keeping ourselves physically distanced from others. Nevertheless, we can still give care and socialize through phone calls or the use of social media. As it turns out, there is a blessing in our ability to socialize through technology.
This Gospel lesson and other stories in the Gospels demonstrates that God in Christ is ever present and approaches in times of need.
Today’s lesson takes on a prophetic hue at this time when it says, “We must work the works of him who sent (Jesus) while it is day for the night comes when no one can work.” Things are looking dark at this time, but with the light of Christ there is always daylight and it is at such times as this that we should let the light of Christ shine in our lives.
This Season of Lent provides all of us a time to pause and examine the thoughts and desires of our hearts and how they impact our behavior. This is a time to be vigilant in our thinking, in our speaking, and in our doing.
This is a time to consider:
Are we being receptive to the grace God offers us in Christ Jesus at this present moment; to do what we are being directed to do for our benefit, as the blind man in today’s lesson did?
Are we able to see the presence of Christ Jesus in our lives?
Are we seeing it in the lives of those around us?
Are we continuing to thank and praise God for the blessing of life?
May God’s faith in us strengthen our faith in God and in one another.
May God’s hope in us strengthen us to hope in a time of fear.
May God’s love for us, strengthen us in our love of God and strengthen us to love and treat our neighbors are ourselves.
AMEN
Hymn
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