Lent 4A – George Yandell
One day some people observed a blind man sitting on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet and a sign that read “I am blind, please help.” A creative publicist was walking by him and stopped to observe that he had only a few coins in his hat. So he dropped a few more coins in the hat, and without asking for the blind man’s permission, took the sign, turned it over and wrote another message on it. Then he replaced the sign at the man’s feet and left.
That afternoon the creative publicist returned to check on the blind man and noticed that his hat was full of bills and coins. The blind man recognized his footsteps and asked if it was he who had rewritten his sign. He wanted to know what did he write on it? The publicist responded, “Nothing that was not true, I just phrased your message differently.” He smiled and went on his way. The blind man never knew, but his revised sign read “TODAY IS SPRING AND I CANNOT SEE IT.”
What do WE see in the story of the man born blind? The initial scene raises a perennial issue in the work of the Church—which is, do we see people as problems to be solved (or reflected on) – or as people in need of God’s love and our care? [Above story adapted from Synthesis for March 2014 by King Oehmig.]
John Dominic Crossan has said that many of the stories of Jesus in our gospels can be read as parables about Jesus// parables about Jesus. I understand today’s reading from John about Jesus and the blind man as a parable. Let me tell you what I mean.
Matthew 13:34 records: “All this Jesus said to the crowd in parables; indeed he said nothing to them without a parable.” “The parables of Jesus are not literary productions. Each of them was uttered in an actual situation in the life of Jesus, at a particular and often unforeseen point- they are most often concerned with situations of conflict. They call for immediate response.” [J. Jeremias, The Parables of Jesus, pp. 21. 131]
Hear again the initial question raised by the disciples: “Rabbi, was it this man’s wrongdoing or his parents’ wrongdoing that caused him to be born blind?” Their question is based on a common assumption in Judaism in Jesus’ day: all misfortune was deserved, since the calamity was the result of sin. If not the man’s, then it had to be his parents’ sins.
The man born blind: The great truth that begins as “blasphemy” in this story is that Jesus is the light of the world. The disorienting irony is that the seemingly holy Pharisees— the virtuous, the intellectual, the well-trained and much-respected ones— refuse to see the reality of God in Christ. Yet the once-blind beggar “born entirely in sins” (v. 34) never wavers in his belief. The willful blindness of those who should be able to see is contrasted with the willing faith of the blind man who now sees. [Above adapted from Synthesis for March 2014 by King Oehmig.]
John is obviously recounting an earlier story about Jesus healing a blind man with his spittle, told in Mark’s gospel. But it has a completely different context and meaning. If we understand the story of Jesus and the blind man as parable, what does that mean?
What if the blind man represents the members of the Jesus community John lived and worked in? They once saw themselves in the darkness of ‘not-seeing’ but were changed when the light of the world penetrated their darkness and changed them. Jesus increased the anxiety of those Jewish followers of Jesus, making them choose whether to live in the light or reject it. This story as parable tells of what the community of John endured when they discovered they could no longer live inside their traditional faith system.
The leaders of the synagogue where they worshipped on the Sabbath could no longer tolerate the followers of Jesus, so they ousted the entire community John was writing to. [That expulsion happened 58 years after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection- it is clearly mentioned in the story.] I believe this parable about Jesus intends to describe the feelings of the excommunicated Jewish followers of Jesus by telling this story as if it happened in the life of “the man born blind.” [Above paragraph adapted from John Shelby Spong’s The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, p. 144]
Please hear this: When the story tells of “the Jews” it is NOT an expression of anti-Semitism- Jesus was also a Jew, and so were his disciples. The situation John refers to does not set up “the Jews” as enemies of Jesus, but as synagogue authorities who defined the followers of Jesus as no longer Jews– the followers of Jesus even called themselves ‘the new Israel.’
In the new Israel, all limits were broadened and inclusion of many unacceptable to the synagogue were included. Jews who were able to see the meaning of Jesus were included in that new community- women were included, as well as despised Samaritans and Gentiles. [ibid, p. 144- 145] So what is the message for us as Church today? If we see people as problems to be solved (or reflected on) we’re like the Pharisees. But if view our neighbors as people in need of God’s love and our care, then our mission is to be lucifers- literally, ‘light-bringers’, to open the eyes as ours are being opened- to display the glory of God to those who live outside our traditional faith system. Episcopal worship and ways can be daunting to those not schooled in our traditions. If we invite people to the common meal, to hear the good news of Jesus, to learn the tried and true ways of living the love of Jesus, then Jesus for us and them is the light of the world. It is spring and we can all see it together.