As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man's eyes, saying to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, "Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?" Some were saying, "It is he." Others were saying, "No, but it is someone like him." He kept saying, "I am the man." But they kept asking him, "Then how were your eyes opened?" He answered, "The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, 'Go to Siloam and wash.' Then I went and washed and received my sight." They said to him, "Where is he?" He said, "I do not know." They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, "He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see." Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath." But others said, "How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?" And they were divided. So they said again to the blind man, "What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened." He said, "He is a prophet."
“What do you say about him?” The blind man declares Jesus a prophet, the Pharisee’s are split and his followers continue to be dazed and amazed at Jesus’ wondrous works.
We are just coming off Jesus narrowly escaping being stoned when he was preaching in the temple. (Saturday’s reading) Jesus is on his way somewhere else and sees a blind man. The man doesn’t ask to be healed, it is the disciples who are asking about the cause of the man’s blindness. Jesus uses the opportunity to teach the disciples with the action of healing the man’s eyes. In a very human, almost crude act, Jesus spits in the dirt and makes mud to apply to the man’s eyes. Then he sends the blind man to wash.
It is an incredible miracle. However, the Pharisee’s don’t get past the fact that Jesus may have violated the Sabbath. Evidently, one cannot make mud from spit on the Sabbath. The Pharisees question the man as to how his sight was restored and who did it. The strange fact to me is the blind man did not know where Jesus was (or what he looks like), and yet the Pharisees are quick to assume there was some violation that rendered this act of healing as not from God. The scripture tells us that they were divided over the decision.
The call I hear in the context of this reading is the one that comes from Jesus to the blind man. Go and wash! Be made clean! I think I am going to refer to the gospel according to John as a gospel of participation. Our first act of full participation in the Christian life is Holy Baptism. It is the initiatory rite that makes us participants with Christ in his life, death, and resurrection, and it includes us as full members of Christ’s body, the church (it makes us Christian - not members of any particular denomination, but that is another argument for another day). I feel that we are called in this scripture to be made clean in the waters of baptism, and then have our eyes opened so that Jesus can lead the way.
No comments:
Post a Comment