Fourth Sunday of Lent
There are at least eight accounts of Jesus healing blind people in the gospels. This does not account for others who may have been healed when he healed a large number of people. But the story in today’s gospel in unique from all these. The blind man did not come to Jesus pleading for a miracle. This healing was a consequence of a theological question the disciples asked – “Who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?” (Jn 9:2). Jesus’ answer, “Neither… it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him” (Jn 9:3), should not be read as Jesus being dismissive of the blind man’s burdens. Jesus not only restored his sight, but he also treated him with great respect. Despite this, the opening the eyes of the blind man is the subplot of the story.
The main plot is quite another. The blind man’s moving toward full sight is marked by the growing blindness of those who would decide Jesus’ fate. This is best seen toward the end of the story. Both the blind man and Jesus’ opponents have an encounter with Jesus. The blind man who now sees not only has his sight restored but he has come to salvation. On the contrary, despite seeing the glory of God in the healing, Jesus’ opponents chose to be blind in recognizing Jesus as the Christ.
Blindness is an incredibly burdensome condition. But physical blindness is not an obstacle for salvation. Jesus was able to heal physical blindness. But there is a kind of blindness that jeopardizes eternal life. Even God is helpless without peoples’ willingness to see.
Godless Darkness
In reply to the disciple’s question about the cause of the blind man’s fate, Jesus said, “Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (Jn 9:4). John was making a very important point. Jesus came into the world, lived in the world, and worked for the cause of human redemption. But his death will make him absent from human history. Hence, Jesus says, “Night is coming.” The light will rise at the resurrection, but until then, it will be night. In other words, Godlessness is the ultimate darkness.
The first kind of darkness, then, is absolute godlessness. Humankind is created by God and humanity is at its best when it sees itself as divine. All human desires culminate in God and human destiny reaches its climax when it finds itself in God. The rejection of the reality that human life finds its fulfillment in God is the first kind of blindness. It is abject darkness.
Blind by Choice
There is yet another dangerous kind of blindness – those who believe in God but not for who God truly is. The blindness of Jesus opponents did not come from their lack of faith in God but rather from their resistance to the God Jesus revealed. For them, if Jesus was from God and if he indeed was God, he would not have healed the man on the Sabbath. But the God Jesus revealed was different. The God Jesus revealed cared more about the human person than about blind legalism.
People’s conception of God and the God Jesus revealed is an issue in all the gospels. Many religious leaders just could not imagine a God who befriends tax collectors and prostitutes, a God who shows mercy to sinners, a God who was accessible to all, a God who the love of God and love of neighbor as the greatest commandment, a God who taught the love of enemies, the God who could die for humanity.
This second kind of blindness is the blindness against which we must be careful. I call it blindness by choice. We can make God who God is not.
Children of the Light
The opposite of Godlessness and blindness by choice is called living in the light. In today’s second reading, Paul says, “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth” (Eph 5:8-9).
Living in the light not only means coming to faith but faith in the God Jesus revealed. The God Jesus revealed is a God of immense love, compassion, mercy, goodness, peace, righteousness, and truth. And the God Jesus revealed invites us to live in immense love, compassion, mercy, goodness, peace, righteousness and truth. To accept this invitation, to put our faith in this God, to walk in the way of Jesus is to live in the light. To refuse this invitation is to live in darkness.
The man born blind and Jesus’ opponents made different choices. May the choice we make lead us away for darkness into God’s marvelous light.
- Fr. Satish Joseph