Surely we are not blind, are we?

John 9: 1-41, page 102
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.”
The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, “Is this your son who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?”
His parents answered, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.”
His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, “He is of age, ask him.”
So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.” He answered, “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?”
Then they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.”
The man answered, “Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?” And they drove him out.
Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.”
Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.”
He said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped him. Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.”
Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?”
Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘we see,’ your sin remains.
Sermon
I used to play second base and one game when I was in high school I was running back for a pop fly and collided with the right fielder. I woke up with my coach standing over me who said, “Are you hurt or are you injured,” a question which would have been confusing even had I not just been knocked unconscious. When I stood up someone else yelled, “Rub some dirt on it and keep playing.”
That’s something baseball players say, though I don’t believe it has any effective results to just rub dirt on something.
Some people do believe that dirt has medicinal qualities however. I heard a story once about a Gullah woman who saved her dog’s life by burying it in the pluff mud of the South Carolina Coast. The Gullah people are descendants of slaves and their communities did the best job of preserving African culture out of all the slave communities in our country, so maybe there is something to the healing affects of mud, but I’m not so sure, so it’s interesting that Jesus here uses mud to heal a blind man.
There are the numerous instances of Jesus healing the blind. In Matthew he heals two blind men by touching their eyes, and then in Mark he uses a little saliva, but not mud, causing us to wonder if that dirt is not necessary for the miracle to take effect.
But if the mud’s not for healing, if Jesus doesn’t need the mud to heal this man’s blindness – then Christ is using the mud for something else – to draw attention to the spiritual blindness that keeps all those who think they can see in the dark.
Christ in today’s passage, “spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes” not to heal the man, Christ doesn’t need mud to heal – he deliberately works, mixes dirt on the Sabbath to make a statement about working on the Sabbath.
He uses the mud to point to the human ability to unquestionably hold to traditions and ideas even after they have become wrongheaded and foolish.
Not that I don’t like mules, already I’ve found that I love them, but we all just saw yesterday how we can revere and celebrate an animal that few of us really need anymore – we do it because we always have and it’s fun, but beyond that we don’t know why and we don’t wonder why.
The same was true for the Pharisees, but they weren’t able to laugh at themselves about it because their fun parade had turned into the fool-proof dividing line between right and wrong saying, “this man is not from God, for he does not observe the Sabbath.” They were blinded to the foolishness of this – and they were blinded to the idea that it might be wrong to put more emphasis on doing nothing on the Sabbath than on doing right on the Sabbath.
They were so blinded to their own foolishness that they thought they would be able to tell God when God shows up based on observing the Sabbath, all the while God stood right there before them but they decided to keep on waiting.
But this isn’t as strange as it sounds.
We know what we don’t know, and we know that what we don’t know is a whole lot in comparison to what we do, so we have to hold tight to those things that we can be absolutely sure of because there simply aren’t that many to be absolutely sure of.
So even though Libya is a complicated issue, even though an air strike may do more harm than good and may even result in a third war to further stretch our troops and our resources, our President has to present as though he’s sure he’s done the right thing. He has to be sure of this one decision and hold onto that certainty tightly, unfailingly, as his opponents will chew him up and spit him out if he doubts himself now. Human life is being spent, and while I’m not very certain he’s gone and done the right thing, he has to be sure he’s absolutely right about this.
The best bet, the most secure bet sometimes is to do that, to hold tightly to those things that we are sure of, that we have to be sure of, rather than give in to the reality that we are completely blind – out of touch – misinformed and under informed, that we can never be quite sure about who we are, how God works, and how this world that we live in operates.
Many though are sure about one thing or another – the Creationists are sure they know how the world was created and won’t question their certainty, especially not around the Evolutionists who are sure that the Creationists don’t know a thing about it.
And the Pharisees don’t know when the Messiah will come, what he will look like, and what he will do, but they are sure of this one thing – that when he does come he certainly won’t be doing any work on the Sabbath – that they think they can know for sure.
But even in their knowing of this one little thing – even in their certainty about this one aspect of who God is and what God does, they have run the risk of putting God in a box and our God is abundantly reluctant to be placed in a box.
The Pharisees didn’t make an idol, they didn’t claim to know everything about God – they were smarter than that, they were certainly better Bible scholars than that. They knew that Moses met God and that the only description God would offer for Godself was, “I am who I am,” so they knew better to box God in – that’s idolatry after all – boxing God in and thinking we know who God is, what God does, who God loves, and who God doesn’t love.
We don’t want to be idolaters, and neither did the Pharisees, but we also don’t want to let go of those things that we are sure of – and for the Pharisees, they were sure that God would not do work on the Sabbath.
They couldn’t let go of that - seeing even a little is better to not being able to see at all, so we convince ourselves that maybe we are in the dark about most things, but I can see enough to get around – getting around is better than being blind so I can’t give up my little glimmer of light, my small certainty that I hold dear.
So we don’t claim to know what God looks like, but surely God wouldn’t work on the Sabbath.
We aren’t so bold to judge, but surely their life-style is wrong.
And I won’t claim to know the will of God – but this is right – it’s just right and that’s all there is to it.
The problem here is that if you can know, even a little thing for sure – you need faith that much less – if you can see, even a little bit – you start to think you don’t need to be healed from your blindness – but those who are sure they can’t see have a tremendous need to trust the one who is beyond their understanding.
Compared to the Pharisees this blind man didn’t know his Bible, maybe he had memorized a few hymns from hearing them sung so many times, but he didn’t know what the Pharisees knew.
In our lesson he offers us all the knowledge that he possessed: “One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”
When it comes to our God there isn’t a whole lot to know – so a blind man invites us to lay down those certainties that we have been carrying around for too long that we might really see. Lay down our certainty that we know who is right and who is wrong to make room for the chance that we might just be wrong about them – whoever they are; lay down our certainty about forgiveness – who can have it and who can’t to make room for the chance that forgiveness can even be given to him or her, even when he or she hurt us that deeply; lay down our certainty about knowing why or how to make room for the chance to learn that our God is even more bold, more ground breaking, more radical than we ever imagined.
When you get right down to it, God won’t be confined to our understanding, but build your faith on this – that God took human form – and when God saw a man blind from birth God gave him sight and when God saw a bunch of people who thought they were better than everyone else God made them look foolish.
This is the one in whom the blind man put all his trust.
If you want to see you will lay down your certainty and do the same.
Amen.