Sermon,
Sunday of the Blind Man—An exegesis
The
Gospel of John has been called the most theological of the four Gospels. Matthew, Mark and Luke each read like a
narrative, stories about what Jesus did during His earthly life and ministry. The Gospel of John does not have as much
narrative, as it does theological discourse.
This morning, we read about the healing of a blind man. But this narrative has more meaning than just
that a blind man was healed. Many times
we sort of blindly read the Bible, stumbling and struggling through passages
without appreciating their deeper meaning.
Ironically, this morning’s Gospel lesson not only opens the eyes of a
blind man, but should serve to open our eyes as well to a deeper understanding
of Christ’s words and His mission.
The word exegesis
means to go through a passage of scripture word by word, verse by verse and
thoroughly examine not only content but meaning. Sometimes we read the Bible as narrative, as
story. Other times we should read the
Bible as prayer. And still other times,
we should read the Bible as a student of scripture, and we should learn to
exegete passages, to read little but study in depth what we are reading. Allow me to do a brief exegesis of this
passage, the first seven verses:
Verse one—Now as
Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth—Of all the miracle
stories in the Bible, this is the only one in which the person was blind from
birth. This man is symbolic of all
humanity: all people spiritually blinded by sin; all are in need of
illumination by Christ, the light of the world.
Verse Two—And the
Disciples asked Jesus, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man, or his parents,
that he was born blind?” The age old
question, “Why do bad things happen to people?”
Back then, and still to this day, we try to look for personal causes in
people’s misfortunes—some sin is usually suspected when things go wrong. For example, as people examine what is the
cause of 9/11, emphasis has shifted from bad people doing a bad thing, to the
gluttony of western civilization—we’re too rich, some say, and that’s why we
fell prey to terrorists. And some
misfortune is certainly caused by sin—for instance, break the law, get
punished. But not all misfortune is
caused by sin, and this is a very important point. Just because something bad happens in your
life does not mean it is a result of something you did a long time ago. So the passage continues with Verse
Three—Jesus answered: “Neither this man
nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in
him.” Christ rejects the assumption that
trouble and malady are necessarily a consequence of personal sin. It is true
that suffering and death entered the world as a result of sin, and some sinful
acts bring about sickness and death.
There would be no sickness in the world if there were no sin, but by no
means is all sickness the result of personal sin. Yes, many times our personal mistakes result
in bad things happening to us. And many
times we fall prey to the mistakes of others—such as the terrorist attack on
Verse 4—I must work
the words of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one
can work—Jesus speaks to us in this verse about the urgency of bringing light
into the darkened world, for the duration of His time upon the earth is
limited. And for that matter, so is
ours. We can only do the works of Christ
as long as we are alive on this world.
Once we die, there is no chance to do good works or be converted or
repent, only to be judged on how well we’ve done these things while alive on
earth.
Verse 5—As long as I
am in the world, I am the light of the world—It is Jesus who has the power to
give sight to the blind. It is Jesus who
has the power to give illumination to those who are spiritually blind. The whole premise of His ministry was to
bring salvation to the world, to cause light to those who sat in darkness and
the shadow of death.
Verse 6—When Jesus
had said these things, He spit on the ground and made clay with the saliva and
He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay—Most of us read the Bible
and interpret this passage merely as Jesus took some dirt and put it on the
man’s eyes, and in the next verse, told the man to go wash the dirt off of his
eyes. But its meaning is even more
profound. Remember that when God created
man back in the book of Genesis, He created him by taking the dust of the
ground and putting the Spirit of God into the man so that he became a living
being. The body comes from the earth,
the spirit from God. Up to this point in
the history of humanity, there was no Christ, no Christianity, and no hope of
anything at the end of life, no hope in this life for those afflicted with
maladies like blindness. Christ was just
beginning His ministry—healing the blind man was one of His first miracles.
Through this miracle of the healing of the blind man, through the making of
clay and anointing of the man, Christ reveals a new Creation. He creates clay from the dust of the ground,
the same dust that made man, but He mixes the clay with His saliva, He mixes
the clay with His own matter. God
becomes one with the clay that made man, and thus man is healed spiritually. We are saved when we become one with Christ,
the same way that the blind man was healed when Christ took the earthly matter
and combined it with the heavenly. So
too, can we be saved when we take our earthly selves and seek to become one
with the Divine. St. Irenaeus writes
about this verse of the Gospel passage as seeing in the mixture of dust and
spittle a type of the creation of humanity from the earth. Jesus reveals His deity by restoring part of
creation in the same way He had created humanity in the beginning. We are restored from sin, and live in the
fullest sense of the word when we combine ourselves with God, when we mix our
humanity with His divinity. Obviously,
the par excellence example of this is when we receive Holy Communion, when our
humanity touches the Divine.
Verse seven—And Jesus
said to the blind man, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, which is translated
‘Sent’”. So, he went and washed and came
back seeing—Now, historically, the pool of Siloam was on the outskirts of
Now all of this is
taken from a mere seven verses of Scripture.
Each verse of scripture when studied carefully, reveals much to us. That is why the Bible is something that should
be read again and again. That is why the
church fathers have instructed us to read the same lessons each year, so that
hearing them, from the Gospel text, as well as the sermon, we will discover new
and deeper layers of meaning in them.
This morning’s
passage is about far more than the healing of a blind man. It is placed on the last Sunday of the
Paschal season because it reiterates the themes of Easter: Washing, illumination, healing, faith, conversion
and salvation. Washing—as the blind man
washed in the pool of Siloam, meaning sent, we too are washed in the pool of
Him who was sent, the pool of baptism.
Illumination—As the blind man had his eyes opened to see through the
grace of Christ, we too must look for the grace of Christ to open our eyes to
that which is good, to that which is righteous, to that which is Godly. Healing—The blind man was healed by the power
of Christ to heal infirmities. So too
can we be healed of our spiritual infirmities by the power of Christ. Faith—the blind man showed two acts of
extreme faith in the Gospel passage. He
journeyed a great distance from the temple to the pool of Siloam to wash, a
difficult journey during which he trusted completely in the words of God, to
wash in the pool and be healed. The man
also stood his ground when being interrogated by the Pharisees. Certainly, following Jesus was not popular in
the eyes of the Pharisees. This man
risked being put out of the temple. The
man’s own parents had a hard time admitting that this was their son that had
been healed for fear of being ridiculed and ostracized from the temple. The man stood firm in his faith, even in the
face of rejection by his own parents.
I want to share the
three verses which follow this morning’s Gospel lesson, following the
confession of the blind man who could not see.
Jesus said “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do
not see may see and that those who see may be made blind.” Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him
heard these words and said to Him, “Are we blind also?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you
would have no sin; but now you say ‘we see.’
Therefore your sin remains.
Unfortunately, many will see and hear the words of Jesus but will
continue to remain blind and deaf to them.
In fact, one of the church fathers, commenting on this Gospel passage
states, “sin is thinking that you are not blind.”
Conversion—Conversion
is when we profess our faith, not only with our words, but our actions, that we
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and is our Savior. The first
action is admitting that we are all to some degree spiritually blind, because
of our sins. The second action is
seeking healing. And the third action is
trusting in God that HE can provide the means of spiritually healing us,
regardless of the manner in which He reveals that healing to us. The
Gospel passage ends up with the man who had been born blind being cast out of
the temple because of his beliefs.
Undeterred, this man still believes in Jesus, even though doing so makes
his life harder. Kneeling at the feet of
his Savior, the man says, “Lord, I believe!” and he worshipped Him. And so washing, illumination, healing, faith,
and conversion all add up to life’s most important goal, salvation, which is the
attainment of the
I hope this morning’s
lesson on the healing of a Blind Man has opened your eyes as well—to the
importance of reading the Bible; to the many layers of meaning the are revealed
in the Bible when we study it closely; and most importantly, that this story is
about more than a blind man seeing—it is the story of all of us, and offers us
the prototype of how to be healed of spiritual blindness and how to come into
the light of Christ, not just in this life, but unto the ages of ages.
I spoke to someone
the other day about how hard it is to be a Godly person and this person was
telling me about how much peer pressure there is to do ungodly things. This will be the topic of a sermon on another
day. But suffice to say, look at the
risk the blind man took in making a long journey to the pool of Siloam—he
risked injury, embarrassment and disappointment. And his faith was rewarded. Being a Godly person in this world is
risky—it might cost us friends, it might frustrate us, there will be times of
disappointment, probably lots of them.
Like the blind man, God asks us to trust and to follow and promises a
reward for all those who do. And just
like the blind man, if each of us can combine our earthly selves with heavenly
things, and trust God in making the journey through life, like the man made his
journey to the pool, we too shall find healing in this life, and something
great will await us for eternity.
Someone said to me
the other day “Christ is Risen, for a few more days anyway.” It is true that after Wednesday we will not
offer this greeting again until next year.
But Christ is risen throughout the year, the power of the Resurrection
can affect our lives all year long. As I
greet you one more time with the joyful Christos Anesti, it is with the prayer
that we will great one another next year in joy and in good health. Christos Anesti! Kai tou Chronou me Uyeia.