In this very rich Biblical narrative, we see Jesus and his disciples journeying onward to the next village so that the Master could continue the ministry that he had been sent to do; the establishment of the reign of God for all creation. As they journeyed onward they came across “…a man blind from birth.” It is not certain if this account ever really happened as we read it for the man’s name is never mentioned at all in this narrative. However, blindness was common in the ancient world that Jesus lived in due to a lack of hygiene and clean water to wash and bathe in. The omission of the man’s name could just be an oversight upon the writers of John’s Gospel or the later redactors of all the Johannine literature. If this account is not an actual event, and it just might be, then it most likely is a composite of a number of encounters of Jesus and his apostles with blind people they had come across throughout our Lord’s ministry to the lost and forgotten up and down the countryside of Israel. No matter who the individual was in this story, the story is indicative of the growth of one’s conversion experience -- from blindness, whether real or spiritual, to the restoration of one’s sight, whether that is a physical or spiritual vision which brings one to believe in Jesus the Christ.

 

Jesus’ disciples asked him, “‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.’” It might be strange for us to hear Jesus’ disciples asking him how the man they just encountered became blind, but not for those living back then. They would ask Jesus; “Was his visual disability due to his sin, or that of his parents?” In the ancient times in which the Bible was written blindness, as well as any other physical or mental disability that a person might be living with, was believed to be caused by some sinful act perpetrated by the individual or his/her family. In that ancient culture, there was very little knowledge of the intricacies of either bacterial or viral diseases that could be passed on from one generation to the next. The knowledge that diseases can be passed on through the air, food, water, or genetically is a more modern discovery of the past 150 years. People living in the ancient Biblical times of Jesus’ experience did not have access to that body of knowledge as we do today regarding bacterial and viral diseases. So naturally everyone back then understood that every type of physical, emotional, or mental illness or disability was caused by sinful behavior brought upon by the individual themselves, or by other members within that same family dynamic.

 

Jesus had pity on the man, so he spat on the ground in order to make a mud paste that he would smear on the man’s eyes. Our Lord then told him to go and wash out his eyes with water from the Siloam pool. The combination of the mud paste made by Jesus, along with the supposed healing powers of the waters of the pool, seemed to be the right elixir to cure the man of his blindness. He did what Jesus told him to do, washed his eyes with water from that pool, and immediately saw for the very first time.

 

One can’t imagine how jubilant this man must have been once he was cured of his blindness and could now see everything that he looked at. He left the pool and walked back to the center of town to where he had sat as a blind man begging for alms. As he approached that area he overheard some of his countrymen saying; “isn’t that the blind beggar we see here every day “. Some of them said yes, and others said no. To solve their dilemma regarding the man and what had happened to him, they took their concern to the religious leaders of the Temple, the Pharisees, to settle the matter. The Pharisees would question both the man who had been cured by Jesus on the Sabbath, as well as the man’s parents to figure out what was going on here with this story. The parents of the man cured of blindness would not say who had cured their son, out of fear of being thrown out of the Temple where they worshipped God. Fr. Raymond E. Brown, SSS, in his massive commentary on the Gospel of John would call the man’s parents, “crypto Christians”, for their lack of faith in publicly recognizing Jesus as the one who had cured their son. That title refers to a person who hides their faith out of fear of being persecuted for believing in God. Jesus would render an opinion about such secret believers in him by uttering such words as these in a different, but very similar, biblical narrative regarding one’s uncertain faith in Christ; “…God will spit you out of his mouth”. These are pretty stark and graphic words from our Lord. If we truly believe in him, then we should boldly proclaim belief in Jesus, the Christ, as an intentional disciple through our actions in the marketplace.

 

The Pharisees would then go on to ask the man who was it that had cured him. The man replied by saying that Jesus had cured him of his blindness. Those leaders of Temple worship believed that if Jesus was a good man who had come from God, then he would not have cured the blind man on the Sabbath. To the Jewish people the Sabbath was a sacred and solemn day in which no work took place, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday; especially the compassionate curing of a blind man. The man was perturbed by what the Pharisees had said about Jesus and responded to their criticism of him by letting them know that Jesus was a good man for he had cured him of his blindness. He would go on to tell them that he had to be from God for he had performed the miracle on the Sabbath and that was good enough for him to believe that Jesus was the awaited Messiah from God. The man would go on to ask the Pharisees, “…do you want to be his disciples too?” With that, the Pharisees threw him out of the Temple due to his insolence towards them.

  

Once Jesus had heard that the man whom he had cured of his blindness had been thrown out of the Temple he went out looking for him; “’…he found him and said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ He answered and said, ‘Who is he, sir, that one may believe in him?’ Jesus said to him, ‘you have seen him, the one speaking with you is he.’ He said, ‘I do believe, Lord,’ and he worshiped him. Then Jesus said, ‘I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind.’” Some of the Pharisees who were there with Jesus who heard him say that asked, ‘Surely we are not also blind, are we?’” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, ‘We see, so your sin remains.”

 

Blindness contained within some of the narrative stories of the New Testament, like this one, is a metaphor for sin. For when we sin we are blind to the graces, love, and the presence of God we have failed to see in our own lives. Eventually, the man who was cured of his blindness came to a deeper faith than he originally had as a member of the Jewish tradition, once he came to believe in Jesus the Christ; Son of God. The cure of the man’s sight, both physically and spiritually, opened him up to a wider vista of images which allowed him to see Jesus for the very first time and acknowledged him as the one who had restored his sight on a multitude of levels. To some degree, we are all blind due to our sins which is only natural for we are all human. Jesus knows this well about us and accepts us as we are, for our sins, “spiritual blindness”, does not stop him from loving us nor looking for us when we have gone astray. There remain a number of Christ’s followers in our world today that seem to be quite blind towards the vast numbers whom they serve. I am speaking of the Governors and State Legislators of many of our more conservative states. A number of those state legislatures have passed into law numerous draconian measures regarding changes to voting in their state which has been signed into law by those governors. One of those new laws now makes it a crime prohibiting anyone who is not a pole worker from giving a voter standing outdoors in line waiting to vote for food or water, regardless of heat or cold. You might remember from a couple of years ago, the presidential election of November 2020, in which voters waited in line outdoors to vote some five to seven hours before they could cast their vote in some of our southern states. That measure to deny someone food and water so that they wouldn’t think of going to the polls knowing they might have to wait outdoors for hours in the hot sun, rain, or cold weather in some states prior to voting is a grievous sin. Any Christian worth their salt knows all too well that the prohibition not to give voters food and water on the day of an election was put into place to intimidate people of color, as well as the poor white person from voting. It is disgraceful, sickening, seriously sinful, and absolutely against the Gospel principles that Jesus put into practice as a pre-requisite for entering the fullness of God’s presence in Heaven. Any follower of Christ knows very well what I am talking about. Towards the end of Matthew’s Gospel (Mt 25: 31-46) Jesus delineates how we should treat our neighbor in his name as part of the Christian way of Life. As a matter of fact, the Commandments found in Exodus, the Beatitudes found in the fifth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, and Jesus’ principles of how to treat one’s neighbor can simply be summed up in the profound attributes   

listed here for you to meditate upon. They are the very basic tenets, core beliefs, for intentional discipleship within the Christian tradition.

 

“… The king will say to those on his right: ‘Come you have my Father’s blessing! Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. Naked and you clothed me. I was ill and you comforted me. In prison and you visited me.’”

 

That authentic disciple would ask Jesus, “When did you ever see us doing these things?’ And Jesus would reply, ‘Whenever you did it to the least of my brethren, you did it to me.” Our Lord would say to all those who had performed those great acts of charity; “come and be with me in my Father’s Kingdom.”

 

It is obvious to me that those ultra conservative led States, governors, and legislatures, who might be members of a Christian tradition (and I bet that they are) dared to pass into law that prohibition that makes it a crime for the average citizen to give a voter food and drink on the day of an election do not take the Christian way of life seriously. To those and many more like them, they do not believe that Jesus really wants us to live out what he has set forth in his guiding principles of life for us to be an authentic disciple. Oh yes he does!

 

As we continue to journey with Jesus this Lenten season which leads us to the Sacred Triduum and Easter celebrations let us examine our lives to see where we might be blind, sinful, in all of our relationships; towards God, others, and ourselves. Let us pray that Jesus will help us to take the plank out of our own eye (the sins we have committed and continue to commit before we try to take the speck out of our brother or sister’s eye). May all those who wish to deeply follow Jesus defend the right that everyone in this country, no matter what the color of their skin is or whatever religion they are a part of, be treated with compassion, tenderness, and love as equal members of our society.

 

 Written by Bob Sugrue

 

Sources Used:

*Quotes taken from At Home With The Word for 2022, Liturgy Training Publications, Chicago, Illinois