By: Rev. Gerry Weesner, Maples United Methodist Church
“As he went 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.’ ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned,’ said Jesus, ‘but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.’… Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. ‘Go,’ he told him, ‘wash in the Pool of Siloam’ (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing. His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, ‘Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?’ Some claimed that he was. Others said, ‘No, he only looks like him.’ But he himself insisted, ‘I am the man.’ ‘How then were your eyes opened?’ they demanded. He replied, ‘The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.’” John 9:1-3, 6-11 (NIV).
In the scripture reading the disciples were floundering about for causes for a congenital defect of the blind man as if this would somehow make a difference to them or to him. The neighbors of the man born blind were unable to recognize him because he is no longer sitting and begging by the side of the road. The Pharisees unable to believe that the man had been really healed despite the evidence of their eyes and their ears, and then being unable to believe that Jesus had a hand in the healing because they see him as a sinner rather than as prophet of the Living God.
The disciples had been taught that sin and hurt, injury, and handicap are linked together; that human hurt is the result of human sin. Jesus does not deny that. In fact he clearly affirms the principle that one reaps what one sows. But Jesus also makes clear that human suffering is not always directly connected to personal sin. And even where it is, where sin has led directly to suffering, Jesus makes clear that our response to it should be like his: one of compassion and of love. The work of God is the work of liberation and of healing and of compassion and of forgiveness. It is the work of love filled living and giving, the work of bringing salvation to those who would receive it.
In the end the disciples’ question about the man born blind did not really matter in light of how Jesus responded to the blind man; and what the blind man himself subsequently did as he first defended Jesus as the source of his healing and then confessed Jesus as his Lord and worshipped him. Fault and blame can easily be assigned but what is needed is that we pray to God for a blessing upon all people and that we work and we witness and show the complete love of God to everyone we meet.
