Long ago in Jesus’ day, he and his disciples were walking and came upon a blind man.  The disciples evidently reflecting the understanding of the day asked Jesus – who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born that way?  Here was a man who all his life was dealing with blindness. In that day they didn’t have any schools for the blind, no audio books to listen to, and no system of Braille by which to communicate with others.  Schooling and job placement were not options for him.  His career path led to begging.  And then… Complete strangers are asking whose fault is it that he is that way!  Whether or not he overheard their questions, we are not told.  But he certainly was aware of the assumptions of his day.  

Jesus takes this opportunity to not only answer the disciples’ question but also address the blind man’s need. But first he addresses his disciple with some self-revelation, as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. He then proceeds to make a spitball with his own saliva and place the mud ball on the man’s eyes.  I don’t know about you, but I might have bailed out right there if a perfect stranger attempted to treat me that way.  But then, this is a different era, isn’t it? At that point Jesus tells him to go wash it off in the nearby pool.  Again, there was no running water and no easy way to wash.  But the man does as he was instructed, and as the dirt begins to clear from his eyes and he lifts his eyelids, a wonderful new world appears.  He sees his own hands for the first  time!   He  looks   into  the  pool  to  see  his  own reflection.  He looks about to gaze at other people who are around the pool.  A flood of images comes into his vision and he is stunned!  His heart is beating rapidly, his mind is racing!   How can this be?  What are all these things I’m seeing?  Will this last?  Is it only temporary?  Who was that who put that mud ball on my eyes and what kind of power does he have?  He must have been bursting with joy and excitement!

Then the naysayers set in.  He immediately is suspect.  You can’t be the same person we knew as the blind beggar.  Why you don’t even look like him!  If you were blind, how were your eyes opened?   Even his own neighbors wondered about him!  Those he hoped would be there celebrating with him are the very ones questioning his validity!  How painful that must have been! 

After being cross-examined for some time, he finally says, “Well someone who calls himself Jesus did this.”  But the neighbors and others were still not satisfied so they brought him to some religious folks for a further inquisition.  Maybe they could get the truth out of this man.  Rather than dealing with the joy of the healing, they began to dig for theological reasons not to accept this reality.  After finding some religious reasons to cast doubts about the reality of this man’s experience, they began to question the spiritual character of the one whom had supposedly cured this man who was claiming to have been blind.  One of the two must be unethical.  Certainly this was not something that could be of God!  After all, all of this commotion was occurring on the Sabbath day.  God would not be pleased with that!

Finally someone said, I have an idea.  If he is who he claims to be let’s go ask his parents if he were really blind.  They did.  He parents immediately recognized him and also realized that he could now see.  But they did not know how he had come to see.  The passage tells us that they were afraid to name Jesus for fear of being excommunicated from the temple. They simply said, “Ask our son he’s old enough to know.”

So they returned to the blind man and launched into a religious tirade accusing him of being somehow a product of sin.  Then they asked him again how his eyes were opened.  He replied, I told you once and you wouldn’t listen; why should I tell you again.  Can’t you see that I was blind and now I see?  Isn’t that enough!  Not being able to figure all this out and certainly not able to see that this unusual occurrence came from God, they drove him out of their presence.

When Jesus heard how he had been treated, he came to the man and identified himself as the Son of Man.  The blind man responded in worshipful belief.  Then Jesus pointed out that his presence is going to create confusion… for those who claim to see are actually blind while those who are blind are ones that have a clear vision.

Not so long ago, during your time and mine, a mother and father came to me as a young pastor fresh out of seminary.  They were thoroughly upset, scared, and confused.  They had just found out that their son was gay.  They wanted to know how this could be.  Was it the mother’s fault? Was she too domineering?  Was father too permissive?  What was going to happen to his spiritual life?  God surely was not happy about this.  Who sinned?  Their son?  Or one of them?  Or all of them?  The only answer they had ever heard from the church was that homosexuality and sin were connected.  Although I made every effort back in the early seventies to attempt to dissuade them of such a connection, I don’t believe I succeeded.  What does this young guy just out of seminary know anyway?  They, too, feared what the neighbors would say and certainly expected that the church would kick him out!  They were somewhat relieved that he would be off to college, and they wouldn’t have to deal with it in their home church.

Many of you here can recite your own account of blindness. People who have questioned you or someone you know.  People who deny wholeness when they see it and want to identify it with sin.  People who have been very quick to exclude.  People who are so sure about their vision but are in fact walking blind.  

In answering the disciples’ questions, Jesus stated that he was the light of the world.  When Paul speaks about being in Jesus he says but now in the Lord, you are light.  Live as children of light - for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.  We who are reformed and always reforming admit that we need more light.  We need to see that not everything is good and right and true.  Our eyes for justice need constantly to be checked and corrected.

There is a danger in claiming that we are in the light, however.  It is the danger of smugness, or pride.  That we have the light and others are living in darkness.  We need to continually be reminded that our living in the light is not saying something about us, but about God.   We  do not “will” ourselves into the light.   It is a gift we receive.  Jesus is light.   When we are in tune with Jesus, we are in the light.  This is God’s generous gift to us.

Keeping that awareness will protect us from assumptions that “we are the only ones with the correct vision of what is good and right and true.”  As much as we dislike that attitude in others, let us fight it in our selves, lest we be the blind men or women walking.  As we come to the table today, lets us do so in deep humility, searching ourselves for what darkness still lurks within us. And let us come to the table today with grateful hearts that in partaking of Christ, we do so with many others who also are in the light, yet may have differing visions than our own.              

Jesus reminds us of this in the passage in John when the religious folks 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.  Self-righteousness causes blindness.  Admission of blindness creates vision.  Who is the one who is whole?