A Sermon Delivered by The Rev. John D. Painter at Centenary United Methodist Church – Metuchen, New Jersey March 2, 2008 (The Fourth Sunday in Lent) Text: John 9:1-41

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.”
—John 9:1-41, NRSV

I can’t help wondering how this man and his parents felt about being the object of a theological dispute. Here is a man who has been blind from birth. And what was the response of Jesus’ disciples? They try to get into a theoretical discourse with Jesus about “…who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

But Jesus doesn’t seem interested in getting into a grand theological conversation on sin and punishment. Instead, telling his followers that nobody sinned, but that God’s works are about to be revealed through this man, Jesus makes a crude paste from his saliva and the ground and heals the man. Of course, as we have seen, this “miracle” of healing precipitates a fierce theological debate among his critics.

Think about how this poor man who was born blind felt about all of this theological discourse! “You’re blind? Well, let’s get out our Bibles and see if we can find some good material on the issues of the moral origins of blindness.” But throughout this lengthy discussion, Jesus seems not to care one wit for abstract theological speculation. Rather, his focus is on caring for the man in his need. And therein lies our lesson for this Fourth Sunday in Lent.

One of my colleagues said he thought about this poor man and the response of the disciples and religious leaders a few years ago when the horrible Tsunami struck in the Indian Ocean on the day after Christmas. In just a matter of moments, entire villages were engulfed by killer waves of death and destruction and then swept out to sea.

My colleague said he received several phone calls in the days that followed from some local newspaper reporters, and they wanted to know how he—“as a person of faith”—would explain the event. At first he was tempted to describe the process of tectonic plate shifting and consequent earth tremors that set great waves rolling across large bodies of water. But that’s not what the reporters were looking for. What they wanted to know was, “How can a good God allow something like that to happen?”

It’s an ancient question, and it’s not an easy one to answer. But my colleague found it interesting that the one call came while he was returning from a visit with a woman who was dying from lung cancer, and just before he was to enter a meeting where those present were going to discuss their church’s participation in the relief efforts being made by the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR).

My colleague said, “I thought the context was very important. First of all, it really annoys me how these reporters seem to think that huge human suffering is big news. That reporter didn’t call me for a comment on the thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians who died in the recent Iraq war. Last night something like ten thousand children died of hunger and malnutrition around the world.” [What Jim Wallis of Sojourners has called a “silent tsunami.’] “I got no phone call asking, ‘Now how can a good God allow something like that to happen?’”
There is lots of undeserved suffering in the world that comes from simply being a human and living in this world and not some other world. Suffering doesn’t come as news to the church. Life involves suffering and part of the good news is that Christ has made that suffering the week-in-week-out business of the church. I’m glad that many Americans responded generously to the Tsunami relief efforts. But even if none of them had, the church would have responded. \What was for many Americans a one-time act of generosity was just a typical Sunday at the church. You won’t get out of here today without having the opportunity to contribute to the “Nothing But Nets” anti-malaria campaign to help save children’s lives. In church you are constantly being asked to help with the suffering of people that you don’t even know and might not feel any responsibility for, except that Jesus has made their suffering your suffering.

To adequately address the problem of human suffering would take far more time than we have available here this morning…or most any morning. But when we find ourselves drawn back to today’s Gospel lesson about the healing of the man born blind, we discover that Jesus doesn’t really answer his disciples’ questions about this man’s pain and suffering. But he isn’t silent, either. He responds that this is a good opportunity, not for theological deliberation, but rather, “So that God’s works might be revealed in him.” And with that, Jesus spits on the ground, makes a paste of the dust and his saliva, and heals the man.

That’s when Jesus’ critics get into the act and engage in a huge argument, with theological speculation abounding. But Jesus does not engage in theological conjecture. He is there with the man, touches the man, heals him, and thus reveals the peculiar glory of God.

When did that Tsunami hit? The day after Christmas, the very first day after the church’s Feast of the Incarnation when we celebrate that our God did not remain aloof from us, indescribable and utterly incomprehensible. Our God became flesh and came among us. The story of this healed blind man comes in the same Gospel that opens with these words: “In the beginning was the Word…and the Word was made flesh and moved in with us…and we beheld his glory.” The great, grand glory of this God become flesh with us is not that God is in complete control of everything and not that God has a satisfying explanation for absolutely everything but rather that God is with us.

God reaches out to us and touches us. Our God is, says the Incarnation, omnipresent—“with us.” In just a few weeks, as we observe Good Friday, we will see the lengths that this God is willing to go to be with us.

Our God enters the cosmos not so much to explain or to disclose but to make war on evil, to show forth the great glory of God in our salvation. Salvation is better even than a theologically satisfying explanation.

Remember my colleague…the one who was annoyed with the reporters? He said, “At the end of that week, after my unfruitful conversation with the reporters, I went back to visit that woman who is struggling with cancer. Unfortunately, the cancer had gotten worse and I could see it ravaging her body. But it did not ravage her soul.

“‘I’ve fought this with every fiber of my being,’ she said. ‘Now, I’m not giving up, I’m giving the battle over to Jesus. I’ve fought this as hard as I know how and now it’s his problem. I’m confident that Jesus will finally triumph even if I don’t.’

“That seemed to me a very faithful response to her own personal Tsunami—God with us. Not passively sitting by or offering us a few cold-hearted theories. God is with us, actively reaching toward us, and actively engaging our ‘enemy,’ for the great glory of God.”
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PRAYER
Jesus, lover of the suffering and healer of the hurting, we thank you for your compassionate presence among us. Every time we see gracious, miraculous healing in our midst, we see you with us. We praise you that you did not stay aloof from human need, but came and shared our weakness and experienced our need and triumphed. Amen.
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