"Received my sight"-Sermon for Lent 4, John 9:1-41
I believe in a recent sermon that Sarah, our Senior Seminarian, pointed out that John, in the entirety of his gospel, never uses the word miracle in reference to what we might rightfully call Jesus’ miraculous deeds. Instead, when Jesus, working through the power of the Spirit…say…turns water into wine, or feeds 5000 people with a few fish and a handful of loaves of bread…or, as in today’s gospel lesson, heals a person born blind, John calls such miraculous deeds…signs. And, I believe the reason that John uses the word sign is that the deed itself, as wonderful, life-giving, and transformational as it may be…especially to the one or ones who are the beneficiaries of such grace…the deed itself always also points to something else…a transcendent truth about the grace of God that lies beyond, again, the miracle itself.
And, in the case of the miracle John describes in today’s gospel lesson, Jesus giving sight to a person blind from birth, I believe the sign the healing is pointing us to is all about spiritual sight…about seeing with the eyes of our hearts. For seeing the light of God’s love deep in the wells of our souls that brings us hope and possibility…provides heart level healing and wholeness and purpose and direction for a life worth living…has nothing to do with the condition of our eyes. Or said slightly differently, it is healing from spiritual blindness that Jesus is most concerned about and that to which this sign points. For spiritual blindness is a condition that every human, however abled, should be deeply concerned about.
Now, I don’t want to take away from or minimize the physical healing the blind man receives. I am certain it is both wonderful beyond words and complicated. But, I think the most eye-opening moment in the story really takes place toward the end…and that is when the healed man sees with the eyes of his heart and truly knows for the first time who Jesus really is in that place that lives within him, and within all of us, that transcends all of our physical senses…that deep and invisible place of knowing and being known. As you recall, at the end of the story…after the healed man has his uncomfortable encounter with his religious leaders and Jesus returns to him…John writes, “[W]hen [Jesus] 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.” For me, this is the magical moment in the story when the lights really go on. Again, the moment when the healed man comes to the heart level realization that Jesus is no mere miracle worker…but the Son of God…the Savior of the world and all it contains…the one who promises that love wins…the one who doesn’t just provide healing for whatever may ail us…but the one who conquers for him, for all…for you and for me…death itself. He really sees that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, and his response…his only response can be…to worship at the foot of love incarnate.
And, friends, I want to see like that too. And, I believe I have. I have seen Jesus…but not with my physical eyes…for I was born about 2000 years too late for that…though I know I will see him in the fullness of time. But, still, with the eyes of my heart, I have seen Jesus…in the life I now live. I have seen Jesus in the faces of those who have loved me entirely…in the faces of those I have entirely loved. I have seen Jesus in the faces of those who I have been blessed to serve and care for as Christ’s own heart and hands…those who have needed what simple things I could offer. And, I have seen Jesus in those interior sorts of places…when I have prayerfully called upon him in crisis…in moments of great uncertainty or change…when fear has taken hold…when sleep will not come to a restless mind. I have cried out to Jesus and experienced his still, sweet presence bringing peace to the storms raging in me…providing hope in a hopeless place. And, I know so many of you have to…for you have told me so…how the Spirit of Jesus…God’s own Spirit of Love has carried you through times of both triumph and great suffering. And, such experiences of seeing Jesus, has saved me…has shaped me…healed me…provided confidence and purpose…power to live my life out loud…strength to persevere. Thus, seeing Jesus…in that deeper sense of knowing Jesus in the invisible places of life…has provided the sustenance, the energy to more and more become the person God has called me to be. So, I come…we come to this place together…and can only come to this place together…to worship at the foot of love that remains incarnate among us.
And yet, if entirely honest, I have been and can be, like the religious leaders…and not the healed man…in the story John tells today. By which I mean, spiritually speaking, I can be as blind as a bat. I have looked in the proverbial mirror and denied the truth staring me back in the face…willingly ignoring what needs work…justifying poor choices…choosing self over other…seeing only what I want to see…lost in spiritual blindness.
In “Reliving the Passion”, Walter Wanger, Jr. writes, “In mirrors I see myself. But in mirrors made of glass and silver I never see the whole of myself. I see the me I want to see, and I ignore the rest. Mirrors that hide nothing hurt me. They reveal an ugliness I’d rather deny. Avoid these mirrors of veracity! My wife is such a mirror. When I have sinned against her, my sin appears in the suffering of her face. Her tears reflect with terrible accuracy my selfishness. But I hate the sight, and the same selfishness I see now makes me look away. ‘Stop crying!’, I command, as though the mirror were at fault. Or else I just leave the room. Walk away. Oh, what a coward I am, and what a fool! Only when I have the courage fully to look, clearly to know myself…even the evil of myself…will I admit my need for healing. But if I look away from her whom I have hurt, I have also turned away from her whom might forgive me. I reject the very source of my healing. My denial of my sin protects, preserves, perpetuates that sin! Ugliness in me, while I live in illusion, can only grow uglier. Mirrors that hide nothing hurt me. But this is the hurt of purging and precious renewal…and these are mirrors of dangerous grace.”
So, friends, I share this with you to say that…though I have seen Jesus in the profound exchanges of love that have been dappled throughout my life, and I have seen Jesus in those interior spaces when I have called out to him in prayer in times of great need and want…and such sorts of seeing has entirely blessed and shaped me…still…to look at Jesus is not like looking into any ordinary mirror. For, when courageous enough to peer deeply into the Spirit of Jesus that lives within each of us, we see reflected back both our breathtaking beauty and our brokenness. And, though the brokenness is harder to gaze upon, seeing it is not mere condemnation…but a chance for redemption. For, if anything is to be changed it must first be seen, recognized, and named. As Wangerin continues, “For this [mirror] is not made of glass and silver, nor of fallen flesh only. This mirror is made of righteous flesh and of divinity, both…and this one loves me absolutely…. This mirror is not passive only, showing what is; it is active, creating new things to be. It shows me a new me behind the shadow….”.
Friends, to really see Jesus is the only way to cure our spiritual blindness…for it is to see our whole selves reflected back at us in the face of the one who loves us absolutely. It is the chance to claim what is beautiful, noble and holy about ourselves and then lean in, lead and love from those places…and…and it is the chance to name what is broken and seek God’s help and one another’s help to evolve and grow…to be and become that for which were made, which is always for love’s sake alone.
In really seeing Jesus in others and in ourselves, what needs healing in us begins to happen, and we become ourselves living, breathing miracles. Or, in John’s words, we become signs…that point to God’s grace alive and active in us, as we grow and evolve…as we be and become more and more Jesus’ own heart and hands for others…for the very life of the world. And, we become signs that point others to Jesus…their own chance to see Jesus, the Light of the World…to peer into the face of love alone…that they might begin their own journey of healing and becoming…that they might join us in the only response then possible…to offer worship at the foot of love incarnate. Amen.