Broken Vision

The Fourth Sunday in Lent
St. John's Lutheran Church, Alexandria, VA
John 9:1-41

“Restored in Christ: Broken Vision”

It appears to have started with a question. Jesus and his disciples were walking along and passed by a blind man, one they somehow had known was blind from birth. According to the understanding of Judaism in their time, it must either have been the parents or the child whose sin had left him broken and blind with this congenital defect. God in His holiness, they thought, would not allow such suffering to fall on righteous people; therefore, someone had to be at fault.

Jesus gives his disciples a surprising answer: neither party is to blame. “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” There’s more going on here than the disciples can see at this point. God is going to do an amazing thing in this man’s life, something that will leave him forever changed, something that he never could have seen coming.

You might be asking the same kind of question about what’s going on in your life or in the life of someone you know. People look for an explanation to make sense of situations, especially when someone’s suffering. No one should have to suffer – especially the innocent. But you can’t always see a reason for why things are the way they are, even though you know they shouldn’t be that way.

Just this week in our Confirmation class here at St. John’s, we were talking about how you can’t look at someone’s life to assess their standing before God. A person might be experiencing a lot of hardship, but that doesn’t mean that God is punishing them for something which they did or didn’t do. In the same way, just because a person is successful or wealthy doesn’t mean that God is rewarding them for how they’re living. That’s what we call “theology of glory,” which supposes that God’s work follows our human rules and way of doing things. But if you’re looking to find out how God is working in the world by using human rules and assumptions, theology of glory, you’ll never see what’s really going on.

Jesus’ disciples were partly right in their assumption about the man born blind: the man was blind because of sin. There is a connection between sin and suffering. But it’s not particular. A person’s situation is not evidence of specific – or even general – sin in how they’re living their life. Certainly, sin does have negative effects and causes problems, but it could also lead to someone’s apparent success or prosperity. The connection between sin and suffering is much deeper. We know suffering because of sin. Because of sin and its impact on creation, some of us, like me, need glasses or contacts or surgery to be able to see properly. The man was blind because of sin, not because of what he had done, but because sin has broken every part of life under the sun.

But Jesus stepped in. Just as he has done throughout his public ministry, he does again, bringing the works of God into this broken world. Jesus spit on the dusty ground and kneaded it into mud. He put the mud on the blind man’s eyes, then sent him to wash in a pool. When the man washed off the mud, the darkness he had known for his whole life went with it. He could see. His broken vision was restored by Christ.

The man’s neighbors were both confused and astounded at what had happened. Such a thing was unheard of, so they brought the man to see the religious leaders in the synagogue, the Pharisees. Perhaps they could shed light on just what was going on. But they can’t. They’re just as blind spiritually as the man before them had been physically. They keep asking about how this has happened. They’d even go so far as to bring in the man’s parents to confirm that he had indeed been blind since birth. Rather than being amazed at this miraculous healing, the religious leaders look instead to the perceived affront to the oral laws about the Sabbath that they believed had come down from Moses. If Jesus did this healing on the Sabbath day, they said, then he must be a sinner! He even kneaded mud, which is like kneading bread, which they held was prohibited on the Sabbath. How could someone who didn’t follow their assumptions be from God? The Pharisees were blinded by their pride in their understanding of the law and how God worked. They couldn’t see the sign that was right in front of them. But don’t hate the Pharisees. They’re not much different from us.

Like the man on the street that Jesus and his disciples encountered, you and I were blind from birth – spiritually, if not physically. Our vision was broken. By God’s grace, though, Jesus has come into each of our lives to bring sight to replace our spiritual blindness. But sin is still a problem, especially for you and me and anyone who would follow Jesus. And vision broken by sin can keep you from seeing what's right in front of you. What’s obstructing your vision these days? It might be pride, like that of the Pharisees. Assuming that you know best, you shut out other people. You overlook otherwise obvious options. You believe that you’re right, regardless of the cost. It might be hardship, like that of the man born blind, tempting you to think that God has abandoned you to suffering and despair because things are not working out as you expect them to. It might be fear, like that of the blind man’s parents who would not say how he’d been healed. Your concern for your standing with friends or peers is keeping you silent when you should speak up.

Before he healed the man born blind, Jesus said, “I am the light of the world,” and the sign of healing that followed backed up his claim. Look what happens with this Light shines. The blind man received sight. The religious leaders, who thought they could see it all, were blinded by the brightness of the Light’s shining and turned away from him. The Pharisees said they did not know where Jesus comes from. Before they cast the once-blind man out, they said, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” By their own acknowledgment, the man had been blind from birth, but now he sees! From whom does Jesus come? Look at the signs! The Creator who brought life from dusty ground used it again to make that which was not, and mud brought sight. Yes, vision broken by sin can keep you from seeing what's right in front of you.

Think about this: when does the once-blind man actually see Jesus? The second time they meet, Jesus said to him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” The man answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” He was still blind when Jesus sent him away to wash in the pool of Siloam. He didn’t know what Jesus looked like either of the times that he was called before the religious leaders. It’s only after he’s been cast out of the synagogue that Jesus goes to him – and the man finally sees him with his new eyes. But Jesus doesn’t just give physical sight. He finds the man he has healed and brings him to faith, opening his eyes spiritually as well. Who is the Son of Man in whom the once-blind man now seeks to believe? Jesus says, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.”

Jesus is the Son of Man, the one through whom God reveals Himself to the world. In order to see God, you must see Jesus.

Jesus is the light of the world. He brings sight where there was only darkness and blindness. When you look at Jesus, you will see God’s love for you and for our broken world. . God the Holy Spirit opens spiritually blind eyes to see Jesus, the Son of Man, the light of the world. When you look at the image of Christ on the cross, see the innocent Lamb of God. Take comfort in knowing that this is where he defeated the darkness that sin brought into our world, for you. There, God in his holiness did pour out suffering on the righteous one for the sake of all the unrighteous. That’s the “theology of the cross,” pointing to Jesus as the true light of the world. Vision broken by sin can keep you from seeing what's right in front of you, but Jesus restores vision. This is what he did for the man born blind. This is what he does for you.

Restored in Christ, you can see the world – and all of life – anew. Since Jesus has taken away the spiritual blindness of sin for you, you can look to him when you are tempted by pride, by hardship, or by fear. The darkness cannot keep you from seeing. Seeing Jesus, the Son of Man, you see God. He forgives your sin and opens your eyes so that they are no longer trapped in darkness that keeps you from seeing what’s right in front of you: God’s love for you and for our broken world. As Paul wrote, now "you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light…, and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.”

What started with a question ends with a statement. Who is the Son of Man who restores vision and reveals God to us? Hear Jesus say, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” He is the light of the world. Look to him, and see.

Amen.