Latest / Belin Memorial UMC / Rev. Will Malambri - "The Blind See"
Transcript
- Belin Memorial UMC: You now have this reading from the Gospel according to John in the ninth chapter. As Jesus walked along, 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 work might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent to 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. Salaam means sin. Then the man went and watched and came back able to see. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, 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 he. But they kept asking him, then how were your eyes opened? He answered. man called Jesus, made mud, spread it on my eyes and said to me, go to Shalom and wash. Then I went and washed and received my sight. They said to him, where is he? 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. And the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, He put blood, mud on my eyes that I watched and now I see. Some of the Pharisees said, This man is not from God, for he does not observe the Sabbath. 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 is a prophet. The authorities did not believe that he had been blind and 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 he now 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 Jewish authorities, but the authorities 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 born blind and they said to him, Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner. I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know though, I was blind. Now I see. How did he do that? How did he open your eyes? I have told you already, you have not listened. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples? 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. Here's an astonishing thing. You do not know where he comes from, 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. You were born entirely in sins and you were 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? And who is he, sir? Tell me so that I may believe in him. You have seen him and the one speaking with you is he. Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him. 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 who were with him heard this and said to him, surely we are not blind, are we? If you were blind, you would not have sinned. But now that you say we see, your sin remains. This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Thank you, Gene, Brett, and Alan. Thank you for reading. Thank you for singing. Thank you for not breaking into song while reading. Give glory to God, we are not ready for musical theater in here yet. We are ready for worship. Worship is a primary way of giving glory to God. And so just as the Pharisees demanded of the man born blind, that's what he did. Worship was the last active thing the man born blind did in this story. And after he worshiped Jesus, Jesus offered a riddle. It's a riddle that ties all the way back to the question that the disciples asked at the very beginning of the story. It's a question that creeps into our hearts from time to time. We see a sad situation and we wonder if for no other reason than to try to protect ourselves. What did they do wrong to land in that terrible situation? Or some calamity comes upon us, a diagnosis, a tragic death, and we cry out either in bitterness or in regret. What did I do to cause this? When life happens and those questions start to rise, it's good to remember that the Bible does include stories about poor choices that lead to bad results. And it offers plenty of advice about making good choices and warnings about not the book of Proverbs among others. But the Bible also includes Job's story, the story of a good man whose life turned awful. and not of his doing. And then there are stories like today's conversation with Jesus when the disciples saw a man born blind and decided to ask Jesus a theological question. Maybe they learned from the Samaritan woman that Jesus likes a dialogue like that. So they asked, whose sin caused this man's blindness? Was it his sin or was it his parents? Good question. Especially if the people around you are teaching that all bad events are the direct result of someone's bad behavior. You would like to know what caused the sin so that you could avoid the bad results. I understand where they were coming from. Jesus, however, was coming from a different place. Bad behavior often leads to bad personal struggles. But not all personal struggles are caused by someone's bad behavior. like man born blind. It was not his sin. It was not his parents' that caused it. But Jesus said God would bring something good from it. While the disciples were wondering why, Jesus was thinking about who. It's a message we need when we're trying to make sense of tragedies, those that hit close to home. Bad events happen, but not always because of who we are. God will bring something good out of it because of who God always is. So while the disciples were ready to make the man born blind into an object lesson about the causes of suffering, Jesus would not reduce him to that. Nor would he leave him in that. Part of Jesus' response to the disciples' question was to immediately begin working to heal the man, which is how Jesus' riddle will make sense. We'll get to it. First, the reactions to the healing. As you can imagine, when his neighbors saw a man who looked like the man who was born blind, but now walking around with vision, they wanted to know what happened. They were confused. Was it him? How could it be? The man being able to see would require a miracle. And then them knowing that it was definitely him would require knowing him, which would mean they had to have paid attention to him, which means they would have had to have seen him regularly recently, which many had not. Because it's easy enough to look away from someone in need. But how much easier when the one who is in need can't see who it is that's looking away? So the neighbors were confused. They wanted to know more. They began questioning. Questions led to how did this happen? The man said it was Jesus, gave thanks. He didn't know where Jesus was though. And so the Pharisees were brought in for an inquisition. And like the neighbors before them, the Pharisees did not take time to offer a single word of praise that the man had been healed. They went straight to condemnation because as they understood the law, It's better to suffer to keep every bit of the law intact than to be healed and risk having broken even the slightest bit of it. They still did not understand what Jesus meant when he said, go and learn what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice. They still had not learned Jesus teaching the Sabbath was made for humankind and not humankind for the Sabbath. So the son of man is Lord, even of the Sabbath. As Lord of the Sabbath, the Son of man, like his heavenly father, does not take the Sabbath off from working mercy in our lives. So he healed the man. then disappeared. which left the man to defend himself. Well, him and his parents. The Pharisees tried to draw the parents into it, but fear of exclusion made the parents reluctant to do anything to defend their son. Mob rule can even make parents cower. the man born blind, increasingly confident in his defense because he was increasingly clear about who Jesus is, stands firm. There's a progression in his life right before our eyes. At first to him, Jesus was just this man who comes up to him unrequested, wipes mud on his eyes and sends him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. Then as he says more about his experience, he refers to Jesus as a prophet. Eventually as a miracle worker from God, ultimately as the Lord. And if we read on to Jesus interpretation of what happened in that story, what we call John, chapter 10, but was originally just the rest of the story. We'd see that Jesus became the good shepherd for the man born blind. And that finally brings us to Jesus Riddle. After returning to care for the man the Pharisees had driven out of the synagogue, Jesus offered this. If you were blind, you would not have sinned. But now that you say we see, your sin remains. The disciples had thought it was because of sin, bad moral behavior that the man was born blind. The Pharisees were more interested in who broke the law than in the one who was suffering or in God's work to heal him. And Jesus, in his riddle, tried to show both what he had already shown the man born blind. That sin is not merely a category of bad behavior. It is a description of those who reject God's presence and activity among them. Jesus was at work. right before their eyes, giving a blind man sight and leading him to faith. and they missed it. They missed the man's progression from Jesus is a man who comes and puts mud in your eyes to no wait, he's a prophet to that's not even it is miracle worker from God to he's the Lord to Now I see. He's my shepherd. Man born blind could see God at work in Jesus while those with vision were still staring into the void, arrogantly certain that they had all the answers and that it was nothing new that could be revealed. They were rigidly determined that Jesus could be nothing more than not from God because he did not observe the Sabbath the way they thought he should. They missed the Lord before their eyes. Or as Jesus said it. If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say we see, Your sin remains. which puts the riddle to us. to EC. Are we aware enough the man who comes near, who speaks truth for God, who heals on behalf of God, who is God, who longs to be our shepherd so that we can be known by name, led into green pastures, beside still waters? own right paths through darkest valleys, protected by his rod and his staff, loved to the point that he would lay down his life for us so that we can live in the house of the Lord forever. That's what we want for Hadley. It's what we want for us. What we want for everyone. So that like the blind man who truly came to see. we can truly give glory to God.