“Then how were your eyes
opened?” (3/26/17)
John 9:1-10:21
Christ the Good Shepherd
The Gospel text for Sunday, March 26th
was the story of the man who was born blind, from the Gospel of John. We did
something a little bit different with this text. It’s a really long story—it takes
up all of chapter 9—so I decided to make it even longer by adding in the Good
Shepherd discourse from chapter 10. But instead of reading the whole text, and
then preaching on it, I enlisted the help of the adult Sunday school class. We
presented the Gospel lesson as a dramatic reading and I offered some brief
comments in between episodes of the story. Follow the link below to see the
full text.
Good morning! As I said earlier, we’re going to do
something a little bit different today, so let me offer a few words of introduction.
In your bulletin is a section of the Greek text of the Gospel of Matthew as it
appears in the Codex Sinaiticus, or
the Sinai Codex. This is the oldest surviving manuscript of the New Testament.
Take a close look at it. Do you see any numbers that identify the chapter or
the verse? Do you see any punctuation marks or capital letters? No. In fact,
the text doesn’t even separate one word from the next. The first task of any
translator is to figure out where one word ends and the next begins. This is no
small task.
Matthew 6:4-32, in the Codex Sinaiticus
We are used to reading the Bible in English. We are used to
seeing the books of the Bible divided neatly into chapters and verses. These
designations are relatively new. Chapter designations were added about 800
years ago, and verses were designated about 400 to 500 years ago, so, if you
were to meet John the Evangelist in Heaven, and you told him, “Hey, I really
love your Gospel and my favorite verse in the entire Bible is John 3:16!” He
wouldn’t know what you were talking about.
Today, we rely on these designations of chapters and verses
to figure out our daily devotions and our Sunday sermons. And most of the time
we can carve our Scripture lessons into neat little chunks that can be easily
managed in a sermon. That didn’t happen last Sunday. We heard a long Gospel
lesson. And then you folks heard a long sermon. It wasn’t so bad for me, but
you all had to sit through it.
Our Gospel lesson this morning is the story of Jesus
healing a man who was born blind. This story takes up the entire ninth chapter
of the Gospel of John. In fact, the whole story actually runs into the tenth
chapter, too. So, this morning, instead of having me read a really long Gospel
story, and then delivering a really long sermon, I thought it might be better
to hear that story as a dramatic reading, in six episodes. I will offer a few
thoughts on each episode, but for the most part, I’m going to let the text
speak for itself. After we have heard the entire reading, I’ll tell you a story
that brings the message home, I hope. And now the Sunday school class and I
present this story. You may follow along in your pew Bibles or you can just sit
back and listen.
Episode 1: A Man Born Blind Receives Sight[1]
NARRATOR
As Jesus walked along,
he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him,
DISCIPLES
“Rabbi, who sinned, this
man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
JESUS
“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.”
NARRATOR
After Jesus said this,
he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the
man’s eyes.
JESUS
“Go, wash in the pool of
Siloam.”
NARRATOR
Then he went and washed
and came back able to see. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a
beggar asked:
NEIGHBORS
“Is this not the man who
used to sit and beg?”
NARRATOR
Some said,
NEIGHBORS
“It is he.”
NARRATOR
Others said,
NEIGHBORS
“No, but it is someone
like him.”
NARRATOR
The man who had been
healed said,
BLIND MAN
“I am the man.”
NARRATOR
But they kept asking
him,
NEIGHBORS
“Then how were your eyes
opened?”
BLIND MAN
“The man called Jesus
made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash’ and I
went and washed and received my sight.”
NEIGHBORS
“Where is he?”
BLIND MAN
He said, “I do not
know.”
In many of the miracle stories in the Gospels, Jesus simply
pronounces that a person is healed. That’s it. Think of the woman who touched
the hem of Jesus’ robe. This story is different. First, Jesus spits on the
ground and makes mud, next, Jesus rubs that mud on the blind man’s eyes, and
then he tells the man to wash in the Pool of Siloam. I always thought that was
odd—especially the part about the spit and the mud! This is a reference to the
creation story in Genesis; specifically, it refers to God creating Adam from
dust.[2] Jesus is renewing the act
of creation in the blind man; Jesus is re-creating him.
There’s one more thing I want to point out before we return
to the story. The sign in this story—remember, the Gospel of John doesn’t use
the word miracle—only takes a few verses to describe. The rest of this story is
about the response to this miraculous healing, and Jesus’ explanation of what
happened. This is the pattern for miracle stories in the Gospel of John: sign,
dialogue, and discourse; the emphasis is not on the miracle itself, but the
things that are revealed through the signs that Jesus performs.[3]
Episode 2: The Pharisees Investigate the Healing
NARRATOR
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.
BLIND MAN
“Jesus put mud on my eyes and I
washed, and now I see.”
NARRATOR
Some of the Pharisees said,
PHARISEES
“This man is not from God, for he
does not observe the Sabbath.”
NARRATOR
But others said,
PHARISEES
“How can a man who is a sinner
perform such signs?” And they were
divided.
NARRATOR
So they said again to the blind man,
PHARISEES
“What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.”
BLIND MAN
“He is a prophet.”
Did
you notice that Jesus healed the blind man on the Sabbath? Under Jewish law,
working on the Sabbath was not
permitted. Jesus broke the law and this made him a sinner in the eyes of the
Pharisees. Also remember that at that time, everyone would have believed that
the man’s blindness was punishment for sin. The Pharisees can only see Jesus’
act as a sin, so they doubt that this man was healed—to the Pharisees, this
healing was no miracle, it was fake news!
The
Pharisees believe that sin is primarily a moral category, related to human
action. But in the Gospel of John, sin “is not a moral category but a category
of relationship; to be in sin or to sin is not to be in relationship with God.”[4]
Thus, Jesus is incapable of sin, because he is always in a perfect relationship
with God.
Episode 3: The Investigation Continues
NARRATOR
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,
PHARISEES
“Is this your son, who you say was
born blind? How then does he now see?”
PARENTS
“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.”
NARRATOR
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,
PARENTS
“He is of age; ask him.”
The
Pharisees still cannot believe that a man who was blind from birth could be
healed—and on the Sabbath, no less! This doesn’t fit with anything that they
understand. This must be fake news! They can’t or won’t accept what the
formerly blind man has told them, so they ask the man’s parents.
Now
you’d think that the parents would be overjoyed. Their son would no longer be a
beggar; he would no longer be dependent upon the charity of others. Their son
has a completely new relationship with the community. In fact, he has been
restored to full participation in the community. This should be joyful news for
everyone. But the Pharisees don’t believe it; the blind man’s story can’t
possibly be true. The parents recognize this. If the parents attest to the
“fake news” of their son’s healing, they could be ostracized from the
community, so they tell the Pharisees that their son is old enough to speak for
himself.
Episode 4: The Man Speaks for Himself
NARRATOR
So for the second time they called
the man who had been blind, and they said to him,
PHARISEES
“Give glory to God! We know that
this man is a sinner.”
BLIND MAN
“I do not know whether he is a
sinner. One thing I do know: I was blind, and now I see.”
PHARISEES
“What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
BLIND MAN
“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?”
PHARISEES
“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.”
BLIND MAN
“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.”
PHARISEES
“You were born entirely in sins, and
are you trying to teach us? Get out of the synagogue! You are not welcome
here!”
In
this part of the dialogue, the Pharisees are struggling to understand Jesus’
identity; they do not know where Jesus comes from. The central claim of the
Gospel of John is that Jesus is God, the Word made flesh. This brings us back
to the Prologue, the beginning of this Gospel. The formerly blind man says: “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.” Never since
the world began—in the beginning—this is a reference to John 1:1 and Genesis
1:1.[5]
The formerly blind man realized the essential truth about Jesus; Jesus is from
God. And the Pharisees correctly identify this man as a disciple of Jesus. This
is a gradual process for this man, much as it was for the Samaritan woman at
the well.[6]
As they come to understand who Jesus is, they also understand the need to
follow Jesus.
Episode 5: Spiritual Blindness
NARRATOR
Jesus heard that the Pharisees had driven the man out of the
synagogue, and when he found him, he said,
JESUS
“Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
BLIND MAN
“And who is he, sir, that I may
believe in him?”
JESUS
“You have seen him, and the one
speaking with you is he.”
BLIND MAN
“Lord, I believe.”
NARRATOR
And the man worshiped Jesus.
JESUS
“I came into this world for judgment so that those who do
not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.”
PHARISEES
“Surely, we are not blind, are we?”
JESUS
“If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you
say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”
At this
point, the formerly blind man is now fully aware of who Jesus is, and in that
knowledge, the man has responded by becoming a disciple. But the Pharisees
refuse to follow; they continue to see things as they have always seen them.
The story concludes with Jesus explaining what just happened. It’s not a
straightforward explanation. Jesus explains the meaning of this sign with a
discourse on sheep and the good shepherd.
Episode 6: The Good Shepherd
JESUS
“Very truly, I tell you, anyone who
does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a
thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the
sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls
his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own,
he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.
They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not
know the voice of strangers.”
NARRATOR
Jesus used this figure of speech
with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So again
Jesus said to them,
JESUS
“Very truly, I tell you, I am the
gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the
sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be
saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to
steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it
abundantly.
“I am the good shepherd. The good
shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the
shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep
and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs
away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd.
I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the
Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not
belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.
So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me,
because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from
me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have
power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”
NARRATOR
Again the Jews were divided because
of these words. Many of them said,
JEWS
“He has a demon and is out of his
mind. Why listen to him?”
NARRATOR
Others said,
JEWS
“These are not the words of one who
has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”
Would you all join me in giving a round of applause to the
adult Sunday school class? Thank you all for helping me out with this.
This story, like the story of the Samaritan woman at the
well, is about discipleship. Thus, both stories are also about relationship,
about entering into an intimate and mutual relationship with Christ. This is a
two-way relationship. The woman at the well gave water to Jesus; Jesus needed
that water from the well. Jesus gave her living water, and then she testified
to that relationship. The blind man needed the healing that came through an
intimate relationship with Christ. And Jesus needs disciples—Jesus knows that
his time on Earth is limited; his saving and re-creating work must be carried
on by his disciples. That work requires relationship, and that’s why this story
concludes with a discussion of sheep.
Both the man born blind and the Samaritan woman at the well
come to understand their relationship with Jesus through the act of
conversation. They truly hear what he was to say to them and they respond in
faith:
One of the central
themes throughout the entire discourse is intimacy in relationship. The sheep
hear the shepherd’s voice and listen to his voice because they know the voice
of their shepherd. The sheep of Jesus’ fold will be those who hear his voice.
Thus, Jesus’ call is not
so much a call to direct action, but a call to enter into an intimate
relationship. Action necessarily takes place, but the action of a disciple
flows from his or her understanding of that relationship with Christ. The
intimacy of this relationship replicates the intimacy of the relationship
between God the Father and Jesus.
The Church is also a place for relationships—with Christ
and with one another. It’s a place where we reflect on how we’re called to live
into this intimate relationship with Jesus. I want to close by offering a story
about the Church and relationship.
In the children’s sermon, I mentioned that my liturgical
stole was a gift from my dear friend Ken White. Ken served as a pastor in
Pittsburgh, Redstone, and Washington Presbyteries. He’s also led people on a
number of pilgrimages. A few years ago, Ken got a grant to lead a group of
pastors on a tour of the Holy Land.
The group also included a woman named Margaret. Margaret
wasn’t a pastor, but she had always wanted to visit the Holy Land. Margaret was
99 years old. She was sharp as a tack and her doctor cleared her to go on the
trip. She bonded with everyone who went.
One of the pastors on the trip is a man named Bruce
Caidenhead. Bruce used to serve as the pastor of First Presbyterian Church in
Johnstown. About ten years ago, Bruce had a stroke. He was in his fifties, at
the time. As a result of the stroke, Bruce lost a good deal of motion on the
right side of his body, and his speech is quite slow. Bruce is no longer able
to serve as a pastor, but he can still walk and he gets around quite well on
his own. However, Bruce does have a wheelchair. He uses it when he’s in
airports and other places where he can’t always keep up with the crowd. So, of
course Bruce took the wheelchair on the trip.
One day, while they were in Jerusalem, Margaret got very
tired. The group had more stops to make, so Bruce offered Margaret his
wheelchair, and Bruce pushed her around for the rest of the day.
Ken snapped a picture of Bruce pushing Margaret around in
the wheelchair. A framed print of this picture hang’s in Ken’s office to this
day. Ken says of this picture, “This is the church at its very best—two broken
people, helping each other out.” I think that’s a perfect illustration of what
it means to be in relationship with Christ and with one another. Thanks be to
God. Amen.
Benediction
Now, beloved, as you depart from this place, remember that
we are called to be the Church, the body of Christ. This is His new creation,
by water and the Word. As the Church, we are called to participate in the work
of re-creation, through relationship. Go forth and be instruments of God’s love
and peace and reconciliation. Do not return evil for evil to any person, but
know that we are all loved by God, and that we are called to reflect that love
to everyone we meet. Go forth and be the salt of the earth and the light of the
world. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, Let all God’s children say, Amen!
[1]
This dialogue has been adapted from the Rev. Dr. Tom Boomershine: http://gotell.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Jn09_01-41.pdf
[2]
Karoline Lewis. John: Fortress Biblical
Preaching Commentaries. Minneapolis: Fortress Press (2014), p. 127.
[3]
Lewis, p. 75.
[4]
Lewis, p. 126.
[5]
Lewis, p. 130.
[6]
Lewis, p. 131.
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