Meditations for the Lenten Week of 22 March, 2020: John 9

And Jesus said,

“For judgment I have come into this world,

that those who do not see may see,

and that those who see may be made blind.”

Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words,

and said to Him, “Are we blind also?”

 Jesus said to them,

“If you were blind, you would have no sin;

 but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.”

The text of John chapter nine recounts the story of Jesus granting sight to a man born blind.  All miracles are by definition rare, but such a miracle as this was so rare that no one had ever heard of it happening.  In fact, most people of the time (and many today, also,) assumed that God’s judgment is upon the family of such a person born with a defect, and so appeals to God for restoration were not readily forthcoming.  The blind man Jesus healed was such a person, disregarded and judged wanting by those who passed him by, but precious in the eyes of his Creator.  It is likely this man had little or no education, except what he was able to hear from those around him, and perhaps what he was able to glean from his parent’s instruction before he was out on the streets as a beggar.

The Pharisees of Jesus’ day were the polar opposite of this poor blind beggar.  They were educated in the Law and the Prophets, held in high regard as teachers and leaders of the people, and sought to keep themselves aloof of a filthy and sinful world.  To these educated elite, the healing of a blind man on the Sabbath was a violation of the Mosaic Law (not what was written by Moses in the Torah, but what had been added as Tradition and commentary by the elders over the previous 1500 years) regardless of the mercy or good it accomplished in the blind man.  Such educated men, believing their eyes wide open enough to judge everyone around them, condemned both Jesus and the blind man who testified of His healing gift.

When Jesus found the previously blind man, now healed but cast out (excommunicated) from the Jewish community, He used the moment to teach everyone something about what true sight meant.  The previously blind man received a free gift of grace from Jesus, and in return, trusted Jesus in faith, receiving forgiveness, life, and salvation through Him.  The Pharisees, having seen His many miracles and works of grace given to the people, chose instead to condemn Him and plot His murder.  Both received unmerited grace, but reacted in very different ways; the one responded by faith and love, the other responded by disbelief and hatred.  To the response of faith, grace upon grace was multiplied unto eternal life.  To the response of unbelief, grace was turned to judgment unto eternal condemnation.

As the Church continues her walk through Lent, it is important to remember Jesus’ lesson to the blind man, the Pharisees, and His Disciples.  We are a people who have received the grace of Jesus Christ’s Word of Law and Gospel, His blessings of forgiveness and life.  Having received such grace, we are enlivened and enlightened to respond by His Holy Spirit in lives of faith, repentance, hope, trust, and love.  Such lives of faith are blessed beyond measure in this life and the world to come, granting us victory over sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. 

And yet, with such grace and blessing comes a warning we dare not forget:  to those whose eyes are opened to the light and life of Jesus’ Eternal Word, and yet reject Him in hatred and derision, there is no escape from the sins in which all mankind finds themselves entangled.  Like the blind beggar who could not by his own power escape the blindness into which he was born, so neither can any person escape by their own power from the sin and death into which they are born.  To remain bound in our sins is a sentence of eternal death, of separation from the Lord of Life in this age, and for all ages to come.  To see the gift of God’s mercy and grace which frees us from death and hell, and to reject it, leaves a soul bound in death and hell.

We are reminded today that Jesus’ call to forgiveness and life is one of grace which can only be received by faith, raising us up to live in Him and His Word forever.  As the Word of the Lord comes to all for their restoration and salvation, it empowers all to freely respond either in faith unto eternal life, or in unbelief unto eternal death.  By the power of the Holy Spirit working miracles more glorious than the recovery of sight to those born blind, through the Eternal Word of Jesus’ everlasting Gospel:  repent, believe, and live.  Amen.