Sidney UMC - UMCOR Sunday/Fourth Sunday In Lent - 03/19/23 - Sermon - “Jesus Healed The Blind!” (“The Journey to the Empty Tomb” Series: Part 4 of 7)

                                    Sunday 03/19/23 - Sidney UMC

Sermon Title:                “Jesus Healed The Blind!”                               (“The Journey to the Empty Tomb” Series: Part 4 of 7)   

Old Testament Scripture: Psalm 23                                          

New Testament Scripture: Ephesians 5:8-14   

Gospel Lesson: John 9:1-41 

          Has anyone here ever known someone who was or is blind? Some people are born blind, some go blind at a young age, or become blind as they get older. Some people are what’s called “legally blind”. They can still see some, but not good enough to drive or do other things that they used to do.

          I believe that sometimes we can take things for granted. Our health, our hearing, or in this case our eye sight. I have been blessed to have never needed to wear glasses, and I need to remember this blessing more often, as some do not have that same blessing. It seems that each of us inherit some physical and or bodily characteristics that are really good, and some of us inherit things like heart disease, bad knees, arthritis, and other things, that are not good.

          Being blind though, must be a challenge. We live in a big world with all sorts of obstacles and dangers, and a blind person cannot see any of these. I say all of this, because in our gospel of John reading for this morning, “Jesus Healed The Blind!” Jesus heals a man who was blind from birth, and therefore this man never saw anything that you and I see through our eyes. We could also make the argument to that some people are spiritually blind. This can be heard through songs like “Open The Eyes Of My Heart,” by Michael W. Smith. We can be physically blind, but we can also be spiritually blind. The eyes of our hearts can be closed, even if the eyes in our head allow us to see the world around us.

As I said, I was blessed to be born with good eye sight, be we all have things in our family histories both good or bad. I heard a woman say once at church, for example, “I have bad knees just like mother did!” Being grateful to God when parts of our bodies are working well is a good thing.

I also remember a student when Melissa and I attended SUNY Potsdam College. During my time at the college, I was a resident assistant or RA for three years. I was in charge of a dormitory floor of guys, and reported to the Resident Director or RD. It was mostly a fun job. I got free housing for the work, I would look out for and help the guys if they needed something, and we also did programming. I would organize trips, dinners, learning events, etc. Some of the guys would regularly be in my dorm room hanging out or just to ask questions. Every semester I would make new door tags for each student, and I was sort of a big brother to these students.

As I was preparing to write this sermon, I thought of one program in particular that I organized for my dorm floor of guys, as well as others who came. To be honest, I cannot remember the name of the student that taught this program, but she was blind. She was a full-time college student, attending SUNY Potsdam, but was blind. She attended all her classes, did all her school work, and yes, she was completely blind.

I cannot remember what her major was, but I first remember meeting her one warm fall day early in the morning. I remember that I had my book back and I was walking to a 9:00 AM history class, I think. All of the sudden this young woman came up behind me, as I had just walked out of the dorm building. She said, “excuse me, what academic building are you going to?” I turned around and told her, and she said, “I am going there too!” I said, “oh wow!” She then got closer to me and said, “can I walk to class with you?” Now before you think the wrong thing, this well before my Melissa!

So, after she asked me if I could walk to class with her, she said, “can I latch my arm onto your arm as we walk?” I thought internally, “well Paul, I guess this girl likes you!” While I was internally mentally flattering myself, this young woman then said, “I am blind, and every day I do this walking and latching onto different people to get where I am going”. Well for me, this was humbling, as this young woman would approach complete strangers daily, or ask a friend to help her, and would ask to walk to a class building with her arm latched to another person. Well, a couple of my friends saw me doing this, and later on said, “So I saw some girl trying to flirt with you earlier”. I told them, “Look guys, I thought that at first to, but she was blind and needed help getting to class”.

This was the young woman that I asked to do an educational program for my dorm floor of guys and other students, staff, and leaders. She brough with her various machines and contraptions that she used to help her read, write, and do everything a college student needed to do to complete her studies. She also had some aides that would help her and sometimes reading things to her, and etc. She definitely got a lot of support, due to her blindness, but she told us that she was a “Straight A” student. It was an amazing, humbling, and a mind opening presentation for many of us.

Then a few days later, one of the knucklehead guys on my dorm floor didn’t want to wake up and go to class, and he was consistently getting D’s and C’s. I then thought to myself, “this young woman is blind, and with various supports is getting “Straight A’s”. Yet this guy does not want to wake up to go to class!”

I don’t know about you, but I need to be reminded sometimes of just how good I have it. I need to thank God sometimes for the many blessings in my life. As you heard me read in our long gospel of John reading a few minutes ago, today Jesus heals a blind man. Not a man that went blind, or gradually lost his sight, or lost his sight due to an injury. Instead, this man was born blind. This man never got to see anything that we see. Or for some of us that we used to see much better.

This morning in the gospel of John, Jesus heals this man, as he sees. This amazes the man, his family, and the whole community. I mean just imagine, you have never seen anything, and then in an instant you seeing perfectly. What must it have been like for this grown man to see for the first time? Well, as you can understand, this reminded me of the blind student that I went to school with. A student that to this day continues to impress me with what she was able to accomplish without seeing.

Unfortunately, though, in the era that Jesus lived in, there were no social programs or help people with disabilities. In Jesus’ day, a blind person would usually end up a beggar on the street. Why? Well, if you can’t see, it is hard to work. Maybe you could perform tasks by touch alone, but without being able to see, it was a really tough life back them. It is tough now to, but not like it once was.

Before getting into our gospel of John reading for this morning however, I want to briefly touch on our Psalm 23 and Ephesians 5:8-14 readings, for this morning. In our reading from Psalm 23, once again, we hear what is arguably the most famous and most recited of all of the Psalms. Imagine though if you were hearing Psalm 23 as a blind person. Let me read Psalm 23 to you all again. Starting in Psalm 23:1-2 it says:

¹ The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. ² He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; (Ps. 23:1-2, NRSV).

Now when I hear that God will lead me, I hear it as his spiritual presence. A blind person may believe this too, but maybe they also believe that God will be physically guide them, as well. After all, they can’t see with their eyes. Psalm 23 continues on picking up on 23:3 saying, once again:
3 he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil, for you are with me;
your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
    my whole life long (Ps. 23:3-6, NRSV).

          I wonder if some people that are blind have a little bit of a different understanding of how God leads them, and if walking through the darkest valley is different for them. This blind classmate of mine showed me that we can not only see with our physical eyes, but we can see with the eyes of our hearts. Further, when some can’t see with there physical eyes, there other senses grow stronger, so that they can survive to do things better.

           In briefly looking at our reading from Ephesians 5:8-14, we hear about spiritual blindness. The Apostle Paul says beginning in 5:8, once again:

⁸ for once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Walk as children of light, ⁹ for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. ¹⁰ Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. ¹¹ Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness; rather, expose them. ¹² For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly, ¹³ but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, ¹⁴ for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you”                     (Eph. 5:8-14, NRSV). 

          The Apostle Paul says we were in darkness, but in the Lord, we are in light. We are to walk as children of light. Well, I don’t think that the Apostle Paul meant this strictly as seeing with our eyes and walking with our feet. The Apostle Paul is talking about spiritual blindness. Our hearts were closed, and we were spiritually blind. Don’t participate in works of darkness, the Apostle Paul says, for we cannot see in the darkness. Only light can illuminate the darkness, and this is true for both physical and spiritual blindness. For Jesus is the light of the world. Blind people cannot see physically, and spiritually blind people cannot see, because they have not sought the light of Christ.

          This leads me up to our gospel lesson from John 9:1-41 for this morning, once again. In this gospel lesson, once again, Jesus literally heals a man, as I said, born blind. Jesus makes this man see for the first time in his life. Let us look at our gospel of John 9:1-41 reading for this morning, once again. Starting in John 9:1, it says once again:

9 As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. ² His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” ³ Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. ⁴ We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. ⁵ As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” ⁶ 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, ⁷ saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see     (Jn. 9:1-7, NRSV).

 

          In the time that Jesus lived, it was unfortunately thought that if you were born with a disability or had a certain disease or affliction, it was because of your sin. Further, if your parents had committed grievous sins than your condition might be due to what they did before you. Jesus refutes this and says this many is not blind because of his sin or his parents’ sin. Jesus than says that neither the blind man or his parents have sinned. Instead, Jesus said God is going to use this man’s blindness to work through him for his glory. This was definitely true of my classmate who was blind, but still managed to get straight a’s.

          As the part of our gospel lesson that I just read says, the disciples thought this blind man or his parents had sinned causing his blindness, but Jesus did not. Jesus then spits on the ground, and rubs the dirt around to make mud. After this, Jesus smears this mud on the face of the blind man, and then tells him to wash in pool of Siloam. I actually got to see this place when I was in the Holy Land in 2014. The blind man washes, and then miraculously is able to see.

          As you can imagine the blind man’s neighbors and the whole community are amazed that this happened. Some then speculated however, that Jesus didn’t heal this man that was blind from birth, but instead he healed a man that looked like the blind man. Many people wanted to know from the blind man, how he got his sight. He explained that a man named Jesus spat on the ground, made mud from the dirt and spit, and rubbed it on his eyes. He then washed his face and could see. As you can imagine, while some people saw what happened, there were some that were very skeptical. Some saw that is a magic trick or fake healing.

          Well at this point, the Pharisees have caught wind of the blind man being healed, and they wanted to know what happened. So, they bring the healed blind man in for a sort of integration. The wanted to know how he could now see. He explained what Jesus did with the mud and washing. Since Jesus also performed this miracle on the Sabbath Day, the Pharisees felt that in Jesus doing this he was working. The Sabbath Day is a day of rest. As a result, the Pharisees asked the now healed blind man how a sinner could heal him. The Pharisees are divided at this point on what to believe. They asked the healed blind man who he though Jesus was. The healed blind man said that Jesus must be a prophet.

          Well, this was not enough evidence, so the Pharisees now call in the parents of the healed blind man and interrogate them. The parents of the healed blind man said their son was born blind and they do not know how he now sees. Then they tell the Pharisees to ask their son these things themselves, as his son is old enough to speak for himself. The parents of the healed blind man were also afraid, and did not want to claim that Jesus was the Messiah, due to persecution.

          So now the Pharisees bring back the healed blind man a second time to interrogate him. The Pharisees ask again how a sinner could have healed him. The healed blind man then says picking up in John 9:25, once again:

²⁵ He answered, “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see” (Jn. 9:25, NRSV). 

 

          Well, this also was not good enough for the Pharisees. They pushed further, and wanted to know how Jesus mad this man see. The healed blind man then tells the Pharisees I have already told you how Jesus healed me, and you just won’t listen to what I am saying. There is continued grumbling over who Jesus is, and the healed blind man then says picking up in John 9:30:

³⁰ The man answered, “Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. ³¹ We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. ³² Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. ³³ If this man were not from God, he could do nothing”                                 (Jn. 9:30-33, NRSV). 

 

          Well at this point, the Pharisees tell the healed blind man that he was born blind because of his sin, and they cannot believe that he would dare to try to teach them anything! The Pharisees then drive the healed blind man out, out of anger. The healed blind man then sees Jesus, and Jesus asks him if he believes in him. The healed blind man then comes to believe in Jesus as his Lord and Savior.

          The gospel of John reading then ends with 9:39-41 saying:

 

 ³⁹ Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see may see and those who do see may become blind.” ⁴⁰ Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?” ⁴¹ Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains (Jn. 9:39-41, NRSV).

 

          I learned a lot from my classmate at SUNY Potsdam who was blind, about being able to see with more than your eyes. For we can see with our eyes, and we can see with the eyes of our heart. Jesus came to restore our physical eye sight, but even more than that, he came to lead us out of spiritual blindness. For there are those who can see with there eyes that our spiritually blind, and there are those who are physically blind, but their spiritual eyes are opened. Jesus came to not just heal physical blindness, but to heal spiritual blindness to. This why “Jesus Healed The Blind!” Amen.