Fourth Sunday of • Year A

Jesus was in the last year of his earthly life. For one last time he had come to Jerusalem to teach anyone who would listen the truth about their life and death.

At the end of one of these teaching sessions, he came upon a blind man begging in the Temple environs. The poor fellow had never seen the light. He had been blind from birth.

Those standing around Jesus asked him whether the man’s blindness was due to some terrible sin that the parents had committed, but Jesus made it clear that the man’s disability was no one’s fault. It were just one of the sad things that sometime happen in this imperfect life.

He felt deeply sorry for the blind man and decided to do something about it. He said to the watching crowd:

I am the light of the world and I can make this blind man see!

Then he smeared the man’s eyes with mud and commanded:

Go wash in the pool of Siloam!

he man did as he was told. He washed out his eyes and for the first time in his life he experienced light.

The incident was over quickly but it taught important lessons … lessons that the disciples understood only long after Jesus had left them.

The first lesson teaches a matter of fact: all of us humans are blind in our own particular way. It is never easy for any of us to see where we should go or what we should do. We humans are born blind to the eternal reality of our lives and we cannot overcome that blindness without the help of God.

The second lesson speaks about action: we humans must participate in our own healing. If the blind man had refused to go to the pool and wash (an apparently useless action) he would never have been cured. So too, unless we humans cooperate with the sometime strange movements of God’s grace, we will never overcome our disabilities or mend our cracks.

The third lesson warns us about the sometime difficulty in receiving this divine help. Accepting divine inspiration can mean a radical change of life. It can result in rejection by those who had seemed to care for us. It can cause isolation from that supporting society which previously had been so important to us. We may lose our loves; we may lose our place. This is what happened to the cured blind man. Blind, he had been accepted affectionately by his friends, family and culture. Once cured, he was rejected.

The Pharisees accused him of being a liar from birth, never being blind at all. They could not accept the power of the curing doctor and so denied the reality of the disease. His parents were asked to give evidence one way or another against Jesus, but they refused. They were scared that if they stood up for Jesus they would lose membership in the only society they knew.

The blind man had more gumption. He defended Jesus before the Pharisees and was cast out for his troubles. Never again would he be accepted as a pious Jew by the Temple leaders. They were perfectly willing to accept him as long as he remained blind. They could not stand him now that they could see. Blind, he was out of sight; seeing, he had the troubling insight of one who had been touched by God. Society could not stand such a one. Jesus they were to kill; this troublesome cured blind man they exiled.

The man did not seem to care. Now he could see, and not simply the light of the created sun. Now he could see the light of the eternal SON … Jesus Christ, the light of the world.

Hearing that the poor man had been rejected by his friends and was wandering homeless in this world, Jesus went looking for him. He said:

I am the Son of God, the Messiah, Jesus-God! Do you believe this?

The man answered:

I do believe, Lord!

and he began to follow Jesus down the road towards eternity.