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The Fourth Sunday in Lent E. Bevan Stanley
March 26, 2017
Year A, RCL
1 Samuel 16:1-13
Ephesians 5:8-14
John 9:1-41
From Paul’s letter to the Ephesians: “Once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light.” In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The problem that has been bothering me all week is this: What on earth does the story of Samuel anointing the boy David to be king of Israel have to do with the story of Jesus healing the man born blind?
We’ll start with the Gospel story we have just heard. The experience of enlightenment is common enough. For all of us there was a time when we were in school and something just was not making sense to us—perhaps something in math class, or connection between two events in history, or something about valence levels in chemistry. Suddenly, in clicked. And we say, “Now I see!” In cartoons the common way to depict such a thought is a balloon with a light bulb in it. About other people we will say, “The light went on.”
The goal of many religions, most notably, Buddhism, is enlightenment, to see the world as it really is and to rid oneself of all illusion.
In the Gospel of John today we meet a man who has been blind since he was born. He has never seen light or color, the blue sky, or the features of his parents’ faces. He has probably found it difficult to get work or to develop friendships. He is a beggar.
Jesus heals him. The neighbors bring the healed man to the Pharisees, who question him several times. He meets Jesus again. Jesus identifies himself as the “Son of Man,” which is one of the titles for the Messiah. Then Jesus has a final interchange with the Pharisees about their blindness.
The implicit question with which this Gospel passage confronts us is, “To what extent are we like the Pharisees, believing ourselves to be seeing, when in fact we are blind?” Or can we, like the beggar, say, “I was blind; now I see.” This is a great question to ponder during Lent. What are my blind spots? Where does my upbringing, past experiences, and cultural environment, make me see the world in distorted ways, or at least in ways that differ from others? How can I learn from others’ vision that may be different from mine?
But this is not what the passage is about. The concern of the author is not blindness and vision, but the identity of Jesus. Who is Jesus? Is he the Messiah? This is chapter 9 of the Gospel of John. The previous chapter, which is coincidentally chapter 8, begins with this: “Again Jesus spoke to them (the crowds in Jerusalem), saying, “I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Chapter nine reinforces this claim of Jesus to be the light of the world. And the miracle of healing serves to continue the confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees.
Seen in this light, another way to use this passage in Lent is to consider the question, “Who is Jesus for me?” Is Jesus the light of my world? Is he the Messiah? Is he the Son of Man? Is he the source of my healing, or of my enlightenment? In what ways has Jesus touched me? Has Jesus ever told me something to do? Did I do it or not? What was the result? Have I ever had to tell someone else about what Jesus did for me? These are good questions to ponder during Lent as well.
Although the story of the man born blind is long and dramatic, it is not the only scripture we heard this morning. Paul moves our thinking about vision and light and dark to a whole new dimension. He writes, “Once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light.” For the community of the Risen One, we who are baptized into Jesus Christ, are ourselves light. We do not merely see, we do night merely receive sight. We are light, we are the source of vision. We bring light and enlightenment to the world. We are instruments God uses to enlighten others. Frankly, I am more comfortable thinking about my blind spots and rejoicing that there are a few things that I have come to see more clearly than I used to. Being light myself is too much to bear. I just don’t want to go there. It is too much responsibility. And to even think such thoughts seems like hubris.
Yet we are called by our baptisms to be light, to make a difference in the part of the world that we inhabit. Especially in our time of anxiety and division the world needs us. Here is bishop Stephen Charleston: You are needed for what is to come, for the struggle against fear, the turning point toward peace, that is why you are here, in the place you are, among the people you call community, to be a wise counselor and a calming presence, to invite others to work together, amid the pulls to extreme, against the rush to partisan, you are a center of hope, a balance of compassion and common sense, that will help to halt the rise of anger, and allow reason to guide the tiller of tomorrow, that is why you are here: you are needed for what is to come.
So now I finally think I see what Samuel and David have to do with all this. That light bulb has clicked on, although it is one of those modern ones that start dim and only gradually get bright. Samuel is seeing all the sons of Jesse through God’s eyes. He is not seeing with natural or human sight. When David is brought in Samuel discerns that this is the one God has chosen to lead Israel. When David is anointed by Samuel, “the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward.” We are not told immediately how that inspiration manifested itself, but we know from David’s story afterward that he was gifted musician and poet, that he was brave and effective warrior, that he was a leader that people followed with dedication and sacrifice, and he had a heart for justice and integrity. David was needed for what was to come. With the anointing by Samuel, David became light. And many centuries later, the Messiah would take as one of his titles, Son of David. Indeed, it was by this very title, Son of David, that another blind beggar on the road out of Jericho would call upon Jesus to heal his blindness.
So take the leaflet home and consider these readings. See where the Holy Spirit takes you. Along with the blind beggar in Jerusalem? Into a debate about who Jesus is for you? Into the challenge of being light for others? Into reflection about your own blindness? Into perceiving the presence of the Spirit of the Lord in your life? But know for a certainty, that Jesus is the light of our world.