John 9:1. As [Jesus] walked along, he saw a man blind from
birth.
Let’s try to walk along with Jesus, or at least keep up at
a fast trot, for as John tells us earlier, he was fresh from dodging stones
back at the temple where he had incurred the wrath of the Pharisees for
claiming his divine birthright.
His encounter with the blind-from-birth beggar will do as
much to prove his divinity, as to help seal his death sentence.
“Seeing the blind man” sets the stage for countless
interpretive counterpoints to come: to see, not to see; to be blind and see; to
be sighted and not see; darkness, despair, light of the world; and a miracle
only the Son of Man could perform.
It begins with the disciples expressing a bland curiosity
about the cause of the blind man’s affliction. They speculate as Pharisees
might, whether it was because of his own sin, or that of his parents. Biblical
scholars cite that congenital blindness at birth was wide-spread in those days,
often the result of venereal disease.
But Jesus will have none of it, answering, “Neither this
man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be
revealed in him.”
Then Jesus signals he feels the enormous pressure of time
running out, saying “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day:
night is coming when no one can work.”
He performs a curious act, spitting on the ground to make
a sort of mud poultice and smears it on the man’s eyes, instructing him to go
and wash in the pool of Siloam. The blind man follows the instructions and
returns miraculously as a sighted man, his identity confirmed by his parents.
Lenten Reflection: Dear Lord, help me find my blind spot
during this 2015 Lenten Reflection, and spotlight my path to dissolve those
scales from my eyes.
—Bonnie
Palevich
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