John 9:1-41
A
young woman came to her pastor to talk about her sin of pride. The woman said, “Pastor, every Sunday I come
to church and look around and think to myself that I am the prettiest girl in
the church. I try to stop but I just
can’t. Am I horribly sinful?” The Pastor looked at her and said, “No dear
not sinful; just horribly mistaken.”
In our text for today and in our
everyday lives there are moments when we too are horribly mistaken. Those moments when we think we know the right
answer. Those moments when we think we
know the reason something is happening.
Those moments when we want answers and when we don’t get any, we make up
our own reasons.
After the diagnosis of a life altering illness, like cancer, the
question is often asked “what did I do to deserve this.” When someone dies to early often people
wonder “what did this person do to receive this.” Time and time again people wonder in the
midst of tragedy “why does God let bad things happen to good people.” We want reasons. So sometimes people try to relate someone’s
personal sin or the sins of their family to the reason why they are suffering
now.
When natural disasters happen you
can often find some report citing a person of faith who believes that sin is
the reason for the disaster. The one I
remember hearing a lot about was that the sin that existed in the city of New
Orleans is what caused Hurricane Katrina to hit. The same has been said about other
hurricanes, tsunamis, tornados, and more.
Our text today begins with the
disciples asking these same questions.
They are wondering who has sinned – the man born blind or his
parents. They want reasons for the
blindness. It’s as if they believed in
first century karma. They believed that
if you did something wrong it would come back to you. They thought that someone had to have done
something wrong in order for this man to have been born blind.
To this question of the disciples and to our present day
wonderings about sin as the cause of suffering, Jesus would say, “We are horribly
mistaken.” Jesus sets the disciples right, by telling them that it was not the
sin of this man or the sins of his parents that made him blind. The god that is often cited as causing these
things to happen us and those we love is not the God that I believe in. And I hope it is not the God you believe in
either.
The God we believe in is the one who, through Jesus, meets this
man who was born blind and heals him.
Our God heals him, even though it is the Sabbath. Our God makes it clear that it was not sin
that caused this man to be born blind.
Our God combines mud and spit and puts it on the man’s eyes. Then he sends him to the pool of Siloam to
wash. The man who once was blind could
now see.
And no one could believe it.
The neighbors were baffled. The
parents of the man were confused. The
Pharisees thought this was finally their chance to prove that Jesus wasn’t
really who he said he was. Everyone was
coming up with their own story for the situation at hand. The man who could now see knew the true
story, but no one wanted to believe his testimony. He knew that they were all horribly mistaken. He knew that he was blind, but now could see.
When we give all our attention to watching others, judging their
decisions, and writing our own story about what is happening in their life, we
lose sight of our own relationship with God.
By focusing on the sinfulness of others we often focus less on our own
sin. Martin Luther used the term simul
justus et peccator to describe the human condition. We are simultaneously sinner and saint. When we focus on the sinner and saint in our
neighbor we forget that we are just like them.
It is like we see the speck of dust in their eye, but cannot tell that
we have a log in our own eye. In those
moments we are horribly mistaken about our own human nature. We have moments of sinfulness and moments of
saintliness. The disciples were
simultaneously sinners and saints. The
man born blind was simultaneously sinner and saint. His parents were simultaneously sinners and
saints. The Pharisees were
simultaneously sinners and saints. We
are simultaneously sinners and saints.
It is in those moments when we are so focused on our saintliness
and the sinner in everyone else around us, that we lose sight of the one who
bore our sins in his sinless body on the tree for our forgiveness. Our salvation was won by the one who opened
the door for us to be both sinner and saint all at the same time. Life eternal is granted to us by the one who
conquered death and the grave when we sent him to Calvary with the words,
“crucify him.” At that moment we were so
horribly mistaken because we thought he would stay dead, but he rose from the
dead, showing us the ultimate power that God has. We were once in the darkness, but now we are
surrounded by light. For we once were
blind, but now we see.
So in those moments when we look at our neighbors with judgment
and count their sins for them and forget about our own sinful nature, may we
call on Jesus to combine spit and mud and send us to the pool of Siloam to
wash. When we are horribly mistaken, may
we call on the one who gives sight to the blind, to give us sight. When we feel like we have no words to proclaim
our faith, may we be sent from the pool with a message to share with the world
that we once were blind but now we see, that Jesus has touched us and we are
changed because of his presence in our lives.
For that light, the light of Jesus Christ, which dispels the darkness,
we give thanks and praise to God. Amen.
