Horribly Mistaken

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.