March 15, 2026 Sermon

Sermon title:  “The Blind Man”

Scripture:  John 9:1-41

(Other lectionary suggestions include I Samuel 16:1-13, Psalm 23, and Ephesians 5:8-14.)

John 9:1-41

A Man Born Blind Receives Sight

1As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. 4We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. 5As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, 7saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. 8The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9Some were saying, “It is he.” Others were saying, “No, but it is someone like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” 10But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ Then I went and washed and received my sight.” 12They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

The Pharisees Investigate the Healing

13They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.” 16Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And they were divided. 17So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” He said, “He is a prophet.” 18The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight 19and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” 20His parents answered, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 21but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” 22His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. 23Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.” 24So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.” 25He answered, “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” 26They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” 28Then they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” 30The man answered, “Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. 32Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. 33If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” 34They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?” And they drove him out.

Spiritual Blindness

35Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36He answered, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.” 37Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” 38He said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped him. 39Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.” 40Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?” 41Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”

          This rather long Scripture reading of Jesus healing the blind man has always been one of my favorites. I love it that the blind man eventually says, “Look! Once I was blind and now, I see!” And he could have said, “So BUZZ OFF! Once I could not see, but now I can. Why are you Pharisees causing such a fuss?” Theologically, some of the disciples and some of the Pharisees held the belief that SOMEONE must have sinned to cause this man’s blindness. But Jesus wasn’t having any of it. Says N. T. Wright, the British scholar, “Jesus firmly resists any such analysis of how the world is ordered. The world is stranger than that, and darker than that, and the light of God’s powerful, loving justice shines more brightly than that. But to understand it all, we have to be prepared to dismantle some of our cherished assumptions and to let God re-make them in a different way.”

          Says Wright, we have to stop thinking of the world as a huge slot machine in which we put in a good thing and a good thing comes out of it! Of course, actions have consequences, and sometimes good actions have good consequences, and sometimes bad actions have bad consequences...but not always!

          I like what Wright says about Genesis and the Creation of Everything. In the beginning, God was faced with all kinds of chaos. “He didn’t waste time describing the chaos, analyzing or discussing whose fault it was. Instead, he created light; and following the light, a whole new world.”

          Wright goes on to say that new creation is always puzzling. In the Scripture lesson we heard, nobody could figure out if the man was the same guy or not! And he says that sometimes when people are transformed by Jesus, they can’t believe that it’s the same person! “Can someone who used to lie and steal, to cheat and swear, have become a truthful, wholesome, wise human being? The answer is yes; this can and does happen.”

          What about after Jesus’s resurrection? Was this the same Jesus? “Again, the answer is yes. New creation does happen. Healing does happen. Lives can be transformed.”

          I found this next part of my sermon on the website My Pastoral Ponderings. It is from a sermon from three years ago and the name of the pastor was not given.

          For the third Sunday in a row, our assigned gospel reading features a rather lengthy account of someone who is transformed by their encounter with Jesus. First, there was the Pharisee named Nicodemus. Then there was the Samaritan woman at the well. And now, there is the man born blind, the story told in John 9:1-41. This man is transformed from a humble blind beggar to a fearless evangelist. How? By his encounter with Jesus. By his coming to see the one thing that Jesus wants for all of us to see. Let’s take a look and find out what that is.

          This man, once again, has been blind from birth. In those days, which meant that he didn’t have many opportunities to get anywhere in life. He became one more beggar filling up the streets of Jerusalem. To make it worse, most of the people he encountered would have assumed that he did something wrong to earn this blindness. He or his parents. Someone must have sinned. He would have endured many a whisper and innuendo through the years. Even Jesus’ disciples openly wonder what this man did wrong, or what his parents did wrong, that caused him to be born blind.

          I wonder, sometimes, if things have really changed, at least in that respect. At our worst, it seems to me, we still assume that those who succeed in life are somehow more blessed by God, and those who suffer do so because of their sin. At our worst, we still judge other people based on these assumptions. Or, just as bad, we often judge ourselves in the same way. But Jesus sees things differently. He tells his disciples that there is more to life than meets the eye. This particular man was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. God had a plan and purpose for his life that no one could see until Jesus came along. Is that true for you? For me?

          This calls to mind for me a story about another beggar, who was sitting across the street from an artist’s studio. The artist saw him and thought he would make an interesting portrait study. So, from a distance he painted this man, sitting by the road with a discouraged look, downcast eyes, a sad almost defeated look on his face. When he was finished, he took the portrait over to the beggar so he could look at it. “Who is that?” the beggar questioned. The portrait faintly resembled him, but it showed a person of dignity, sitting upright, bright eyes, a determined look on his face. The beggar said to the artist, “Is that me? I don’t look like that.” But the artist replied, “but that is the person I see in you.”

          And that is true for the artist called Jesus, too. He sees something in us that we don’t always see in ourselves. And he wants to restore our dignity, to forgive our sin, to reconcile us to God. He came, in other words, so that we might truly see:  See who we are, and see who others are, as God sees them.

          Today’s gospel reading is about much more than physical sight. In this story, the healing of this man’s physical sight is told in two verses. Just two verses of a 41-verse story. Helping this man to physically see, in other words, was arguably the easy part. After this man’s physical sight is restored, the neighbors argue about whether this man really was born blind or not. They refuse to see that a miracle has occurred. They’d rather blind themselves to it than have to re-think the world and their place in it. So, they can’t see this miracle because they are unwilling to believe it.

          The Pharisees, on the other hand, are less concerned with whether the miracle really happened or not. Their concern is that it happened on the sabbath. They, too, are unable to see this miracle because they are blinded by their rules and regulations.

          And then there are the blind man’s parents. They are so afraid of being kicked out of the synagogue for being followers of Jesus that they refuse to say what happened to their son. Let him speak for himself, they tell the Pharisees. Their fear has blinded them from seeing and celebrating the miracle they no doubt had been praying for.

          All of this leads us to wonder, is there anyone in this story who is not blind in some way? By the end of the story, there will be one, and that is the man born blind. He is a remarkable man. But even he must grow in his faith before he can see and believe who Jesus truly is. After his physical sight is restored, he is brought before the Pharisees, who badger him with questions. He shares, openly and honestly, what happened. And when they ask him what he thinks about Jesus, he says to them, “He is a prophet.” You see? He is beginning to see, but he’s not there yet. Later, after his own parents have abandoned him, he is brought before the Pharisees again. They demand that he tell them that Jesus is a sinner. His answer? “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” The Pharisees don’t like his answer, of course. They kick him out of the synagogue, just as they threatened to do to his parents. And perhaps this suffering was part of the process toward his seeing who Jesus truly is. God can use even our most difficult experiences to help us see and believe in him.

          This blind man, who has been physically healed by Jesus, has now been rejected by his family, friends and community. Who is left? Only Jesus. When Jesus heard that the Pharisees had driven this man out of the synagogue, he returned. We don’t know why Jesus left. But we do know why he returned. To help him see. “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” Jesus asked this man upon his return. “And who is he, sir? Tell me so that I may believe in him.” By his very question, we can see that this man is ready to see and believe.

          Sometimes our questions reveal more than our answers. This man’s question reveals a humility, an openness, and a faith that we don’t see in anyone else in this story. Who is he? Jesus answers, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” And this man believes what Jesus says. “Lord, I believe,” he says. And he worshiped Jesus. And now this man born blind can see it all. He can see it all because he believes it all. He believes Jesus. What else can he do, then, but worship him? What else can he do but worship the one who has helped him to see?

          We all know the beloved hymn, “Amazing Grace,” which has a line from this gospel reading:  “I once was blind, but now I see.” It is worth remembering the story behind this hymn and its author, John Newton. Newton was born in London in 1725, the son of a shipmaster. He himself became a merchant seaman and eventually became the captain of slave ships and even an investor in the slave trade. During a storm at sea, Newton had a spiritual conversion. He began reading the Bible and living a devout Christian life. He was in his early twenties at the time. But it is important to note that even after Newton became a devout Christian, he was still involved in the slave trade. He continued serving as the captain of slave ships. Newton had begun to see, in other words, but still had blind spots, just like us all. He suffered a stroke when he was just 31 years old, gave up seafaring, and after he recovered from his stroke, he studied and became a priest in the Church of England.

          It was not until some years later, when Newton was in his sixties, that he began to publicly campaign for the end of slavery. He wrote and published a widely-read pamphlet against slavery. And in that pamphlet, he wrote that:  “It will always be a subject of humiliating reflection to me, that I was once an active instrument in a business at which my heart now shudders.” Newton observed later that his conversion to Christianity had several steps. In the end, he recognized that slavery was wrong, and that it was important that he work toward its end. Newton began writing hymns during this period, with a famous poet, William Cowper. He wrote a hymn that he called “Faith’s Review and Expectation” that eventually came to be known by its opening line, “Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound.” Shortly before Newton’s death, he is quoted as saying, “My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things:  That I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great Savior!” God’s amazing grace had opened Newton’s eyes, and his life was changed forever.

          So, what about us? What does Jesus want us to see and to believe this day? What do we need to remember this day? Where are our blind spots? Where do we need to work for change in our world? What is God’s amazing grace doing in our lives right now? Asking these questions takes us into the heart of today’s gospel reading. An encounter with Jesus that helps this man to see who he is, and who Jesus is. A man born blind, a beggar, who is now a fearless evangelist and a model for us all. He now sees who he is, he sees who Jesus is, and he is helping those around him to see with new eyes.

          When Martin Luther died, there was found a scrap of paper in this pocket on which he had simply written:  “We are beggars, this is true.” After all that Martin Luther had taught and done throughout his life, this was the truth that he clung to as he lay dying. We are beggars, this is true. Yes. We are all beggars. We are all blind. We are all sinners. This is true. And we are all loved. We are all forgiven. We are all redeemed. This is also true. And we are reminded today that if there is one thing we know, it is that though we once were blind, now we see.

          Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, and how great the gift. May we see ourselves through the grace-filled eyes of Jesus. And may we help others to see themselves through those same loving eyes. To the glory of God. Amen.

Pastor Skip