Year A 4th Sunday in Lent

Text: John 9:1-41 - Seeing is believing

The world has been transfixed by the disappearance of the Malaysian flight that went missing in 2014 - MH 370.

It’s not the first plane to have something happen to it but what has kept us intrigued is that no one knows what happened.

We don’t like that.

We like to be in control, and when a mystery happens we spend an enormous amount of time trying to find out what happened.

There have been many theories suggested.

Was it terrorism, was it pilot suicide, was it a hijack, was it simply an accident – some even believe it may have been aliens that have abducted the plane and its passengers.

We don’t like to be left in the dark, possibly a symptom from the very first curiosity moment in the Garden of Eden.

God had forbidden Adam and Eve to eat from the one tree in the Garden of Eden – the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Satan knew their weakness.

Like children wanting to know what’s in that wrapped present under the tree.

Or when that letter arrives for someone else in the family and you hold it up to the light or google the return address to see what’s in it – curiosity has always gotten the better of us.

And so Satan sidles up to Eve and tickles her curiosity.

What’s with that tree – did God really say you couldn’t eat from it.

Look at it –look how nice the fruit looks.

And then he says – if you eat from that tree – your eyes will be opened and you will be like God.

Your eyes will be opened – you’ll see everything.

And so Eve eats and draws interest from her husband Adam to also eat – and their eyes were opened.

But what they saw was devastating.

Nothing now would be hidden.

They saw they were naked and tried desperately to hide it again.

Their eyes were different – no longer attuned to see what God does for them.

And that’s the very problem today – God makes the sun to shine and the rain to fall on the good and evil, but we don’t always give thanks to God.

They desired to know Good and Evil and now their eyes will see exactly that.

Before this they only saw Very Good – as we hear when God finished his act of Creation and behold it was ‘very good’ (Genesis 1:31)

So their eyes, after being opened, only saw less and worse.

Less in that we see good and not Very Good.

Worse in that we now see Evil.

And so today we continue to live with these eyes.

Eyes that see Good and Evil and no longer seeing what God had intended – the Very Good.

Jesus comes to bring light into the darkness, and the darkness hates it.

Think of Jesus first visit to a Synagogue in Marks Gospel – the very first chapter.

From the moment he walks in evil is revealed.

There in the synagogue was an evil spirit.

Had no one noticed – obviously not or they wouldn’t have let him in.

But their eyes, now attuned to evil were so used to the darkness that they couldn’t distinguish evil.

The darkness had become normal, just like a nocturnal animal.

Jesus walks in and immediately the evil is revealed.

“What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” (Mark 1:24).

Interestingly it is the evil spirits who first declare Jesus as the Holy One of God.

Similar to what James says:

You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder. (James 2:19).

Today Jesus brings healing to a man born in darkness.

And the curiosity begins the questioning of Jesus.

They want to know how come he was born blind.

Was it his parents who sinned or the blind man? (John 9:1)

I wonder if they really thought about that question, considering he was born blind, what could he have done to deserve being born blind.

What we learn from this passage is that there are 2 types of blindness.

There is physical blindness which this man was born with.

But there is also spiritual blindness which seems to be affecting the Pharisees.

They can’t see the good God is doing and call it evil.

Luther, in his Heidelberg Disputation said that humans call evil good, and good evil.

And what we learn as we listen to this incident is that sin does cause blindness – but it’s spiritual blindness.

As we see in the final encounter with the Pharisees:

Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”

Jesus was speaking about blindness to God’s blessings and presence in the world – much like Adam and Eve.

Their eyes were opened but their spirits were closed.

They could now see Good and Evil, but their eyes were now closed to the “very Good” that God has created.

And perhaps that is why Genesis says that what God has created was “very good” and not just good.

Evil can hide the good, but it cannot destroy the very good that God has created, but only through faith can we see that.

Jesus came to restore God’s very good creation, which is why John’s Gospel begins with the same words as Genesis – In the beginning!

Like God creating Adam from the dust of the ground, Jesus creates new life for the blind man through the dust on the ground.

The new life that Jesus now offers is not Very Good – but Perfect!

That restoring work of God comes through his light opening our eyes to sin.

We heard that also in our reading from Paul to the Ephesians:

Once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; (Ephesians 5:8-14)

It’s not a nice or easy thing to have our sin revealed.

It’s like walking from a dark room into the sunlight – and your eyes hurt – you can’t open them fully.

The darkness still tries to hang on for dear life as your eyes try to close and stop the light from breaking in.

And that’s because Satan and evil are trying desperately to hang on to prevent you from having the light of Christ enter with the grace of God.

Jesus’ light breaks the hold of sin through forgiveness.

But it first opens our eyes to see that sin which can be a very painful process, as it was for the demons.

As Paul said, it can be shameful.

And so we try hard to hide our sin just as Adam and Eve tried to hide their shame and nakedness from God by hiding.

But God comes in not to punish but to love and forgive us.

We hear in Genesis that God removed the pitiful effort of Adam and Eve’s fig leaves and made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. (Genesis 3:21)

Sin is no small thing in our lives.

It blinds us to God’s grace and allows sin to do damaging work in our lives particularly through guilt and shame.

Jesus didn’t concern himself about who sinned that this man was born blind;

He didn’t come to judge or condemn but to forgive.

And there is no greater freedom than hearing that our sins are forgiven.

And there is no greater prison that being trapped in sin.

God sent his son into the world, not to condemn the world but to save the world through him.

So allow Jesus to open your eyes today;

Firstly to see your sin so you can confess it and not hide it.

But then to allow your eyes to see and experience the freedom of sins forgiven in the grace and mercy of God, and the Perfect life in heaven that God has prepared for his children.

Not Very Good – Perfect!