Thursday in the Fourth Week

Micah 7:7-9; Psalm 27:1,10-18; John 9:1-13(14-27)28-38

(Note: today is St. Joseph’s day.  I love him, but I really want to stay in Lent.  If you want to reflect on him, the readings are: 2 Samuel 7:4,8-16; Psalm 89:1-29; Romans 4:13-18; Luke 2:41-52.)

To my mind, this Gospel is one of the most powerful stories in the Scriptures.  Forgive me, this may be long!  

I’m painfully aware of the dangers of the tropes of blindness and of darkness/light, but they are still powerful metaphors for me.  

So here’s this man.  I’ve always thought of him as Fred.  He’s an ordinary guy, except that he was born blind.  That has shaped his whole life, limiting him to begging for his income.  

Jesus learned his lesson from Ralph, the guy by the pool.  You might remember that he asked Ralph if he wanted to be healed, and Ralph didn’t answer.  So now, Jesus doesn’t even ask Fred.  Because, as important as this change is to Fred, the healing is not about Fred.  The healing is to show God’s glory, to bring healing into the world.  The disciples’ belief that blindness is a result of sin just makes it more important for Jesus to show that Fred’s vision is not the issue.  Fred’s growing insight, growing faith and awareness, is the issue.

When I read this story, I’m struck that at one time or another I’ve been all the characters in it.  I’ve been the Pharisees, so certain of my ideological line that I can’t acknowledge any gaps.  I've been Fred’s parents, afraid of the judgments of others and so ducking important questions.  I’ve been the disciples, even when I didn’t believe that sin caused disabilities.  I have shied away from “difference” as though the person were tainted or contagious.  Sometimes my judgments about addictions have resembled theirs.

And I’ve been Fred.  Fred doesn’t go from unawareness to full confession in one step.  In the beginning, he’s just minding his own business.  But when Jesus touched him he did what he was told, and he washed.  He comes back changed, but he can’t say how exactly it happened.  (As a friend of mine who belongs to Overeaters Anonymous says, he has no idea how it works, but it does, so he works it.)  

Then people start pressing on Fred to have an opinion about what’s happened to him.  Fred is finally willing to go so far as to say that Jesus is a prophet, a man of God.  When others keep pushing, Fred gets mad.  He stands by his own experience and insists that Jesus must be from God even when he doesn’t follow the rules.  His conviction deepens.

Finally, Fred meets Jesus again.  He trusts Jesus now, more than he trusts the authorities who judged him but never welcomed him into community.  When Jesus says that he is the “Son of Man,” Fred is ready.  He believes, and he worships.

Fred’s journey is gradual.  In the process he has to move past all those who would tell him how God works and what God demands from him.  All he has is his own experience of healing, but that is gradually refined and shaped into conviction.  Fred makes the journey from “blindness” to “insight.”  He “sees the light.”

I’m grateful today that God lets us get on board at our own pace and in our own way.  I came to Jesus gradually, and I am sure there’s a lot more to see and know in the future.  Whenever I say “I see,” I close myself off from further growth.  

Today I celebrate my blindness - my past blindness, and my current partial vision.  I relish what God has done for me, what I’ve been willing to claim, and I also trust that there’s more to come.

I wonder what happened to Fred after this.  Does he go on the road with Jesus?  Does he stay and become a missionary to his former companions?  Does he suffer for his confession of faith?  We don’t hear.  

Our world is full of Freds, anonymous people touched by God.  

Where are you on this journey of faith today? Where is your next step?