Seeing Is Believing: Reflections on John 9.1-41

 

RCL Lent 4A [i]

15 March 2026

 

Saint Helen’s Anglican Church

Vancouver BC

 

            My late colleague Lloyd Gaston taught New Testament at Vancouver School of Theology for many years.  He was the only person I’ve ever met who could make a pun in three languages in one sentence.  But he was also a person who searched the Scriptures deeply and he was and still is respected by his students.

            One of the assignments he gave to his students was what he called ‘From Text to Sermon’.  In this assignment a student was to dig deeply into a particular text and, by digging deeply, determine what were the questions or insights that needed to be laid before a congregation in a sermon.

            Today I’m going to just that.  The story of the healing of the man born blind has more going on than may be apparent at first glance.  And, as I did last week, I want to dig into John’s way of telling a story and leave a few questions for us to ponder in the weeks left to us before the lighting of the Easter Candle.

 

Sin and Suffering

            In the first part of today’s gospel reading the disciples ask a question rooted in their Jewish identity:  ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” [ii]  At this time illness, suffering and disability were often seen as the consequences of moral failure.  Some Jewish teachers pointed to the rivalry between Jacob and Esau in their mother’s womb as evidence that sin could precede birth. [iii]  It must be said that linking suffering to moral failure is not limited to the past; there are voices that consider poverty, homelessness and addiction to be someone’s ‘fault’.

            But Jesus is having none of this speculation:  “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” [iv]  Jesus’ answer could lead us to try to ponder why God would make someone suffer, but that would be a conversation of great length.  What Jesus is saying to his disciples is this:  This is not a time to reflect on the relationship between sin and the human condition.  This is a time to consider how this man’s blindness can be an occasion to display God’s love and compassion, key elements of Jesus’ mission and ministry.

            So, one avenue for a sermon today would be this.  How can we turn the problems of our communities into occasions of love and compassion rather than debates about morality and blame?  How can we, both personally and communally, “do the works of the one who sent (us)” in a world where night seems to creep up on us more frequently than we might like? [v]

 

Crossing the Boundary

            For the Jewish community in the time of Jesus, maintaining their identity was a daily struggle.  They were surrounded by greedy and hostile neighbours.  Their land had lost any semblance of autonomy and had been forcibly incorporated into the Roman empire as a province under a foreign governor.  There were three keys to Jewish identity:  circumcision, food laws and Sabbath. [vi]  

            So, imagine the response of the religious authorities to Jesus’ healing someone on the Sabbath by means of making a salve, an act of work on the day dedicated to not working, a challenge to one of the cornerstones of Jewish identity.  We might be tempted to consider their objection petty, by saying, “The ends justify the means.”  But do we not all have traditions that we value or things that we treasure as sustaining our identity?  How do we react when those traditions and treasures are challenged?

 

Now we see

            When I began theological college, I was opposed to the ordination of women.  When I graduated from theological college, I was no longer an opponent.  When I came to Vancouver School of Theology, I was opposed to the full inclusion of LGBTQ disciples of Christ in the ordained ministry of the church.  At General Synod 1995 in Ottawa, I publicly declared that I had changed my mind and was now an ally.

            What happened?  You all know the saying, ‘Seeing is believing.”  In theological college I witnessed the depth of pastoral wisdom and generosity of spirit in the women who were my classmates.  I saw the essence of ordained leadership and I believed.  At Vancouver School of Theology, I witnessed the depth of pastoral wisdom and generosity of spirit in our LGBTQ students and the covenant of faithfulness in their relationships.  I saw and I believed.

            Throughout John’s gospel, ‘seeing’ means ‘believing’.  For John sin is not a moral category of behaviour but a theological category about one’s response to the revelation of God in Jesus. [vii]  When we see God in action, regardless of whether that action fits within our expectations or not, it is, in John’s language, ‘sin’ not to recognize it and to give thanks.  Where might we have been blind to God’s activity in our lives and in the lives of others?  Where might we have been quick to dismiss something rather than acknowledge it as a sign of God at work in us, around us and, I might say, despite us?

 

Let us pray.

Creator and Healer, root of all goodness,

working your Sabbath will in the chaos of our life:

teach us the insight that gives true judgement

and praises you wherever you are found,

making miracles from spit and mud;

through Jesus Christ, the Son of earth.

Amen.

 

 

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[i] 1 Samuel 16.1-13; Psalm 23; Ephesians 5.8-14; John 9.1-41.

 

[ii] John 9.2b (NRSVue).

 

[iii] Gail O’Day, “John” in The New Interpreter’s Bible, vol. IX (1995), 653.

 

[iv] John 9.3 (NRSVue).

 

[v] John 9.4 (NRSVue).

 

[vi] Note on John 5.9b-10 (NRSVue) in The New Interpreter’s Study Bible (2003).

 

[vii] Comment on John 9.1-41 in The New Interpreter’s Study Bible (2003).