By Reverend Deacon Jerry Bauman
Today’s readings and our journal assignment, all have something to do with one of the five senses, sight.
In the first reading, from Samuel, we are told in no uncertain terms that God sees differently than we see. While some of us would choose the eldest, or the tallest, or the handsomest, or the orange-est, God looks into the heart and chooses the one who will best meet the task.
And in the second reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Saul of Tarsus, soon to be Paul, has a physical encounter on the Road to Damascus with an invisible Jesus, about 7 years after his death. Saul was a hot-head, known for his cruelty when it comes to the treatment of the early followers of the Way, which is what Christians were called at this time. You could have thought of him as the Stephen Miller of first century Judea. Saul had just finished a hard-days-work overseeing the stoning of St. Stephen, the first martyr, when Jesus’ spirit literally knocked him off his donkey and blinded him while he lay on the ground. His sight was returned a few days later, but only after he had some time to serious think about his life up to that point and commit to some changes.
And in the story from chapter 9 of John’s gospel, we hear of Jesus giving sight to a man born blind. He was not just visually impaired but born without eyes. Jesus is said to have formed eyes for him out of clay, mirroring our creation story in which we were formed from dust. I find it interesting that in this Gospel story, Jesus gives sight and in Acts, he takes it away. But I digress.
Now, I’ve been called kind of nerdy and one of my favorite topics in math class when I was younger was number systems. And I really loved binary numbers, you may remember it, the system having only ones and zeroes. The system that shows this year, 2026 as 11111101010. Binary numbers are used everywhere and in ways we don’t even realize, like computer programming. And most electrical devices nowadays have what’s commonly called an i/o switch which is simply the power switch. i, because it looks like a 1, and o, because it looks like a zero. One is ON and zero is OFF. i means there is power and o means there isn’t power. In binary systems, it’s either a 1 or a zero, in electrical systems, it’s either on or off, those are the only choices. Binary systems are great for mathematics and the sciences, but they can be problematic when used in real life issues.
Often in life, we reach the wrong conclusions because we have asked the wrong questions. Or we setup false choices and insist that the answer must be either A or B. Things in life are not always binary, not always just A or B.
Here are some examples of this flawed reasoning in today’s story. First, the disciples ask whose sins caused a man to be born blind, his own or his parents? Jesus rejects both of those choices and offers an answer that has nothing to do with anyone’s sin. He tells them that no one is to blame for the man’s blindness and that we should instead look at what God can do because there is plenty of light in the world.
Then, Once the man’s eyesight is healed, the Pharisees challenge Jesus’ act, arguing that either a person is from God and observes the Sabbath or a person is not from God and breaks the Sabbath laws. In Jesus, someone greater than the Sabbath was present among them, so a different option needed to be considered.
So not being happy with the man’s answers when he was questioned further, the Pharisees interrogate him again and tell him he should give glory to God and call Jesus a sinner or risk dishonoring God by vouching for Jesus’ righteousness. The man refuses to choose between these false choices and instead offers words that were used in the first verse of “Amazing Grace”. “I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.”
Then the man is given one last chance to choose between following Jesus or Moses, his patience comes to an end, and he taunts his questioners by calling Jesus a Prophet and stressing the legitimacy of his divine power. In this story, a blind beggar stands his ground and speaks truth to power. An outsider, a voice from the margins with no institutional power proclaims that Jesus is from God. And when he says to Jesus, “Master, I believe,” his affirmation links him with other faithful outsiders in John’s Gospel, such as Photina, the Samaritan woman at the well. Whenever and wherever power imbalances exist, justice will not be served. The interrogation of the blind man led to him being dismissed from the synagogue, just for speaking his truth. It’s not clear whether he had any real status in his faith community, but nevertheless, he belonged. And then he was separated or excommunicated from its membership just for questioning the status quo and speaking his truth. Sound familiar?
As Jesus was on his way out the door, he taught the so-called wise ones a lesson and set the stage for the final verses in which the dialog comes full-circle. Once more the question of sin and blindness is raised and Jesus takes the opportunity to connect the two without seeking a third option. Jesus said, “If you were really blind, you would be blameless, but since you claim to see everything so well, you’re accountable for each of your faults and failures.”
It’s so very easy to fall into these false binary choices of A or B. But it’s also not right for us to regard the Pharisees as “Bad Option A” with those being healed or forgiven as “Fully Righteous Option B”. For Jesus to truly be the light of the world, the message must be one of glad tidings to everyone on both sides of the discussion. Jesus came so that the blind may see and the powerful ones with sight may become aware of their spiritual and moral blindness. We all have some work to do in this regard.
Amen, Holy Family?
And now for a bit of really good news!
Once again, I thought there just had to be a name for this “man born blind” that Jesus healed in John’s Gospel, and although he is not named in the biblical text, Eastern Orthodox tradition honors him as Saint Celidonius (sell-ih-DOE-nee-us), who later became a missionary and brought many to become followers of the Way!