From the Daily Lectionary for January 12 in the First Week of the Epiphany
John 9:1-12, 35-38
As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. The 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?” Some were saying, “It is he.” Others were saying, “No, but it is someone like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” He 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.” They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”
Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” He said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped him.
The writer of John is bearing down on the contrast between believer and unbeliever. The metaphorical proposition is that the unbeliever is both blind and deaf. The unbeliever lives in darkness apart from the light of the truth, and opposes the aims of the truth. This stark dualism almost kept this Gospel out of the New Testament Canon because it smacked of Gnosticism and exclusivity, but still, I think this awareness is important for us Twenty-First-Century Christians in the United States whose democracy is under siege; whose social order is in question; whose collective will is in disarray.
Our culture, perhaps the world, is deeply divided, but that division is not simply a matter of staunch opposing opinions or viewpoints. The division I believe is between truth and the willful adherence to falsehood. Seminars and gurus abound offering a healing potion for our sad divisions. “Can’t we just listen to each other?” they say. But falsehood refuses to listen. The neighbors in this story are unwilling to hear that Jesus has healed, raised up, a poor beggar. They are unwilling to see that Jesus the Son of God acts first for the poor and disenfranchised. They are unwilling to hear and see that God does not afflict with malady the sinner as a means of punishment; but that God is able in all of life’s circumstances to show God’s unfailing love. They believe in the falsities of the status quo.
Why do a substantial percentage of our population reject the restoration of the poor and disenfranchised to well-being and dignity? And why do they reject them by the means of false narrative, lies, and even violence? Like the blind beggar, and perhaps even his neighbors, we need healing in our land. We need healing so that, as Jesus puts it, “God’s works might be revealed in us.
Ironically, paradoxically, in the midst of crisis in our common life, in the midst of fearful darkness, there is the clear and present opportunity for renewal; the possibility for healing and redemption; the opportunity to embrace the light. But we have to tell the truth, and listen for it, and stand for it with resolve; and let those with ears to hear… hear; and those with eyes to see… see.
A Prayer for those who Influence Public Opinion (BCP p. 827)
O God, you proclaim your truth in every age by many voices: Direct, in our time, we pray, those who speak where many listen and write what many read; that they may do their part in making the heart of this people wise, its mind sound, and its will righteous, to the honor of Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
