Healing and Transformation

Today’s Gospel lesson is a tightly woven drama, with multiple scenes, fast action, a large cast of characters, and a dramatic reversal in which the main character is transformed. It would be great to see it onstage. It even conforms to one of the rules for Greek drama—the rule of twos—meaning that only two characters or groups appear onstage at the same time. If you are interested in how the gospel writers use literary structure to convey theological truths, this is a good passage to reflect on.

What are the truths that the Gospel writer is trying to get us to see, so to speak? Too many to cover in a single sermon—all I can do is flag a few for us and then take a closer look at the transformation of the blind man which is the heart of this story.

One theme is physical versus spiritual healing—according to this Gospel writer, they are two separate processes. The blind man first has his sight restored, and then the rest of the narrative shows him gradually coming to understand who Jesus is, until finally he worships him—reflecting his spiritual healing. Just getting his sight back did not guarantee that he would take the second journey of spiritual healing. But we frequently see healing miracles in the gospels followed by an affirmation of faith. It bears out the truth that it is not enough to experience healing in our bodies and minds—if we are to be whole, we need spiritual healing as well. Carl Jung knew this—he said that psychiatry can only take a person so far and then he or she must find faith of some kind. I would go even further and say that even when we cannot be healed physically, we can still be healed on a spiritual level. As some of you may know, my mother has Alzheimers, or dementia—her doctors cannot say for sure. All her life she has had a very active intellectual life, reading voraciously and interested in every subject. If you had asked her what was the worst thing she could face, she would have said Alzheimer’s. But it has become clear to us in the past few years that even as she loses her memory and intellectual capacity, she is being healed spiritually. She has forgiven those who hurt her, and is able to look back at the many blessings in her life. And she is far more able than she has ever been to live in and enjoy the present, instead of regretting the past or worrying about the future. This story from John makes the point quite clearly that physical and spiritual healing, while they are both important, are separate.

Another theme in this passage is the question of what sin is and isn’t. Jesus is quite clear that illness and disability are not caused by sin. That sounds self-evident in this day and age when we know so much about genetics and microbial organisms and environment as causes of disease. But we have a lingering tendency to blame people for diseases like addiction and mental illness. And even when we hear about someone with cancer or heart disease, the first question is often, did they smoke, or were they overweight, or did they exercise? We would rather blame ourselves and each other for illness than accept that we have limited control over our health.

According to this gospel writer, sin does not consist in failing to conform to the rules. Jesus himself breaks the rule against working on the Sabbath when he heals the blind man. Sin in John’s gospel is when you encounter the healing, life-giving presence of Jesus, and refuse to acknowledge him as One who was sent by God. The dramatic irony in this story is that the Pharisees, who were the good churchgoing people of their day (the ones we would expect to recognize God when they encounter him), look directly at the miracle of the blind man being healed and refuse to acknowledge that God is at work in their midst, while the blind beggar who initially has no idea of who Jesus is, ends by worshipping him. His eyes are opened in every sense, and he is transformed by his encounter with Jesus.

So how does our man make his journey of transformation?  The first thing he does is listen to Jesus and respond.  Jesus doesn’t just lay hands on him and heal him—he has to do something too.  Jesus tells him to go wash in the pool of Siloam and he does it.  So he is open to healing and transformation from the beginning and is willing to take a step in response to Jesus’ invitation.  That is true of us too—God continually invites us into relationship with him, but we have to be willing to listen and to take that first step. The other thing that this man does in all the dialogues with his neighbors and the Pharisees, is tell the truth. He answers every question they ask him honestly and directly. When the neighbors are arguing over whether he’s the same man who has lived among them as a blind beggar, he keeps trying to tell them—“Yes, I am the man.” Then they ask him how it happened and he answers, “A guy named Jesus put mud on my eyes and told me to go and wash in the pool and I did.  Now I can see.”  He gives them the simple, straightforward truth.  Then they ask, “Well, where is he?” and he answers, “I don’t know.”   Again, the unvarnished truth—he is not yet a disciple, he hasn’t started following Jesus—he is just a guy Jesus healed.

Now the neighbors take the poor man to the Pharisees.  They’re the religious leaders—surely they’ll know what to make of this.  The man repeats his simple story and the Pharisees start arguing over whether Jesus is a sinner for healing on the Sabbath.  Here is where you begin to see the reversal—the Pharisees are focusing on Jesus’ violation of the rules, but when they ask the man who Jesus is, he tells them he is a prophet.  He is beginning to see things more clearly, while the Pharisees are starting to seem shortsighted.

The Pharisees then question the man’s parents who are afraid to mention Jesus so they tell them to go and ask the man himself, saying, “he is of age.” This is a great moment of the story because they have almost unintentionally told a fundamental truth:  we are the only ones who know what is true for us.   We are the only experts on our experience, and on where we are in our faith journey.  Learning to recognize your own truth and express it simply and directly is a critical part of each person’s journey.   Jesus says elsewhere in this gospel that he is the way and the truth and the life.  To follow Jesus in the way is to seek the truth about ourselves and own it, whatever it may be.  The journey toward the truth and the journey toward Christ are one and the same, because if we hide from ourselves, we are also hiding from Christ’s healing grace.  The more we acknowledge our inner conflicts, weaknesses, fears and doubts, the more we step into Christ’s light and receive his grace.

Our confirmation class began this week.  The members of the class have begun a new phase of their journey toward the truth.  Their families can’t make that journey for them, and neither can their church family.  It is up to each of them to ask themselves where they are on their faith journey and who Jesus is to them at this point in their lives. Of course, this is not a journey that ends with confirmation.  It’s a lifelong journey, with many different stages along the way.  All of us are on the journey, and all of us will experience times of blindness and times of insight, times when our spirits are parched and times when it seems that we are swimming in God’s grace.  But what God asks of us at every stage is to be as honest as we can about ourselves and where we are.  Confirmation is not a sign that you have reached the end of the road.  It is a commitment to continue on the way—to seek the truth and to seek Christ along with the company of fellow travelers.

We grow spiritually as we practice speaking the truth, just as the man born blind grew throughout this story.  When the Pharisees question him for the second time, he is bolder:  “whether he is a sinner or not, I do not know.  All I know is that I once was blind but now I see.”

When they persist in refusing to acknowledge God’s healing action, the man makes his strongest statement yet:  “Here is an astonishing thing!  You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes.  We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will.  Never since the world began hasit been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind.  If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

With that, they call him a sinner too, and throw him out.  And that brings us to the high point of the whole story—the man has been thrown out of his community, but Jesus hears of it and seeks him out.  Jesus asks him if he believes in the Son of Man—and once again we see his absolute honesty—“who is he, sir?  Tell me, so I can believe in him.”  Then Jesus tells him who he is and he responds with a resounding statement of faith:  “Lord, I believe.”  At this moment, his healing and transformation are complete, at least for this stage of his life.  His eyes have been opened to the reality of God’s grace.  His openness to the truth, about himself and about Jesus, created room for God’s healing love.  He is on the way, with the one who is the way and the truth and the life.