Jesus heals the man born blind
It’s the fourth Sunday of Lent and today’s reading is the healing of our Lord Jesus Christ of the man born blind. If we printed the entire gospel, we’d run out of space. But this passage that you will find in John 9:1,6-9,13-17,34-38 was broken into several parts.
“1 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 6 After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”).
So the man went and washed, and came home seeing. 8 His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some claimed that he was. Others said, “No, he only looks like him.” But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”
13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. 14 Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. 15 Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.” 16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided. 17 Then they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” The man replied, “He is a prophet.”
34 To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out. 35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
36 “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”
37 Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.” 38 Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.”
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When he began his Galilean ministry, our Lord Jesus Christ preached in his native Nazareth and spoke in the synagogue and read a passage in Isaiah, which we can read in Luke 4: 18, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor. He has sent me to problem freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.” So giving sight to the blind is one of the missions of our Lord Jesus Christ, which happens in today’s gospel.
Here is a case where our Lord Jesus heals a man who was born blind and people noticed that he could already see. So the Pharisees investigated him to find out if he was really born blind and asked him who healed him. When he answered them that the man who healed him was the man named Jesus, they looked for him not to praise him, but because he healed the blind man on the Sabbath Day.
This sparked a debate among the Pharisees who said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided. Then they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” The man replied, “He is a prophet.”
Many of us are born with good eyesight, but as we grow older our thinking is often clouded by our own social or even religious biases and experience a “spiritual blindness.” What’s happening in our world today comes from the spiritual blindness of religious fanatics, many of whom believe that if they kill people, they will gain martyrdom and God’s graces. What about us? Are we blind to the reality of the existence of so many poor people who need our help? Some need financial help, while others simply need your time. Please reflect on this for the Lenten Season.
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For email responses to this article, write to [email protected] or [email protected]. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.
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