“All I know is that once I couldn’t see. But now, because of this man Jesus, I can see.”
Today’s Gospel lesson involves another healing of Jesus. It is about the spiritual and physical healing of a man who had been blind since birth. As Jesus was walking he saw a blind beggar at the side of the road. Most people didn’t really notice the man; at least they never saw him as a person with feelings, dreams or wants. He was someone easily overlooked, just another person with his hand out. But Jesus saw him as a beloved child of God and Jesus was filled with compassion for him. Jesus went to him and knelt down beside him, gently touching his face. “He spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man's eyes.” (v. 6) Then Jesus told the man to go wash in the pool of Siloam. “He went and washed and came back able to see.” (v. 7)
The light of God’s lovingkindnesss had entered the darkness of his world through Jesus. He was given new physical and spiritual vision. The man who was born blind had eyes of faith that were able to see who Jesus was. He confessed him as Lord and worshipped him. The Pharisees and the man’s family remained blindly in the dark. Fear had blinded the eyes of the man’s family. His mother and father were afraid of the consequences of acknowledging the truth of their son’s healing. Anyone who confessed that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue.
They would have been ostracized, cut off from family and friends. It was a risk they could not take. Perhaps they felt that their son was more expendable. After all, few paid attention to him anyway. So his mother and father told the religious authorities that they had no knowledge of how their son had been healed. “Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself” (v. 21). They had been eyewitnesses to the power of God’s love at work in the world but they refused to see. The Pharisees claimed that they could see. But they were, in truth, also blind. They did not recognize the Christ in their midst.
Arrogance had blinded the eyes of the Pharisee who believed that they alone were in possession of the truth. They were the authorities of the Jewish law. They had set themselves up as judges of others. The Pharisees considered themselves to be righteous men. They regarded Jesus as a sinner because he was healing on the Sabbath. The Pharisees thought that the blind man was a sinner because he was born blind. It was the common belief of the day to associate sin with illnesses. If a person committed a sin they believed some illness or accident would happen to that person. According to the book of Exodus the sins of the parents were transferred to the children.
When the disciples saw the blind man they had a question to ask Jesus. "Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," Jesus told his disciples, instead "he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him" (v.2-3)
Jesus wanted his disciples to see that there are two kinds of blindness. There was the physical blindness of the eyes in the man that he healed. But, far worse, was the spiritual blindness in the hearts of the Pharisees. The restoration of the blind man’s physical sight is more than the story of one of the healing miracles of Jesus. It is the story of the Pharisees physical sight and spiritual blindness. More importantly, it is the story of the blind man’s journey from physical blindness to spiritual sight. 1
The story of the miracle of a spiritual journey is perhaps an appropriate lesson to be read today. Today Georgia Grace will be baptized into the body of Christ, the church. She will also begin a spiritual journey in God’s love. This journey will last her whole lifetime. And we are privileged to be witnesses to the beginning of that journey. Baptism is one of the visible signs of God’s grace at work in our world. We are witnesses to the creative and miraculous power of the Spirit of our living God acting through the waters of baptism.
Baptism is one of the two sacraments of the United Church of Christ. The other sacrament is communion, which we will also observe today. Baptism is a ceremony that is not always understood. For some people baptism is simply a ritual, a nice little ceremony that we perform, because it is a sacrament of the church. But we really need to reflect on what we are doing and why. In baptism, the Spirit of Christ comes to us and we are filled with the Holy Spirit. For infants, baptism is the beginning of their journey of faith. It is the beginning of our journey with Christ that continues to unfold all throughout our lives.
When Jesus was baptized by his cousin, John the Baptist, Jesus was identified as the “Beloved Son.” This signaled the beginning of his ministry. Jesus’ baptism was certainly a defining moment in his own life. Jesus was ordained for his mission to be the servant of God. And this is what happens for us too. God looks at us and also declares us beloved. We are sisters and brothers of Christ through the power of Christ in the Holy Sprit. And through the power of baptism we are incorporated into the body and community of Christ. We enter into God’s family, the church.
We are ordained for ministry as the servants of the living God. In Baptism the love of God pushes into our everyday life and speaks clearly to our hearts. Our Baptism comes with a vocation, a call to serve God and each other. God gives gifts to each one of us. We are called to use these gifts in the service of God, to build up the body of Christ and to make this a better world for all of God’s creation. The work that we do, the gifts that we share, are a joyful response to the love that we have received from our gracious God.
For those of us who were baptized as adults it is a continuation of our faith journey. Baptism is also a time of change and transformation, a new beginning in the love of God. And we all need God’s transformative power in our lives no matter who we are or where we are on our faith and life journey. Baptism is a time when all of us are given the opportunity of looking back and remembering our own baptism. We reaffirm our own faith and our baptismal vows. As we celebrate this baptism today, we are all given the opportunity to celebrate the origins and continuity of our faith story.
Once again we publicly affirm our belief that we are all children of God, beloved and cared for by the One who has given us life. It is also a time when we can look forward. We acknowledge the continuity of the church and the faithfulness of God—past, present, and future. We acknowledge the presence of our God, who is always and ever with us though the presence of the Holy Spirit. Our spiritual eyes are opened to the wonder that is God. Amen
1. New Interpreter’s Bible. John. P.663