Saturday, March 6, 2004

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.
(John 9.6-7 NRSV)

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Jesus wants to heal us. But you say, "Pastor, I don't need healing. My relationship with my spouse is just fine. My health is just fine. I'm not in any kind of pain right now. I don't need Jesus' healing." Maybe not, but we don't want to miss the central teaching of this chapter of John's Gospel. The central teaching of this chapter is that losing your sight is a tragic thing, but far more tragic is having healthy eyes and being spiritually sightless.

If we took time to go through this entire chapter we would see that it is a play upon the twin themes of physical blindness and spiritual blindness. In fact, the chapter ends with Jesus' opponents, the religious authorities, asking, "Are we blind?" AND THE ANSWER IS YES. In fact, this is where MOST people are. They are spiritually blind. They don't really SEE their family members, they don't really SEE their neighbors, they don't really SEE the sightless man on the street, and most of all, they don't see God. They have eyes and yet are blind. Are you in that category? Am I?

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Dear God, open my eyes that I may see your will. Amen.

Ron Newhouse

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