4th
SUNDAY OF LENT
Ephesians 5:8-14
John 9:1-41.
"It is for Judgment that I have come into this world,
so that those without sight may see and those with sight turn blind.”
If last
Sunday's gospel inspired us to meditate on Christ as the living water, the
gospel of today presents Christ as the light of the word. Both water and light
are familiar biblical symbols. As early as Genesis, these two are used to
unveil the divinity. The divine presence is felt as God’s spirit hovered
over the water (Gen 1:2). And right away
(in verse 3). God opens his wondrous creation with light: “’Let there be
light,’ and there was light.” Thus, it is no surprise why Christ picks this
symbolism and applies it to his very person: As long as I am in the world, I
am the light of the world.
But what is
more interesting in today’s episode is the circumstance that accompanies this
great revelation. While proclaiming himself as the light of the world, Jesus
performs a great miracle too. He cures the man born blind. Surprisingly, the
light that gives sight to the one really blind is the very same light that
blinds those who pretend and insist to have sight. It is most probably for this
reason that Christ says at the end: “It is for Judgment that I have come
into this world, so that those without sight may see and those with sight turn
blind.” This contrast is worth taking the centerpiece of our meditation.
What happens long time ago still sounds loud and clear even to men of our age.
Along the road, we may just discover that we are among them.
1. The tragic contrast happens between the
Pharisees and the man born blind.
a. At the one
side stand the Pharisees. Aside from being materially affluent, the Pharisees
win the respect of society. They belong the group of the learned few and thus
enjoy the honor of being heard and followed by the ordinary citizens. Much
more, believed to be men of God, they are well versed of the Law and scripture
and so maintain a considerable amount of authority over moral and religious
issues. But ironically, it is because of these that they most often become victims of their own
self-righteousness. They consider themselves in many ways intellectually
superior and religiously better than anyone else. Believing that they can
commit only the least sin or even no sin at all, they think they need no
repentance. And thinking to be morally upright, they put the right to condemn
into their hands.
This is
precisely the case of our gospel today. They outrightly condemn Jesus as a
sinner because he breaks the Sabbath law. And as a sinner he can in no way
perform any miracle. But what makes the situation worse is their effort to
persuade the blind man to rally behind them and to rally behind them and
condemn Jesus as well. And when the poor man simply expresses his honesty, they
then condemn him too as a sinner.
b. At the
other side we find the man born blind. Aside from being materially poor, he
lives in total darkness right from the start. Being so, he is deprived of
whatever beauty sight can offer. He comes into this world without even seeing
how his own face looks like. And even perhaps he may just end up discovering
his face like Dracula’s; it would still be his earnest longing to see.
But not only
does this man suffer from such physical predicament. Worse, he has been an
object of moral prejudices that condemn him a sinner even from the moment he
was still in his mother's womb. Either his parents sinned or he himself. Or
both. But over and above these maladies, we seem to find in this man the
virtues, which reveal the direct opposite of what the condemning society thinks
of him. First, he acknowledges his posture before man and God. He is indeed
that small without anything to boast of. His, a total dependence on someone
superior than him, especially God. Second is his openness to whatever comes his
way. Thus, when this once in a lifetime opportunity comes, he could not help
but respond to it just as best as he could.
While Jesus
takes the initiative to stimulate the blind man's faith (Jesus takes a more
complicated procedure rather than healing him immediately), the poor man
submits himself and does exactly as told. And perhaps touched of Jesus, he
starts to be sensitive to the call of faith. But added to his humility and
openness is his honesty. For three times, he honestly confesses his innocence.
When asked where Jesus is, he answers: “I do not know” (9:12). When the
Pharisees want him to believe too that Jesus is a sinner, his honest response
is: "I don’t know if he is a sinner; I only know that was blind and now
I can see" (9:25). And finally in his honest search, he himself begs
Jesus: "Sir, tell me who he (the Son of Man) is so that I may believe
in him" (9:36). This enables his innocence to be perfected with the
knowledge of truth. So, when at last Jesus reveals before him the naked truth
about his person, the man makes his greatest
profession: "Lord, I believe.”
2. What we
see in this gospel, therefore, are two opposing poles trying to make
contrasting testimonies. While the argument of the Pharisees comes from the
arrogance of sophisticated learning, the blind man’s reasoning is inspired by
the honest dictates of pure common sense. Look, the argument of .the Pharisees runs like this: "This man
(Jesus) cannot be from God: he does not keep the Sabbath…How could a sinner
produce signs like this?” The blind man's statement, on the contrary, goes:
“Now here is an astonishing thing! He has opened my eyes, and you don’t know
where he comes from! We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but God does
listen to men who are devout and do his will.”
Both
arguments start from facts. The big difference lies on their respective
attitudes. From the very beginning, the Pharisees take Jesus as lawbreaker and
thus a sinner. The blind man, however, considers Jesus right from the start as
healer and thus his savior. The Pharisees want to put down Jesus by twisting
the fact using their influence and learning. But by doing so, they plunge
themselves into further ignorance. And worse, they are doomed by their own
malice. By insisting to know, they end up deprived of the truth. By pretending
to see, they become blind to the light of Christ.
What happens
to the blind man is exactly the reverse. By humbly coming to Jesus as blind, he
is rewarded with the gift of sight. By accepting his own ignorance, he advances
to the knowledge of truth. And like what happens to the Samaritan woman last
Sunday, the light of truth unfolds to him step by step, and his faith increases
little by little. First, he refers to Jesus as the man (9:11). Then, it
progresses to the prophet (9:17), then to the Messiah (9:22),
then to the one coming from God (9:33), and finally, to the Son of
Man (9:35).
3. Today's
"experts of the law" very well know how to twist the law, over facts
or twist facts just to suit the law. And countless innocent lives have already
been victims. Most of them are voiceless in society and have no way to face the learned, the
influential and the powerful. A noble message of today's gospel resounds: One
needs not to learn the logic of Aristotle, the critique of Kant and the
dialectics of Hegel to arrive at the primal truth. Honesty of heart brings an
innocent man to the light!