Reading 27
The man born blind
The reading
John 9:1-11
As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither did this man sin, nor his parents; but, that the works of God might be revealed in him. I must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day. The night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” When he had said this, he spat on the ground, made mud with the saliva, anointed the blind man’s eyes with the mud, and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). So he went away, washed, and came back seeing.
The neighbors therefore, and those who saw that he was blind before, said, “Isn’t this he who sat and begged?” Others were saying, “It is he.” Still others were saying, “He looks like him.” He said, “I am he.” They therefore were asking him, “How were your eyes opened?” He answered, “A man called Jesus made mud, anointed my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash.’ So I went away and washed, and I received sight.”
John 9:35-38 (after the healed man is questioned and put out of the synagogue)
Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and finding him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” He answered, “Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have both seen him, and it is he who speaks with you.” He said, “Lord, I believe!” and he worshiped him.
The companions
Psalm 146:5-9 (selected)
Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD, his God: who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps truth forever; who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. The LORD frees the prisoners. The LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD raises up those who are bowed down. The LORD loves the righteous. He upholds the fatherless and widow, but the way of the wicked he turns upside down.
Isaiah 42:16
I will bring the blind by a way that they don’t know. I will lead them in paths that they don’t know. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. I will do these things, and I will not forsake them.
The note
The disciples see a man who cannot see, and their first move is to look for the cause. Who sinned, this man or his parents. They want the fault located before they will look at him. Jesus refuses the question outright and does something instead.
Then the part worth staying with. The man is questioned by people who want a version of events they can use. He has no theory. He does not know how mud and water did anything.
He holds one fact and will not be moved off it: he was blind, and now he sees. They throw him out for it.
He is a bad witness by every standard his questioners care about. No mechanism, no standing, no account that fits what they already believe. He is also the only person in the story telling the truth.
This week
Something will go wrong this week. Before anyone asks whose fault it was, write down what actually happened: the sequence, the times, what you saw. Just that, with no cause attached yet.
Then watch how fast the conversation tries to skip the step and get to a name. Blame arrives quickly and it feels like progress. It usually is not.
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (public domain). The divine name is rendered “the LORD” in the Psalm.
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