As He went along, He saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him Who sent Me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Having said this, He spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. “Go,” He told him, “wash in the pool of Siloam” (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing. His neighbours and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn't this the same man who used to sit and beg?” Some claimed that he was. Others said, “No, he only looks like him.” But he himself insisted, “I am the man.” “How then were your eyes opened?” they demanded. He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.” “Where is this man?” they asked him. “I don't know,” he said. They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man's eyes was a Sabbath. 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.” 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 do such miraculous signs?” So they were divided. Finally 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.” The Jews still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man's parents. “Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?” “We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don't know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for already the Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue. That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.” A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.” He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!” Then they asked him, “What did He do to you?” How did He open your eyes?” He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become His disciples, too?” Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow's disciple! We are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don't even know where He comes from.” The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don't know where he comes from, yet He opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does His will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, He could do nothing/” To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out. Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” “Who is He, Sir,?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in Him.” Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, He is the one speaking with you.” Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped Him. Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” Some Pharisees who were with Him heard Him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?” Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.” (John 9:1-41)

     I have to admit that I'm not the world's biggest baseball fan. Sure, back in the late 80's and early 90's when the Blue Jays were always contenders and won their back to back World Series I was a bit of a bandwagon jumper, but I don't really watch too many ball games. Opening Day is always exciting, though, and so I tuned in on Friday to watch the Jays play the Twins. Today's reading comes at an appropriate time, because as unusual as this may sound, this morning's story of the blind man always make me think of a baseball story. Shoeless Joe Jackson was one of the greats – a career average of .356; kept out of the Hall of Fame because he was involved in a gambling scandal in the 1919 World Series. Apparently, to improve his batting eye and make himself the best hitter he could be, Shoeless Joe used to spend hours staring into the light of a candle. I once asked an eye doctor about this. He told me it wouldn't work – that it would more likely damage your eyesight than improve it. So who knows what Shoeless Joe's batting average would have been if he hadn't stared at that candle light for hours! As it is, all my eye doctor friend told me was that Shoeless Joe was lucky that he didn't end up as Sightless Joe!

     I suspect that for most of us with sight, the prospect of going blind would be terrifying, because we depend on our sight for so much. The blind man in this morning's gospel passage was lucky – he had the good fortune to encounter a miracle worker named Jesus – Who just happened to be able to restore sight to the blind. In a sense, this story doesn't seem to be much more than another in a long list of Jesus' good deeds; a feel good story portraying Jesus helping someone who had an obvious need, but that really isn't the whole story. This is far more than just a healing miracle. The biggest part of the story isn't actually about the healing miracle – it's about the reaction of the religious leaders to the healing miracle. It's about the atmosphere of doubt that so often prevails and the inability of so many people to see and believe in the presence of God around them. The story is really about spiritual blindness. The man blind from birth goes through a stunning transformation. Beginning as a man who was not only physically blind but also spiritually blind – because the story doesn't have the man approaching Jesus for a healing, it has Jesus simply approaching the man – the man progresses from seeing Jesus as a kind stranger, to a miracle worker, to a prophet, to someone who was from God and finally to a believer who worshiped Jesus. The key point in the holy passage might be just the simple fact that the man doesn't go to Jesus, Jesus goes to the man. God is taking the initiative in reaching out to this man; all that has to happen is for the man's spiritual blindness to be done away with in order for him to be fully restored. God always takes the initiative with us, as He seeks to strip away the spiritual blinders we so often wear that prevent us from truly living a life of faith. And that's in the end what this is all about: how to begin a life of faith; how to overcome the things that blind us to the reality of God's presence in our lives and in our world.

     You see, to have faith is to pass from darkness into light. To have faith is to learn to set aside the darkness of the world's wisdom in favour of the light of God's wisdom. The work of Jesus in reaching out to us is exactly the same work He was doing in the life of the blind man of the story: He was using the man's most basic need to introduce the man to what His real need was – just as last week we saw Jesus using the woman who needed water to drink for the well being of her body being introduced to a different kind of water – the living water she needed for the well being of her spirit. Jesus again meets us as we are and where we are and in whatever helpless or hopeless state He might find us in and He uses the circumstances of our everyday lives to introduce us to a deeper and more meaningful experience of God. The question for us today then – and it's a question I can't answer; only you can answer it for yourself – is what your deepest and greatest need is. That's a tough question actually. As any half decent counsellor will tell you, what we think our needs are are often just masking what the real need is that's buried deep inside. The man in the story was a beggar, because that's what blind people were reduced to in that society and in that era. He almost certainly perceived his need to be for food. He didn't feel a need to have his sight restored because he didn't think it could be. He didn't perceive a need for God – because he might well have been angry at God for his condition. But Jesus saw through that surface need to the man's real need – which was a need for wholeness and a need for dignity and a need for respect. Jesus gave him sight – both physically and spiritually – and in addition He gave the man all those other things by revealing to him that he was among the beloved of God. Those who piously thought themselves closer to God and therefore better than this man and who had looked down upon this man and regarded him as little more than a sinful beggar were revealed to be the ones who were truly blind: unable to see or appreciate or even experience in any meaningful way the power and depth of the love God had for the world. They kicked the man out – they excluded him again. They tried once again to take away from him the dignity Jesus had given him with the words “You were steeped in sin at birth.” In other words, “you're not worthy to receive anything.” And then what happens? Jesus comes to him again. Jesus won't let him go. Jesus won't let him be abandoned. Jesus won't let him be excluded. Jesus won't let him be left unloved and uncared for. Jesus won't let him be left isolated. Jesus comes to him. Jesus comes to us!

     “'Do you believe in the Son of Man?' 'Who is he, sir?' the man asked. 'Tell me so that I may believe in Him.' Jesus said, 'You have now seen Him; in fact, He is the one speaking with you.' Then the man said, 'Lord, I believe,' and he worshiped Him.” The man had to be blinded to the immediacy of the circumstances that surrounded him so that he would be enabled to see God present with him. This is faith: it's to be blinded by the light of God's Son, and so enabled to see the presence and the work of God all around us and even within us!