EP - Year 2
Readings: Psalm 35; John 9:18-41
"One thing I know…"
That’s what the blind man says when he’s being interrogated by the Jewish religious leaders.
"One thing I know … I was blind, and now I see."
At the beginning of the story, before the part we just heard, Jesus and his disciples walked by the blind man, and they started talking about him, about why he was blind, whether it was his own fault or his parents.’ Jesus said it wasn’t anybody’s fault; it was so God’s work would be shown in him. Then Jesus spit in the dirt and put the mud in the man’s eyes and told him to go wash it out, and when the man came back, he could see.
He was blind - now he can see. What more is there to know in this story?
Well, apparently there was some explanation needed. Before you know it, the Jewish religious leaders have got the blind man standing in the witness box, peppering him with questions – but it’s really Jesus they want to put on trial. Maybe Jesus has got this guy in on the scam, pretending he used to be blind to lure people into following Jesus.
The Jews call the blind man’s parents in, but the parents are no fools. ‘Yes, that’s our son, and he was blind, but we don’t know how it happened - ask him.’
They call the blind man back. ‘Admit it – you’re lying! We know this man’s a sinner.’
Except that he’s not lying, and he’s beginning to get adamant about it. ‘I don’t know whether he’s a sinner or not – one thing I do know… I was blind, and now I see.’
The Jews start repeating their questions and harping on Jesus as a charlatan, ‘We know God spoke to Moses, but this guy? We don’t even know where he comes from!’
From the one thing he knows, the blind man starts seeing a lot of things more clearly. ‘Amazing! You don’t know where he comes from, but he opened my eyes… if this man were not from God, he couldn’t do anything.’
"Are you going to teach us?! " the Pharisees shout back at him, "Get out!"
Sometimes what we know can get in the way of our seeing. That’s what happened to the Pharisees. They knew a lot about the Messiah; they’d been waiting for the Messiah for hundreds of years, and they knew what to look for.
In the film Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Richard Dreyfuss’ character, the head of an acting troupe, comments that in the theater, ‘audiences know what to expect, and that is all they are prepared to believe in.’
And Jesus –Jesus was not what the Jewish religious leaders expected in a Messiah. So they didn’t see what was really happening. The blind man was starting to see, though – even though he didn’t know as much. He basically knew one thing – he was blind, and now he could see. And from knowing that one thing, by the time the Pharisees kicked him out, he was prepared to believe in Jesus, the Messiah - the whole shebang.
Interestingly enough, it was his blindness that set the stage - to prepare him for believing in Jesus, to prepare him for giving up everything to trust someone he never saw who had put mud in his eyes and healed him and changed his life forever.
Were you expecting the call you got? I wasn’t.
What was it that set the stage for you to be willing to answer it? When you answered all the many doubts and questions saying, ‘but one thing I do know….’ What was the one thing that prepared you to believe and to follow?
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, throughout the film, try to figure out what they’re supposed to be accomplishing on their mission, which seems vaguely but very urgently defined. The nearest they can come is remembering someone sent them.
‘There was a messenger – we were sent for.’
‘Yes, I remember…’
‘A man standing in his saddle to bang on the shutters… But then he called our names! You remember - that man woke us up. We were sent for. That’s why we’re here, traveling. A royal summons – off at a gallop, fearful lest we come too late…’
‘Too late for what?’
‘How would I know? We haven’t got there yet.’
That’s how it feels to me sometimes. My purpose sometimes seems vague at best, but one thing I know – I was called and, for whatever reason, sent here. We all were. The exact purpose? How would I know? We haven’t got there yet.
In the Four Quartets, TS Eliot writes:
‘what you thought you came for
Is only a shell, a husk of meaning
From which the purpose breaks only when it is fulfilled
If at all. Either you had no purpose
Or the purpose is beyond the end you figured
And is altered in fulfillment….’
If we don’t know what to expect, then we might not limit as much what we’re prepared to believe in – and even so, God can still do infinitely more.
Amen.
-------------
Given to the Iona School for Ministry
September 5, 2008