Reflections and Suggestions for Bible Studies: The 4th Sunday in Lent

As he walked 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?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 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.

The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some were saying, “It is he.” Others were saying, “No, but it is someone like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ Then I went and washed and received my sight.” They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.” Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not observe the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And they were divided. So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” He said, “He is a prophet.” 

The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” His parents answered, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.” He answered, “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” Then they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” The man answered, “Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?” And they drove him out.

Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” He said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped him.

Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.

The Sunday gospel readings for Lent this year have already shown us three remarkable encounters:  Jesus has conversed with Satan (Lent 1, Mt. 4:1-11), with Nicodemus (Lent 2, John 3:1-17) and with the Samaritan woman at the well (Lent 3, John 4:5-32). This week Jesus encounters and heals a man born blind. Next week, on Lent 5, the final Sunday before Palm Sunday, Jesus will encounter sisters Martha and Mary and raise their brother Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-45).

As a collective, these assigned stories have a remarkable shape. The “cast” in each scene has grown each week; the conversations which began as one-on-ones (Satan, Nicodemus) have expanded dramatically to involve parents, villagers and the local religious authorities.  Each week the readings have revealed a fresh dimension of the one who now, for two weeks running, has said “I am He.” The Jesus who refused to display his power at the invitation of Satan last week told the woman at the well everything she has ever done. This week he restores sight to the blind. Next week he will bid the dead man to rise. Sin, power, grace, authority and community have all been topics for consideration and exploration as these weeks have progressed. The drama has been building as we approach Jerusalem, Golgotha and the empty tomb. 

The story we take up together this week begins with the disciples asking a question of Jesus: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” He answers “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.”

Jesus is here undercutting is a cultural convention that remains popular in our own time, that “we get what we deserve.” One mustn’t, however, hold the question against the disciples. The community library known to us as Hebrew scripture presents, through multiple voices, both a loving and eternally forgiving God (clothing Adam and Eve, placing a protective mark on Cain, showing Noah a rainbow in the clouds) and a God who claims to be “a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation” (Exodus 20:5).  Blindness, in fact, was one of the “curses” promised to those who do not remain faithful to God’s commandments. Consider Deuteronomy’s terrifying warning to the wayward (28:28-29):

The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind. At midday you will grope about like a blind person in the dark. You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue you.

Do we get what we deserve? Jesus’ response to the disciples implies that in seeking causation we are asking the wrong questions. He shifts the discussion from one of historical cause to one of future purpose. “That the works of God might be revealed in him.” Lest we take this story too literally and draw the specious conclusion that those with disabilities or particular challenges are here to “show us something,” note that the meaning of blindness shifts as the narrative progresses. The blindness John’s gospel is addressing is not simply the physical blindness of this nameless man. The Pharisees, in their final exchange with Jesus, are to be understood as spiritually blind although “sighted.” “We must work the works of him who sent me.” The works of God are to be revealed in all of us. This is why all of us have been born. Spiritual growth for all of us is the movement from blindness to sight.

This particular healing story makes another subtle point about God at work in our lives, and about the degree to which our own choices and sins determine our future. In contrast to blind Bartimaeus in Mark’s gospel (“My teacher, let me see again” 10:51), John’s man born blind never asks Jesus to heal him. The healing comes unbidden. The blind man never even sees Jesus until well after his own healing has taken place. At the beginning of that conversation, the blind man does not know whom he is addressing. Jesus has instead found him. The idea at work here is grace: the love of God at work in our lives, often unseen, unrequested, unnoticed, and nonetheless transformative.  The story implies that this dynamic is especially true for those the wider culture would construe as “sinful” and relegate to the margins. Consider verses 2, 16, 24 and 34 above. Both Jesus and the man are linked as “sinners” in this story, yet both are the instigators in a miraculous and liberating event.

A final word about those identified as the “Jews” in this passage. As we consider implications for our own time, perhaps we can understand a “Pharisaic” attitude as the risk of any religion (including our own) that might trend towards legalism.  The “Jews” in John’s gospel represent not a people in general but a distinct community within that wider people: religious authorities restricting new ways of interpreting the traditions of Israel.

• Together in your group, identify all of the words spoken directly by the man born blind. Read them aloud, in order, omitting the rest of the narration. What do you notice? What changes? What are their implications?
• Early Christians strongly associated this story with the sacrament of Baptism. The medieval theologian Hugh of St. Victor referred to the healing mud as “sacramental.” What do you make of dirt and saliva as instruments of healing?
• How does this healing story relate to your own understanding of “deserving” and “undeserving”? Where in your own past or present life are concepts or rationalizations of “deserving” and “undeserving” in play? Where in the life of the broader culture?
• Consider the frequent use in this story of the verb “to know.” Who knows what? Who doesn’t know something? Why does John use this verb repeatedly?