Lent 2011 - Online Retreat
Part 4: What do you see?
Place
a closed bible and unlighted candle on the table. Make an "I have been
blind to..." statement aloud, then open the bible, light the candle,
and pray.
God, light up my mind as you light up the day at dawn, noon, and dusk.
Bless my seeing for faith and my speaking for truth. Amen.
In
John's gospel Jesus calls disciples by inviting them to come and see
him, to stay with him, and experience who he is. For Andrew and Peter,
seeing becomes believing (1.35-42). The Samaritan woman extends Jesus'
invitation to her townspeople, who on the strength of her word come and
see Jesus, then ask him to stay with them. Their seeing becomes
believing.
The man born blind who receives
his sight in Sunday's gospel enters this same mystery of journeying
from seeing to believing in Jesus. This man with new eyes calls us to
use the light of life and experience to journey toward faith in Jesus
and the light he gives the world.
When has your seeing healed you or deepened your faith?
Gospel: Jesus gives sight to a man born blind.
SCENE 1
NARRATOR:
As Jesus walked along with his disciples, they saw a man who had been
born blind. Jesus spat on the ground and made some mud. He rubbed the
mud on the man's eyes.
JESUS: Go wash your face in the Pool of Siloam.
NARRATOR: Siloam means sent. The man went, washed his face, and came back seeing.
SCENE 2
NEIGHBOR 1: Isn't this the man who used to sit and beg?
NEIGHBOR 2: No, he just looks like him.
MAN BORN BLIND: I am the man.
NEIGHBOR 1: How were your eyes opened?
MAN:
The man named Jesus made some mud, rubbed it on my eyes, and told me,
"Go to Siloam and wash." So I went, and as soon as I washed, I could
see.
NEIGHBOR 2: Where is he?
MAN: I do not know.
SCENE 3
NARRATOR: Then they took the man who had been blind to the Pharisees. The day that Jesus opened the man's eyes was a Sabbath.
PHARISEE 1: How did you receive your sight?
MAN: Jesus put mud on my eyes, I washed it off, and now I can see.
PHARISEE 2: The one who did this cannot be from God. He does not obey the Sabbath law.
PHARISEE 1: But how could a sinner do such mighty works as these?
NARRATOR: They were sharply divided about Jesus. They spoke again to the blind man.
PHARISEE 3: You say Jesus opened your eyes. What do you say about him?
MAN: He is a prophet.
SCENE 4
NARRATOR:
These teachers were not willing to believe that the man had been born
blind and begun to see, so they called his parents.
PHARISEE 1: Is this your son? If he was born blind, how is it that he can now see?
FATHER: This is our son. We know he was born blind. We do not know how he can see now, or who opened his eyes.
MOTHER: Ask him. He can speak for himself.
NARRATOR:
His parents feared the Jews who had agreed among themselves that anyone
who believed Jesus was the messiah would be put out of the synagogue.
SCENE 5
NARRATOR: A second time the teachers called in the man born blind.
PHARISEE 2: Promise before God that you will tell the truth! We know the man who healed you is a sinner.
MAN: I do not know if he is a sinner or not. I do know one thing; I was blind, and now I can see.
PHARISEE 3: What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?
MAN: I already told you that, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples?
PHARISEE
1: You are his disciple; we are disciples of Moses. We know that God
spoke to Moses. We don't have any idea where Jesus comes from!
MAN:
How strange! You don't know where he comes from, but he opened my
eyes. We know that God doesn't listen to sinners; God listens to those
who respect God and do what God wants them to do. Since the beginning
of the world, no one has heard of someone opening the eyes of a man born
blind. Unless this man came from God, he could not have done such a
thing.
PHARISEE 2: You were born and raised in sin—and you are trying to teach us? Get out of the synagogue!
SCENE 6
NARRATOR: Jesus heard that the teachers had expelled the man born blind and went to talk to him.
JESUS: Do you believe in the Son of Man?
MAN: Tell me who he is, sir, so I can believe in him.
JESUS: You have already seen him. He is speaking to you now.
MAN: I believe, Jesus.
John 9.6-38
The man born blind speaks his truth.
Sunday's
gospel begins as a miracle (scene 1) but continues as a faith drama, a
series of scenes in which a man born blind explains to neighbors and
teachers how he got his sight and who this person is who gave him sight.
As the man tells his story, he sees with increasing clarity who Jesus
is.
Give titles to the six scenes as a way of identifying what happens in each and how the conflict grows.
In
which scenes is Jesus central? In which, the man born blind? Note all
the places the man born blind repeats the story of his healing.
Highlight the statements the man makes about who Jesus is.
What steps do you see in the faith journey of the man born blind?
Scene
1 tells a simple story of a physical healing; however, miracle stories
in John's gospel are never simple and never called miracles. They are
signs that reveal Jesus. In Sunday's gospel the gift of sight which the
man receives from Jesus in scene 1 sets him off on a journey of insight
into who his healer is (scenes 2-6).
The man with new eyes
becomes the central character in scenes 2-5. In your bible study you
may have noticed that the man says less in each scene about the miracle
and more about who Jesus is. When his neighbors first question how he
came to see, the man simply recounts all Jesus' actions.
When
neighbors take the man to the Pharisees in scene 3, the man born blind
first repeats some of what happened to him and then reflects—Jesus must
be a prophet. His controversy with these strict teachers of the law
helps the man see Jesus in a new way.
In scene 5 after his
parents insist the man must speak for himself, he tells his story in
eight words, "I was blind, and now I can see," but reflects at length on
who his healer must be and makes an argument that anyone who heals a
man blind from birth must be from God. His healing is a sign that
reveals Jesus for the man but remains a sin in the eyes of the
Pharisees. The blind man sees; the seeing teachers remain blind.
Ask yourself the questions the man born blind answers:
How were my eyes opened?
How did I receive my sight?
Do I believe in the Son of Man?
Sunday's
gospel tells in one story two layers of history—a mud layer and a water
layer. The mud layer is Jesus' historical ministry (A.D. 30), in which
Jesus in person smears mud on a man's eyes. However, Jesus sends the
man to the pool of Siloam to wash. Only in washing does he receive his
sight.
This detail suggests this story also tells a later
history about Christians who become Jesus' followers through baptismal
washing. The man born blind is both a man who encounters Jesus and a
character through whom the Christian community that gives us John's
gospel tells its story.
Bible scholar J. Louis Martyn suggests we
glimpse in the parents' fear conflicts which the whole Christian
community faced in the A.D. 90s. The parents fear those in their
synagogue who have agreed to put out anyone who confesses Jesus is the
messiah.
No one is certain when or in what synagogues divisions
arose between disciples of Jesus and disciples of Moses. However, after
the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70, a number of rabbis formed an
academy in the town of Jamnia. From this school modern Judaism grew.
Scenes 4 and 5 picture the man born blind and his community experiencing
tensions that ultimately force Jews to take sides and become separate
groups.
The gospel tradition equates a face-to-face healing
encounter with Jesus and a baptismal encounter. In Jesus' absence—the
middle of Sunday's gospel—the man with new eyes speaks the truth of his
experience. In his witness, he progressively finds words and gains
insight into who Jesus must be. His witness models the value of
articulating and sharing our own experience of God and of persisting in
dialogue with those who challenge us. He calls us to continue his story
as our own.
What conflicts call you to speak your experience of God's Spirit stirring in you?
What issues divide people in your community of faith?
Pray
Conclude your reflection on the journey of the man born blind into seeing, believing, and professing his faith.
(Make a personal statement of faith.) I once was blind but now I see...
Loving God, you bless me with the light of life. Your goodness and kindness follow me all the days of my life.
Turn to Part 5: We Live in the Lord
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