Thursday, March 19
This parable – a man’s blindness is healed, and he “becom[es] a beacon” “living in the light” – teaches all of us that focusing on man’s frailties (sinning) blinds us to the good in the world.
Jesus heals a man born blind. Rather than rejoicing in the wonder of his rescue from blindness, the Disciples focus on its cause: Whose sinning caused the man’s blindness – the man or his parents? Jesus says: neither sinned; the man “was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” We must work during the day, because “night is coming when no one can work.”
The neighbors ask, “Didn’t he used to beg?” Really? Come on guys, “I am the man.” The Pharisees ask him how Jesus, a “sinner,” could be “from God.” The man yells, “He’s a prophet!”
Finally, the Jews ask the man’s parents, “How could he have been blind but now see?” But fearing the Jews would throw them out of the synagogue if they “confessed Jesus to be the Messiah,” they say they don’t know he was cured, nor by whom. “Ask him; he is of age.” He’ll tell you.
Then the Jews said, “Give glory to God; Jesus is a sinner.” But the man says, “though I was blind, now I see.”
Prayer: Dear Lord, “there are none so blind as those who will not see.” Help us to shift our focus from the darkness of the human condition to the light hidden all around us. Amen.
– Chrys Lemon