Scripture Focus: John 9.30-33; 39-41
30 The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. 32 Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

39 Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” 

40 Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?” 

41 Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.

Reflection: Blinded by the Light of the World
By John Tillman

Until he is made to see, no one treats the blind man as a person, except Jesus. To the disciples, the blind man is just a theological quandary. They talk about him as if he is not there. Only Jesus speaks to him, instead of just about him. Jesus tells the blind man, and his disciples, that he is the light of the world.

The man’s blindness, in a way, made others blind to his value. He couldn’t work. He couldn’t enter the Temple and worship in the traditional ways that others worshiped. He couldn’t attend Hebrew school and learn to read the Torah as other boys had. He was not included in theological education. 

However, when he was questioned by the council, his responses revealed that he had been listening. They had taught him their theology with their calloused words and actions. And he remembered. He experienced the difference between how they treated him and how Jesus treated him.

He lectured the teachers with overheard lessons. He knew that those who were “sinful,” like him, were not expected to be heard by God, called by God, or used by God. “We know that God does not listen to sinners…” Therefore this Jesus, this mud-making man who claimed to “do the works of him who sent me,” must not be a sinner. He must be something else. He must be what he claimed to be—the light of the world. Rather than learn from this light, the leaders end up blinded by it.

Let us not, as followers of the light, become blinded. Let us not be surprised when Jesus speaks to those we overlook, blesses those we thought cursed, and uses those we thought valueless. Let us not be surprised to learn lessons about Jesus from those who just met him.

We are to be the light of the world. Our hands are to do God’s healing work. Let us open our eyes to see what kind of light we are shining and what kind of work we are doing.

Do we treat people as theological quandaries to be puzzled over?
What theology are our words and actions teaching?
Who around us do we think God won’t listen to?
Who are those whose value we are blind to?

Jesus, cover our eyes with mud and send us to wash away our blindness, that we can say, “…but now I see.”

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Purge me from my sin, and I shall be pure; wash me, and I shall be clean indeed. — Psalm 51.8

Today’s Readings
Genesis 9-10 (Listen 7:19)
John 9 (Listen 7:33)

Read more about Steeped In Sin
We can blind ourselves, like the Pharisees, refusing to see our sin. Or we can admit our former blindness…

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Scripture Focus: John 9.34
“You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!”

Reflection: Steeped In Sin
By John Tillman

The Pharisees are partially correct in the above passage; the formerly blind man was steeped in sin at birth. Where the Pharisees were in error was denying that they were also steeped in sin.

There are two ways of thinking about sin. One sees sins as individual actions. In this calculation, we total sins up, like fines in a legal system. We interpret sins as individual, unconnected actions.

This mode of sin evaluation is favored by the Pharisees and many modern Christians. Thinking about sin in this manner makes it measurable and able to be compared. No matter how bad we are, we can always find someone who makes us look good by comparison.

This thinking also leads us, like the Pharisees, to see those in difficulty or hardship as suffering from their own sin and wrongdoing. This allows us to further exclude and punish the suffering while absolving ourselves from any responsibility to help them. Today, many view the poor through this lens, seeing generational poverty as the fault of the poor, and the community’s responsibility as minimal or non-existent. This view of the poor can’t be found anywhere in scripture—except perhaps in the views of the Pharisees.

Sin is not just some bad things that we sometimes do. Sinful actions are “sins” but sin is more than actions. It is a condition. It isn’t just a condition that we live with. It’s a condition that we live in. Paul tells us creation groans to be released from sin, and we feel its effects. Sin is pervasive. It seeps into the cracks and corners of our souls and our society’s systems.

Sin isn’t like a disease, a condition inside our bodies, as much as it is like an environmental condition, an inescapable influence that surrounds and penetrates us.

Sin is gravity. It is our atmosphere. It is our water. We are radioactive with sin. It vibrates out of us in ways that damage and harm us and anyone we come near.

We need Jesus because only his righteousness is the antidote to the radiation poisoning of rebellion. Making better choices and “sinning less” is a pleasant side effect. 

We can blind ourselves, like the Pharisees, refusing to see our sin. Or we can admit our former blindness and, seeing Jesus, we can say as the formerly blind man did, “Lord, I believe.”

Music: “Gravity” — Lecrae

Divine Hours Prayer: The Small Verse
The people who have dwelt in darkness have seen a great light.

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis TickleToday’s Readings
Exodus 30 (Listen – 5:06)
John 9 (Listen – 4:56)

Today’s Readings
Exodus 31 (Listen – 2:32) John 10 (Listen – 4:44)
Exodus 32 (Listen – 5:47) John 11 (Listen – 6:37)

Read more about The Focus of Christ’s Anger
Jesus spent time with people who, by every cultural definition and religious law, would be under God’s wrath. Sinners. Heretics. Financial swindlers. Fallen women. Foreign occupiers. Shouldn’t Jesus have been angry with them?

Read more about Suffering and Sin
We feel less responsible when we believe only the lazy are poor, only the promiscuous are in danger of sexual assault, only hedonists become addicts, and only nihilists suffer depression.