This isn’t a story of healing, but of spiritual blindness. A story about skepticism and the rhetorical knots we tie ourselves in.
A story about seeing the truth
Lent 4A | John 9:1-41
The centerpiece of the story has to be the miracle, right?
A man stranger walks up, gives a man sight, and then keeps on walking? You know that would headline the local news. The national media definitely picks it up. And by the end of the day, we’re all talking about a man, blind from birth, who now can see.
And yet…you know the rest of the story would quickly become the story. How does that man have such power? Did it really happen? Considering all of the images of Jesus and Mary burned into toast, we’d be forgiven for being skeptical.
In “the real world” the other stuff always becomes the story. It’s all questions about the healer and the man with sight; what they’re planning; what’s their angle?
The giving of sight makes up so little of this story. So much more is spent trying to vilify Jesus. In a sense, they make the story about them.
And because it is a familiar enough experience, we should take a second to look at just what they are saying.
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