John 9:1-11, NRSV
“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.’”
“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.’”
Light
Most children and many adults are afraid of the dark. We don’t start out life afraid of the dark. As babies, we sleep and waken in darkened rooms with no different behavior than being in a lightened room. What changes? What makes us afraid of darkness? As we grow, we learn about the world around us. We become aware and familiar with our surroundings. In the dark, we are blinded. We are unable to see things around us. We don’t recognize where we are. We’ve lost a sense of security. For a child who is in a dark room, this security may be a parent. Our mind begins to produce unrealistic thoughts of danger. A child may begin to imagine there are monsters under their bed. It is a researched and proven fact that anxiety increases in darkness.
When a light is turned on in a room, it enhances our ability to see what is there, but it does not change the character of what is in the room. The items in the room have always been there. They don’t disappear when the room is dark. Monsters were never living under the bed. (At least I don’t think so.) Light gives greater exposure to what is already there. Light brings knowledge of our surroundings, recognition of the familiar, as well as assurance of our security and safety.
Light illuminates, it cleanses and whitens, warms, energizes and nourishes, and provides a sense of time. Without light, there is no life. The Hebrew Scriptures open with the creation narrative,
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.”
Light was created the first day of Creation. Without light, the rest of creation would not survive nor would it matter. The Gospel of John opens with this passage,
“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.”
John mirrors the creation story, placing Jesus in the narrative as the light. “In him was life, and that life was the light of men.” The entire Gospel of John, “displays the ongoing reflection of Christians and their deepening understanding of who Jesus is” (Bowe 2003). John notates Jesus’ identity through the “I Am” sayings, “I am the bread of life”; the good shepherd; the resurrection and the life; the true vine; the way, the truth and the life; and I am the light of the world. “These (images or) metaphors…convey different dimensions of human longing, and John’s gospel wants to convince us that no matter what metaphor we use, Jesus is the fulfillment of our longings” (Bowe 2003).
The “I Am” phrase gives us a recognizable image of Jesus. “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” In the first part of the text, the verses have focused on blindness, sin and the darkness that result. Jesus, introduces a new phase of the story, by proclaiming his identity as light of the world, and we know that the miracle that is about to happen will prove this proclamation. Jesus picks up dirt from the ground, spits in it, places the mud over the man’s eye’s and tells him to go wash. The man washes as Jesus directed and his sight is restored.
Imagine being blind since birth. You have no reference to what things “look” like, only what they feel, taste, smell or sound like. If by miracle, you open your eyes and suddenly have been given sight, what is the first thing your eyes would sense and recognize immediately? Light. There would be no mistaking the opposite of darkness. The man would not recognize the people around him or his own reflection in the water, but his eyes would immediately recognize the light that has been withheld from him since birth. Just as baptism symbolizes a washing away of sin, a rebirth, a new life, the man’s blindness is “washed away”, giving him a new life as well. No longer will he need to beg. No longer will he be outcast from his family and friends. No longer will he be thought of as sin. He has been given salvation from the blindness which bound him.
This man; an impoverished, ignored, and outcast wretch of a man, could have been anywhere in the city that day. But by the grace of God, he was on the path that Jesus walked. He could have been any of the people that Jesus passed by, but by God’s grace, he was the man whom Jesus healed. It’s a beautiful foretelling of what was to happen later on in the Gospel. Jesus would bring healing and salvation to the spiritually blind, through his death and resurrection. This time, however, God’s grace is extended to all, everywhere. It doesn’t matter which part of the city, what path we’re on, what sin we struggle with, the light of Jesus shines on us, cleansing us, nurturing us and giving us life.
--Missy Lawson
Bowe, Barbara E. Biblical Foundations of Sprituality. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003.
Most children and many adults are afraid of the dark. We don’t start out life afraid of the dark. As babies, we sleep and waken in darkened rooms with no different behavior than being in a lightened room. What changes? What makes us afraid of darkness? As we grow, we learn about the world around us. We become aware and familiar with our surroundings. In the dark, we are blinded. We are unable to see things around us. We don’t recognize where we are. We’ve lost a sense of security. For a child who is in a dark room, this security may be a parent. Our mind begins to produce unrealistic thoughts of danger. A child may begin to imagine there are monsters under their bed. It is a researched and proven fact that anxiety increases in darkness.
When a light is turned on in a room, it enhances our ability to see what is there, but it does not change the character of what is in the room. The items in the room have always been there. They don’t disappear when the room is dark. Monsters were never living under the bed. (At least I don’t think so.) Light gives greater exposure to what is already there. Light brings knowledge of our surroundings, recognition of the familiar, as well as assurance of our security and safety.
Light illuminates, it cleanses and whitens, warms, energizes and nourishes, and provides a sense of time. Without light, there is no life. The Hebrew Scriptures open with the creation narrative,
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.”
Light was created the first day of Creation. Without light, the rest of creation would not survive nor would it matter. The Gospel of John opens with this passage,
“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.”
John mirrors the creation story, placing Jesus in the narrative as the light. “In him was life, and that life was the light of men.” The entire Gospel of John, “displays the ongoing reflection of Christians and their deepening understanding of who Jesus is” (Bowe 2003). John notates Jesus’ identity through the “I Am” sayings, “I am the bread of life”; the good shepherd; the resurrection and the life; the true vine; the way, the truth and the life; and I am the light of the world. “These (images or) metaphors…convey different dimensions of human longing, and John’s gospel wants to convince us that no matter what metaphor we use, Jesus is the fulfillment of our longings” (Bowe 2003).
The “I Am” phrase gives us a recognizable image of Jesus. “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” In the first part of the text, the verses have focused on blindness, sin and the darkness that result. Jesus, introduces a new phase of the story, by proclaiming his identity as light of the world, and we know that the miracle that is about to happen will prove this proclamation. Jesus picks up dirt from the ground, spits in it, places the mud over the man’s eye’s and tells him to go wash. The man washes as Jesus directed and his sight is restored.
Imagine being blind since birth. You have no reference to what things “look” like, only what they feel, taste, smell or sound like. If by miracle, you open your eyes and suddenly have been given sight, what is the first thing your eyes would sense and recognize immediately? Light. There would be no mistaking the opposite of darkness. The man would not recognize the people around him or his own reflection in the water, but his eyes would immediately recognize the light that has been withheld from him since birth. Just as baptism symbolizes a washing away of sin, a rebirth, a new life, the man’s blindness is “washed away”, giving him a new life as well. No longer will he need to beg. No longer will he be outcast from his family and friends. No longer will he be thought of as sin. He has been given salvation from the blindness which bound him.
This man; an impoverished, ignored, and outcast wretch of a man, could have been anywhere in the city that day. But by the grace of God, he was on the path that Jesus walked. He could have been any of the people that Jesus passed by, but by God’s grace, he was the man whom Jesus healed. It’s a beautiful foretelling of what was to happen later on in the Gospel. Jesus would bring healing and salvation to the spiritually blind, through his death and resurrection. This time, however, God’s grace is extended to all, everywhere. It doesn’t matter which part of the city, what path we’re on, what sin we struggle with, the light of Jesus shines on us, cleansing us, nurturing us and giving us life.
--Missy Lawson
Bowe, Barbara E. Biblical Foundations of Sprituality. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003.
Prayer...
Discerner of hearts,
you look beneath our outward appearance
and see your image in each of us.
Banish in us the blindness
that prevents us from recognizing truth,
so we may see the world through your eyes
and with the compassion of Jesus Christ who redeems us. Amen.
Discerner of hearts,
you look beneath our outward appearance
and see your image in each of us.
Banish in us the blindness
that prevents us from recognizing truth,
so we may see the world through your eyes
and with the compassion of Jesus Christ who redeems us. Amen.
