Help us to truly see Lent 4 John 9

Jesus said, ‘For judgement I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind’.

How often do we say , ‘Yes I do see’ when we really mean we hope we understand, for see so often means not just being able to see something but being able to understand. And without a doubt I think we all have our ‘blind spots’ when for one reason or another we do not really get the meaning of something.

Jesus understands our blindness, he invites us to see properly to see with our eyes that do not truly see, with all our wounds and brokenness. Jesus uses our weaknesses, for we are all weak, to help us to reach out to others.

When something does wrong we often ask why. ‘Why did this happen to me?’ In the reading the crowd were asking ‘whose fault is this?’ for they believed blindness must be someones fault, someone had done something wrong. But Jesus replied ‘no-one’ , (for disability and illness are not a result of sin), and that he would use the man’s blindness as an opportunity to reveal the power of God. Jesus understood the need for people to be able to see visually, but he was and is also very concerned with those who are spiritually blind, who hear the word but cannot see.

And this is what Jesus did when he paused, stopped, saw, healed. It was an ordinary place, seemingly the roadside, and those ordinary places are the places where God’s work is done. When we think of those Christians whose lives stand out Oscar Romero, Mother Theresa that is where they were, in an ordinary place. Not in some peaceful, quiet church but in the difficult places, with the smell and the dirt, the poverty the unloved. And they were transforming darkness into light, blindness into sight, making God manifest in the gutter of life. They could see God in those people, whereas most of us are probably blind to that. They did not pass by as most of us might do but stop, touch, and heal, as did Jesus. They got their hands dirty serving the street people ,they ate with the prostitutes, the child soldiers, the drug addicts. They were the listening ear of hope and unconditional love.

So our first step toward moving from blindness to sight is to realize we are blind. All of us are blind to one thing or another. But Jesus wants us to see. Jesus wants us to pause, to stop, to notice what is right in front of us every day. Not to be so busy in our lives that we do not see.

When we truly see, it is as if we are given our sight back, that we have been given new eyes, but this is spiritual sight, the gift of having a deeper vision, a deeper understanding. This new sight moves us out of the self centred society in which we live, into God’s vision of the world. For with these new eyes we see God’s love even more powerfully, that ever powerful light that conquers all blindness. But it may not be easy, even within the church there are many who do not truly see, today’s Pharisees, but if we truly use our new eyes we will have the faith and courage to hold on to our beliefs, to walk in Christ’s footsteps.

I don’t imagine any of us will become a new Oscar Romero or Mother Theresa, but we can still make a difference.

It is easy to see Jesus, to be a reflection of Jesus, in the serenity of the church on Sunday. But it is harder to reflect Jesus in our lives when we are tired, when everyone around us seems awkward, there’s a traffic jam and you’re in a rush, or the children are arguing, but that is where we need to be.

Let us pray that we may see as Jesus sees, that we will see Jesus in each face we look at, each person who turns to us, Let us pray we have the sight to truly see God, and to truly reflect Jesus daily in our lives. Amen