Amazing grace: John 9:24-25.

Thomas, Frank A.

  A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. "Give
  glory to God by telling the truth," they said. "We know this man is a
  sinner." He replied, "Whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know.
  One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!" John 9:24-25,
  NIV)

This text brings into bold relief the true realities of blindness and seeing: some are blind, and yet they see, and some see and yet they are blind. What I want to suggest is that seeing has to do with believing, and if you do not believe, then you do not see. Some would suggest that you see first, and then you believe. I want to suggest that we believe first and then we see. I want to suggest that we see what we believe. And if we are not careful, we will only see what we already believe, which will leave us narrow, rigid, inflexible, and unyielding. What we believe cannot change, and therefore what we see cannot change, and then, as this text so clearly illustrates, we are blind. The human condition is that more often than not, we are blind, not because we do not see, but because it is so very difficult for us to either change or update what we believe.

Indicative of our human condition, in this text, a man is born blind. This person might represent all of us. We are born blind; we enter a world and are indoctrinated into beliefs and systems of thought both in our families and in the cultural, religious, political, economic, and social systems of the world. And these systems that we come to believe in directly shape what we see. Many of us are blind; blind to true love and true relationship offered to us; blind to deep caring by another human being; blind to the demands of justice and equality; blind to the wide distribution of wealth between the rich and the poor; blind to anyone and anything outside of the interests of our little group, and especially blind to our own faults and shortcomings.

In our text, Jesus stepped in; put mud on the eyes of the man, the man washed in the pool, and then he could see. You would think that this would be a time of victory and celebration, but this is the point when the real trouble started.

After the miracle, the neighbors are so surprised that the man can see that they enter a debate as to whether or not it is really him. They ask, "Is this the one that was blind and went around begging?" Some said yes and some said no, and several of them said, "But it looks just like him." He kept saying to them, "I am the man." They asked for details. "Who healed you and what happened?" He told them exactly what happened. They asked where Jesus was and he said that he did not know. The neighbors took the man to the Pharisees.

Now the first problem that the Pharisees had was that Jesus healed the man on the wrong day. Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath. We notice that they are blind already; what they believe will not let them see a miracle and they make a big deal about the day rather than the healing. They interrogated the man and he told them that Jesus took mud and smoothed it over his eyes and when it was washed away, he could see. Some of them said that Jesus could not be from God because he healed on the wrong day. Others said, "But how can anyone do these signs?" There was deep; division among them. The Pharisees again questioned the man: "Who do you think that he is?" The man replied, "I think that he must be a prophet."

The Jewish leaders would not believe that he had been born blind, so they called his parents. They asked them, "Is this your son? Was he born blind? How is it that he can: see?" They verify that this is their son and that he was born blind. They did not know how he could see or who healed him. They said, "He is of age, ask him." They were afraid of the Jewish leaders who had announced that anyone saying Jesus was the Messiah would be expelled from the synagogue.

So for the second time, they called the man in and said, "Tell the truth because we know that Jesus is a sinner." Again, you see what you believe. The man said," I do not know whether or not he is a sinner, but what; I do know is that I once was blind but now I see." That should have settled the matter, but they still asked, "What did he do? How did he heal you?" The man said, "I told you once. Didn't you listen? Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to be I one of his disciples too?" They cursed him and said, "You are one of his disciples, but we are disciples of Moses. We know God spoke to Moses, but as for this man, we don't know anything about him." The man said, "That's strange--he healed me and you say that you do not know anything about him? If this man were not from God, he would not be able to do it." They said, "You were born in sin and you are trying to teach us?" And they threw him out of the synagogue.

This is the human condition, blindness based in limiting beliefs, inaccurate assumptions, and false interpretations. They did not believe, so they could not see. They believed I that he healed on the wrong day--that was their limiting belief--the belief that limited their ability to see anything other I than their narrow interpretation of the Law and the Sabbath. They then followed with inaccurate assumptions: he must be a sinner. If he heals on the wrong day, he is a sinner. Then they made false Interpretations: he cannot be from God. And even when confronted with the testimony of a blind man who was healed, when confronted with eyewitness testimony, the evidence standing right in front of them, because of what they believed, they could not see.

Our nation believes that capitalism is the best economic system that the world has ever seen and any evidence to the contrary we cannot see. We cannot see that under capitalism, regardless of how the economy expands, it cannot and will not eradicate poverty. And so, we do not even really see poverty in this country. We are blind to the fact that we, as a nation, have no common purpose, no centrality that holds us together, no common vision and no common destiny--just a rugged individualism and mercenary profit-making so that we bailed out banks and foreclosed on the homes of the tax payers that gave the banks the money and see no contradiction in that. We give tax breaks to the rich and demonize teachers, teachers' unions, and the working middle class in the name of balancing the budget. And even beyond that, many are blind in relationships--blind to the fact that of the deep love of our families for us while we, as clergy, run around ministering to the needs of everyone but them. We are in fact the Pharisees in this text.

But I thank God that we are also the blind man in this text. This text is about whether our belief systems can handle new revelations; about whether we believe that God is done revealing Godself, or if God continues to reveal; if what we believe can be amended, adapted, and adjusted by the one who is fully humane--the one we might call the human one or the one that the Bible calls the "Son of Man," "the Son of God." Jesus says, I have come into the world to judge the world--to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind. This human one looks at the heart--this human one looks at what you believe in your heart.

Jesus comes into our lives and puts mud on our eyes--tells us to go and wash in the pool of Siloam and when we wash the mud off our eyes we can see. Did you ever receive a touch from Jesus and then wash in the pool and you could see? Have you ever stood flat-footed and just plain told God that you were wrong? I do not mean for small sins and small infractions, for insensitive actions or impure thoughts. I mean told God that you were wrong at the level of limiting beliefs. Have you ever told God that you were wrong about what you believed?

Can I get to the heart of it now? Have you ever told God that you were wrong because what you believed was based in fear? I am continually reflecting on the role of fear in our lives. There is a poem entitled, "Gremlin Poem" by Lou Tice:

                 I am Fear.
       I am the menace that lurks
      in the paths of life, never visible
     to the eye but sharply felt in the heart.
          I am the father of despair,
        the brother of procrastination, the
        enemy of progress, the tool of tyranny.

            Born of ignorance and nursed on
              misguided thought, I have
      darkened more hopes, stifled more ambitions,
              shattered more ideals and
       prevented more accomplishments than
                  history could record.
            Like the changing chameleon,
              I assume many disguises.
              I masquerade as caution.
     I am sometimes known as doubt or worry.
           But whatever I'm called, I am
               still fear, the obstacle of
                    achievement. (1)

My blindness is really fear. My blindness is that my beliefs are based in fear. I am afraid of change; afraid of being different; afraid that I have been wrong all this time. The voice of fear reminds me that I am inadequate; I am not smart enough; I am defective and cannot be fixed. And because of this fear, I have been clinging to my belief and it cannot change.

The joy is that once you tell God you were wrong about what you believed, then you can see. When I changed what I believed, I could see. When I admit to God that I was wrong, then it dismisses the fear. When I tell God that I was wrong, it is like Jesus putting mud on my eyes and telling me to go to the pool and wash. When I tell God I was wrong, I can see.

When I told God I was wrong, I woke up one morning and saw my wife for the very first time. Saw how much she loved me and how much she cared for me and saw how much I cared for and loved her. I woke up and saw the poor and saw that I was one of them and all of my middle-class striving was not for my own security but for the purpose of helping people. I woke up one morning and saw that our nation needed fundamental change and so did the church. I woke up one day and realized that I have fewer years left than the ones that have gone by and in fact, that I was going to die and I had better appreciate every moment. I woke up one day and was more fully human, more humane, more like the son of man. And I was able to say with the songwriter:

         Amazing grace how sweet the sound
            that saved a wretch like me-

        I once was lost, but now I am found,
             was blind but now I see.

1.http://174.120.18.8/livingou/images/lauren/GremlinPoem.pdf

Frank A. Thomas

Pastor of the Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church (THE BLVD) in Memphis, Tenn.