Mercy on the Man

Today's gospel, from John, is one of my favorites: Jesus heals the blind man. But it's not the miracle that resonates with me so much: it's the theme of overturning spiritual hypocrisy and corruption. This gospel demonstrates so powerfully this aspect of Jesus' mission: to strike down the barriers that separated people from God by essentially turning the world upside-down. To me, this is what  Christianity is all about, and it's central to my own faith.

The gospel begins with the question of why the man is blind—because of his sin, or that of his parents? Neither, says Jesus. Strike one against the notion that a person's sickness (or poverty, or weakness, or loneliness) makes him a sinner, or makes him anything other than human.

Jesus performs his miracle in the full light of day on the Sabbath—this is forbidden. And the Pharisees take note, saying: This man is not from God, because he does not keep the Sabbath and How can a sinful man do such signs? But Jesus says that the whole point of working the miracle is to demonstrate God's power. It must be visible to all. Strike two against rules defined by humans that would prevent good works from being performed. Strike three against the notion that "sinners" aren't "from God" as much as anybody else is.

The formerly blind man sees clearly in more ways than just the physical. His eyes have been opened to the Pharisees' limitations:

This is what is so amazing,
that you do not know where he is from, yet he opened my eyes.

The Pharisees don't like what they hear. You were born in sin! they say, and they throw him out. They don't like their wisdom being challenged by a beggar nor their power threatened by Jesus. But their rejection of him is the basis for connection between Jesus and his new follower.

It's this last bit I'm struggling with. Jesus says: 

I came into this world for judgment,
so that those who do not see might see,
and those who do see might become blind.

John's Jesus knows what he has to do: be judged and be sacrificed, to overturn the accepted rule, to change our hearts and minds, to open eyes so that we see what God has in store for us. But what does he mean by making blind those who do see? I think this is simply to remind us to question that which we think we know for sure. To tweak Springsteen ever so slightly: God has mercy on the man who doubts what he's sure of.