Acts 16:16-34 • John 9:1-38
Glory to God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
In today’s Gospel, a blind man is made whole by faith!
…No, wait… That’s a different blind man, isn’t it.
This blind man is just sitting downtown with his begging cup, and out of nowhere a stranger puts mud on eyes and says “Go wash your face at Siloám.” No reason given. There’s no promise. No expectation of any miracle. Just a command. So he goes.
And blind man is healed as he obeys.
* * *
Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
You know, I think most of us want to live in a just world. We want the righteous to be rewarded and the guilty punished. But then there’s the whole book of Job to tell us bad things happen to good people.
We are born into a broken world. Created good, but blighted and distorted by sin. So the Lord says, in this world, you will have tribulation. That’s an unconditional promise. And he never promises to explain it to us. Instead he promises to share our suffering; not to solve your problems, but to carry you in the midst of them.
So the apostles see this blind man and their first question is – Bad things happen to bad people, so whose fault is it that he’s blind? Is he blind to punish his parents for some terrible sin? Is he blind to punish him for his own sins? (Even though he was born this way?)
And the Lord answers, basically, No! That’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works!
This man’s blindness had nothing to do with sin at all. But this suffering became an opportunity for the works of God to be made manifest.
God’s works become manifest when He acts and blesses and fills His creation with grace. God does not cause suffering so that He can get some good PR. Many forms of suffering exist in our shattered world, it is true, and God the Word became incarnate to bring healing and salvation in the midst of it. God is not the author of suffering.
In the Wisdom of Solomon we read,
God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living. For he created all things that they might be: and he made the nations of the earth for health: and there is no poison of destruction in them, and the dominion of Hades is not on earth. For righteousness is immortal.
So the Lord says, no, this man’s blindness was not punishment from God, but it has become an opportunity for the works of God to be revealed in him.
I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
Saint Augustine asks the question: What night is he talking about, when no one can work? And he answers:
It will be that night of the wicked, that night of those to whom it shall be said in the end, Depart into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels… Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into outer darkness.
Therefore let man work while he lives, that he may not be overtaken by that night when no man can work. It is now that faith is working by love; and if now we are working, then this is the day. Christ is here. Hear His promise, and think Him not absent. It is He who has said, Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.
But after the resurrection of the living and the dead, when He shall say to those placed at His right hand, Come, you blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom; and to those at His left, Depart into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels; then shall be the night when no man can work, but only receive what he has wrought already.
* * *
Today the blind man is healed as he obeys. He goes to Siloám, obeys the simple command to wash his face — and he’s healed.
Two weeks ago, the paralytic was healed at Bethesda by Someone whose name he did not know – again, not through faith, and not by his right doctrine or understanding. And that’s a lot like another paralytic, over in Luke’s Gospel, a few weeks ago; he was healed – not because of his faith, but because the Lord saw the faith of those who brought him and lowered him through the roof.
So it is no coincidence that in today’s Epistle reading, the jailer is told “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you and your household will be saved.” The jailer and all his family are baptized. Just as Jewish boys are circumcised on their eighth day, before they ever personally decide to embrace the Jewish Law, this prison guard’s children are all baptized into the Church because of their parents’ faith.
(You know, I have never studied the pharmacokinetics of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. But Ibuprofen works when I take it. Its effectiveness has never depended on any reasoning in my brain.)
And as with the blind man and the paralytic, the grace of the baptismal sacrament works, because it doesn’t depend on anybody’s mental capacity or concepts in their head.
And so the blind man is enlightened. In today’s Gospel, Christ tells us, “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” But then later he’ll turn round and says, “You! You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven”
Last week, Christ taught the Samaritan woman that we receive the water of life in order to become sources of living water flowing out of the life of God in us. Today it’s the same reality: We receive sight in order to shine and be the light of the world.
What does that look like in real life ? “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control: against such things there is no law”
The mercy and peace that are revealed when you speak and act toward your family, your coworkers and your enemies is the light of the world.
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy… does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil… Love never fails”
Put your name in there: When you say, “Silouan is patient and kind, does not envy,” about yourself, is it true? If not, then you may have something to bring to confession.
Bishop Tikhon (Shevkunov) says:
Our gaining of sight consists in our beginning to see ourselves as full of sins and capable of every evil and betrayal. Our gaining of sight consists in our seeing the world as it really is: lying in evil. Our gaining of sight consists in our beginning to see and appreciate in this world God’s great mercy toward us and to all of blind humankind.
So don’t despair when you fall, but get up eagerly and do a metanoia saying, “Forgive me, Lord. I am human and weak.” You have not surprised the Lord; you have not disappointed him. The Lord has not abandoned you. But since we still have so much pride, our Christ lets us make mistakes and fall, so that we’ll perceive and come to know our weakness every day, so that we’ll become patient with everyone else’s mistakes, and so that we won’t condemn our brothers but forbear and forgive out of compassion.
At Vespers last night, we sang:
O Christ God, Thou Sun of Righteousness, by Thine all-pure touch Thou didst bring light to the eyes of him who from the womb had been deprived of light, and hast illumined the eyes of our souls: Show us to be children of the day, that we may cry out to Thee with faith: Great is Thine ineffable compassion for us! Glory to Thee Who lovest mankind!
May God who shone light out of darkness, who is risen from the dead in ineffable light, who is the Light of the world, and has sent us to be the light of the world, by his grace grant you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your hearts being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints And what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe.
To the glory of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
