An Exemplar for these days: The Man Born Blind

An Exemplar for these days: The Man Born Blind

The Gospel reading of the Man born blind is easily my favorite Scriptural text (John 9. 1-41).

Notice how it starts without the man asking for anything.  Instead, while his disciples are wondering why the man is born blind, Jesus puts mud on the poor man’s eyes, and tells him to wash. The man returns cured.

But that’s just the beginning of the story.

In the meantime, Jesus exits.

The leaders want to know how did this man get cured.  Here’s where things get dicey for the man. By the end of the story, his frightened parents distance themselves from him and the temple leaders expel him.  He’s off on his own.

Throughout the text, he’s incredibly impressive, testifying on his own, on each occasion, with greater confidence about who Jesus is and what Jesus has done for him.  By the end he has grown in such courage, wisdom, and faith that he turns the tables and begins to question those questioning him.  It’s a tour-de-force for the man born blind. But he gets thrown out of the Temple….. (Continua a leggere)