Who sinned?

As Jesus walked along, he saw a man blind from birth.  His disciples asked him, 

"Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 

Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.  We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work.  As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva
and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent).

Then he went and washed and came back able to see.  The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 

Some were saying, “It is he.” 

Others were saying, “No, but it is someone like him.”
He kept saying, “I am the man.” 

But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 

He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’  Then I went and washed and received my sight.” 

The story you have just heard is a story about a miracle, or - as John's Gospel calls it - a sign.  The first eleven verses of this story do two things.  First they tell the reader about one of the identities of Jesus.  He is God's healer.  He is able to heal in a way no one has before: he is able to heal an affliction present from birth.  The implication is that Jesus is able to do that which only God is capable of doing.  This is the kind of relationship Jesus has with God.

The second thing these first 11 verses do is begin a theological conversation.  The subject of this conversation is sin, one of the things we focus on during Lent.

These verses, this story deserve the opportunity to speak for themselves.  So I am going to read you most of the rest of the story, but I am going to read this story as it can be found in the Message, an interpretation of scripture by Eugene Peterson.
We continue the story where we left off, as the man born blind is about to be led to the Pharisees.

They marched the man to the Pharisees.  This day when Jesus made the mud and healed his blindness was the Sabbath.  The Pharisees grilled him again on how he had come to see.
He said, “He put a clay mud on my eyes, and I washed, and now I see.”

Some of the Pharisees said, 

“Obviously, this man can’t be from God. He doesn’t keep the Sabbath.”

Others countered, “How can a bad man do miraculous, God-revealing things like this?” There was a split in their ranks.

They came back at the blind man,
“You’re the expert. He opened your eyes. What do you say about him?”

He said, “He is a prophet.”

The Jews didn’t believe it, didn’t believe the man was blind to begin with.  So they called the parents of the man.
They asked them, “Is this your son, the one you say was born blind?  So how is it that he now sees?”

His parents said, “We know he is our son, and we know he was born blind.  But we don’t know how he came to see—haven’t a clue about who opened his eyes.  Why don’t you ask him? He’s a grown man and can speak for himself.”

They called the man back a second time—the man who had been blind—and told him, “Give credit to God. We know this Jesus is an impostor.”

He replied, “I know nothing about that one way or the other.  But I know one thing for sure: I was blind . . . I now see.”

They said, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”

“I’ve told you over and over and you haven’t listened.  Why do you want to hear it again?  Are you so eager to become his disciples?”

With that they jumped all over him.  “You might be a disciple of that man, but we’re disciples of Moses. We know for sure that God spoke to Moses, but we have no idea where this man even comes from.”

The man replied, “This is amazing!  You claim to know nothing about him, but the fact is, he opened my eyes!  It’s well known that God isn’t at the beck and call of sinners,
but listens carefully to anyone who lives in reverence and does his will.
That someone opened the eyes of a man born blind has never been heard of—ever.
If this man didn’t come from God, he wouldn’t be able to do anything.”

They said, “You’re nothing but dirt!  How dare you take that tone with us!”  Then they threw him out in the street.

On January 12, 2010 a massive 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti approximately 16 miles west of the capital city Port-au-Prince.  There were an estimated 3 million people affected by the earthquake, and the death toll ended up somewhere between 100,000 and 300,000 people.  Haitians struggled to remove themselves from the wreckage of their homes and to repair the wreckage of their lives.  They struggled to find water, food, and family.

Many people rushed to aid the devastated population.  Yet some people had questions about the meaning of this earthquake.  One Christian leader in particular had a unique observation about Haitians.  His observation was that these people were suffering the consequences of a pact their ancestors made with the devil.  He claimed that Haitians in the early 1800's made a deal with the devil to free them from their colonial masters.  This religious leader believed that Haitians were being punished for this sin.  He made a moral evaluation of their actions, and connected them through a cause-and-effect relationship to the earthquake.

There were outcries and condemnations of this theory from many directions but the questions could not be ignored: Did this happen because of sin?  What is sin?

To explore these questions we need only listen in to the debate as it happens in our story.  At the beginning of the story, the disciples present the common view of sin.  They ask Jesus, "Whose sin is responsible for this man's blindness?"

The Pharisees - the religious leaders - do essentially the same thing.  The first thing they say is, "Obviously this Jesus can't be from God he worked on the Sabbath and that is a sin."  Their default is to attach a specific action to this concept of sinner.
                         

Yet from the beginning of the story, Jesus redirects the conversation.  He says, "You are focusing on the wrong question here.  You are looking for someone to blame when you should be searching for an opportunity to find God at work.
                         

Our instinct in the world is to always look for the cause and effect.  Where the rain falls we look for the clouds.  After the car is wrecked we look for failed brakes or a distracted driver.  After an earthquake we look for the pact with the devil.  Where the gun is fired we look for a violent video game, or some mental incapacity.

           

You can't really blame us, this is how we experience the world.  It is our instinct to point to a cause for all effects. It is our desire to know and understand all things.

So it's not really a surprise that this carries over into our experience of evil.  We don't really understand evil.  So we seek to define and categorize it.  We end up placing sin and evil as cause and effect.

But sin and evil are not things that fit into a simple system of cause and effect.  Sin cannot be simply judged and identified through an evaluation of actions.  This is what the Pharisees and the disciples wanted.

If we take this story seriously, and listen to what the characters say, we see that sin is something that exists in the lack of relationship.  One does not uncover sin by evaluating actions on a scale of morality, but rather by exploring one's relationship with God.

Though we are not in a place to judge another person, we ask ourselves the questions anyway, "How do we detect sin?  How do we detect righteousness - or lack of sin?"

To answer this, Jesus points to those around us.  We know that the first commandment is to love the Lord your God, and the commandment that follows on its heels is to love your neighbor as yourself.  Our righteousness - or lack of sin - is rooted in our relationship with God, and our relationship with God is grounded through our relationships with others.

  

Our experience of evil in the world is too complicated.  We have too many examples of bad things happening to good people.  Evil defies logic too much to fit into any system of logic.  It is too complicated to put into a flow chart.
             

Christ calls us to set aside our cause and effect.  He calls us to stop using God's name to justify the cause for this earthquake, or that hurricane, or this death, or that shooting.  He calls us to use God's name to justify caring for all people: families, friends, strangers, enemies.

He calls us to set aside this belief that we know what it means to be sinful or righteous.  That we have a corner on the market for goodness, that we are the ones that can judge.  He calls us to start paying close attention to our relationship with God, and with God's children.  

This is the only connection that can be made with our actions, for it is when we pay close attention to our relationships that they are no longer casual.  It is when we place our deep faith in God, when we understand that call as the call to reorient ourselves toward the well being of others, that our actions are those of righteousness.  That our actions truly reflect our faith.  That our actions make an impact in the world for good.

This is how the blind are healed.

This is how God's light is spread. Amen.