Sunday’s gospel begins as a miracle (scene 1) but continues as a faith drama, a series of scenes in which a man born blind explains to neighbors and teachers how he got his sight and who this person is who gave him sight. As the man tells his story, he sees with increasing clarity who Jesus is. Reread and explore the story of his journey for yourself, using the directions below.
- Give titles to the six scenes as a way of identifying what happens in each and how the conflict grows.
- In which scenes is Jesus central? In which, the man born blind? Note all the places the man born blind repeats the story of his healing.
- Underline the statements the man makes about who Jesus is. What steps do you see in the faith journey of the man born blind?
Scene 1 tells a simple story of a physical healing; however, miracle stories in John’s gospel are never simple and never called miracles. They are signs that reveal Jesus. In Sunday’s gospel the gift of sight, which the man receives from Jesus in scene 1, sets him off on a journey of insight into who his healer is (scenes 2-6).
The man with new eyes becomes the central character in scenes 2-5. In your bible study you may have noticed that the man says less in each scene about the miracle and more about who Jesus is. When his neighbors first question how he came to see, the man simply recounts all Jesus’ actions.
When neighbors take the man to the Pharisees in scene 3, the man born blind repeats some of what happened to him and then reflects—Jesus must be a prophet. His controversy with these strict teachers of the law helps the man see Jesus in a new way.
In scene 5 after his parents insist the man must speak for himself, he tells his story in eight words, “I was blind, and now I can see,” but he reflects at length on who his healer must be and makes an argument that anyone who heals a man blind from birth must be from God. His healing is a sign that reveals Jesus for the man but remains a sin in the eyes of the Pharisees. The blind man sees; the seeing teachers remain blind.
Ask yourself the questions the man born blind answers:
- How were my eyes opened?
- How did I receive my sight?
- Where is Jesus?
- Do I believe in the Son of Man?
Sunday’s gospel tells in one story two layers of history—a mud layer and a water layer. The mud layer is Jesus’ historical ministry (A.D. 30), in which Jesus in person smears mud on a man’s eyes. However, Jesus sends the man to the pool of Siloam to wash. Only in washing does he receive his sight.
This detail suggests this story also tells a later history about Christians, who become Jesus’ followers through baptismal washing. The man born blind represents both a man who encounters Jesus and a character in the gospel with whom the Christian community identifies and through whom they tell their story.
Bible scholar J. Louis Martyn suggests we glimpse in the parents’ fear the conflicts parts of the Christian community faced in the A.D. 90s. The parents fear those in their synagogue who have agreed to put out anyone who confesses Jesus is the messiah.
No one is certain when or in what synagogues divisions arose between disciples of Jesus and disciples of Moses. However, after the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70, a number of rabbis formed an academy in the town of Jamnia. From this school modern Judaism grew. Scenes 4 and 5 picture the man born blind and his community experiencing tensions that ultimately force Jews to take sides and become separate groups.
The gospel tradition equates a healing encounter with Jesus and a baptismal encounter. In Jesus’ absence—the middle of Sunday’s gospel—the man with new eyes speaks the truth of his experience. In his witness, he progressively finds words and gains insight into who Jesus must be.
His witness models the value of articulating and sharing our own experience of God and of persisting in dialogue with those who challenge us. He calls us to continue his story as our own.
- What conflicts call you to speak your experience of God’s Spirit stirring in you?
- What insight does this gospel give you about the value of faith sharing?