What an interesting story. When I read it I get a sense of apprehension though. That apprehension has to do with the fact that it’s culturally very difficult and is filled with hurdles of perception and discernment, but it has a lot to say. John F. Kennedy said, “There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again. But why, some say, the Moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? (A joke the folks actually at the speech would have gotten). He continued, We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to the Moon… We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too.” Why this quote? All I know is that when I walked in ignorance this scripture used to be a lot easier. Now it feels a lot more like the moon endeavor. But the journey, seeking to understand and deal with all of the hurdles that this particular Gospel reading presents, presents the opportunity to go deeper into faith and to see how the Gospel is Good News for all people. This Gospel has presented some prominent pitfalls over time, not completely defined metaphors that seem to equate physical blindness with being spiritually lost, blanket statements that open the door for anti-Jewish view or Anti-Semetism and the idea that one is not or can’t be whole with perceived physical imperfection or suffering. So let’s take a look at the scripture and see some really cool things that John did here and not open our eyes, but instead become aware of the implications of not minding our metaphors or how gross generalization, blanket statements, tropes, stereotypes can harm one another. First of all, it’s pretty dehumanizing for the disciples to callously use another disenfranchised human being to get an object lesson, but Jesus immediately disconnects sin from infirmity, suffering or disability. Let’s face it though, the continued action leaves a feeling that the physically blind are not whole without physical sight, but let’s put that on the back burner for just a little, and come back to it shortly. I have always been really intrigued by the next little section. Jesus spits on the ground, makes mud and puts it on the man’s eyes. Why? I went on a deep dive on this one. I didn’t find an explanation that was all together, but I found it in pieces and sought to put them together and I wonder if I’m seeing a clever cultural device that John put together for his early readers that would have put the pieces together with much less effort. In many of the world’s cultures there is a belief in the evil eye. In the book of Mark it is referenced as the ὀφθαλμὸς πονηρός, or in Hebrew it is known as ayin ha’ra and is referenced in the Talmud and Jewish law. It is believed that looking upon others or their possessions with envy or jealousy essentially transmits evil and ill will. One protection against it was saliva which was/is believed to have healing and restorative properties. In quite a few cultures, spitting or pretending to spit on children or others is believed to offer protection. One tradition that I have witnessed in my own culture is spitting on one’s hand and shaking to seal a deal , oath or promise. I think the idea is the creation of a bond. That’s not too far from the belief of some within Jesus’ culture that the act of spitting was an intercession, in other words, a desire for the ill will or evil to fall on the spitter instead of the intended target. Why dirt? Dirt symbolized sin. It is of the utmost importance at this point to remember that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and that Jesus disconnected one’s physical abilities from sin. I think the dirt simply was about the fact that we have all sinned. Now the thing I’m wondering is actually a few things. We just remembered on Ash Wednesday that we are dust and to dust we shall return. That reminds us of God’s activity there in the garden in the formation of humankind. It says in Second Corinthians, “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!”, and in Romans it says, “We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.” Is Jesus recalling that moment in the garden and expressing that he is forming a new creation? Is he mingling his spit to intercede and take the man’s burdens upon himself? Remember physical issues and suffering were seen as proof of sin at that time in that culture. People were kept on the outside and the option was to beg. I remember the story of Immanuel Yeboah. Immanuel was born with only one fully formed leg. He tells of how his mother was encouraged to abandon him to the animals outside the village because of his deformity. Immanuel refused to let that difference define him and pigeon hole him into a life of begging. Immanuel dedicated his life to showing the value of the lives of those born with disabilities. He rode a bicycle all over his country to show people that disability does not equate with being cursed, unlucky or unwhole. In her faith Emmanuel’s mother, Comfort named him Emmanuel because it means “God is with us”. Emmanuel did not miraculously grow a leg, as he was whole already. Check out his wikipedia page where it heads, Emmanuel Yeboah, Ghanaian Ghanaian cyclist, triathlete, sprinter and disability rights activist. If I’m right about the dirt/saliva thing, maybe the sin Jesus was seeking to take upon himself was the pain of being kept apart, being talked about like he wasn’t there, being refused full participation in his community and the like. Also, mud is one of those tricky things. It looks solid enough, that is until your $500,000 excavator, or dirt moving machine, is mired in it up halfway to the roof or worse. There’s a stuckness there. Maybe it’s like the psalmist says, I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. This is not a physical blindness or disability issue, it’s one we should relate to. Jesus offers freedom. Jesus frees the man from being stuck as he frees us. There’s the object lesson, Spit and dirt, seeking to shoulder another’s burden and bring freedom and healing. I think that the key to this passage is realizing that we can find ourselves in the shoes of all of those in the story. The antagonists are not “the Jews”. The bad guys are not the Pharisees. I think back in the book of Jeremiah the issue is pointed out. He writes, “Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear. or as Jonathan Swift put it millenia later, “There are none so blind as those who will not see. The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know’. We must work on focusing our perception and not so easily be swayed by our own selfish motivations. Anti-Jewish ideology is far from God’s intent and a stable and perfect body is not the standard for human perfection. Here’s a really cool thing that I saw. Nancy Eisland points out two things concerning the resurrection. Jesus appears to Thomas there in that room and invites him to inspect his wounds. His resurrected body still bears the marks of the crucifixion. A physically perfect body was not the point. She points out that this completely undermines metaphors that equate spiritual wholeness with physical wholeness. Then she points out that the bond between the literal and symbolic, physical and spiritual metaphors of John 9 are broken in John 20:29, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe” President Kennedy said that getting to the moon was hard. You know the moon averages a distance of about 238,900 miles away and is moving at about 2,300 mph in orbit and we landed on it in 1969. Then in 2019 we were able to have a spacecraft fly by and send us pictures of Arrokoth, the most distant and most primitive object ever explored by a spacecraft. Arrokoth is about 4.1 billion miles away and moving at 32,000 mph. We achieved those hard things, yet with 2000 years under our belt, we still have not achieved loving one another and perceiving one another as Christ first loved and perceives us. Let’s seek better perception and understanding of one another and make love our mission because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge should be one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win. Amen
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