Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?” Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains” (John 9:40-41).

This story is a fun one to step into.  Take a few moments to read through it (John 9:1-41) now, to make sure that you’re in on the fun and get all the jokes.

Jesus regularly restored sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the mute and mobility to the lame and paralyzed.  Here’s the thing: when Jesus gets ahold of our eyes, ears, tongues and legs, it changes the way we see, hear, speak and move.  

So some very personal questions start coming at us, as we step into this story: do I want to start seeing things the way Jesus does, or am I content with my current vision (or lack thereof, even if my eyes check out at 20/20)?  As I listen to the world, am I hearing what Jesus is hearing, listening where he is listening, or am I tuning into different channels?  Is what comes out of my mouth the kind of things that Jesus might say?  Do my feet move in the paths of Jesus-following, or is that part of me still kind of lame?

Few if any of us reading this are physically blind, deaf, mute or paralyzed.  Those disabilities were far more common in Jesus’s day than now, and for the better health we enjoy, we can all be grateful to God.  

But might we still be “disabled,” even if our physical bodies are in decent working order?

The religious authorities in our story were confident that they saw things God’s way, heard God’s Word truly, spoke God’s truth rightly, and moved in obedience to God … but they did not, because they would not allow Jesus to be for them who he really was.  They were moral and “good” people, they were active in synagogue/church, they were conversant with Scripture, they tried really hard to do what they felt was right, often at significant cost.

And yet here is Jesus, asking them, “Do you really see, see what God is doing?  Do your ears really work, are they attuned to me, listening to me?  I am well aware that all kinds of sounds come from your mouths, but they don’t sound like the voice of my Father, they don’t sound like the voice of the Good Shepherd.  Your lives are busy, full, even exhausting, but when it comes to moving towards God’s Kingdom, you seem stuck, paralyzed.”

We can view the religious authorities as somewhat clownish villains in the story, or we can allow their disabilities to speak to us about our own.  You really want to see, right?

Lord Jesus, you know me fully and love me completely.  You know my willful blind spots, the sounds to which I choose to be deaf, the words that flow from my heart to my mouth, and all that lames me in my following of you.  Heal me, too, Lord Jesus; please heal me too.  Amen.