Healed by Jesus

Once again today our gospel reading tells the story of an unexpected encounter with Jesus. It is another story that reveals to us and to the world Jesus’ identity as Christ, the Messiah; the one sent by God into this world to do God’s work; to share God’s love and grace with all people; the one who is the light that shines in the darkness. (John 1:5).

It is another story grounded in baptismal imagery; another story of water and Spirit and Word and truth, leading to new life; another story that connects us with Jesus and reminds us of our identity as God’s beloved children.

Two weeks ago we heard the story of Nicodemus, a Pharisee (religious leader), who went to see Jesus in the dark of night. (John 3:1-17). Nicodemus wanted to know more about Jesus – “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with that person.” The conversation takes off from there. Jesus tells him “no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above”. Nicodemus left that night, pondering the theological question of what it means to be born of water and Spirit; wondering, perhaps, How can these things be?

Last week we heard the story of the Samaritan Woman who meets Jesus at the well, in the middle of the day. (John 4:1-41). Give me a drink, Jesus says to her; he is thirsty. The woman is bold; she questions Jesus’ intent in asking her for a drink. The conversation flows from there; back and forth between the two of them. Jesus offers the woman living water; “a spring of water gushing up to eternal life”. Those who drink of this water will never be thirsty. Then he tells her “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth”. The women left her water jar at the well and returns to her neighbors in the city, asking them the theological question Come and see…He cannot be the Messiah, can he?.

Today we have the story of the man born blind who receives sight from Jesus. This is such a funny little (!) story. On one level, it’s a story of physical healing – Jesus mixes mud with his saliva, puts it on the eyes of a blind man, and tells him to go wash in the waters (the pool) of Siloam. The man does exactly what Jesus tells him to do and suddenly the man can see. His life is changed through this unexpected encounter with Jesus (note that the man did not ask Jesus to heal him).

You would think the people around the man – his neighbors, the religious authorities, his parents – would be happy at this unexpected change in the man’s circumstances. They are not. They have many questions – which is great – yet none of these people are able to see beyond their own point of view into a deeper reality.

Only the man born blind can see what is happening. Twice he is questioned on how he received his sight. Each time he repeats the same story – “he” (he’s not even sure who the “he” is) put mud on my eyes; I washed; now I see.

The third time he is asked to repeat his story, he refuses. He speaks the truth as he knows it; he had been blind yet now he sees; he does not know how this happened. What he knows is this: Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.

It’s as if his eyes are opened a little bit more each time the man born blind repeats the same story – each time he ponders and reflects more deeply on what Jesus said to him and what he did in response and how it changed his life in such an unexpected way. By the end of the story, he recognizes Jesus as a prophet and he worships him. Now he has been fully healed – made well and whole and alive in his soul – through the loving touch of Jesus Christ, this man who is from God.

As people of God gathered in this place, you have been touched by Jesus – washed with the water and words of baptism and fed with Christ’s own body and blood. Your eyes have been opened to the kin-dom of God that surrounds you; the presence of God in your lives and in the life of the world. You have been changed in unexpected ways that you may not yet fully understand.

So, for example, if anyone had told you last year, that you, the faithful people of Holy Trinity, needed to consider changing everything about the way you live out your calling as a Lutheran community of faith, you would have responded as the people around the man born blind responded – with many questions and reluctance to see beyond your own point of view into a deeper reality.

Now, after persistent and faithful conversations with God and with each other, your eyes have been open to the unexpected realization that yes, you do need to change, for the sake of the gospel and your life together as people who act boldly to follow the example of Jesus.

It’s as if your eyes have been open a little bit more each time you have these conversations and tell each other the story of Holy Trinity’s past and present and your hopes for the future.

Now you are beginning to recognize that God is calling you and the Holy Spirit is leading you into a process of revitalization that may result in new life-giving ministries in this place.

The good news for today is that we have been healed by Jesus; made whole and well and alive in our souls.

We have been healed by Jesus so that we might reveal God’s work in the world – God’s love for all people poured out through Jesus Christ; poured out to make all things new by the power of the Holy Spirit – in new and exciting ways.

We have been healed by Jesus so that we might Walk as children of light (Ephesians 5:8) in this dark world; this world still entrapped by sin and evil and people blind to the presence of God among us.

We have been healed by Jesus and sent out into the world to share the truth of the good news of Jesus Christ, in our words and in our deeds, with our neighbors, so that the people around us will notice and wonder and see that God’s healing work is being done through us, for the glory of God and for the sake of the world that God so dearly loves.

The good news for today is that by the grace of God we have been changed and we can go out into God’s world with love, giving thanks for the healing we have received from Jesus, this man who is from God.