Life is a miracle

It was always thus.

He would wake to not darkness necessarily, because darkness implies there is light and light was something that could be seen.

He could not see.

It was just the way things were.

And this was the way it was since birth.

He was born into blindness.

He could not see and so he could not understand the concept of things that require sight to understand.

It was just blank.

Everything was blank.

Imagine sunlight without the light, just warmth upon his face in the midday, coolness as it disappears behind the horizon.

He could not work.

He could not perform the tasks his family could.

He would struggle sometimes to walk on rocky roads upon which were hazards and branches to trip over.

Perhaps feeling his way with a stick in hand he would make it to his begging spot.

And he would ask for coins that would jingle and weigh differently but he could not tell you what color they were only that they were not totally smooth but had ridges and bumps and would arrive cold in his cup but would then warm after holding them for a while.

He knew hot and cold and warm and cool.

He woke with the warmth of the coming day and left his spot as the day turned to cool.

He knew cold water came from the clay pot kept in the shade of the kitchen, he knew hot food was placed lovingly before him on a plate portioned out by a parent who loved him.

He knew love, the touch of his mother’s caress.

Hands on his cheeks, he knew the loving touch of his mother’s calloused hard worked hands.

His father would help him to bed, long ago he would be carried in his father’s sturdy arms where the blind man then a boy would drift away on a straw mat dreaming of things formed by an imagination that could not see.

He would sleep in the cool desert air.

He would wake to the warm rising sun.

It was always thus.

Until one day a man walked toward him.

He could here things and a man approaching was well heard.

He heard his shuffling sandals in the dry dirt.

He felt a shadow lean over him.

The man was talking.

The man was talking about him, him being the blind man.

He said the blind man did not sin, that is not how he became blind because he was born blind.

He said instead, he would see.

Preposterous.

What does it mean to see when one has never seen before?

He heard the man scrape the earth and grabbed some dirt.

He spit in his hands.

He was getting even closer.

He could smell his body, his hair, his breath as he drew closer and closer.

He felt hands on his face.

He felt mud, rocky and unsmooth, on his face, his eyes.

This man was wiping his face with mud formed from dirt and spit.

The man told him to go wash his face in the pool of Siloam.

Find your way down the hill and go to the ancient pool and wash your face of blindness.

He did.

He walked without stumbling to the ancient waters.

He dipped his hands in the cool water.

He brought the water to his face.

He wiped mud and blindness from his eyes.

He could see.

Preposterous.

He rose from the side of the pool.

He saw for the first time.

He saw for the first time, light.

Hi neighbors saw him.

They saw him walking without stumbling down the road, he did not carry a stick.

How was this possible?

Wasn’t this man born blind?

The townsfolk brought him to the Pharisees.

They would know what was going on.

They were the most learned folks and figure it out.

And even they were confused.

And they asked the now not blind man all about the mechanics of what happened.

How did he do this?

He put mud on my eyes, I washed it off, and now I can see, he said simply.

This just could not be.

People who were born blind did not regain their sight just like that.

The Pharisees even asked his parents, “are you sure he was blind? How can he now see?”

We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.

The Pharisees could not see what happened for they were blind to the miracle.

Did not injury derive from sin, did not blindness come because we were sinners?

Infirmity was a punishment of God.

Surely they knew that much, but the man once blind had something more to say about the man who gave him his sight.

“Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. 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.”

But the Pharisees could not see this.

They worshipped God, they knew God, the God of Moses who gave them the law.

This man before them, did he know the law as they did?

No, the man before them did not know the law as they did, but he did know God.

He knew who said “I am” when asked if he was the Son of Man.

And the blind man now believed in this other man Jesus, for he was God and he was given sight without regard for the law.

In fact, there was no interrogation before he was given sight, no checklist was completed before Jesus healed him.

Jesus just walked in front of him, made mud in his hands, and gave him sight to see.

Preposterous.

I wonder if we can see this as it is.

This is Jesus offering himself to the blind man without regard for sin or belief.

Jesus offered himself regardless.

Jesus offers himself now regardless.

We do not need to be of a particular branch or sect, we do not need to believe even, for Jesus offers himself for all peoples.

Over and over again, Jesus enters into our lives and works to heal us from sin and infirmity.

Without regard for our station in life, be we beggars on the ground in Jerusalem or beggars at the end of an exit ramp, we are loved by Jesus.

And not only are we loved, we are also sought after.

Jesus walks towards us, he stoops down to look into our unseeing eyes, our eyes that would want to explain away miracles with science and logic, and wipe from those eyes skepticism and a lack of belief.

Go down to the pool, wash your eyes of disbelief, and rise to realize your faith.

It is easy to understand the skepticism of the Pharisees, this doesn’t exactly make sense.

And it is hard to believe sometimes, because faith doesn’t always make sense.

But when we wipe our eyes and choose to see the miracles before us, we can find it easy to believe.

This life is a miracle.

Let us believe.

Amen.