A Sermon Preached by the Rev. Peter De Franco at
St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Clifton, NJ
March 2, 2008
How many of you are believers? Raise your hand if you believe. Faith is a hard thing to have in today’s world. We live in a world that places a value on what you can see, what you can measure, what you can touch and feel and hear and smell. So when you tell people that you believe, you place yourself in conflict with many people in our society.
Today’s story of the man born blind can help us all to understand our faith and our journey from faith to deeper faith. The story comes from John’s gospel. John writes with rich symbols and in the story of the man born blind we can see a person growing in faith. The Blind man’s growth in faith is a mirror in which we can see the pattern of our own journeys of faith.
We might think that we begin our journey of faith but it does not start with us. Listen to what the gospel says: “As Jesus walked along, he saw a man blind from birth.”
Just as Jesus came to the blind man so too Jesus discovers us. Jesus brings us what will really help us. Jesus is bringing the man a gift which begins with his sight.
Jesus puts mud on the man’s eyes and tells him to go and wash. The man does what Jesus tells him. So too with us. For our part, the journey in faith starts when we do what Jesus asks us to do. You know what Jesus wants you to do: Go to your room and pray to your Father. Love your enemies. Forgive those who sin against you. Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless.
Once we do what Jesus tells us to do, we will find ourselves in conflict with those who oppose Jesus. With our culture that invites us to pamper ourselves rather than care for others. With our society that values conflict rather than peace. With our neighbors who fear the strangers and sinners whom we welcome into our midst. With our very selves that run from the daily commitment to pray and talk with God.
When others challenge us, when they ask why we do what we do, we might respond like the blind man: “The man called Jesus told me.” The man called Jesus. For some of us that is where we are in our journey of faith. We look to the man called Jesus.
The man who is the best person who ever lived. The man who is the model of our human lives. The man who lays down the path we walk in.
But let’s go back to the story and see the next step in the blind man’s journey. As the Pharisees confront the blind man and challenge him somewhere in the confrontation the blind man begins to understand that Jesus is more than the man who cured him. When the Pharisees challenge the man: “What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” He said, “He is a prophet.” A prophet. Notice how this man’s faith is growing. A prophet. That is how some of us think of Jesus. He is a prophet. No, not someone who can foretell the future. But a person who speaks in the name of God. A person who mirrors who God is and reflects that for us.
In one of the moments of the greatest irony and hidden humor in this story, the Pharisees again confront the man: “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” Then they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.”
Cannot you hear that same accusation hurled against you when you make those choices that mark you as a Christian. “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of consumerism.” You are his disciple, but we are disciples of the latest fad.” “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of ….. fill in the blank with whatever you experience as the point of conflict between you Christian life and the life of the culture and society around you.
At this point, the Pharisees came to the end of their tolerance and they expel the man from the synagogue. The religious leaders have rejected this man. His parents have denied him. His society has thrown him out. In this state of total abandonment, notice what happens: “Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” This is Jesus, the good shepherd, seeking out the lost sheep, searching for the lost coin. When everyone else has let him go, Jesus once again searches out this blind man to finish what Jesus began when he opened his eyes.
Jesus asks the strangest question: “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” This man has faith in Jesus. But Jesus is leading the man to understand that Jesus is the Son of Man. Jesus uses that strange title because the Son of Man is the one who comes from heaven to bring those who believe in him into a relationship with him and with God.
Jesus seeks to bind this man to his heart.
He answered, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.”
Jesus replies: “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.”
You have seen him. The purpose of the opening of the man’s physical eyes was to behold Jesus. You have seen him. The opening of his physical eyes was not as important as the opening of the eyes of his heart. When the eyes of his heart are opened then the man confesses: “Lord, I believe.” He falls down and worships Jesus.
The climax of the journey of faith is to enter into this relationship with Jesus, to have the eyes of our hearts opened that we might see Jesus and in seeing Jesus to see the face of God reflected in the face of Jesus.
At this midpoint of Lent, I pray that may you too enter more deeply into your hearts that you may discover Jesus inviting you, wherever you are on your journey of faith, to an ever deeper relationship with him. As you open your heart to trust in this Jesus, may you find yourself totally immersed and sustained in the mystery of our God.
May you discover Jesus opening the eyes of your heart not only to see Jesus, but in looking into the face of Jesus you will behold the face of your God. Amen.
