Much though, as some of you will know, Lent is my least favourite season in the Church’s year, it is at least mitigated in Year A by these three gospel readings from John on these last three Sundays before we get to Holy week: The woman of Samaria last week, the man born blind today, and the resuscitation of Lazarus next week. Despite being retired I did get to preach last Sunday on the woman at the well, and today on the blind man, but unless I get a last minute request it doesn’t look as though I will be preaching on Lazarus next Sunday.
Apart from the fact that these three Gospels are full of typically Johanine misunderstandings between Jesus and those with whom he is talking, they also deal with the themes that we are going to be celebrating in just three weeks’ time at the Easter Vigil, namely water (last week), Life (next week) and today, light.
Light is a concept fundamental to John’s Gospel. In the prologue we are told that what has come into being in God is life that was the light of humanity, light that shines in the darkness, light that darkness could not overpower. John was not that light, but bore witness to it; it was the Word that was coming into the world that was the real light that would give light to everyone.
And this theme of light triumphing over darkness runs through the whole of the Gospel. Without wanting to tread on the toes of next Sunday’s preacher, when the disciples are afraid to go with him to Judea after being told that Lazarus is sick, Jesus tells them that as long as they walk in the light they will not stumble, it is only in the dark when you have problems.
So although today’s story centres around the healing of the man born blind, it is really about light triumphing over darkness. A blind man would find it hard to walk around in the Old City of Jerusalem even today, and would indeed stumble and likely fall. But Jesus’ miracle brings light to his eyes so that he can see and walk about in safety. But of course it isn’t only about physically seeing, but also seeing in the sense of understanding. In the dialogues that follow, between Jesus and the Pharisees and between the man healed and the Pharisees there is a huge amount of typically Johanine misunderstanding, just as there was between Jesus and the woman of Samaria, and indeed his own disciples, last week; and as there will be in story of Lazarus next week. A lot of this misunderstanding is caused by the fact that those in dialogue with Jesus are stuck at a basic earthly level of understanding, while Jesus is trying to draw them to a higher heavenly level of understanding. That, and the huge levels of prejudice exhibited by the Pharisees, which even the healed man himself, despite his basic ignorance of theology, can see through.
Thus the Pharisees say that Jesus cannot possibly be from God because he is a sinner because he healed a man on the sabbath. But the healed man counters this by saying, I don’t know about him being a sinner, but I do know that I was blind and now can see. And the Pharisees say that they know God spoke through Moses, but they don’t know where this man comes from, to which again the healed man responds in amazement, he has opened my eyes but he can’t be from God because you don’t know where he comes from, an echo of the Pharisees rebuttal of Nicodemus when he argues that at lest Jesus should be given a fair trial: look into it yourself, prophets simply don’t come from Galilee (after all it’s up north isn’t it!). And finally Jesus himself says that he has come into the world so that those without sight may see and those who think they have sight may become blind.
So light once again triumphs in this story, at least for now, but it will not always be so. At the Last Supper Jesus foretells the treachery of Judas. When he leaves the supper to go and betray Jesus we are told that it was night, or perhaps better, it was dark, as this is not simply a comment on the time of day, but rather that at least for now the light has gone out and darkness reigns, and in the darkness of the following two days a lot will go on that can only go on in the dark, under the reign of Satan who is prince of darkness. And in that darkness Jesus will be arrested, tried, beaten, crucified, and buried. But fortunately this reign of darkness does not last. Although still dark when the women go to the tomb on the Sunday morning, the light is about to return as they find the tomb empty, and this time the light will be here to stay. And without suggesting that the same hand actually wrote it, if we accept that the book of Revelation at least comes from Johannine tradition, the light does ultimately have the final word. In the penultimate chapter of the entire Bible, in the writer’s vision of the heavily city we are told that it needed no sun or moon to light it, since it was lit by the radiant glory of God, whose light has ultimately triumphed over darkness, whose life has ultimately triumphed over death; and through water that life, and that light, is given to us.