Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
May 20, 2012
Sunday of the Blind Man
Epistle: Acts 16:16-34
Gospel: John 9:1-38
Miracles present a challenge to us, particularly as ‘modern’ people: We often seek a rational, scientific explanation or theory for miracles rather than grappling with the consequences of acknowledging the miracle’s reality and the mystery at work: Why is it that some people experience miracles while others don’t? Some people receive healing, while others do not. Some receive healing instantaneously, while for others, healing is gradual.
Miracles challenge our self-reliance, our thinking that we have all the answers to the mysteries of life and the universe. Miracles humble us because they point us to our need for God, the only worker of miracles, the only One with the power of giving or ending life.
Miracles demand a response from us; they don’t leave us sitting comfortable on the side-lines, but rather, challenge our self-reliance, our pridefulness, our egos. They point to the truth that God is at work in our world, at work on us, in us, desiring to quicken us and strengthen us with faith, to call us to the fullness of life with Him in His Church.
To be open to miracles we have to admit our need for Him, for His healing and salvation. To accept the reality of miracles, is to also accept the reality of God, and that means accountability, submission—humility. And this admission, this recognition of our deep need for God and His work on our lives, can produce fear in our modern individualist psyches. Those who want to have it their way, who fear accountability, who fear the change and stretching growth that life and communion with God brings, will fear the acknowledgement of the reality of miracles.
For all these reasons, miracles challenge the modern credo that we can be independent of God, and that we can save ourselves. And so, when miracles and the unexplainable occur, our modern culture often feels it needs to come up with some ‘rational’ explanation to explain away the unexplainable, the miracles, the unknown—that which defies scientific explanation.
Prideful skepticism is not just a modern problem, limited to our culture. Skepticism and pride were also plainly at work in those who rejected Christ in His own day. Even after Jesus performed numerous miracles, even after His glorious resurrection and in-person appearances to over 500, many of the people and the rulers of the Jews did not believe, would not believe.
What does it take to experience a miracle of healing, of spiritual transformation, of growth in faith, of coming to believe? It demands humility, openness to God’s work in our lives, it means opening our spiritual eyes and recognizing our need for God and the life that He is, it means submitting ourselves to His will, not ours, and that is hard, scary perhaps; it demands faith.
The jailer in today’s Epistle, seeing the miracle at the prison, humbled himself and came to the Apostles. He fell down before them, trembling, and begging them, beseeching them, “What must I do to be saved?” Through his humility and his courage, the jailer gained the sight of faith; he found salvation in Christ, and through him, so did all his family. Ironic isn’t it: the jailer was afraid—scared out of his wits—but had the courage and humility to come to the Apostles seeking salvation, seeking to know their God, Jesus Christ.
We can fear like that with regard to our faith, fear rejection, ridicule, judgment. Our pride can get in our way of courageously stepping forward in faith to make use of the tools of salvation that Christ God entrusts to us through His holy Church in His great love for us and His mercy.
Today’s Gospel gives us yet another example: Jesus heals a man born blind: literally, “born without eyes.” The Pharisees witness the healing of this man, a man known to all and seen regularly begging—but in their pridefulness and cowardice, they do not believe. Jesus heals him on the Sabbath, having anointed his eyes, and reveals Himself as the long-awaited Messiah, but they cannot ‘see’ the miracle; they’re blinded by their pride, blinded by their lack of faith in God’s love and power to fulfill and transfigure the Law, let alone, to heal as the God He is.
The Pharisees question the blind man, searching for a ‘reasonable’ explanation for the miracle that has taken place, a reason not to believe. They don’t want their eyes opened; they want to remain unchanged, closed. In the end, the uneducated blind man must teach the learned Pharisees, what faith really means. He says, “Since the world began it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind. ‘If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.’” For this true statement, the Pharisees cast him out of the Synagogue.
Similarly, the world often rejects us as we proclaim our faith in the living God, as we live out the miracle of the life of faith, of doing real battle with our passions, of bringing our struggles and sin-sickness before the Lord in confession in our desire for healing from them, of professing our belief in miracles and the Doer of those wonders. Jesus says, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you” (John 15:18). The Truth convicts us; the truth calls us all to change; the Truth is a Person, Jesus Christ, and He calls us all home, to adoption as co-heirs with Him, that we may truly live, find healing and eternal life in Him, that is, salvation.
This is what the blind man finds: he does not only receive his physical sight: Even more importantly, “he recovered the sight of the eyes within,” as St. John Chrysostom puts it. He comes to Christ God, and finding Jesus Christ, He finds healing, not only from his biological blindness, but from the spiritual ‘blindness’ of sin. Sin alone is evil; blindness is no evil. In this case, the man’s infirmity, his ‘sickness’ if you will, his blindness, brings him to the Master, to Him who is Life itself, and through this encounter, through his courage, his fear of God, his humility before God, he is spiritually illumined, spiritually healed and given true life.
As important as the healing of the blind man is and the regaining of his physical sight, even more vital than this is his finding Christ, the opening of his heart, his life, to the Giver of Life.
We embrace the faith of the blind man this day. We ask Christ to continue to open our spiritual eyes, to heal us of our passions, to appropriate the tools of our salvation, graciously made available to us in this church. We live out our faith, we do battle with our passions, we make confession, so that enjoining the battle for our souls, cooperating more and more with the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we too may see Christ, the Light of the world, the Savior of our souls, the Deliverer of our bodies. And we bear witness of Him to this world in great need.
With gratitude, we thank God for the miracle of life in Him and the hope of eternal life. With the blind man, we worship Him and receive Him this day!
Christ is risen!
