St. Mark’s Gospel gives us a story about a blind man called Bartimaeus (10:46ff.). It’s quite a brief account, contained in only 7 verses. The climax of the story is its happy ending: Jesus performs the desired miracle; everyone is amazed, and Jesus goes on his way.
The story of the man born blind in John is very different. For one thing, it’s much longer: 41 verses. This blind man is not given a name, or even a role at first: he doesn’t speak or act in any way, until he is told to. Far from being the climax of the story, the miracle takes place near its beginning, and is described in an almost off-hand way: “He went, and washed, and returned able to see.” The whole account ends on a very sombre note, with a pronouncement of abiding guilt.
For St. John, the point of the story is not so much the miracle, as what the miracle points to, and how people will respond to it. For this cure of physical blindness is a sign of the deeper, more important cure Jesus came to bring: the giving of sight to the spiritually blind. The blind man most truly sees when he recognises Jesus as the one sent by God. On the other hand, those who think they see, but refuse to recognise Jesus, are truly blind: they prefer darkness to the light (3:19).
We can read the whole scene as a dramatic trial: a parallel, or sort of pre-run, of the trial of Jesus Himself, that will be narrated in Chapters 18 and 19. But for most of this Chapter 9, Jesus is off stage. And as the drama unfolds, we realise that it’s not really Jesus who is on trial at all. On the contrary, He is the One to whom final judgement has been given. So who is on trial?
The main protagonists of the story seem to have a symbolic role. The man born blind is a symbol of everyman. “I am the man” he says. He is the man born in original sin, unknowingly waiting for Jesus to come and open his eyes. The opponents of Jesus also are symbolic: we are explicitly told they don’t represent all the Pharisees. They represent those who have clearly seen from his signs who Jesus is, and who then knowingly, freely, deliberately reject Him.
The ones most truly on trial here, then, are ourselves. As we follow the drama, we find ourselves drawn into it, and confronted by the truth about Jesus. The judgement to be passed on us will depend on how we have responded to that truth.
This Gospel is given us today in order to prepare us for Easter. At the Vigil, if indeed we are allowed this year, we will stand with lit candles, answering questions put to us about our faith in Jesus. The answers we give will re-affirm the commitment we made at our Baptism. There is more than a hint of baptism in today’s Gospel, as the blind man goes to wash in the pool of Siloam. Siloam, John tells us, means “sent”. Jesus is described as the One sent by the Father some 40 times in this Gospel. The Church Fathers thought of the daubing with paste as a hint also of pre-baptismal anointing. St. Augustine comments that the spittle from Jesus’ mouth evokes the Word of God, while the earth into which it is mixed evokes our mortal flesh. So by the anointing the man is touched by Christ who is the Word made flesh. But he still needs baptism in water, for we become fully incorporated in Christ only through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The man born blind, like a catechumen, makes a steady progression towards explicit faith in Jesus. First he describes Jesus simply as “the man”. Then in response to interrogation, he acknowledges Jesus as a prophet. Again, in response to questions, he more boldly confesses Jesus as one who is from God. Then he accepts Jesus’ own self description as the Messianic Son of Man. Finally he calls him by the divine title, “Lord”, and worships him. It’s a steady progression upwards, towards the truth: from ignorance to knowledge, from a position of separation from God, towards union with God in Christ.
Simultaneously with this movement of the blind man towards sight, the opponents of Jesus move in the opposite direction, ever more deeply into the dark. First they doubt the blind man’s identity, then the fact of his blindness from birth. When confronted with the undeniable facts, they deliberately reject the manifest truth. Blindly clinging to their pre-formed judgement, they think to win their argument by hurling abuse. Relying on their own special closeness to God, they separate themselves definitively from Jesus and all who follow Him.
Typically of St. John, layers of irony are at play in this scene. The blind Pharisees men are actually passing judgement on the God they imagine they serve. The irony is especially intense when they use the solemn Jewish formula introducing an important and revealing word of Truth. “Give glory to God”, they say: “we know this man is a sinner.” That is, they identify as separated from God this man, Jesus, who is totally one with His Father; who came from God for our sake, and is soon to return to God. Calling Jesus a sinner, they are committing the ultimate sin: the only real sin, to which all other sins refer, for every sin is in some lesser sense a rejection of Christ.
So even as they order the formerly blind man to give glory to God, they themselves commit the supreme blasphemy. For God cannot be glorified apart from Jesus. Jesus is the One who perfectly gives glory to His Father, and whom His Father in turn glorifies. The irony deepens when we realise that it is these opponents who will be the very means of his greatest glorification. For Jesus will glorify God, and be glorified by God, above all on the Cross. Surely St. John refers above all to the Cross when he says in his Prologue: “we have seen His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Jesus says of Himself to the man who had been blind: “You have seen Him; He is speaking to you.” All of us who have faith also have “seen” Jesus. He speaks to us too, through His word, which we have just been listening to.
Through the liturgy, with the man who now has the gift of sight, with all who have the gift of faith, we confess Jesus as Lord, and worship Him. And through our participation in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, we enter into communion with Him, and with all who belong to Him, and receive His gift of life.