Homily on the Healing of the Man Born Blind (John 9)

What a beautiful morning to join together here, the Oriental Orthodox Church, in unity and in prayer to praise our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit. I would like to take a moment to thank my brother in Christ and the parish priest, the host priest, St. John’s Armenian Apostolic Church’s parish priest, Father Mesrop, and the celebrant priest, Father Datev. Also, my brothers in Christ, Father George and Father Kiriakos, for being here together with their respective congregations. May this only serve the praise of our God and the unity of our churches. Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today’s biblical passage was taken from the Gospel of John, chapter nine, and it is about Jesus healing a man born blind. It’s a lengthy chapter, but I took only three key points to share with you as the spiritual message today.

Jesus and his disciples are having a discussion, as the story tells, and the disciples are asking, “Whose fault is it that this man was born blind?” But Jesus, instead, as being one of the three, one of the persons of the Holy Trinity who was there during creation, loses no time, but goes down, picks up soil, mixes with his DNA, and continues his creation — making clay, making mud, puts it on the blind man, and opens his eyes. He could have simply said the words. Just like during creation, he could have said, “Let there be light. Let the light be in your eyes.” But instead, he descends down to the human level, the human condition, and lifts this blind and beggar man up. Just like because of his salvation plan, he lifted us all up, he lifts up this man, the least important of that society that day. He lifts him up and sends him home with his vision, restoring his vision. In other words, restoring the creation, the perfect creation.

And this creates a controversy. The second point here is that this happened during the Sabbath. We are on the Saturday today. And as we know, in the Jewish tradition, Sabbath was to be kept holy and no labor was to be done. And Jesus, from their perspective, has broken the law on the Sabbath, having healed, perfectly healed, a blind man. That raised a lot of questions and became a dilemma. That reminds us of Isaiah, where God says, “I want mercy and not sacrifice.” Here, Jesus fulfilling the law with grace, with his healing, and the creation, yet the society back then is raising the question whether he broke the law or not. And this miracle of healing becomes a controversy in that society. Why? Why on the Sabbath? A man is completely healed, his vision is restored, yet it was not accepted by the Pharisees.

And at the conclusion, this is the most terrifying statement that Jesus makes, and I pray that we are not found in that statement. Jesus says, “For judgment I have come to this world, so that those who claim they see, they may lose vision, and those who do not see, may they see the truth.” And sure enough, the Pharisees ask him, “Rabbi, are we also blind?” And Jesus responds. He says, “You tell me that you see. Basically, you are confirming you being a sinner. If you were blind, you would have not any sin. You claim to see.”

From a spiritual perspective, this statement has to be taken as such, that spiritual blindness is the most dangerous type of blindness. And that, during that time, the leadership were living in a spiritual blindness. Everything was unfolding in front of them, in front of their eyes, yet they were having a hard time comprehending the divine. They were rejecting it. My prayer, our collective prayer, should be that may God restore spiritual vision in our leadership everywhere, so that they may see the truth. They may understand that we are all created in the image and likeness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the Holy Trinity, that our spiritual visions may be opened very brightly, so we also see each other and understand each other, gathered here or elsewhere.

Let us pray that the leadership, the lay leadership, restore their spiritual vision and stop all types of wars all around the world, and especially those who are affecting our beloved brothers and sisters everywhere, so that we are united with Christ and praise the All-Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit at this moment and always and forever. Amen.