The Light of Christ as Salvation and Judgment (Sunday of the Blind Man)

THE LIGHT OF CHRIST AS SALVATION AND JUDGMENT
(SUNDAY OF THE BLIND MAN)

By Johannes Karavidopoulos,
Emeritus Professor of New Testament at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Unique in the New Testament, as a healing of a blind man from birth, is this one which the Evangelist John narrates to us in the passage 9:1–38. Several other cases of healings of blind men are preserved for us also by the remaining evangelists, not so much because blindness was a disease very widespread in Palestine and in the ancient East more generally, or because the compassion of Jesus toward this kind of sick people was great, but because these miracles prove His messiahship and at the same time constitute signs of a new reality which Christ brings into the world. The prophets of the Old Testament, describing the work of the expected Messiah, mention among its various aspects also the restoring of sight to the blind. Therefore He Who has the authority to restore sight again to the blind is none other than the Messiah.

The giving back of sight to the blind, however, beyond its evidential significance for the messianic identity of Jesus, also has another deeper meaning: it is a sign of a new state of things which breaks into the world of darkness and blindness. Christ opens the eyes of people so that they may be able to perceive the new life which He offers as a gift to the world. Many people, although they possess bodily light, do not recognize in the person of Christ the revealed God Who enters into human history in order to save it from destruction, while on the other hand the evangelists preserve for us cases of blind men who recognize in Jesus the Messiah and after their bodily healing proclaim to all their faith. Thus is justified the saying of Jesus which follows in the Gospel of John immediately after the passage read today: “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”

The presence of Christ as the Light of the world, and subsequently of His gospel which the Church proclaims, creates judgment within the world, certainly not in the sense of condemnation of people, but in the sense of the obligation created within every person to take a position toward this light. And from the stance which each person takes toward the light, his future is already judged and predetermined. Courage is needed for one to look directly at the light, to behold his nakedness without clothing it with false and conventional garments; courage is needed for one to realize unpleasant aspects of himself whose existence wounds him; to say no to many of his corrupt desires which bind him to personal advantage in life; and at the same time to say yes to the invitation of God. And this courage is offered by the light coming into the world “through Jesus Christ.”

This light comes as a new creation and recreation of the world. It is characteristic in the narrative of the healing that Jesus fashions clay and anoints the closed eyes of the blind man, afterwards sending him to wash in the pool of Siloam. Just as God, during the original creation of the world (according to the related narrative of the Old Testament), fashions man from earth, so also Jesus in the same manner recreates the creature destroyed by the corruption of sin. And just as God commands, “Let there be light,” so also the Son of God with the same creative power gives light to the blind man and opens the eyes of people to see the truth which He reveals in order to save the world.

Nevertheless people react differently before the revealed light of Christ. While the healed blind man confesses and proclaims without fear to all his faith in Christ, the Pharisees by every way and means, even by intimidation of the parents of the healed man, attempt to deny the reality of the miracle. They deny the light and continue to remain in darkness. They do not dare to look toward the light, because they prefer the darkness which conceals and covers their works. The exposure brought by the light is not pleasing to people whose works are dark and corrupting.

Today’s Gospel narrative presents to us the supreme and authentic light among the many dim lights which in every age claim the illumination and guidance of people. It presents Christ as the light and savior of the world Who shines within the darkness and calls people to follow Him. The stance toward this light is decisive for the destiny of every person. Whoever rejects the light of Christ and remains in darkness, because that darkness covers his evil works, is essentially blind even if he possesses bodily eyes. Those who recognize their spiritual blindness and hasten toward the light of Christ acquire the necessary sight to perceive the truth concerning themselves, concerning their neighbor, and concerning the gift of God for them. In the stance of the healed blind man and of the Pharisees in the narrative are echoed the two diametrically opposite stances of people toward the divine light. Every person is judged by whether he chooses to behold the light with courage or whether he prefers the easy darkness.

Source: From the book Way of Hope. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.

 

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