Sermon for March 19, 2023 – The Fourth Sunday in Lent
1 Samuel 16:1-13, Psalm 23, Ephesians 5:8-14, John 9:1-41
The Disruptive Nature of Transformation
Whew, that was a long gospel reading! Once again there is so much going on in this dense story. This reading contains a short discourse between Jesus and his disciples, a miraculous healing, community discussions and perhaps most importantly conversion. All of these elements culminate in the transformation of a blind man into a disciple.
Transformation is disruptive. It’s messy and difficult. Over the past few weeks our lectionary has been filled with stories of transformation, stories of people’s lives that have changed because of a chance interaction. Each of them was transformed by their interaction with Jesus. Two weeks ago, we followed Nicodemus as he traveled under the cover of night, fearful of what he might find when he went to meet Jesus. Last week we met a woman, shunned by society, forced to gather water during the hottest part of the day just to avoid others. We sat with her, and we listened, as Jesus transformed her heart and she believed. And today, today we hear about a man who had been blind his entire life, a man who has lived on the fringe of society, a man who needed something from Jesus and as a result of his healing is forced to face the cost of discipleship. The theme of transformation runs deeply through these stories and forms the larger arch of John’s gospel.
When I think of transformation the first image that comes to mind is the process by which a caterpillar becomes a beautiful butterfly. Transformation is a change, a change that involves our entire beings, changing from one state into something more beautiful, more full. And just as the butterfly cannot change back into a caterpillar, neither can we change back as we are changed forever once we encounter the love of God through Jesus. This is the power of discipleship, the power of the gospel, the power of following Jesus. This is the power of committing our lives completely to something bigger than ourselves while giving up whatever gets in the way of that pursuit. Today’s gospel shows us the power of transformation in three different ways.
The first transformation is a physical transformation. After washing the mud off his eyes at the pool of Siloam, the man returns home, and no one recognizes him. This is surprising since his neighbors must have seen him daily as he sat begging or maybe they even helped him around, though not likely since in the time this was written his blindness was thought to have been caused by sin. The community that was near to him his entire life cannot recognize him because he is interacting with the world in a new way after encountering Jesus. The community has defined him only as a blind man, only as a beggar. They didn’t care who he was. All they cared about was that he was, blind, and therefore a sinner, someone to avoid at all cost.
Two thousand years have passed, society has changed, but we aren’t very different. How often do we define others or even ourselves by a singular trait? He’s unemployed... She’s quick-tempered... I’m (fill in the blank). When we place others in a specific box it can be difficult, at times impossible, to see them differently. Transformation is denied because we fail to see the full person standing before us. We fail to see the image of God that dwells in everyone. It was not until the man was no longer blind, no longer viewed as a single trait, that others took notice. His transformation began when others saw him as something more.
The second transformation occurs when the community takes the man to the Pharisees to try to get more information from him. The man tells the Pharisees what happened and they were not satisfied with his testimony, so they get his parents. Unfortunately, his parents are also confused by his transformation and so they distance themselves, unsure about what happened. Rather than defending their son, they say that he is old enough to speak for himself. They do this to protect themselves from being associated with Jesus who was becoming known as a rebel rouser. What is transformed here is not the man or the family, but the man’s fear; fear that is transformed into love. The man has spent his entire life in complete darkness and now he is able to see the beauty of God all around him. And for that he committed himself to following Jesus. However, his family is clearly fearful of the unknown; fearful of what has occurred and are not yet ready to embrace their son. They are not yet ready to embrace Jesus as the man who healed their son.
Again, I wonder, are we any different? It’s easier for us to deal with things we know, than it is for us to deal with the unknown. It is easier to embrace the familiar, even when we know it might not be good for us. We stick with the familiar because we fear change. We fear what may happen. Will the outcome be good? Or, will it be bad? Fear gets in the way of our own transformation. We cannot become that beautiful butterfly if we are happy with being the caterpillar. Transformation requires change, it is unavoidable, but like all three of the people we have heard about these past few weeks, Jesus was with them. So too now, Jesus is with us, walking alongside us as we transform into what we are called to be.
The third and final transformation goes beyond the physical and emotional, for this man, his entire being is changed. He starts as a man born blind, on the fringes of his community, but still part of his family. By the end of the story he is a follower of Jesus. He can now see, but is still an outcast. When he is healed by Jesus he can no longer live life like he used to. He can no longer be in the box that others have used to define him. The man’s transformation occurred not because of the love and support of his family or community. No, his transformation came about because of an encounter with Jesus.
Again I wonder, are we any different? We can help facilitate transformation, here, in this community, but that only happens when we see people for who they are, not what they can or can’t do. We can be agents of transformation when let go of our fear of the unknown and boldly take a step forward confident that we have each other, and that Jesus will be with us every step of the way. We can be agents of transformation by checking in on our friends, our neighbors, on those who may feel totally alone. We encounter Jesus in these interactions. We are not the same after we interact with Jesus. We too are transformed.
While most of us have not undergone a transformation as significant as the man in today’s gospel, we have each been changed by our relationship with Jesus. Through our baptism we experience a transformation in our relationship with God and with the world around us. We will never be the same and can never go back to who we once were. Our lives take on new meaning as we are marked as Christ’s own forever. When Jesus comes into our life, things change. That sounds good, until we remember that change is always disruptive. But change is also life giving. What Jesus wants for us isn’t just survival, persistence, getting by, or any of the others ways we formulated and excused living half-lives. No, what Jesus wants for us is life, full and rich and abundant. The kind of life that stems from knowing that we have infinite worth in God’s eyes and are and always will be God’s beloved children.
As our Lenten journey slowly comes to an end, I pray that your transformation continue so that you may see yourself as God sees you. Amen.
