Gospel Reflection for March 15, 2026, Fourth Sunday of Lent
The question as to whether a man born blind is in his own sin or the sin of his forebears leads to a controversy that seems to overshadow the miracle that Jesus performs. As usual, Jesus does not fall for the trap question, but he acts decisively and heals the man: “he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and smeared the clay on his eyes, and said to him, ‘Go wash in the Pool of Siloam.’” Sadly, the miracle gets lost in the conflict that emerges between the man, the Pharisees, and even his parents.
This is not an unusual scenario in the life of faith and certainly as we come to understand more deeply the tenets of our faith and to explore the Scriptures. It is very easy to get distracted in minutiae and therefore miss the very obvious points and lessons that we are meant to learn from our study or reflection.
In my own career as a teacher on many different levels of education, I have often seen people get so bogged down in their studies that they begin to question and even then come to doubt their faith experience. This is always a difficult situation to be in. While the journey to maturity in faith is meant to be a struggle – and the very name of God’s chosen people, Israel, means precisely that – it should take us deeper and not drive us away.
The disciples and then the Pharisees got so caught up in the secondary issues that they missed the point. The distraction over the question of sin, the accusation that Jesus violated a Sabbath restriction on work, the interrogation of the man who was healed and of his parents, even the doubt that the man who claimed to be healed was the same man who the blind beggar all was served to overwhelm the account.
Yet that appears to be precisely the point that John is making as he writes this chapter.
There was a blind man begging. He had no idea who Jesus was, nor did he know that Jesus was coming his way. The disciples pose a simple question to Jesus about the nature of sin, and the moment explodes into a very dramatic scene where everything except the healing of the man is the focus. No one is celebrating and giving thanks to God for the miracle that has occurred. At some point the man himself likely regretted this miracle as receiving this gift of sight has caused him a great deal of trouble.
A man born blind now sees. Jesus gave him a healing remedy and gave him a gift he had been denied at birth. There was no sin involved – the event is here to give glory to God and to point to Jesus.
The Pharisees cannot see this. They refuse to acknowledge Jesus as a worker of miracles, much less as the Messiah and Lord. They look for ways to discredit him, accuse him of sinful actions, and even to call him out as a charlatan.
The man who now sees was called to testify to what happened, but he really did not know. Unlike many other people whom Jesus healed, this man did not ask to be healed, and he certainly did not seek to be the focus of so much contention. He just wanted to go about his own business and learn now how to navigate life as a seeing person, who has lost his only source of income and support – his right to beg as a blind person.
Either we see with the eyes of faith or we do not. Either we allow the eyes of faith to lead us to be strengthened and to grow in our faith, or we are afraid of what we see and hear and hold on to an immature and rudimentary faith.
This is not easy.
It will take some time and much adjusting for this now seeing man to adapt to life. Studies have shown that people who were born blind and then gained their sight cannot easily adapt to the seeing world.
So, it is with faith.
We cannot allow our fear of knowing to get in the way of our ability to see. The world of faith is a beautiful world, filled with majesty of God and the marvels of creation and the miracles that the Lord works for and within us each and every day. Yet it is easy to become a Pharisee and to refuse to see what God does in our lives as we try to hold on to the paradigms and images that led us here in the first place.
This is not easy. It was not easy for the man who gained his sight, and it was impossible for the Pharisees who were entrenched in their own ways and preferred to remain in the darkness than to come into the light of faith.