As children, my friends and I used to play all kinds of silly games.  One, I can remember, is when we would close our eyes and spin around and around until we were dizzy.  And then we would stumble and try to identify our companions, eyes still shut, be listening to their voices and reaching out to tag them.  Looking back, I cannot figure out what was the point of the game --- it was just a silly way to fill our time, pretending to be blind.

Of course, blindness is neither silly nor a game.  To be without sight is a hardship and a burden.  As kids, pretending to be blind, we knew we could open our eyes to see again.  For the blind person, however, there is no such possibility.  They will never see as we do.

In our world today, there are many agencies and organizations that help the blind adjust to their circumstances, so much so that the blind learn to “see in other ways.”  In Jesus’ day, however, there was no such assistance.  In fact, those with disabilities were considered “cursed” by God.  We are told such a story in today’s Gospel from John, the famous account of the “man born blind.”  The rabbis and religious leaders of the time considered this blind man a “sinner” condemned to begging in the streets.  When questioned by the rabbis, Jesus was quick to respond that neither he nor his parents were sinners.  And he worked his miracle.

The Gospel of John is often called the “gospel of signs.”  Today’s passage is the sixth sign that John describes to us and it is rich with detail.  The “sign” of course is the cure, the healing of the man born blind.  But it points to an even deeper reality that affects people with and without sight.  The reality, the darkness, the blindness that is sin.  And the true miracle that is Jesus Christ, the “light of the world.”  In fact, Jesus reminds the crowd in the Gospel, “while I am in the world, I am the light of the world,” an identity he claimed in the previous chapter of John’s Gospel.

Notice a few things in today’s passage: Jesus took the initiative here; the blind man did not ask him for a miracle as happens in other stories.  Jesus challenges the popular conception that disabilities reflect the negative judgment of God.  He affirms not that God is the cause of suffering but that God uses it for the good.  How often do you hear people say “why did God do this or that to me?” instead of how can God help me in this difficulty.  He connects his identity as “light of the world” with the result of his presence: blindness gives way to sight, darkness to light.  Those touched by the Lord become believers, turn from sin in their lives, and see all things in the light of Christ.

Blindness is the opposite of sight; darkness, the opposite of light.  The fact of the matter is that some people choose their blindness --- not in the physical sense of a disability but in the sense that they prefer darkness to the light.  They can hide in the dark.  No one can see them, judge them, challenge them or their actions.  Jesus’ message, God’s message to us is this: turn on the light.  We are called to be children of the light, brothers and sisters of the Lord Jesus.  He calls us to holiness, to righteousness, to goodness, to compassion and mercy and love.  Turn on the light, the light that is Christ. 

Our first reading from the Book of Samuel reminds us: “Not as God sees does man see.  He judges by appearance but the Lord looks into his heart.”  This fourth Sunday of Lent, the Lord Jesus through his word invites us, calls us “to see as God sees … to look into our hearts” and turn on the light so we can cast out any darkness, any blindness we find there: sin, hatred, selfishness, impurity, racism, the internet whatever may be sheltered there in a dark corner, causing us shame and fear.  Turn on the Light.  Go to confession.  Seek the Lord’s healing and forgiveness.  As we heard on Ash Wednesday, “turn from sin, believe the Gospel.”

Our second reading from the Letter to the Ephesians says it well:

You were once darkness,
but now you are light in the Lord.
Live as children of light,
for light produces every kind of goodness
and righteousness and truth.
Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.
Take no part in the fruitless works of darkness;
rather expose them for it is shameful even to mention
the things done by them in secret;
but everything exposed by the light becomes visible,
for everything that becomes visible is light.

As we continue our Lenten journey toward the celebration of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, let’s not walk in darkness anymore.  Let’s walk forward in light, in the One who is the Light of the World.