The earliest Christians followed a Jewish tradition of pausing to pray, preferably together, first thing in the morning, about mid morning, at noon, about mid afternoon, and in the evening. “Just a Note” posts are brief observations made from Scripture readings not related to a lectionary. If I have one to post, it normally appears about 9:00 in the morning, at “the hour of prayer.”
As we have often seen in John’s Gospel, Jesus likes to reinterpret temporal events and situations, giving them eternal significance. At the end of John chapter 9, Jesus moves from the event of giving sight to a blind man, reinterpreting it as an example of understanding and not understanding. Those who are “seeing” will recognize their sin, their need for forgiveness, and Jesus as the one who can bring them healing and grace. Those who are “blind” don’t know any of those things, but act as passive recipients of Jesus’ forgiveness.
The Pharisees fit into a third category. Jesus categorizes them as blind, but thinking that they see. What do they see? They seem to see their own righteousness. They think they are doing just fine. As long as that is the case, Jesus says, their sin remains.
In the final analysis, what matters is the object of our sight. If we are looking at ourselves and we think we look fine, there’s something wrong with the picture. If we are looking to Jesus, we will see that we need to be rescued. May God give us grace to look at Jesus, who alone can rescue us.
If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.