Trading Places

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday March 2, 2008, the Fourth Sunday in Lent.

1Samuel 16:1-13
Psalm 23
Ephesians 58-14
John 9:1-41

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

The concept of trading places has an honored place in literature and the movies. In “The Prince and the Pauper” Mark Twain explored how two young boys; a commoner named Tom Canty and the son of Henry VIII, Prince Edward; function in a world native to the other when they trade places. While there is some fish-out-of-water humor, it also served as a scathing social satire of class inequality in Tudor England.

Another example is the Disney movie “The Parent Trap.” Whether you prefer the original with Hayley Mills or the 1998 remake with Lindsay Lohan, this story gives us twin girls separated at birth by their divorcing parents who unexpectedly meet again at summer camp. They hatch a plot to reunite their parents by trading places.

This reading of chapter nine of John’s gospel, the story of the man born blind, is loaded with trading places.

The first transformation comes to the disciples when they discuss the situation of the man born blind. The reading begins with the apostles asking Jesus “who sinned; this man or his parents that he was born blind.” This question is couched in traditional Jewish speculation about the relationship between illness and sin[1] because in this time and place, being born blind was considered more than a physical malady; it was seen as a spiritual malady too. But Jesus’ response tells the disciples that their question, shrouded in rabbinic tradition and Jewish history, isn’t the question.

Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” John’s gospel sees sin differently from Jewish tradition. Sin is not a moral category; it is a theological category about how we respond to the revelation of God in Jesus.[2]

Nobody sinned so that this man may be blind. How this man and the people around him respond to this miraculous healing, this will become the answer to the question “who has sinned?” So the first example of trading places in our reading is ancient Jewish theology transformed into new questions about how we are to respond to Jesus.

With the healing of the man who was born blind, he is trading places in several ways. First, he is miraculously given the gift of sight. Then he trades places in society. With his new found sense, he is no longer the sin stained pariah his ailment made him. The gospel tells us this when the neighbors ask “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some don’t even believe it is him, but some sort of look alike; twins separated at birth. With his sight, his status has changed in the community. He is no longer a pitiful soul; he is now a man of full standing in the community.

That new status, trading places from misfit to regular guy, causes the next round of exchanges. He is called into the synagogue where he is examined by the Pharisees not once but twice. The power elite want to know where Jesus is. They want to know how he did what he did; and the man doesn’t have the answers to their questions. Honestly, the man doesn’t know where Jesus is or how he did what he did.

Jesus throws the Pharisees into a tizzy. Some want to know how a sinner who heals on the Sabbath can do such miraculous things. Others aren’t sure if he is a sinner or not; because if he is a sinner, how could he do the things he has done? Since they are divided, they ask the man with new vision what he sees. He has seen a prophet.

When the newly sighted man is recalled before the Pharisees they declare Jesus a sinner and demand that he give glory to God. But at this point, the man still doesn’t completely know who Jesus is. He doesn’t. He does know the gift he has received and from whom he received it. He knows what Jesus has done for him and is thankful.

He answers the Pharisees, “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”

Unsatisfied with these impertinent words, they ask him again what Jesus did to him, how he opened his eyes. He has nothing new to add, but figures if they want to know they could ask the source. “Do you want to become his disciples too?”

This is the wrong question to ask these keepers of the faith, these disciples of Moses. They know what they know, they do not know of a new thing being done in Jesus. Seeing the irony, the man revels in the truth that Jesus opened his eyes, yet the Pharisees’ eyes have been closed, trading places again.

With this, the man with new sight is driven from worship. He is driven from the synagogue. He is driven from the faith of his Fathers. Trading places again, he is now a man seemingly without God. So now, for the first time since verse seven from our reading, Jesus reappears and asks “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” Oh, how he wants to believe, but in whom can he believe? “Tell me,” he begs, “tell me so that I may believe in him.”

Jesus tells him he is speaking with the Son of Man. The man believes and worships Jesus. He has traded places for the last time. He is now a disciple of the Lord, the Lord who heals, the Lord who comes, the Lord who saves.

John’s gospel tells us that sin is a theological category about how we respond to the revelation of God in Jesus. The Pharisees, the keepers of the faith become the ones soaked in sin when they fail to see the light of the world. Their place in the world is changed by the sin they commit. The man who receives the gift of God, the gift of sight, sees; and sees the one who is worthy of worship.

Our prayer for illumination today ended:

Banish in us the blindness
that prevents us from recognizing truth,
so we may see the world through your eyes
and with the compassion of Jesus Christ who redeems us.[3]

We have received the greatest gift of all, the compassion of Jesus Christ who redeems us. From the blindness that prevents us from recognizing truth, we are given the gift to see through the eyes of Jesus. Not because we deserve it but because he freely gives the gift of grace which we receive by faith, just like the man who was blind.

We receive this because like the blind man we were born entirely in sin, Jesus becomes sin for us and bears it to the cross. So like the man with new vision, in Jesus Christ our sin is taken from us and lifted upon the cross with him. This is trading places. Jesus takes our sin so that we may have his life. Jesus takes our sin to the cross so that we don’t have to perish by the hands of our own sin. We then are called to respond to this gift of salvation so freely given.

There is a lot of talk today about the way to salvation. And this needs to be said, I wholeheartedly believe that the mystery of God is more than we will ever know or imagine. But the immenseness of this mystery cannot cause us to waver from sharing what we do know. Like the blind man before the Pharisees, we cannot speak to the mysteries we do not know, but we must share what we do. We say that Jesus is the Son of Man and the light of the world. We say he is a prophet. We say this because we were once blind, but now we see.

And with certainty we say that we believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; and in the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic[4] church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.[5] Amen

[1] The New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume IX, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995, p 653.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Reprinted from Revised Common Lectionary Prayers, Lent 4, Year A Prayer of Illumination, copyright 2002.
[4] In this case, “catholic” means “universal.” When we recite the Apostles’ Creed this note is found in the worship bulletin.
[5] Edited from “The Apostles’ Creed”