Spiritual Blindness
Sunday of the Man Born Blind
Acts 16:16-34; John 9:1-38 Tone 5
It is written in The Gospel:
“He spat on the ground, and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And he said to him, 'Go, wash in the pool of Siloam…' So he went and washed, and came back seeing…” (John 9:6-7)
For us, believers in Christ, it should be entirely clear that Christ healed not with saliva, not with the water from the pool of Siloam, but by the grace of God, He made the man born blind see.
From the lengthy Gospel account, we learn about the investigation carried out by the Pharisees (zealots for the observance of the Law) regarding the healing of the man born blind. The diligent inquiry to discover the truth is not something negative, but the Pharisees, when they learned the truth through questioning, did not accept it.
They first asked the healed man himself, and when he said that Jesus had done something and opened his eyes, they did not accept it:
“This man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” (John 9:16)
Again, they interrogated the blind man, and again he affirmed the truth that Jesus had made him sighted. Then they interrogated the parents of the one who had received his sight. The parents affirmed the truth that the boy was born blind and was blind until Jesus made him see. (John 9:20)
It would seem that such indisputable testimony should have been accepted and only God, Jesus Christ. glorified. But the Pharisees were not satisfied, because it was not the way they wanted it.
They again began to question the blind man who had received his sight and how he had been healed. Diligent and long questioning revealed only the truth that Jesus Christ had indeed healed the blind man from birth. And when the sighted man, despite the threatening and contemptuous reproaches (“You were completely born in sins...”), again affirmed the truth about the healing by Jesus Christ, the Pharisees “cast him out”. (John 9:34)
“Cast him out” clearly means that he was expelled from the Jewish cabal, from the Jewish community, so that he would be treated by other Jews as an outsider. This was a terrible ostracism for Jews in practice. The Jewish elders sentenced all people who recognized Jesus as Lord and Saviour to such excommunication. The Gospel states:
“for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that He was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue.” (John 9:22)
So it was not to learn the truth that the Pharisees conducted such a thorough study of the healing of the blind man, but to intimidate the father and mother and the healed man himself, so that they would not reveal, would not testify to the truth that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Saviour. Those people wanted to isolate believers from Jesus, to isolate them from accepting the truth, from accepting the Saviour.
The deeds of God that Jesus did undeniably testified to his divinity, testified to the truth of God that shone through Jesus, and the Pharisees, scribes, and Jewish chief priests did not want to accept this truth.
They considered themselves believers in the one God, but they wanted that God to be somewhere in heaven, and not to come down to earth in the form of a human being, so that they could continually rule over a frightened people who would fear the God who is in the sky and obey them, who are as if they were some kind of God's viceregents on earth, who alone can interpret the will of God.
Even in our time, there are people who, without any shame, call themselves the very vicars of God on earth, the vicars of Jesus Christ the Conqueror (not crucified). They are ready to recognize both the grace and legality of our Church only when we submit to them, come under their rule. Then all our Sacraments and consecrations will become holy and blessed at once. Sometimes we do not know what to call such people -- whether they are simply spiritually blind, or God-deniers, such as the scribes and Pharisees, whom Jesus Christ openly called hypocrites:
“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.” (Matthew 23:13)
But there are other hypocrites in the world who, with Pharisaical insincerity, hide behind science to deny the existence of God altogether. They say that there is no scientific evidence for the existence of God, and therefore, we must assume that He does not exist.
А. Cressy Morrison, former president of the New York Academy of Sciences, gives seven scientific reasons why he believes in God and that God exists. Morrison provides seven scientific reasons based on scientific research in the fields of mathematics, biology, physics, geography, hydrography, and physiology.
In the course of a short sermon in church, it is impossible to present all seven scientific reasons, but I will provide a vivid example from nature, from the testimony of a scientist.
There is a fish, an eel. Eels are found in the rivers and lakes of Europe and America. Furthermore, the European eel is different from the American one: the European matures a year later. All eels, wherever they are, when they reach adulthood, leave the lakes and rivers of Europe and America and swim thousands of miles in the ocean, heading to the Bermuda Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.
Here, near the Bermuda Islands, eels lay eggs, complete the act of reproduction, and die. From the eggs, small eels are born, and they all head to the same rivers and lakes from which their ancestors came. No adult eels show them the way. And this is repeated for centuries...
Thus, the entire route, all the navigation, all their actions are in some way “mapped out”, encoded in the tiny fish eggs, and in the same place, there is a certain impulse encoded that directs the little fish in their journeys to certain lands.
How shall we identify this? - Instinct? And if it is instinct, then it does not explain anything, for someone had to implant instinct into the genes of that fish.
Only the all-encompassing power, wisdom, and foresight of God could create such things; only God's power could initiate and direct the functions of such insignificant creatures as eels, and an infinite number, hundreds, thousands, or millions of other kinds of animals.
Believers and atheists alike agree that humans are the wisest beings, but they also all agree that all that foresight and intelligence in the actions of different creatures exist completely independently of us humans. We, humans, can only observe and, as much as possible, comprehend the actions of the infinite and all-encompassing Mind and incomprehensible power, which constantly and persistently direct various creatures to fulfill their functions assigned by the Creator.
This is an illustration of one of the reasons, based on scientific research, that testify to the existence of God in the universe.
The Lord testified that we need to know and find the truth, which alone can set us free and lead us to salvation:
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32).
The Pharisees and scribes did not want to accept the truth, and they died as slaves to sin.
When we seek salvation, we must accept both the truth of The Gospel and also the truth of scientific knowledge, for they both testify to God. The only thing to keep in mind is that the truth of The Gospel is always unchanging truth, that is, it is authoritative from God, while scientific research may be imperfect to some extent because it is made on the basis of limited human understanding.
On the basis of the Gospel story of the healing of the blind man, we are convinced in the truth that Jesus Christ is truly our Lord and Saviour; and so we say together with the man who received his sight:
“We believe, Lord! And we worship Him.” (John 9:38).
Amen.
Very Rev. Fr. Taras Slavchenko
Taras Slavchenko was born on March 8, 1918 in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine. After graduating from school and the Pedagogical College, he entered the language and literature faculty of the Scientific Pedagogical Institute. Having successfully completed it in 1938, he served as a teacher in a secondary school.
