I can’t tell you how many times I have heard or read this story of the man born with blindness‚ and I don’t think I have ever really heard the story from the perspective of the man himself. (You can hear a reader’s theater version of this gospel that invites you to put yourself in the place of the man born blind by watching the livestream of worship or listening to the podcast.)

This week’s gospel tells the story of what happens when we fail to see who Jesus is, which we learn is not solely a function of physical sight. And maybe the reason that I’ve never really heard this story from the perspective of the man who was born blind is because I more easily found myself in the other characters. And those characters give us lots of questions to consider:

• Like the disciples, how often does our own desire to find who or what is to blame keep us from recognizing God’s power to transform our situation?
• Like the man’s neighbors, how often does our inclination to put people in a fixed box prevent us from recognizing when they have changed?  How does our tendency to reduce people to what has happened to them prevent us from noticing how God has been and is still at work in their life?
• Like the Pharisees, how often do we fail to recognize what God is doing because we expect God to follow our rules, our expectations, our parameters?
• Like the man’s parents, how often do we hesitate to share what we believe is true because we are afraid of the consequences?

The man born with blindness sees Jesus clearly while the sighted people do not. Just as the man born blind is given sight in the pool of Siloam, the waters of baptism give us eyes to see – eyes of faith – through which we can see Christ among us still today. Where have you seen Jesus this week?

P.S. Soup suppers continue Wednesdays at 6 pm throughout Lent. We gather to talk and eat before Holden Evening Prayer at 7 pm.  Visit our website to read about Bethlehem’s Lenten theme and share in gatherings where we lean into the questions of faith together.