The Light

The Darkness

I don’t know about you but there is a sense that in this pandemic, everything has gone darker in a way I haven’t experienced before.

Now that’s not to say the world hasn’t experienced various crises before. Certainly it has. Recently we’ve had droughts and fires. At other times the world has been gripped with fear over terrorism. If we go even further back the world wars have were a time that sent everyone into a spin.

Obviously with the world wars I wasn’t here, but there’s something a bit different this time. You see, while there was fear and anxiety associated with these other events, I feel that to some extent, it brought people together.

Take the fires and droughts. For the most part, people rallied behind the cause. I remember watching one bush fire fundraiser skyrocket into the millions in no time at all.

When terrorism was the big focus, people were scared, but we looked out for each other.

But when we come to a pandemic, it all seems to change. In part, that’s because of the nature of the virus. You see, we don’t really know who has the virus and who doesn’t. And so we’re told to keep away from one another. And so by the nature of what’s happening, we’re being forced apart.

And this brings out the worst in us. We start panicking. And that panic leads to panic buying. And I’m sure most of you would have seen footage of where that can lead.

You see, whereas other crises we’ve seen much good in humanity, this time, selfishness has taken front and centre, and our kindness has taken a back seat while we sort ourselves out.

And for this reason, I come back to my original statement - everything has gone darker like I’ve never seen before.

Now, when things go dark, the obvious thing to do is to turn the light on.

If you know where the light switch is, that’s an easy thing to do. But sometimes the light switch is hard to find.

I sometimes enter the downstairs hall at the church from my office. Now the hall only has one light switch, and that is next to the main double doors. The smart thing to do would be to enter from those doors when it’s dark. But sometimes I do things without thinking too much.

And so, as I walk over to where the light switch is, it can become very dark. Now usually that room has various chairs and tables lying around, and as I search for the light switch, I usually do a good job in running into every single thing on the floor. When I do eventually get to the wall with the light switch on it, I then spend at least a minute rubbing my hand over the wall trying to find the light switch.

This morning, I’m going to talk about this idea that Jesus is the light, and that he will be able to shine a light in our present situation. But even if you accept this, we’re left with the question of how we allow this light to shine. You see, it can be a bit like that stumbling around looking for the light switch. Rather than finding the light switch, all you end up doing is stubbing your toe.

And that’s because if you just take that statement of Jesus being the light as a bit of a cliche, then what we end up with is just more religiosity, and unfortunately, that usually ends up with more pain then light.

So what I want to explore this morning is what it means for Jesus to be the light, and how we can allow that light to shine brightly.

Man Born Blind

Earlier, we read from , which I’ll explore shortly. In this passage however we’ll hear Jesus say the words “I am the light of the world”.

But when he says that here in , he’s essentially saying it in such a way that is putting practice to what you could call the theory in chapter 8.

At the feast

You see, it was back in chapter 8 that he first says that he is the light of the world. Back then, we are during one of the big festivals known as the Feast of Tabernacles. Without going into all the details of this festival, essentially it was the celebration of the end of the harvest. As such, it was usually a jubilant time - particularly if the harvest had been a good one.

Now in some ways there is a level of irony. Though this feast (or festival) was a way of giving glory to God for what he has done, unfortunately, as we are prone to do, we lose sight of the main idea and make it about ourselves.

As such, though this festival should have been a shining light to the Jews, it had actually become a blinding hindrance. And so it is in this context that Jesus declares himself the light of the world. He is the light that they had squashed with their self-indulgence. Their blindness was only demonstrated as you continue to read through chapter 8 and see just how much they don’t get it.

Meeting the blind man

Well, chapter 9 follows closely after, although the first few words leave it a little vague how much time has elapsed since the discussion of chapter 8. It’s not entirely sure if he’s still at the Feast of Tabernacles or whether a bitof time has elapsed. In some ways, it doesn’t really matter. Thematically, however, there is a clear follow on with this idea of Jesus being the light is about to be explored in a very practical sense.

And so we come upon a man who has been blind since birth.

Now when you come across somebody who is suffering in some way, it’s easy to make a few assumptions - assumptions that aren’t always logically upon further reflection. The assumption is, an individual who is suffering must have done something to deserve it.

Its actually very convenient assumption to make for those who aren’t suffering because it makes us feel less guilty when we don’t help them.

Now this assumption was very prevalent in the day of Jesus. Actually, I think it is still prevalent today. But for the disciples, knowing that a man was born blind caused a problem. Because how could he have deserved his blindness before he was born. So the question: was it this man or his parents that sinned?

But Jesus sets his disciples straight. Neither!

In fact Jesus flips the whole concept on it’s head - his vulnerability, is actually going to be used as a strength - it is something that will bring God glory!

Now just keep that idea of a vulnerability being a strength in the back of your mind because I’m going to come back to it.

But it is in this context of meeting a man who has been suffering with blindness for such a long time, that Jesus reiterates what he said in the previous chapter - “I am the light of the world”

This affliction is particularly relevant for this statement. Because like Jesus often does, he links a physical sign with a spiritual sign.

He literally heals the physical blindness of this man. And while physical light dawns on this man, spiritual light also begins to dawn.

The miracle

Well, in verse 6 we get the miracle.

Now something you’ll notice about Jesus is he always mixes up the way he performs miracles. I suspect in part he just wants to show that there isn’t some sleight of hand or some magic formula his using - rather, he has the same power as Creator God.

In this case he spits on the ground, makes some mud with the saliva and puts it on the man’s eye.

Now in our current climate of everything being sanitized, this just sounds crazy. Actually it probably sounds weird even when we’re not super sensitive to hygiene. But rest assured, Jesus is not giving some formula for healing. He is just doing what he does best - heal people.

The man is then told to go and wash in the Pool of Siloam. Now we are told the significance of this washing by the words in the parentheses that follow. We’re told that the word Siloam means ‘sent’. In other words, the man is being healed in the action of being sent by Jesus.

Now, the interesting thing to note is that this whole time, the blind man never saw Jesus. By the time he had washed and thereby received his sight, Jesus had gone.

And that will become significant in the conversation that follows.

Discussion with Pharisees

Now I don’t intend to get into all the nitty gritty of the conversation that follows.

But essentially what we see is the light slowly dawning on the man who was healed, but the resistance to the light by those who should have known better.

The neighbours

The discussion in verse 8 starts with his neighbours. They’re obviously confused - which is completely understandable because people who are born blind don’t just receive sight. It is just something that doesn’t happen.

But at this time you can see that the healed man is confused himself. All he knows at this stage is that he was blind, but now he can see - and he testifies to that fact.

The Pharisees

But then comes the Pharisees.

They might have also been confused, but they allowed their confusion to be buried under the insults and disdain for Jesus.

What I want to point out is to show how we can see the light beginning to dawn even under the attack of these powerful people.

You see, starting in verse 13, he is brought before them and questioned about how he received sight - and he just answers plainly with the facts.

But the Pharisees will bring anything up - and so they first bring up that the healing was done on the Sabbath.

A light dawning?

In verse 17 however, they ask a question which forces the blind man to think deeper - and it’s almost like the spiritual light switch was found - ‘he is a prophet’.

But the light hasn’t dawned with the Pharisees - in fact, quite the opposite. Verses 20 through to 23 has them calling in his parents - but that doesn’t progress things far. There is just darkness.

A second meeting

But they call the healed man again. But what I love is that the light has begun to get brighter.

It reminds me of those light bulbs that start dim and take a while before they get to their full brightness.

But the darkness has set with the Pharisees starting their questioning in verse 24 with “we know this man is a sinner”.

But as the light in the healed man increases, so does his confidence. As the questioning continues, he is able to quip “Do you want to become his disciples too?”

Well that didn’t go well with the Pharisees. And just like people are prone to do today - when you’re in the dark, just start throwing insults!

But with light, things start to make sense. There is very clear logic in the healed man.

Opening the eyes of a man born blind can only happen by God’s power.

He was born blind. He can now see because of Jesus. Case closed!

But there is only darkness and more insults - “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!”

Return of Jesus

At this they throw him out, but Jesus finds him and asks “do you believe in the Son of Man?”

It’s perhaps worth pointing out that here the word “believe” means more than just assenting to existence of Jesus. It infers trust. Trusting that this is someone you can rely on.

But while the light is dawned and even strengthened he has one last question: “Who is he?”

At this Jesus identifies himself - and now the light is on. ‘Lord I believe’.

Now you might think - well that’s good for this blind man. He went from being literally blind to seeing. Of course he is going to believe. But what about me?

Perhaps you’ve got some affliction and you haven’t been healed. And you wonder why?

Well, while I believe God is able to make any miracle happen today, I don’t believe this is the main point of this story. This account is not to say that if you believe in Jesus then your afflictions will disappear.

In fact, even in Jesus’ day, there were many other people with all sorts of afflictions that were never healed.

The light

You see, this account is rather about showing how Christ’s light shines.

Let me just take you to verse 39 which is one of those cryptic sort of statements that Jesus makes. It sounds a bit like nonesense, but it is in this that we will start to understand the light Jesus brings.

He says: “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind”.

The part of that statement I want to focus on is this topsy turvy idea of the blind and those who see swapping.

And as strange as it might sound, it is as we understand this idea that we will actually begin to see the true light better - and I’m going to suggest that it will also help us understand how we should think about our current situation.

So what am I talking about?

Well, the Pharisees in this account are the ones that can see but the problem with seeing is that we think we know everything.

The blind man on the other hand couldn’t see. Through his blindness however, he hadn’t become too hardened. When a miracle happened, he was able to believe.

In this way, what we can see is that it is in humility that our eyes can truly see.

Vulnerability

But it goes deeper than this.

Now earlier I told you to keep in the back of your mind this idea about vulnerability. If you forgot, I made a comment about the answer Jesus gave about who had sinned - the man or his parent. Jesus had answered neither had sinned but that it had happened that the works of God might be displayed.

The comment I made was that the vulnerable state the man was in, was used for God’s glory.

Now I’m going to make a link here.

You see, because the man born blind was more vulnerable, he was in a greater position to see. In his vulnerability, he was free from the chains that come when we seek to run from our vulnerability.

Now there is something counter cultural with this. Vulnerability is seen as a weakness. But in God’s kingdom, it is was loosens the chains that keep us tied down.

Now it’s perhaps important I clarify what I mean by vulnerability. It doesn’t mean you have to let people walk all over you. But it does mean you need to let your guard down.

We try to protect ourselves by structures or things in our life. There’s no problem with structure - except when we think that is what is going to save us. You see when we put these things in our lives - things which can feel like strength - we are actually blinding ourselves from the light.

But our trust as Christians is in something different. We don’t need to trust in these things on the periphery because we have something better - we have Jesus.

Application to pandemic

Now this is where I want to apply this to our current situation.

You see, in our fear we try to rely on lots of different things.

Incidentally, I read during the week a psychologist suggesting that the excessive buying of toilet paper is actually a form of clinging to control.

But (and I know it sounds obvious) - toilet paper won’t save you.

You might feel that you are losing control - but that is not a bad thing. Because sometimes we need to lose control before we can really see.

And the reality is - it is in allowing ourselves to become vulnerable that we will be able to truly love others.

We can give, even when we have little to give.

We can extend ourselves, even when we would prefer to be looking after ourselves.

While we cling to the control for ourselves - we can’t help others because of the implication to us. And this is essentially why this current crisis puts us in a darker place.

Now, just to be clear - I’m not trying to suggest that being vulnerable means we should act in a way that compromises public health. Even in our vulnerability we should be very careful. And stopping the spread is a way we can love one another.

But to really understand what this vulnerability looks like, we need to look to Jesus.

Because his salvation is different to what we might expect.

His salvation comes from him becoming truly vulnerable - in fact so vulnerable that he died on a cross for something he didn’t deserve.

When we don’t allow ourselves to be vulnerable, we end up being like the Pharisees. We make arguments that can sound very pious, possibly even with the sound of godliness, but really, it is more about protecting ourselves.

Just think - these Pharisees were witness to an amazing miracle, and yet they weren’t even able to rejoice in the amazing work of God.

Conclusion

I know this message isn’t easy. It’s not easy to hear that we need to let go of those things that have provided us comfort for so long. But these things mean we can’t see. We are the one that can physically see, but spiritual become blind.

Don’t let that be the case.

Rather look to the true light. The one that paradoxically is found in vulnerability.

And as we allow ourselves to be vulnerable, let us really reach out to those in need.

Love even when it hurts.

And let the light shine. Allow the light of the world to be bright in your life, because as you do, you can let others experience this amazing light.

Let me pray...