Blind to the Message John 9

Source note. Touching the Heart By William J Bausch p. 59
PUMC March 2 2008 Blind to the Message John 9 R Swenson PUMC
George Bernard Shaw said that the British and the Americans are "two nations separated by a common language".
I think that saying fits a lot of the conversations in johns Gospel.
You get the same words being used..
but they don’t mean the same thing to everybody in the conversation....
you get two people separated by a common language.
for example in the last Sundays we had Jesus talking to nichodemus
they are talking about being born again or born from above.. Nichodemus is thinking literally and physically
how can I be born again !!!
Jesus uses the same words "born again"
but he s not talking about anything literal or physical at all,,
same word
but a double meaning..
And the spiritual meaning is the message.
.the implication for us
is that we shouldn’t just be like Nichodomus..
h’s a scholar and a teacher.. thinking at the natural //intellectual..literal level of the world
last week
we had another example
the woman at the well
they are talking about water and thirst..
but the Samaritan woman is thinking H2 O And physical thirst..
She is thinking about this literally....or in the rational kind of way
because after all
Jesus wants drink
and they are standing by a well
but relay this all about that deeper meaning
and the inner well..
Spiritual water
living water
spiritual thirst..
Now
by now..
As readers of Johns Gospel
coming into the 9th chapter.
We are supposed to have this figured out.
We should have caught on by now..
..John is famous for these double meanings
in the stories s of Jesus .
.and the good stuff.
The important part..
.is in the second layer.,
in the symbolism.,
If you think on just the surface
if you think on just the literal level
if you think a storm is just a storm
and a physical healing is just a healing
and a cloud is just a cloud.
And a death is just a death..
.and so on..
you are going to miss the message
and you will miss the truth.
.
But to give us still another clue
John has a special way of telling us that we are supposed to go deeper in all these stories
healing stories
miracle stories
these object lessons
are called signs.. In johns gospel
he uses that word 17 times.
So this morning
in the story of the blind man
it is a sign for us.
as I said
by now
you gotta know that the physical healing
and the physical blindness is not the real point..
this is about getting your spiritual eyesight.
The blind man gets that
and so he is truly not blind
but the pharisees ...who have perfect physical eyesight.
.are blind
because they do not see who Jesus.
and they are blind to the message.
To .the revelation.. In this story.
Now here the important part for us
this is the interesting question
when you read these stories of Jesus
are you and I
still blind to the deeper kind of message
when you read the scriptures
can you do
what John wants you to do
and get the metaphor
and the symbolism
and the double meanings and the spiritual message carried in the words..
Are you with me..
we have to be interpreters..
Johns Gospel style is telling us that we have to become interpreters.
Now..let me underline that with a story to make my point.

One upon a time
there was a young king
who decided that it was time to find a bride.
Now this king was different
H e didn’t care if his bride was tall or thin .
.blonde or dark.
.but he wanted her to be intelligent..
.with a special kind of wisdom
so he decided to go traveling around in his kingdom
trying to find the most intelligent woman in the land.
He took off his royal robes
and put on the overcoat of a common peasant..
Disguised I suppose
as kings sometimes do.
He went off wandering around on the roads. From town to town .village to village
one day
as he was walking down a dusty road...
the king met an old man.
And since they were going in the same direction the kind said Grandfather where are you going
the old man gave the name of the town
just down the road
and since the king was going that way as well
they got to taking
and very soon the king said to the old man
Grandfather
should I carry you
or should you carry me?
"My what a strange question" the old man said to himself
this traveler must be crazy Im not going to answer him.
And so the old man didn’t say a thing.
He just walked a little faster.
The king didn’t say anything either.
But then they came to large field
and they could see these ripe heads of grain.
Grandfather.the king said again to the old man..
As he stopped to look at the field
Do you think that grain is already eaten or not?
Already eaten or not
What kind of a question is that
this man is truly crazy.
What nonsense is he talking..... I am not going to answer him.
Th older man shut his mouth tight
and would not even look at the this traveler with him along the road..
He just walked faster.
The king kept up with him..walking without a word.
Finally they came to the walls of the city..
But they couldn’t go into the gates right then
because a funeral procession was going by.

Grandfather, the king said..
Do you think the man in the coffin is alive or dead?
Now the old man was again thinking to himself..this fellow is not to be talked with.
Another foolish question
.so he turned to the younger man
and said
"Thank you for your company along the way
but this is my town and I am going home now.
"Thank you for your company’, the king said..
"But don’t forget to knock on the door first
before you go into your house."
‘Knock on my own front door."
the old man was just fuming.
. Knock on my own front door.
I don’t need to do something like that!
By the time the old man got to his house
he was so upset
that he threw open the front door to his house.
.stormed through the doorway
and as he did that.
.he knocked his daughter down to the floor.
Oh daughter,,, he said.
.I am so sorry
I guess I should have knocked
I should have listened to what that young man said..
.but everything he said...was such nonsense.

Father ....slow down..calm yourself.
What young man./
What nonsense?
..The young man I traveled with along the road.
You will never believe the ridiculous questions he was asking me.
Tell me father..said the daughter..
tell me what he said.
First he said to me,
"Grandfather
should I carry you, or will you carry me?
Now what kind of a question is that?
I am not so old that he has to carry me?
And he wasn’t so young that I had to carry him..
Both of us could walk just fine.
‘O father" the daughter said,,
that s not What he meant at all.
He wanted to ask you..... if he should tell you a story..
or if you would tell him one?
The journey is so much shorter when you’re listening to stories

it is the storyteller who carries the listener...that what he meant

oh... said the old man,,
maybe that is what he meant
but that doesn’t explain the next question:
we came by a field of grain.
.and he wanted to know if the grain was already eaten or not?
Now what kind of a question is that..?
We could see the grain right there in the field.
Oh father said the daughter..
What he was talking about;
was whether you thought the owner of the field had already sold the crop
or not..
If he had already sold the crop and spent the money..
it would be the same
as if the grain had already been eaten.
Oh daughter I see..what you mean
But you cant explain the last question.
We waited for a funeral to pass by..
And he wanted to know if the man in the coffin was dead or alive.
..Isn’t that a bunch of nonsense.
Father think about this.., the daughter said
He was asking you if the man inside the coffin had any children.
Because if the man had children in his family line ....then was living on.. If not. Then he was truly dead.
Oh daughter I’ve been so foolish
I think I should go back and find that t young man and apologize.
So the king went back
and looked around the town until he found the king who was still wearing a disguise.
I am so sorry ..,
He said, Now I understand what you were asking me.
Please come and have dinner with me.
But the king had another question
who helped you to understand/
it was my daughter,,,
now please come back to my house with me..

They got to the old mans house just as the meal was ready
the young man sat down at the table with the older man
and his wife
while the daughter came to the table with platter full of roasted chicken
Because the young man was a guest
..she put the platter in front of him
and asked him to carve the chicken.
And so that is What he did.
He gave the drumstick to the wife
he gave the daughter ..the wings..
And to the old man he gave the back and the neck.
When the old man looked at his plate and saw the scrawny neck and the head of the chicken he got angry
his face turned red
and he stood up to yell when his daughter gently put her hand on his shoulder.
Father
its alright
the young man carved the chicken very well.
He gave the drumsticks to mother
because she is always standing and working
he gave me the wings because one day soon
I will marry and fly way form home
he gave you the head and the neck
because you’re the head of the household
he kept the rest for himself
because there was no one else to share with.
When the king heard this..
He realized that he had found the very clever women he had been searching for.
He asked the father if he could marry her.
The father looked to his daughter to see if this was her wish
she nodded her head.. Yes it was.
It was then that king took off his disguise
and the daughter realized that she would become the queen.

now that is a very old story from Persia
to our modern western ears
it a strange and charming little story
but our minds
and our ears
are years away from the mentality, that formed that story
we are more like the grandfather who took everything so literally
it is hard for us to appreciate a culture
that so easily accepted symbolism and metaphor
..images and hidden meanings.
The idea that language might say..more than it says..
Is something we know about in other areas of literature.. Art and poetry and theater.
. But why then
do we seem to forget that when we come to the bible.

But that is the kind of world that gave us the Bible..
and that is the kind of story telling and teaching that Jesus gave us..
It is exactly the kind of world that we get in Johns gospel..
And it is essential
that we learn how to be more like the daughter
with the ability to listen to the bible stories.
.listen to the words and ideas....
and to go deeper than the surface.
.to go deeper into the meaning.
Now
sometimes
that means that we have to learn the expression of that time and place
the old sayings of the Palestinian world from the first century
don’t always translate with the same meaning today
but even more important
..is the interpretation into the spiritual insight./////.the seeing..

The scripture lesson this morning is a good example
this is about two different kinds of blindness
and different kinds of seeing and being in the light..

If you just think this as story about a man being physically healed of blindness..
You really are blind to the big picture of the story

you don’t need to try and figure out medically..
or scientifically
. how Jesus did this miracle .....but I’ve been in few Bible studies where I had people trying to do exactly that!
But that’s that the foolish part of this long conversation.
That’s what the pharisees are trying to do!
.all this interrogating that they are putting this man through!
Trying to see if this really happened...and figure it out
.we don’t need to interrogate and examine..the story and try to figure out if its real..
and say how did Jesus do that!
It’s a sign !
Its an illustration..a symbol..

spiritual eyesight.. Into the revelation of God in Jesus Christ

You see how the scriptures in John themselves
are kind of like the story
about the king and the old man and the daughter.. ?

In John 16:26
Jesus says
I have told you these these things in figures of speech..
Hear that? "figures of speech.."
figurative language..Images,,
symbols ,,metaphors,,
like sheep and vines..and branches..flesh and body... And light and water..and bread.
and then
he goes on to say that you need to understand those things
through the Holy spirit.
.with prayer..with spiritual interpration
Not with the rational intellect of the head
but the heart..
...listening and interpreting at a spiritual level.

Now as I said..
I think it’s a serious problem for us in our head based .
.intellectually based..
science minded..
Literal kind of reading...
Lots of people
try to read the bible that way,
and they don’t believe the bible or Christianity
.because it looks like non sense to them
... they cant figure it out?

but its not just a modern problem
St Augustine
the great theologian and bishop from the 4th century...
Three hundreds years after the time of Jesus
he was trying to understand the scriptures..
Augustine was smart man ..with a great classical education
but he went to Bishop Ambrose
and told him
that he thought the Bible was inferior literature..
he wasn’t impressed.
But Ambrose said to him
You young fool..
You cant get it,
because when you read the bible a bout fish..
You think fish....
when you read Bread.
.you think bread..
Ambrose..had to explain the meanings
Told him
that he could not just go with the surface meanings..

Well
we still have people making that mistake to day...
. how blind are we when we read the scriptures
..
or do we listen to the holy Spirt
and get down
To the spiritual level that feeds our faith
down in the heart and the soul.
.where believing really happens
---------------------------------------------------
This morning we are celebrating a baptism
Does it look like we are saying some words and putting some water on little Coopers head..
but if you ve got your spiritual eyes and ears open you
will see so much more..
Its not just water .
.and it s not just a ritual
that we do...
but its giving Cooper publicly
into the path of God
the love of God..is his gift.
..and the presence of God
somehow at work
its not just water..
but it’s the living water
and the life of God
and the cleansing
and the renewing
and the washing of Gods spirit
it’s the new ....regenerative.. life of Jesus Christ
or in terms of the Gospel lesson today
we pray
that the muddy or earthly human blindness
that we are all born with.
(Yes.. .we are all the man who is born blind..)
But the sign of baptism.
. Is That the darkness.
.and the blindness..
will be washed away from our eyes ..
by Jesus Christ
so that we can see Jesus ..as the Christ..
and we can see the truth. ..
We pray that Cooper.. will grow to see the light..
And as we do that
I would also ask you today
what do you see
..

FOR 11:15 only,,,,,,This morning in the sacrament of Holy Communion..
we have another example of this symbolic meaning and metaphor..
Jesus himself said it..its not just t bread
its not just fruit of the vine..
Its his life
his body
his blood
his love his forgiveness..
Present with us
Your physical eyes
are not going to be able to see that.///
. But in the light of Jesus
we can see the sacrificial and redemptive. gift of God

What do you see.. This morning.. .