Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, February 27, 2022
by Dr. Kimberly Leetch, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: We can be brought to sight when we are willing to consider that we might be wrong.
It is no accident that this healing story is about blindness. The events following the man’s healing exposed the blindness of the Pharisees to see the truth of God and the truth about Jesus. The blind man was brought to sight; the seeing Pharisees were left blind.
The whole episode caused quite a confusion among the Pharisees. Jesus exposed holes in their thinking that they could not reconcile. They believed people with disabilities were disabled because of sin—either their own or their parents’. It was unthinkable that a man born in sin could be healed, and that he could attempt to teach them anything about God. They also believed it was unlawful to do anything on the Sabbath, and that no one could heal apart from God. Yet here was Jesus healing—and on the Sabbath! None of those things seemed to be able to work together. The Pharisees’ blindness remained because they were unable or unwilling to consider that what they believed might be wrong.
I have often seen bumper stickers that say, “Don’t believe everything you think.” How often do we remain blind to truth because we are unwilling or unable to consider that we might be wrong? Are we so certain we know all there is to know about Jesus? Are we sure we’ve got it all right? There is a gift to accepting that we might be wrong. There is freedom in letting go of what we think we know to explore and learn things that we don’t yet know. It is difficult to behold, but in acknowledging what we don’t know, the scales of our blindness start to fall, and we can begin to see the magnificence of what Jesus wants to show us.