| The Sunday of the Blind Man, and Courage Archimandrite Alypy (Voronov) This sermon was given on April 26/May 9, 2010 at the Sretensky Monastery in Moscow, by Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov), the superior of the monastery. This day, the sixth Sunday after Pascha, on which the Orthodox Church celebrates the Sunday of the Blind Man, coincided last year with the celebration of Victory Day—the anniversary of Russia’s defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945. The Russian people have great respect for their World War II veterans and honor them everywhere, with parades, concerts, etc. In honor of this combined spiritual and civil celebration. Fr. Tikhon spoke of Russian veterans who embodied the same faith and fearlessness displayed by the man born blind in the Gospel reading for this day (John 9:1–38). I n the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit! Today in the Gospel we heard a story about an exceptionally courageous man—the man born blind. This man, having come to know and having seen God, was not afraid of any of the trials, of any of the temptations that the spiritually blind Pharisees, who warred against the truth, who warred against Christ, were setting before him. The man born blind turned out to be an extraordinarily wise and sharp-witted man. You remember his whole story: after the Savior healed that man, who had been blind from birth and had never seen the light of the sun, the Pharisees immediately came over to him, that they themselves might understand what had happened, and put a stop to what they considered unlawful—the doing of good works on the Sabbath. For them these were evil deeds; for them this was a crime. And this man began, in a real way, his courageous, very serious and wise battle with these powers of falsehood. But just the same, this man who had been born blind remained unvanquished. In his soul he did not betray the Faith; he remained true to the One Who had performed the great miracle of granting him his sight. So too, brothers and sisters, should we be courageous in standing up for our faith; we should be just as courageous, wise, and quick-witted as that man born blind had been. And there have been quite a few such people, followers of that remarkable man, in the history of our Church. |
| But why did the Savior heal him in particular? Why was this miracle of God manifest in this particular person, and not in the whole crowd of people standing near him, who were just as misfortunate, injured, or sick? Christ is Risen! Perhaps today’s story of the healing of the blind man is especially important for us, for our generation. When the Savior walked near the blind man—who was known throughout Jerusalem—but did not ask him anything, not even about his faith, he passed by him and healed him. The blind man became a man who sees. The Pharisees began interrogating him, asking him who worked this great good for him—something they themselves would never have been able to do. They took the man to task, accusing the Savior of doing this great deed on God’s day—Saturday. Unable to find a single word to refute the Truth that shone brilliantly before them in this unprecedented miracle, the Pharisees where nevertheless unable to restrain themselves, and in their envy and wrath they blasphemed God and the Holy Spirit. Some ask, “What is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?” This terrible sin is described in today’s Gospel reading: the Pharisees see the power of God—manifested in the healing of the man blind from birth—but they nevertheless stubbornly deny that power. They say mockingly, Give God the praise: we know that this man is a sinner. But the healed man says, Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth. Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man were not of God, he could do nothing. Then the Pharisees cast him out of the synagogue, and severed him from the society of the Israelites. He was deprived of all rights. From that time on, according to Jewish law, no one could associate with him, help him, or live with him. His mother and father disowned him. For my father and mother have forsaken me, but the Lord hath taken me to Himself (Ps. 26:12)… At that very moment the Savior Himself finds him and says to him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? The one who had gained his sight asks, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? The Savior then says to him something very similar to what He said to the Samaritan woman last week: Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. The man blind who was born blind needed no other proof. He worshipped Him as God and said, Lord, I believe. |
| Saint Augustine of Hippo on the Sunday of the Blind Man Tractate 44 on the Gospel of John 1. We have just read the long lesson of the man born blind, whom the Lord Jesus restored to the light; but were we to attempt handling the whole of it, and considering, according to our ability, each passage in a way proportionate to its worth, the day would be insufficient. Wherefore I ask and warn your Charity not to require any words of ours on those passages whose meaning is manifest; for it would be too protracted to linger at each. I proceed, therefore, to set forth briefly the mystery of this blind man’s enlightenment. All, certainly, that was done by our Lord Jesus Christ, both works and words, are worthy of our astonishment and admiration: His works, because they are facts; His words, because they are signs. If we reflect, then, on what is signified by the deed here done, that blind man is the human race; for this blindness had place in the first man, through sin, from whom we all draw our origin, not only in respect of death, but also of unrighteousness. For if unbelief is blindness, and faith enlightenment, whom did Christ find a believer at His coming? Seeing that the apostle, belonging himself to the family of the prophets, says: And we also in times past were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. Ephesians 2:3 If children of wrath, then children of vengeance, children of punishment, children of hell. For how is it by nature, save that through the first man sinning moral evil rooted itself in us as a nature? If evil has so taken root within us, every man is born mentally blind. For if he sees, he has no need of a guide. If he does need one to guide and enlighten him, then is he blind from his birth. 2. The Lord came: what did He do? He set forth a great mystery. He spat on the ground, He made clay of His spittle; for the Word was made flesh. And He anointed the eyes of the blind man. The anointing had taken place, and yet he saw not. He sent him to the pool which is called Siloam. |
| The Healing of the Blind Man: Understanding What Causes Confusion and Embarrassment in Our Hearts The Jews found themselves in a difficult position when Christ healed the blind man. A miracle had occurred, and at the same times the desecration of the Sabbath. So how can we avoid making mistakes, how do we guard against following our heart which at times is unable to speak the truth? Archpriest Pavel Velikanov expounds on today’s Gospel reading. Photo: http://myocn.net/ Gospel of St. John Chapter 9, 1-38 Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. 2 And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. 4 I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. 7 And He said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing. 8 Therefore the neighbours and those who previously had seen that he was blind said, “Is not this he who sat and begged?” 9 Some said, “This is he.” Others said, “He is like him.” He said, “I am he. ” 10 Therefore they said to him, “How were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered and said, “A Man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed, and I received sight.” 12 Then they said to him, “Where is He?” He said, “I do not know.” 13 They brought him who formerly was blind to the Pharisees. 14 Now it was a Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. 15 Then the Pharisees also asked him again how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” |
| Tweet " For Judgment I am Come into this World... " Healing of the blind man. Today we heard at the Divine Liturgy the account of the Holy Evangelist John the Theologian about the healing by Jesus Christ of the man born blind, that is, who had never seen anything before. It is characteristic that, when this Gospel account ends, the Lord said: “ For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind” (Jn 9:39). And His spiteful enemies, the scribes and Pharisees, probably with irony and mockery, asked Him: “ Are we blind also?” (Jn 9:40). And they received an answer, as the Lord told them: “ If ye were blind, ye should have no sin” (Jn 9:41), because if a person does not know and does not see, he cannot transgress consciously and does not sin so greatly. Even if he makes a mistake, the Lord Himself does not find it a sin, if the person did not know he was sinning. So the Lord spoke, “ If ye were blind, ye should have no sin, but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth” (Jn 9:41). Remember, this is a frightful sentence, because it was pronounced by the One who alone can justify or condemn, and He said their sin remained. Our Lord Jesus Christ gave the former blind man not only physical, but also spiritual vision. At the same time, the Gospel illustrates how, by their determination, Christ’s enemies are blinding themselves all the more, persisting in their delusions. When the Lord healed the blind man, he was asked how it had happened. He said that he could not answer this question: he had been blind when the Lord approached Him. Probably he had heard what the Savior’s name was, which is why he answered: “ A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed my eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I received sight” (Jn 9:11). They asked him who Jesus was, and he said “ I know not” (Jn 9:12). He was led to the Pharisees, and they examined him. He said shortly: “ He put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and do see” (Jn 9:15). |
| Metropolitan Anthony on the Sunday of the Blind Man Why did the Lord not content Himself with His all-mighty power, but rather tell the man born blind to go to the pool of Siloam and wash in order to recover his sight? The answer to that question is that the man born blind had to show his obedience to the Mysterious Interlocutor of Whom he knew only His Name, but not His Divine authority. On the Sundays between Holy Pascha and the Sunday of All Saints, excerpts from the Gospel according to John are offered for reading. This Gospel contains only a few events from the earthly life of Christ, but it does includes many of His sayings. As for the events in the fourth Gospel, they are narrated in a detailed and picturesque manner. Such is the account of the healing of the man born blind, which is assigned as a Sunday reading in church – an event, every detail of which deserves attention. Why did the Lord not content Himself with His all-mighty power, but rather tell the man born blind to go to the pool of Siloam and wash in order to recover his sight? The answer to that question is that the man born blind had to show his obedience to the Mysterious Interlocutor of Whom he knew only His Name, but not His Divine authority. So what prompted the man obediently to fulfill the task given to Him by Christ: to go to the faraway pool of Siloam, located under the mountain? Undoubtedly, it is Christ’s imperative and majestic voice that fills his soul with awe and awakes in him a dim glimmer of hope. To strengthen that hope, the Lord does not heal the man immediately, as He has healed people in other cases, but rather makes clay with His saliva and, having anointed his eyes with that clay, tests his obedience by sending him to wash in the pool of Siloam. It was the Sabbath – and the Jews rejoiced not at God’s benevolence but rather at the occasion to fall upon Jesus Christ’s supposed violation of the Sabbath rest. That was not the only time the Pharisees would find fault with the Savior unfairly. In contrast to them, the common Jewish people did understand the true meaning of the Sabbath rest, as we know from another Gospel account. When the Lord had denounced a certain head of the synagogue for a similar objection, all His adversaries were ashamed; and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him (Luke 13:17). |
| Spiritual Truth or Worldly Thinking? JULIE OLIVER/OTTAWA CITIZEN The Orthodox Church sets aside one Sunday each year – today – dedicated to a man who was born blind. The date is named after him: it’s called the Sunday of the Blind Man. If our modern, atheist society set up a holiday such as this, you can be sure it would be dedicated to some charitable goal, or have something to do with awareness of some cause. But like every feast in the history Church, the Sunday of the Blind Man has a spiritual purpose, to reveal a spiritual truth. Saint Augustine tells us one spiritual truth of the healing of the Blind Man by the Lord Jesus Christ comes from the fact that it happens on the Jewish sabbath day. Jews are not supposed to work on the sabbath day, yet Christ heals the Blind Man – in fact, He creates new eyes for him out of nothing – on the sabbath day . It’s a holy thing to do good on the sabbath day. What’s more, Christ is God : He created the whole world – He can certainly create eyes on the sabbath day for the man born blind. That’s the spiritual truth behind this miracle. The Blind Man eventually sees it. Other people eventually see it. But those whose thinking is engulfed with the Spirit of the World cannot see it. They refuse to see it. Saint John Chrysostom says that the magnificence of a miracle like this gets lost in the accusations of men. When people start getting clever, making arguments, strategizing for their cause… they are going to miss God! It happened time and time again in the Bible: People would not believe the Lord’s miracles. The Sadducees and the Pharisees challenged the Lord, and got annoyed at His answers. Some even got angry when Christ raised Lazarus from the dead. Spiritual truth, versus worldly thinking. It happened with the saints throughout the centuries, too. If the faithful wanted to quietly live out their lives as Christians, to pray, to go to Church, they would be mocked. Laws would be passed against them. They would be asked to conform to whatever the government told them to say or do – whether they lived under the Romans, or the Ottoman Muslims, or the Soviet Communists, or others. |
| Christ — Light for Our Blindness Sermon preached at St Aethelheard's Orthodox Church, Louth Cemetery Chapel, Divine Liturgy, Sunday May 20, 2001. 6th Sunday of Pascha (Sunday of the Blind Man). READINGS: — Acts 16.16-34; John 9.1-38. (Edited version of extempore sermon). " Amazing grace! How sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me; I once was lost, but now am found; Was blind, but now I see. " The last line of that opening verse of a well-known Evangelical hymn (a fairly recent recording of which was so popular it nearly reached the top of the charts) was clearly suggested by the Gospel story we have just heard, about Jesus healing a man blind from birth. The hymn writer applies the story of the physical miracle of Jesus restoring the sight of a man born blind to Jesus healing our spiritual blindness. But this is a tradition dating back to a time long before there were any Evangelicals (except in the sense that every Christian is called to spread the good news about our Lord Jesus Christ, and so every Christian is an evangelical). It is certainly part of the Orthodox tradition. Besides commemorating the physical miracle, the hymns of the Church services also remind us that Jesus cures our spiritual blindness. For example, the kontakion that we sang a little while ago: — " I come to you, O Christ, blind from birth in my spiritual eyes, and call to you in repentance: you are the most radiant light of those in darkness. " Indeed, the application of the Gospel story about the healing of the man blind from birth to the healing of spiritual blindness has always been part of the tradition, in both East and West. We are all spiritually blind from time to time, even the most devout of us. For we all have our periods of doubt, the dark times in our life of faith. Jesus Christ, as both God and man - the God-Man, cures us of our spiritual blindness. For what we learn in the Gospels can only be believed through spiritual insight, by means of an inner eye (as it were). Spiritual insight is available only to those who have entered into union with the Holy Trinity. The inner eye is the gift of God, divine grace offered to us by the Holy Spirit, sent to each one of us by the Father through the Son. We enter into union with the Holy Trinity (however partially and intermittently) as members of the Church. Spiritual insight is available only to baptised Christians. |
| The Blind Man There is no need to blame or judge the situations we find in life. When we are met with tragedy in the lives of others, we do not need to try and figure out the why’s and wherefore’s. Whatever we decide will be nothing more than a self-serving fantasy. This is beside the point as Jesus demonstrates. What does matter is that we meet everything and everyone that comes to us with the same love and compassion we see in our Lord’s healing of the blind man. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Christ is Risen! Jesus brings light into centuries of darkness in today’s Gospel reading. He does so much more than simply giving sight to the blind man; he opens the eyes of his disciples to an important truth about God. The disciples ask him a question. “Who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?” It is a question born out of misunderstanding and superstition, out of the attempt of humanity throughout the ages to make sense of tragedy, the bottom line being the belief that someone somewhere must be to blame. In the minds of ancient peoples the whole world and everything in it was micromanaged by gods. Every thunderstorm was an event directly attributable to a deity: rain, sunshine, harvest, health, wealth, happiness, illness, everything was the province of a god. Some deity had to be in charge and to make sure that good fortune ruled the deities had to be carefully coddled. These gods were very high maintenance. Religion was more like magic. If you wanted a certain result you made a certain sacrifice or performed a certain ritual. If you did not, then the gods could become angry and vengeful! You did not want to offend a god. The difference of course between those deities and the Christian God is that the latter cannot be offended. This is what lies behind the question the disciples asked. Someone must have sinned to for this poor man to have been born blind. Surely God must have been offended to have caused the blind man to suffer as he did. |
| Regaining Our Sight with the Blind Men: On the Seventh Sunday After Pentecost And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed Him, crying, and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us. And when He was come into the house, the blind men came to Him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto Him, Yea, Lord. Then touched He their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you. And their eyes were opened; and Jesus straitly charged them, saying, See that no man know it. But they, when they were departed, spread abroad His fame in all that country. As they went out, behold, they brought to Him a dumb man possessed with a devil. And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake: and the multitudes marveled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel. But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils. And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people (Matthew 9:27-35). Today’s Gospel reading tells of the healing of two blind men. Every Gospel narrative, just as every word of the Gospel, conceals immeasurable meaning. This is because the Gospel speaks of eternal and timeless truths, of the eternal truth of life in God. Today’s Gospel reading likewise speaks of eternal truths that are of great importance to our everyday lives. It speaks of the love of God for man and of the love of man for God; of the fact that God never leaves us without His merciful assistance. Whatever may befall us, God will never leave us in either trouble or woe – if only we remain with Him through our faith in Him, our love for Him, and our fidelity to Him in our lives. Here come the two blind men of the Gospel, crying out: “Have mercy on us, Jesus!” They are very persistent. They know and believe in the power of the Lord Jesus Christ without any doubt whatsoever. They follow Him into someone’s house, continuing to ask and plead: “Heal us!” The Lord asks them: “Do you believe in Me? Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They reply: “Yes, Lord, of course we believe!” Then He touches their eyes and they are opened – the blind men recover their sight. |
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