| The Blind Man’s Faith? The Blind Beggar (18:35-43) Brothers and sisters, “As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening. They told him, ‘Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.’ ” Beggars would often be found at the city gate where people are passing in and out. He is probably used to calling out to those who pass by, asking for money, begging for alms. Blindness and diseases of the eye were common illness in the ancient world. Those who lost one of their senses would often develop their other sense much more. But it takes no special insight for the blind man to realize that the number of people on the road crowding into the city is much large than usual. A pushing, shoving crowd competes to stay up with someone who attracts their attention. The blind man cries out to whoever can hear him, “What is going on?” And one of the bystanders says, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” Once he is told that Jesus of Nazareth is passing by, he begins to yell at the top of his lungs: “He called out, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’ ” (18:38-39) But this is no helpless, feeble cry for help. It is loud and insistent. He keeps on shouting. He won’t be shut up, even though the crowd continues to tell him to stop. Some people are intimidated and subdued by their own handicaps. It’s possible to almost give up. But not our Blind man. What motivates his uncontainable cry for healing? Faith. To call someone “Son of David” as a title is equivalent to calling someone, “Messiah,” for it signifies to the Jews a person who is the promised descendent of David who will sit upon the throne of Israel. During most of his ministry, Jesus doesn’t encourage others to refer to him as the Messiah, because the political implications of this title would soon prevent him from being able to minister effectively (Matthew 16:16, 20). But now his hour is come. His face is set towards Jerusalem where he will be crucified. |
| Can the Gospel of the Blind Man be Used to Support Belief in Reincarnation? Hieromonk Job (Gumerov). Photo: Anton Pospelov/Pravoslavie.ru Question : We can look at the story about the blind man in the Gospel of St. John as yet another testimony to the existence in early Christianity of belief in reincarnation. Jesus walks past a man who was “blind from birth”. The disciples ask, “Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.” The most important phrase here is the disciple’s question: “Who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?” How should we understand the first explanation that the man suffered for his own sins? By including this in the Gospels, the author lets us know that he accepts reincarnation as a logical explanation for the fact that people are born with different problems. He would not have paid any attention to the question of sins as the reason for being born blind if he did not believe that the man had not had previous lives in which he sinned. Answer: The idea of reincarnation completely contradicts biblical teaching. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment : So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation (Heb. 9:27–28). The emphasis in this citation is on the words that in both the Old and New Testaments are at the theological core of the teaching on human life and death: to die but once. Throughout all the books of Holy Scripture runs the portrayal of man as the image and likeness of God, of the uniqueness and unrepeatable nature of each and every human individual. The belief that a soul can reincarnate and become different human being is utterly incompatible with this. But man dieth, and wasteth away : yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? (Job 16:22 [KJV]). But my years are numbered and their end come, and I shall go by the way by which I shall not return (Job 16:22 [Seputagint]). |
| The Man Born Blind John 9:1-35 Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Before his meeting with Christ the blind man had never seen anything. Everything was dark, he had to guess at things, to explore them by touch, to use his imagination. He had no clear authentic image of things. Then he met Christ, and Christ opened his eyes. And what was the first thing this man saw? The face of Christ, His gaze; the face of God become man, the divine gaze full of attentive, compassionate love resting on him, on him alone out of the whole crowd. Straight away he came face to face with the living God and encountered the miracle which so astonishes us: that God can focus His attention on each one of us — as on the lost sheep — and not see the crowd but see the one and only person. After that the man probably surveyed everything around him, and what he had known by description, by hearsay, became reality — " now I see " . It happens at the present time also; it can happen to each one of us. Like the man born blind we live most of our lives on alms, we sit like beggars at the roadside holding out a hand in the hope that someone will notice, if not us at least our hand, and give us something to sustain us for the next few hours at any rate. Such sustenance comes for us in the form of a friendly gaze resting upon us, a word spoken to us, a kindness done to us. But all this still leaves us by the roadside, blind and begging for help. When Christ was passing another blind man, Bartimeus, that one did not wait for the Saviour to come up to him and ask him if he wanted to be saved, if he wanted his sight. As soon as he sensed that something unusual was happening in the noisy crowd, and in answer to his question was told who was passing by, he began to shout for help. True, people tried to stop him; true, a slight doubt may have crept into his mind, was it worth shouting, calling for help, would the Lord hear, would he respond to such a trifling need as his? He went on clamouring for help because his suffering was so great, his need was so desperate. He was prepared to push past the people, fight his way through the crowd in order to reach God and be heard by Him. |
| On the Sunday of the Man Born Blind Firstly, the words of Christ about why the man was born blind. Replying to His disciples, He says that his blindness was not because the man sinned, or his parents, but so that the works of God be made manifest in him. In other words, according to our Lord Himself, illness or handicap do not always occur on account of personal sin or the sin of others, but they may be providentially allowed for the glory of God to shine forth. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. On this Sunday, that before the Feast of the Ascension of Christ, the Church recalls to our attention the Gospel of the man born blind. There are two points here that I would particularly like to remark on. Firstly, the words of Christ about why the man was born blind. Replying to His disciples, He says that his blindness was not because the man sinned, or his parents, but so that the works of God be made manifest in him. In other words, according to our Lord Himself, illness or handicap do not always occur on account of personal sin or the sin of others, but they may be providentially allowed for the glory of God to shine forth. We can see this in the lives of some disadvantaged people. They find their disadvantage to be a challenge, a challenge that may bring out the best in them. We can think for example of certain Downs Syndrome children who are unbelievably kind and loving, far more so than if they had been born ‘normal’. We can also think of some blind people who, having lost one sense, have refined another sense almost to perfection, and show an understanding of the inner self that the sighted do not have. We can all think of examples of incredible courage and love among disadvantaged people. Why? Because the grace of God is upon them: ‘the works of God are made manifest in them’. On the other hand, we can also think of people with great ‘advantages’. For instance, there are extremely beautiful women or very wealthy men who are quite unable to find wedded happiness. They are rather surrounded by those who have no interest in them as people, but only wish to take base advantage of their skin-deep looks or their bank accounts. We can also think of particularly intelligent and educated people, whose intelligence has ‘gone to their heads’, and they have become extraordinarily pretentious and silly, laughing-stocks before the face of the world. Thus their advantages become their greatest handicaps, hindrances to any sort of happiness. |
| Tweet On the Sunday of the Man Born Blind Archpriest Andrew Phillips In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Healing of the Blind Man. A fresco in Optina Monastery. Photo: Pravoslavie.ru On this Sunday, that before the Feast of the Ascension of Christ, the Church recalls to our attention the Gospel of the man born blind. There are two points here that I would particularly like to remark on. Firstly, the words of Christ about why the man was born blind. Replying to His disciples, He says that his blindness was not because the man sinned, or his parents, but so that the works of God be made manifest in him. In other words, according to our Lord Himself, illness or handicap do not always occur on account of personal sin or the sin of others, but they may be providentially allowed for the glory of God to shine forth. We can see this in the lives of some disadvantaged people. They find their disadvantage to be a challenge, a challenge that may bring out the best in them. We can think for example of certain Downs Syndrome children who are unbelievably kind and loving, far more so than if they had been born 'normal'. We can also think of some blind people who, having lost one sense, have refined another sense almost to perfection, and show an understanding of the inner self that the sighted do not have. We can all think of examples of incredible courage and love among disadvantaged people. Why? Because the grace of God is upon them: 'the works of God are made manifest in them'. On the other hand, we can also think of people with great 'advantages'. For instance, there are extremely beautiful women or very wealthy men who are quite unable to find wedded happiness. They are rather surrounded by those who have no interest in them as people, but only wish to take base advantage of their skin-deep looks or their bank accounts. We can also think of particularly intelligent and educated people, whose intelligence has 'gone to their heads', and they have become extraordinarily pretentious and silly, laughing-stocks before the face of the world. Thus their advantages become their greatest handicaps, hindrances to any sort of happiness. |
| Tweet Нравится 14th Sunday of Luke. The Blind Beggar (18:35-43) SOURCE: Holy Monastery of Axion Estin Brothers and sisters " As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening. They told him, 'Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.' " Beggars would often be found at the city gate where people are passing in and out. He is probably used to calling out to those who pass by, asking for money, begging for alms. Blindness and diseases of the eye were common illness in the ancient world. Those who lost one of their senses would often develop their other sense much more. But it takes no special insight for the blind man to realize that the number of people on the road crowding into the city is much large than usual. A pushing, shoving crowd competes to stay up with someone who attracts their attention. The blind man cries out to whoever can hear him, " What is going on? " And one of the bystanders says, " Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. " Once he is told that Jesus of Nazareth is passing by, he begins to yell at the top of his lungs: " He called out, 'Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!' Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, 'Son of David, have mercy on me!' " (18:38-39) But this is no helpless, feeble cry for help. It is loud and insistent. He keeps on shouting. He won't be shut up, even though the crowd continues to tell him to stop. Some people are intimidated and subdued by their own handicaps. It's possible to almost give up. But not our Blind man. What motivates his uncontainable cry for healing? Faith. To call someone " Son of David " as a title is equivalent to calling someone, " Messiah, " for it signifies to the Jews a person who is the promised descendent of David who will sit upon the throne of Israel. During most of his ministry, Jesus doesn't encourage others to refer to him as the Messiah, because the political implications of this title would soon prevent him from being able to minister effectively (Matthew 16:16, 20). But now his hour is come. His face is set towards Jerusalem where he will be crucified. |
| Sunday of the Man Born Blind At the end of today " s reading, words stand that we pass by very often. The blind man says to Christ, " And who is the Son of God? " and Christ answers, " You have seen Him and He is speaking to you " . Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh 24 May 2006 In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit! At the end of today’s reading, words stand that we pass by very often. The blind man says to Christ, “And who is the Son of God?” and Christ answers, “You have seen Him and He is speaking to you.” For us, the first words are so natural; the first event of our life, the first event of a meeting is that we see a person, but what was this wonder of this man who had never seen anything in the world and who, touched by the life-giving hand of Christ, of a sudden saw! And the first person he saw was his Lord and his God, Christ, the Son of Man. I remember a Romanian writer telling us in his biography what definitive, what profound impression the face of the first man he remembers made. He remembers himself as a child, and over him – the inexpressibly beautiful face of his father who was a priest, looking at him, with all human love, with all the tenderness, and all the depth of a human gaze. And he says that this was a first vision for him in the icon which a human face can be when it is lit from inside by love and by understanding, by depth and by eternity, a vision of God. Here this man saw God in the features of Him who was God and who had become the Son of Man. I would like to attract your attention also to something different. On another occasion we read the story of a paralytic healed by Christ; and the Church, singing the praises of God on that occasion says, “As this man found no one to show mercy on him, the Son of Mary, God Himself, stooped down and met his need.” Because this man had not found another man to show mercy, to show compassion, to show concern, God has come down to him. Now we live in another time, we live in the time with God truly having become man in our midst, and more than this: He has made us to be living members of His body, an incarnate, concrete presence of His Incarnation, the temples of the Spirit, the place of the Presence. Now any man who is in need should at the same time find in each of us a man stirred to compassion, taught mercy and understanding by God become Man, and at the same time, simultaneously, meeting with us, he should be able to see the love of God in our eyes and to perceive the active, imaginative, creative action of divine charity in our words and in our deeds. |
| The Prizes of Truth Bishop Pitirim of Dushanbe and Tajikistan 09 June 2013 In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit! Christ is Risen! On this final Sunday before the leave-taking of the feast of Pascha, when we greet one another with the words of the glad tidings of Christ’s Resurrection, the Church directs our gaze to one of the Savior’s miracles, singling out this event from a series of similar ones. It is worth noting that each of the six Sundays of Pascha is named after the Gospel event commemorated on that Sunday. On the first Sunday after Pascha we learned judicious caution from the “good unbelief of Thomas”; on the second Sunday we marveled at the selfless love of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women and the Righteous Joseph and Nicodemus; on the third Sunday we praised the paralytic for his long-suffering; and last Sunday we learned from the Samaritan woman to listen and obey when the Lord Himself speaks with us. On this, the final Sunday before Christ’s Ascension, a man appears before our eyes who is remarkable in every regard, for which reason the Savior casts His keen gaze upon him. This person was blind from birth, which gave reason for the Savior’s disciples to ask their Divine Teacher: Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? (John 9:2). Proponents of the theory of the transmigration of souls like to cite this question by the disciples as confirmation of their false teaching about reincarnation: supposedly this passage means that one can sin before one’s birth, that is, in a “past life.” St. John Chrysostom resolves this quandary as follows: “As therefore when we see a child evil entreated, we exclaim, ‘What can one say of this? What has the child done?’ not as asking a question, but as being perplexed, so the disciples spoke here, not so much asking for information, as being in perplexity.” The Savior answered that this man was born blind that the works of God should be made manifest in him (John 9:3). He then manifests these works: He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, and said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing (John 9:6-7). A miracle hitherto unheard of and unprecedented took place: the healing of a man born blind. What joy was granted to this fortunate man, who beheld with pure and clean vision the light and beauty of the world around him! His transfigured face reflected this joy, while the wondrous and astonished gaze of his glowing eyes shone with rays of heavenly glory. He underwent such a powerful transformation that his neighbors and those who had seen him before did not recognize him. But, having received the testimony of the healed man himself, they brought him to the Pharisees, those zealots of the Law, that he would testify before them of this great miracle. |
| The Law Came Through Moses Source: Out of Egypt Fr. James Guirguis 07 June 2021 Photo: nne.ru The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. John. (9:1-38) In today’s gospel reading from St. John we have a truly miraculous story about a man born completely blind who gains his sight because of the Lord Jesus Christ. We begin with an important question of the disciples to the Lord Jesus. They ask the Master, “who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” This is such an interesting question because it points to something quite human about us. When bad things happen in our lives or in the lives of others, we are often very quick to place blame and to feel that the bad things might indeed be punishment from God. In this way we are similar to those who believe in the idea of karma. But the living God is not like us. God is love and He desires all men to be saved and to come to knowledge of Him and communion with Him. Perhaps one of the first elementary steps in a spiritual journey should be to cast aside this juvenile tendency to see every bad thing as punishment from God. The Lord Himself says as much when he answers the disciples saying “Neither this man nor his parents sinned. But that the works of God might be made manifest in him.” Instead of seeing bad things in our lives as divine retribution, we are encouraged by the possibility offered by Our Lord that these things might in fact be a chance for the work of God to become clear and powerfully present for us. After all, how often do we acknowledge God when we have small problems that are easily solved by our own efforts? Yet how often do we acknowledge and pray when a situation seems hopeless? One points us towards ourselves and the other points us directly towards our Creator. Now into this hopeless situation with the blind man we see the Lord Jesus Christ become present and act powerfully. Throughout this story we are reminded that there is not one type of blindness but two. There is physical blindness such as that of the blind man and then there is something that is far far worse, that is spiritual blindness. There is a clear juxtaposition between the man who has gained his sight and the Pharisees who are spiritually blind to the work of the Lord Jesus, the Son of God in their midst. |
| The Healing of the Man Born Blind Aren’t the spiritually blind of all times the same? Don’t they also drive Christ from their hearts and lives under the mask of piety, often not even bothering with a mask? Offering to us the Gospel story about blindness in this the last Sunday of Pascha, the Holy Church calls all who thirst for healing from spiritual blindness to turn to the source of light and to follow the wise faith of the one who was born blind. Christ is risen! It is not for much longer that we will hear these marvelous words from the church ambo. The all-Church celebration of this great solemnity, this salvific work of God is coming to an end. Together with the angels in heaven, we sang the resurrection of Christ; together with Apostle Thomas, we called out, “My Lord and my God!” having met the Savior; together with the myrrh-bearers, we ran to the empty tomb, carrying our pain, our sadness, our sorrow and received the good news; like the paralytic, we were raised by Christ from the death of sin to pure life; and like the Samaritan woman who left her clay pot by the ancient well and ran to tell the people in the city about the coming of the Messiah, Christ urges us to leave the muddy waters of the worldly and the sinful and drink from the ever-flowing Divine source, leading us into eternal life. But these holy days are coming to an end: in three days we will mark the apodosis of Pascha and on Thursday celebrate the Ascension of the Lord—our hope in our ascension—us healed, raised, cleansed by the blood of the Savior in His united, undivided Body—the Holy Church. As we watch these last Paschal days pass, the Holy Church wants to strengthen our Paschal joy in anticipation of the feast of the Ascension and teach us that Christ, Whom we now do not see with our physical eyes, is here among us, visible to the eyes of the spirit. In the Gospel reading, the Church tells us about the wisdom of the blind man and warns us against the spiritual blindness of the Pharisees. |
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