March 19, Lent 4A (John 9:1-41)

In his 1973 classic Whatever Became of Sin?, psychiatrist Karl Menninger confronted contemporary circumlocutions for evil, urging readers to redefine sin. In John 9 when Jesus’ disciples ask him about sin, Jesus redirects the conversation to God’s works, illuminated by the light of the world—but he does not avoid the word sin. Jesus concludes this week’s narrative by confronting sin: the sin of rejecting one sent by God.

In a five-act drama—the sign (vv. 1–7), neighbors’ questions (8–12), Pharisees’ questions (13–17), questioning of the parents (18–23), redirected Pharisees’ questions of the healed man (24–34), and Jesus’ questions (35–41)—the light of the world illumines those who are open but is opaque to those who claim powerful position. In The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, Gail O’Day challenges preachers to mimic John’s narrative technique by inviting the audience to “overhear the gospel” (with credit to Fred Craddock) without prosaic, plastic pronouncements about the moral of the story.

Some scholars maintain that John 9 addresses Jewish believers who have been banished from the synagogue. The congregation of which I am a member faces banishment from our denomination. As the congregation experiences a call to be more inclusive, we have adopted the line, “Jesus welcomes all; so do we.” Our pastor abbreviates the threefold Anabaptist confession—Jesus at the center of our faith, community at the center of our life, and reconciliation at the center of our work—to three verbs: belonging, inquiring, transforming. The three terms are potential troublemakers—in John’s community and in ours.