Siloam (Day 34 of Lent)

"Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man blind from birth.  His disciples asked, "Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?"  Jesus said, "You're asking the wrong question.  You're looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here.  Look instead for what God can do."  John 9:1-4

Since the Torah portrayed cases in which people who had sinned were struck with blindness, it's understandable why the disciples assumed that sin had caused this man's blindness.  What Jesus does is completely against Mosaic law.  Not only does he use spit to heal the man, but he breaks the Sabbath.  Jesus is really pissing off the Pharisees and anyone else who strictly follows Jewish law.

The consequences for coming into contact with saliva are extreme, like being forced to live outside of the village.  When this man is interrogated by the people and the Pharisees, he leaves out the part about the spit.  He jumps to the part where Jesus rubs paste in his eyes.  This man obviously doesn't want to be exiled, because he's already lived literal darkness since the day of birth.  

There are many implications in this passage, and I won't have time to go through them all right now.  As Jesus makes the paste out of his spit and clay, he tells the disciples that he is the world's Light.  Then, he proceeds to rub the paste on the man's eyes, and tells him to go wash in the pool of Siloam.  The man follows Jesus's orders, and his sight is restored.  What was previously deemed a symptom of sin was now claimed a work of restoration - an opportunity for God to work.

What Jesus is essentially saying in this passage is that we are no longer held hostage by the law of Moses.  One person's sin is no longer a reason for another person's rebuke.  Instead, Jesus tells us to look instead for what God can do.  

While Christians are not bound to Jewish law, there is still this underlying taboo against the "big" sins like adultery, homosexuality, and premarital sex.  I don't deny that these are forbidden in the Old Testament.  It only takes a few minutes to run down the litany of ways to "get clean" from these sins.  For the Christian to remain in Old Testament consequences for these acts is to deny what Jesus does with this blind man.  Jesus in fact doesn't tell the blind man to go outside the camp for seven days after he uses spit to restore his sight.  He simply tells him to go and wash his eyes out.  For the Pharisees, going to wash is an atonement for much "smaller" sins, and using spit is considered a very unclean insult, requiring much more atonement than a simple wash.  

As a Christian, I was indoctrinated more into the world of Jewish law than the new covenant of Christ from my early years.  As I've grown older, I've become more like the unorthodox prostitute Rahab than the "by the book" Pharisees.  What the Pharisees don't understand is grace.  And, when it comes to our sin, Jesus is more concerned with what he can do to bring restoration than what we can do to bring condemnation.  What does this mean for us?

I am a sinner.  I am a fool to be exact.  I'm an obnoxious drunk on a bad day, and a drink away from being belligerent on a good day.  I'm guilty of adultery, I judge people I don't agree with on a daily basis, and I smoke like a chimney.  In no way am I living by the book.  I break the ten commandments on a daily basis.  I don't say all this to boast about how bad I am, but to boast about the implications of what the work of Jesus means.  We are invited into a way of life that doesn't ask questions like, "What should we do about this person's sin?"  We are invited to wonder, "Hmmm. I wonder how God's going to restore this?"  

If we are still going around picking on other people's defaults like we're better than them, and wondering how we need to help that person quit sinning, we're missing something.  First, we're missing the fact that we are just as messed up as them.  When we look at the world as a product and manufacturer of sin, we are avoiding our own factories of sin.  

Sin is one more opportunity for God to make something beautiful, and the beauty does not come from our words or works.  It's not up to me to have a "come to Jesus" talk with someone about how they went and got drunk last night or slept around.  It's up to me to live out the question, "How are you going to work, God?"  

Jesus uses the obscene to restore.  He takes things that are completely unorthodox and counter-religious, and uses them to his benefit, to bring restoration to the world.  He takes things like alcoholism and uses it to restore the alcoholic, and bring light to the darkness of another alcoholic.  He's taken my complete inconsideration for the institution of marriage, and given me the ability to see beauty in a chaotic relationship.  

When we look at the religious taboos as unredeemable and against God, we are the ones who are actually working against God.  Instead of wondering how God is bringing restoration to something broken, we often times help break the situation or person even more.  I believe in a God today who doesn't hold us to the standards of Jewish law, but holds us to standards of restoration and wholeness.  How much freedom do we want?  

I believe that Jesus sees each of us as perfect images of God.  He accepts us just as we are, and doesn't line us up according to how sinful we are.  We are all just as sinful as the next person, and loved just as we are.  There is nothing we have ever done or will do that will change how God loves us.  We are the ones who have a problem loving ourselves and showing grace to ourselves.  We have the opportunity to experience a journey to wholeness when we open our eyes to the grace of God.  Our focus shifts from how "bad" we are to how good God is.  When we awaken to this mystery, we fall in love with a God who loves all of us sinners.  

We get to go out into the world each day, not looking for the next sin to judge but looking for opportunities to take part in the restoration of the world - our own little worlds.  When we gloss over other peoples' wrongdoings and leave those things for God to take care of, we help restore sight to the blind.  When we laugh away our own sins and leave them for God to take care of, we help restore sight to our own blindness.  

Today's Action:  When we see or come face-to-face today with a person who is doing something that we consider wrong, may we stop and say, "God, thank you for restoring this person and me."  Then, do one thing that will make that person's day a little better.