Daily Lesson for April 8, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 9 verses 1 through 5:

As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ 3Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. 4We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. 5As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’

Somewhere still in the depths of our psyches we have subconsciously equated illness and disability with sin. This is probably an evolutionary development — a protective measure created to distance ourselves from anything which might be harmful. Long and considered analysis of gathered facts is not a part of the animal portion of the brain. All it knows is fight or flight and it acts on these impulses with immediacy. 

One of the great gifts of Jesus was the fact that he taught us not to moralize physical condition. He somehow rose out of the animal part of the brain, acting not only in the interest of self-preservation, but with behaviors like compassion and kindness and self-giving. He touched the lame, the lepers, and even the dead.

And in today’s Lesson, Jesus’ answer to those who wondered who must have sinned that a man was born blind was fundamentally revolutionary.  “The man was not born blind because some sinned, but rather that the glory of God might be revealed through him.”  And so, the light of the world was revealed through the blind man’s encounter with Jesus. 

We still often moralize disability with subtle forms of metaphor. Words like “Blind” and “Handicapped”, “Sick” and many others still remain moral metaphors for things other than actual illness or disability. This is deeply ingrained in us all; and I am working constantly to use more appropriate language which is less derogatory of persons who with disability and illness. It is not easy and is probably a lifetime work. I’m staying at it — like a lot of things. 

And somehow the less judgmental or afraid we are, the more it is true — we do see the revelatory work of God in all manner of places and people our eyes were closed to before. 

And the word for this is transformation.