In composing the first draft of this week’s From the Pastor’s Desk, I used the phrase, “the penny finally dropped.” No one in the office had any idea what I was trying to say. It turns out that this is a uniquely British expression, which refers to a moment of realization. Often, we Brits speak of “waiting for the penny to drop,” as in patiently waiting for someone to figure something out. (It’s a 1930’s expression that comes from the experience of using a coin-operated machine in which a penny coin would sometimes become stuck, requiring a patient period of waiting until the penny finally dropped into the mechanism.)
For the blind man, the penny finally drops. He moves through this text from blindness to sight; from hearing to seeing; from confusion to clarity; from unbelief to faith. His progress is marked by the words he uses to describe Jesus:
The man called Jesus (verse 11)
A prophet (verse 17)
From God (verse 33)
Lord (verse 38a)
Until finally, the man “worshipped” Jesus (verse 38b)
Along the way, as we wait for the penny to drop, we learn a great deal about God and about ourselves:
As Paul observes in his letter to the Romans (10:17) “So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.” So, the man first hears Jesus, and there his faith journey begins. Luther would later point out that the Word of God consists not only of scripture, but also the person of Jesus, and the proclamation of the Gospel. Sharing the good news of Jesus is to share the Word of God about the word of God which we encounter in the Word of God.
Jesus dispels the notion that the bad things that happen to good people are the result of the sins of their ancestors. Nor are these misfortunes necessarily the fault of the individual themselves. Instead, Jesus offers the hope-filled assurance thant there is nothing that God cannot transform with love through grace (to which Romans 8:28 alludes). This is a reminder that there is nothing evil in God’s creation, God’s plan, nor God’s intent. However we might choose to interpret The Fall, it describes evil entering into Creation and causing suffering. This manifests itself in this week’s text through the man’s blindness becoming something through which “God’s works might be revealed” (verse 3). Through this, we are encouraged to explore and imagine how it is and what it is that God can (and will!) make of our suffering, confusion, loss, and challenge.
We are also reminded in this, and in all other Johannine miraculous events, that we are presented with “signs” and not party tricks. A miracle is exciting; a sign is revealing, in that it points to something greater than itself – here, it points to Jesus as the Christ.
The interrogation of the man and his parents, reveal the lengths to which the powers arranged against Jesus are willing to go in pursuit of his destruction. Often, we are lulled into an interpretation of their misunderstanding, or of simply being confused. Instead, they are in what TV shows used to refer to as “hot pursuit.” They are relentless; and even innocent bystanders are caught up in their dragnet. (That was a deliberate pun, by the way.)
A final return to the concept of “hearing” is in order before our examination of the text ends. Here, I am indebted to the scholar Karoline M. Lewis for pointing out the following. The man does not simply listen his way into faith. Rather, by hearing and recognizing the Shepherd’s Voice, the man comes into the protection of the fold (10:16), the blessing of the pasture (10:9), and the gift of abundant life (10:10). The voice of the Good Shepherd runs through this week’s text, as subtext. The Shepherd’s love and care reflected in Psalm 23, pursues the blind man. And “pursuit” is a much better translation than “follows” and is reflected in the modern Jewish translation of the psalm: “Only goodness and steadfast love shall pursue me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for many long years” (Psalm 23:6 TANAKH translation).
