Daily Devotional • April 7
A Reading from John 9:1-17
1 As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ 3 Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. 4 We*must work the works of him who sent me* while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’ 6 When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, 7 saying to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. 8 The neighbours and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, ‘Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?’ 9 Some were saying, ‘It is he.’ Others were saying, ‘No, but it is someone like him.’ He kept saying, ‘I am the man.’ 10 But they kept asking him, ‘Then how were your eyes opened?’ 11 He answered, ‘The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, “Go to Siloam and wash.” Then I went and washed and received my sight.’ 12 They said to him, ‘Where is he?’ He said, ‘I do not know.’
13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind.14 Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, ‘He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.’ 16 Some of the Pharisees said, ‘This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath.’ But others said, ‘How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?’ And they were divided. 17 So they said again to the blind man, ‘What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.’ He said, ‘He is a prophet.’
Meditation
Today’s Gospel reading from St. John describes Jesus’ healing of a man who has been blind from birth. Jesus spots the man as he and his disciples are walking along and his disciples ask whose sin resulted in the blindness, the man’s or that of his parents? Jesus’ reply was neither. The man was born blind so that God’s works may be revealed. Jesus then spits on the ground, spreads the resulting mud on the man’s eyes, and then tells the man to go wash in the pool of Siloam, which means Sent. The man did as he was instructed and returned able to see.
The healing is a two-step process, requiring a great deal of faith by the blind man. Without asking, some guy rubs a mud made from his own spit on the blind man’s eyes and then sends him on a walk with this gunk on his face to a certain pool to wash. And the blind man does it. Maybe you think this a small task when you consider that the possible payoff is a cure for blindness.
You could say the same of us. We get gunk put on our forehead on Ash Wednesday and then we are sent out into the world to walk around with this stuff on our face. Each Sunday, we receive something from Jesus—usually something weird like a mark on the head or a tasteless wafer that’s supposed to be his body—and then we are sent out in the world marked by this weirdness. Why are we sent? We are sent out into the world marked by this weirdness so that the Lord may be glorified. Great though our sins may be, we are marked not for execution, but for deliverance and that gunk—that weirdness—is a mark of glory. Though the ashes have since washed away from Ash Wednesday, we are continuing to go forth and show God’s glory in our lives. Let us then go forth and open our eyes to what God has in store for us today.
Sarah Cornwell is a laywoman, ballet teacher, and an associate of the Eastern Province of the Community of St. Mary. She and her husband have five children and they live in the Hudson Valley north of New York City.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, West Palm Beach, Florida
The Diocese of Masindi-Kitara – The Church of the Province of Uganda
