Gospel: John 9:1-41

Why don’t people believe in miracles? Cynicism is rampant in Western culture. People treat the unusual or unbelievable with suspicion at best, and credulity at worst. The old saying still has currency today, if it’s too good to be true, probably is.

Why don’t people believe in miracles? Cynicism is one answer, but fear is another. Many believers are afraid that a miracle will change their life. Of course they want that wow experience of supernatural help. Of course they want to see God clearly in action. But are these people willing to undergo the change God expects from the miracle? Are they willing to come closer to God? Are they willing to trust Him more? Are they willing to let go of their control issues? I’m afraid in many cases, the answer is no.

In the Gospel of John, a blind beggar sought a cure by placing himself by the pool of Siloam, a local gathering point for water. Neighbors believed that the movement of the water in the pool had curative powers, so the beggar waited for the right moment. What he didn’t expect was a visit from Jesus, who took mud and smeared it in the man’s eyes and told him to go wash in the pool. The man did, and so received his sight.

The cure created a controversy, for his neighbors couldn’t quite believe. The man could not see, and that fact didn’t fit into the daily narrative of the neighborhood. Was the cure real? Was the man a liar? Was this the same man that the neighbors knew for years? Behind the local hubbub was the scandal of source.

People could not or would not accept the fact that Jesus had cured the man. To settle the fight, the neighbors referred the case to the Pharisees at the local synagogue. They picked up where the neighbors left off, but they didn’t ignore the subject of the source. They simply rejected it. This Jesus was a sinner because he cured on the Sabbath. This broke God’s law about work on the holy day. Since God couldn’t possibly break his own command, Jesus must have cured in the name of the evil one. If the source was evil, the one who was cured must be evil as well. So the man with new sight had to defend himself.

He and his cure challenged the preconceived notion of the leaders. What’s your opinion about this man who healed you? They demanded. He’s a prophet, the man replied. That line of reasoning lost the man the argument and his place in society. The leaders along with the neighborhood couldn’t accept the cure and its source. So the man was ejected from the synagogue.

Now he was alone. He had his sight, but his family, friends, and place in society were gone. The only one left was Jesus. So the man placed his faith and his fate in the hands of the one who healed. Only he, not his neighbors or his leaders, were willing to undergo the change his miracle demanded. Only the cured man was willing to take a step further in faith.

Why are people unwilling to accept the invitation that the miracle places before them? One answers laziness, another’s pride. Some are too set in their ways to want their daily routine upset by God’s activities. Some are unwilling to be humbled by the activity of a higher source.

In either case, people don’t want to see the situation through God’s eyes. In the first book of Samuel, God challenged the great prophet to see the situation the way he saw it. Samuel visited the family of Jesse so he could anoint a new king. One by one, Jesse presented his sons, and one by one, God told Samuel to seek another. God didn’t want the most handsome or the strongest or the bravest son. He wanted the youngest and so least important son to be his anointed one.

The son was David, who was destined to become the greatest king Israel ever had. As God challenged Samuel, so he challenges us to set aside our laziness and pride to see people and their situation through his eyes to trust him more and more.

As St. Paul stated in his letter to the Ephesians, God is challenging us to walk in the light, not in the darkness. Many people want to see miracles, but they’re either too cynical or too afraid, too lazy or too proud to do anything about miracles. Very few people see miracles because very few people are willing to step out and trust the source of those miracles. Do we fall into the temptation of blissful ignorance based upon laziness or pride? Would we rather walk in the dark than in the light? Would we rather trust ourselves than place our fate in God’s hands, despite the consequences? The challenge a cured man faced is the same one we face today.