“I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.”

There was once a king called Percy. He had a pink crown, a pink tunic, a pink cloak and big pink boots. He liked pink excessively, and one day he announced that all his subjects must dress in pink, just like Percy. But that wasn’t enough. EVERYTHING in his kingdom had to be pink! So, Percy the king enacted the law that people’s clothes, dishes, and furniture should all be turned pink. The people rebelled, but they were forced to comply because it was the king’s command. But it was not enough, and it was because there were still things in the world that were not pink.

He then ordered the trees, grass, flowers and animals to be painted pink. The army was mobilised to go to mountains and fields, and all animals and plants were painted pink. Animals were even coloured pink straight after birth. In this way, everything turned pink, but there was one thing that didn’t turn pink. It was the sky. This was unavoidable, even with the power of the king.

This concerned the king, so he visited his adviser to seek a solution. The adviser struggled for a few days until he finally found a brilliant idea. The adviser suggested Percy should wear a pair of glasses to see the sky. Then king, half-suspicious and half-curious, grabbed the glasses and perched them on his nose. He looked at the sky with his glasses on, and the sky turned pink like magic, and the king was joyful to look at the sky that turned pink.

Was the master really doing magic? No, he wasn’t. The master had just made glasses for the king with pink-coloured lenses. The king was, in effect, a blind man who could only see the colour that he liked.

We heard the story of Jesus healing a man who had been blind from birth. Then the end of chapter 9, Jesus says, “so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.” That’s understandable to say “so that those who cannot see can see”, but what does it mean to make those who do see unable to see? Remember when Doug put on the blindfold a few weeks ago and tried to walk alone among you? Even if we walk with our eyes covered with scarves or even if cataracts get worse [so that we are blind], we will never know what it is like to be born blind.

The story begins with a question that the disciples ask Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Then, Jesus says, “You’re asking the wrong question, there is no such cause and effect here. Look! Instead, it is about what God can do… And then Jesus spat in the dirt, made a clay paste with the saliva, rubbed the paste on the blind man’s eyes, and said, “Go, wash at the Pool of Siloam”. The man went and washed and saw.

Oddly, attention now shifts to the community’s reactions. The townspeople don’t recognise the same man who now has his sight. Undoubtedly, the man lived among them all his life. His neighbours would have interacted with him, perhaps helped him cross the road or draw water. They have worshipped with him. Why do they not recognise him after he is healed? Was it because the only mark of his identity was being blind? Or was the only thing people could see in him until now that he had a different body from them? Perhaps what Jesus meant about the seeing becoming blind was about being able to see the person, while learning to be blind to things like blindness?

What is the reaction of the religious leaders, the Pharisees? It is not surprising. Their eyes are stubborn, and they do not deviate from their categories. Rather than celebrating the joy of a person who has been freed from ages of hardship, they try to label him as a “sinner” again with their interpretation of the laws they have at their disposal. They are wary of strangers, envious of people’s possibilities and changes, and quarrel over their status.

“I have told you already, why do you want to hear it again?”

However, the counterattack of a man whose eyes have been opened is surprising. Until then, he was a person who was unable to speak under the pressure of power and position, but with new courage, he challenges the forces of stereotypes. He tells the truth even in the face of threats and the abandonment of his community and family: “I was blind, but now I see.” Again and again and again, the man witnesses to the saving grace he has experienced in Jesus Christ.

Before and After

This song is for the one who has received sight: “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see.” Well, his situation is obviously different now; before and after, then and now, years ago and today, things were always the same, now they are suddenly different. There was a man born blind, Jesus touched him with mud and light. The moment he met Jesus, the moment he heard Jesus’ word, and immediately went to Siloam to wash his eyes, he was transformed, with a new body, new self, new life and new sight. The healed man confesses Jesus as “the man” (v. 11), as a prophet (v. 17), as the one from God (v. 33), and finally, as the one who reveals God, the Son of Man, the one sent by God, the light of the world, the Lord. This is the confession of our faith journey: once I saw the world like this. This is how I look at it now. I once believed that. Now I believe in this. Once, I lived in a place where I was blind to things I see now. Now my eyes are open and here’s what I see and know! Our newly opened eyes are now directed toward the people who are hurt, discriminated against, and outcasts in our world. We have come from Siloam, workers dispatched, bringing the healing of freedom, the restoration of truth.