Do we really know?

Read John9:1-41
Reflection by Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow

First let us name the ableist notion that “blindness” is an inherent deficiency. Metaphors using blindness are built on the idea that this physical state of being is somehow “less than” and, regardless of the cause, is in all cases a problem, malady, and affliction that must be solved, healed, and fixed. The culture of Jesus’ time did not think any differently, thus the many examples of physical limitation being the stand-in for sin and brokenness.

The passage today uses physical affliction as a vehicle to point out how humanity always wants to be sure and secure about the world. The crowd is certain that there must be a cause (someone’s fault) and effect (God’s judgment) at play, and when the effect is made known, they refuse to believe the cause that has been given credit.

We want to believe, but only on our terms.
We want to believe that people should be held accountable for their actions; generally speaking this is not a terrible thing for society, but in this case, we are talking about a human’s personhood and the assumptions made about the person. The disciples’ first reaction is to debate the blindness and not deal at all with the human. Intellectualizing and theologizing outside of seeing the created being right in front of them led them to ask the wrong questions. Rather than ask, “How can we heal and help?” they ask, “Whose fault is it?”

We do the same thing today when suffering, pain, and affliction are revealed right before us. Empathetic inquiry is set aside and we rush to diagnosis and treatment before we even know the nature and depth of the problem we are trying to address . . . or if it is a problem at all.

We too easily view one another through a one-dimensional lens so much so that all we can do is start down a path toward misplaced questions and actions based on mistaken assumptions:

• “They must be poor because of X, so let’s solve X by doing Y…”
• “She must be incarcerated because…”
• “The reason they are being deported must be because…”
• “He must be experiencing mental health issues because…”
• “He must be sick because…”

We turn genuine struggles of the human condition into solvable formulas. These cause and effect formulas then get warped. We begin to believe that if something bad is happening to us, it is because God has determined that we deserve it. And it does not stop there. We fail to God credit for the healing and new life. Why? Because it would lessen the perceived power and authority of the religious leaders involved. We ignore the real nature of the struggle. And empathy is replaced with arrogance: “We know what we know and nothing you do or say will change our minds.”

Again, it is not a difficult leap for today’s application:

• “We know people are poor because…”
• “We know people are incarcerated because…”
• “We know people are sick because…”
• “We know…We know…We know…”

The truth is, we don’t know, but the hope is that we could know more if only we would take the time to ask better questions.