One of the great frustrations I have
in life is being doubted. I once
borrowed the family station wagon when I was in high school so that a group of
us friends could go to a movie. As was
the usual procedure, my father gave me the strict lecture about responsibility
and not doing anything stupid . . . like going out and hot rodding, or drinking
and driving. The usual lecture that made
me feel like Charlie Brown listening to his teacher . . . yada, yada, yada. In one ear and out the other.
So the adventure began. I picked up my friends—who all happened to be
members of our church’s youth group—and proceeded to the movie theater. After the movie we headed out for some pizza
before heading home. So far there was no
hot rodding . . . no drinking and driving . . . and, then a flat tire. The tire just suddenly went . . . whop, whop,
whop. Three of us hopped out, changed
the tire, and threw the flat into the back.
I dropped every off and headed home.
The house was dark when I got home, so
I went straight to bed. A couple of
hours later my father barged into my bedroom demanding to know what in the
world I was doing the evening before . . . was I out there hot rodding around
in the family station wagon (Now, you tell me, how much hot rodding can one do
in a station wagon?) . . . had I been partying, drinking, and then
driving? In my drowsy state I said,
“No. Just got a flat tire.” He did not believe me. He was sure that I had done something. I told him to call my friends . . . he just
laughed and said something about a collaborative story. Nothing I said . . . nothing I produced . . .
could change his mind. He was certain
that I had been up to no good. Even
twenty-five years after the fact he still believed I had done something he told
me not to do.
Damn if you do, damn if you don’t.
I cannot think of anyone who enjoys
being doubted . . . enjoys being questioned when telling the truth . . . likes
being called a liar . . . being told that they are wrong when they are clearly
in the right. No one!
Which brings us to our scripture
reading this morning . . . Jesus healing a man who had been blind since
birth. As Jesus and his disciples are
walking along they encounter a man who is obviously blind. The disciples pose a question: “Rabbi,
who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” That is a fairly legitimate question
considering the mindset of the times . . . the mindset that calamity,
disability, and even hardships were caused by sin . . . sin either by the
person or the relatives of the person.
The disciples had inquiring minds and they wanted to know, is this man’s
blindness due to his own sin or the sins of his parents?
Jesus answers them bluntly . . .
neither. Then he proceeds to spit on the
ground, make some mud, smear it on the man’s eyes, and tell him to go and wash
the mud away. The man does as he is told
and suddenly he can see. Filled with
great joy at being able to see, he heads home.
His neighbors don’t believe it . . . it must be someone else, but the
guy insists that it is him and he can see.
He tells them the whole story . . . every detail . . . and, he tells
them that it was Jesus who did it. He
tells them that it was an act of God . . . a miracle. They don’t buy it.
Because they don’t believe the man,
they haul him before the local Pharisees to get down to the facts. Again, he tells the story . . . word for word
what he has told his neighbors. The
Pharisees don’t believe him . . . tell him that it could not be because no person—especially
a holy person—would do such an act as this on the Sabbath. They don’t buy it. They demand that the man’s parents come and
prove that this is their son . . . the son who had been blind since birth.
The parents come. They vouch that this is their son. They do not quite understand what is going
on, but they tell the Pharisees and all those gathered that this is their
son. Then they state that he is of age
and can speak for himself—ask him if you don’t believe us. And so, the man was brought back before the
Pharisees again, questioned again, and stood by his story. He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I
don’t know. One thing I do know, I was
blind but now I see!”
From there is turned into a mess. The Pharisees started calling the man all
sorts of names. They started putting
down Jesus. They lectured the man about
his affront to their senses . . . told him, how dare he lecture them since he
was a sinner. Then they threw him out.
Tell me . . . is this not a good example
of: “damn if you do, damn if you don’t”?
Frustrating, isn’t it? Frustrating when you know . . . when you know
deep down in the deepest reach of your soul that you are right and telling the
truth . . . and, no one believes you. We
encounter this in our daily lives, and we encounter this in our spiritual lives
. . . people who doubt the truth that guides our lives . . . and, it is
frustrating. Nothing we present, nothing
that we say, will sway the doubters to believe us or believe that we are saying.
Yet, we are called to carry on.
Imagine how that man must have felt
after sharing the greatest thing in the world happening to him . . . gaining
his sight after a lifetime of blindness . . . and no one wanting to believe
him. Imagine how that man must have felt
when his own parents, not wanting to rock the boat, basically abandon him to
fend for himself. Imagine how that man
must have felt after being grilled by the neighbors and the local religious
police, being ridiculed and insulted, and then throw out into the streets. I do not know about you, but if it had been
me, I would have been pretty low.
And, he was . . . but, the story
didn’t end there. Jesus caught wind of
what had happened to the man, and came to visit the man. The two of them talked . . . Jesus confirms
him, and the man affirms his belief. The
man is on the right track whether anyone else believes him or not . . . Jesus
believes in him. Overhearing the
conversation, a couple of Pharisees do not care for what Jesus is inferring
about those who think that theirs is the only way. They ask Jesus whether or not he is referring
to them as being “blind”. Basically he
tells them that if the shoe fits . . . wear it.
We are called to carry on.
The season of Lent is a time of
exploration of our spiritual lives. It
is a time of delving into understanding who it is that God created us to
be. It is a time of intimacy in the
presence of God and discerning what claim . . . what promise . . . what call
God has placed upon our lives. It is a
time of standing before the truth, accepting it, and living it. And, as we all eventually discover . . . it
is a time of frustration as we embrace this gift and share it with others. We hear questions. We hear doubts. We hear ridicule. We hear laughter. We hear denial. No one believes us when we share that we are
going to live our lives as God has called us to live them.
The result? The honest result? Is that we begin to doubt . . . doubt
ourselves . . . doubt our call . . . doubt our God. With such doubt it is difficult to carry
on. Then suddenly we find ourselves in
that nexus between “damn if you do, damn if you don’t”. That, too, is a part of the adventure of Lent
. . .
Well, I can assure you that I never lied
to my father whether he believed me or not.
I cannot change the truth and if he went to his grave believing that I
had done something I shouldn’t have done that night to cause a flat tire . . .
well, that is his issue to grapple with.
In the meantime, I carried on the best that I could through life.
Same goes for the man who received his
sight after a lifetime of blindness. He
experienced the truth . . . he shared the truth . . . and, if no one believed
him; well, that is their problem. The
question Jesus raises is who is really the blind in the story. That is an issue that they must grapple
with. All the man could do is to carry
on with what was God’s call upon his life.
That is all that any of us can do . .
. we carry on. Sure, it is no fun being
doubted . . . no fun being stuck between the rock and the hard place of “damn
if you do, damn if you don’t” . . . but, that is what Jesus wants us to
do. Here in the season of Lent we have
this opportunity to step before those who doubt us . . . to step before
ourselves with our own doubts . . . and to affirm God’s call upon our lives . .
. to carry on.
Jesus asked the man, “Do you believe?”
The man responded that, yes, he
believed.
Then carry on. Amen.
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