fear in Iraq and concern in other nations.
Ultimately, the fear is not of God, but of how one understands God. The fear is not
that God will rule over a nation, rather how religious authorities will interpret God’s rule.
The fear has to do with the interpretation and implementation of religious law.
In all likelihood, the founding fathers of America understood the complexity of
human agency in divine enforcement. They wished to avoid the civil codification of
religious conduct.
Today’s gospel lesson demonstrates the difficulty in applying religious teachings to
public conduct.
Jesus healed a man who was blind. What a fantastic miracle, or so we would think!
Yet the religious authorities were in an uproar. The purported healing took place on the
Sabbath. No work was to be done on the Sabbath, according to the interpretation of
Scripture by the religious authorities.
The religious authorities were determined to get to the bottom of the offense they
perceived to have taken place. If Jesus healed on the Sabbath, they believed his power was
not from God, but was from Satan. There also was the possibility that the man who now had
his sight might not have been blind, after all. Therefore, there would have been no healing,
no transgression on the Sabbath.
The [religious leaders] did not believe that he had been blind
and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man
who had received his sight and asked them, “Is this your son, who
you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” (John 9:18-19)
The man’s parents answered,
“Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” His parents
said this because they were afraid.
.....They were afraid of the [religious leaders]; for the [religious
leaders] had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to
be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. (John 9:21a-22)
The parents of the blind man were afraid. They were not afraid of God. They were
afraid of the ones who ruled in God’s name. They were afraid that their faith in Jesus would
be insufficient to counter the power of the religious leaders. They were afraid they would
be put out of the synagogue if they affirmed the power of Jesus that had transformed the life
of their son. They were afraid they would be outcasts in their religion that was at the very
fabric of their being.
Little has changed since the days of Jesus. We live in fearful times. We fear there
is not enough religion present in our daily lives, or we fear there is too much.
Christ came into the world that we may live in faith, not in fear. Christ calls us to
believe in Christ and search for Christ’s truth.
This pursuit of truth includes a process of discernment. We receive God’s Word
through Scripture and seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit to interpret it. The purpose of
religious institutions is to enhance this process, to assist with our vision.
Jesus reminds us that it is when we become certain about our understanding of God’s
will and God’s way that we deceive ourselves. When we think we see most clearly, we may
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