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Compassionate Perception
Sermon by Rev. Sarah Buteux
for Sunday, 2003
Scripture: John 9:1-41
I would like to begin this morning’s sermon with a little verbal association
game. I am going to call out a character or group of people from the gospel
story and I’d like you to respond with your immediate associations. You can
just yell them out. So, for example: if I were to say disciple, you might
respond loyal, or student, or Peter, James, and John in a sailboat. Whatever
comes to your head. Okay? I hope this works. The man born blind. . . His
parents . . . Jesus. . . The Pharisees. . .
Great. Thank you very much. Gold stars all around. I appreciate your
answers, and they make perfect sense in light of the story. And you have to
admit, it’s a great story. We’ve got good guys, bad guys, miraculous
healings, tense back room interrogations, and, in the end, everybody pretty
much gets what they deserve. The disciples get an immediate and miraculous
answer to their question. The blind man’s eyes are opened to the physical
world, and his faith in his healer leads him to a clearer view of the
spiritual world. The parents have a son who can see. Jesus appears to be
vindicated in the eyes of the people. And the Pharisees, as usual, are left
questioning, frustrated, confused, probably a little bit embarrassed and some
even angry.
What is it with Pharisees anyway? When I read the gospels , I am
always a little bit surprised by their behavior. Now you called them… and in
this context that is exactly how they appear, but do you ever wonder what
makes the Pharisees so dense? In this story they investigate a healing, and
it is obvious to everyone that a) a miracle has taken place and b) Jesus
performed it. But rather than focus on these two facts, the Pharisees
immediately begin a debate about Jesus and the merits of his actions. And
they simply cannot agree about anything when it comes to Jesus. They get so
wrapped up in the fact that he mixed a little bit of mud on the Sabbath that
they miss the wonder of the sign. I just want to shake them and say, “forget
the mud making people, a man blind from birth can see sky, and trees, and his
mother’s face for the first time in his life. Isn’t that what you should be
focused on? Shouldn’t you be rejoicing with him rather than interrogating
him?” But their focus was different than mine would have been.
Now, in all fairness, I think I ought to point out that the gospel writer
goes to great length to show up these men and prove that they are the ones
who are blind. And I’ve always pretty much agreed. When I hear the word
Pharisee I personally think hypocrite, insecure religious leader, men so happy
with their present state of power that even though they may pay lip service to
the idea of a messiah, they are not really hoping for one because they are
perfectly comfortable with things just the way they are. I think close
minded, legalistic, and insular. Or maybe I should say, that is what I
thought, because while working with this story over the past week I did some
research, and found out that my picture of who the Pharisees were is not
exactly accurate.
The people I just described— a powerful, conservative, ruling class— were
actually the Sadducees, and Jesus has a fair amount of trouble with them too.
But the Pharisees . . are you ready for this? Historians tell us that the
Pharisees were actually the upstart, academic, liberal types in their
society. They were not wealthy or powerful, but the servants of the wealthy
and powerful – artisans, shopkeepers, landowners. They weren’t even priests.
They were lay people. And when it came to religion, they were actually
considered to be on the cutting edge. They were the open-minded, free-
thinking ones.
But the real religious difference between the Pharisees and the other groups
in their society was their view about the Torah, or the first five books of
the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. They
believed these scriptures were authoritative and absolutely true. But they
were very aware that just because the scripture is true, it doesn’t mean that
one’s interpretation of that scripture is true. The Torah offered good
instructions for living, but they believed that this instruction was part of
an ongoing interpretive process. One thing that the Gospel writer does
capture accurately is their fondness for debates. In the mind of a Pharisee,
almost everything was open to question. They believed that “their duty was to
[study] the Torah and use it to develop a life pleasing to God” (Barr, p
231).
So when it came to something like the commandment to keep the Sabbath holy,
they would all respect the commandment as absolute truth, but they would
debate heatedly about how best to obey it. Gradually they built up lists of
rules to help their communities both understand and keep the commandments.
And not surprisingly, as with any group, some of the Pharisees became
legalistic. However, according to scholars, and in my case I’m working with
David Barr’s introduction to the New Testament, “the majority of the Pharisees
seem to have been open to debate, aware of different interpretations, and
humane in their conclusions” (Barr 232) .
I have to admit that I never thought of the Pharisees that way at
all. And you wouldn’t necessarily come away with that impression if you only
read the stories in the gospels, but actually, the evidence is there. For
example, in this story, all of the Pharisees have questions about the healing
and about Jesus. The Bible says: “Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is
not from God because he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others [among them]
asked, “How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?” And they were divided.”
Divided, meaning that some of them were willing to accept that Jesus might be,
in some way, blessed by God. So, in order to solve the mystery, they ask the
healed man for his story a second time. But after hearing him out, they still
could not believe that this healing was possible, so they called in the man’s
parents to verify that the whole thing wasn’t a hoax. The parents,
understandably skittish during the questioning, reluctantly confirmed that a
miracle had indeed taken place. And yet, in spite of their open minds and
willingness to debate the possibilities, the bulk of the Pharisees just could
not accept the evidence before them. They then pressured the poor man to
condemn Jesus as a sinner, at which point the man who had been blind became
seriously frustrated with them. This simple beggar with no religious training
saw clearly what the Pharisees – men who considered themselves experts in
anything religious- could not, or did not want to see. Namely, that Jesus was
the real thing.
Let’s return to the scripture for a moment. The healed man is somewhat
circumspect. He says: ”Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. All I
know is that I was blind and now I see.” Then they asked him, “What did he do
to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered, “I have told you already and
you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become
his disciples too?”
Then they hurled insults at him and said, “you are this fellow’s disciple! We
are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this
fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”
The man answered, “Now, that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes
from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He
listens to the godly man who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening
the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do
nothing.” To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare
you lecture us.” And they threw him out (John9:25-34).
If you were just to read this exchange, you would think that the Pharisees are
the most closed-minded, nasty, stubborn people in the world. On a first
reading, it seems the Gospel writer is angry and frustrated with these men.
They are painted in such an unflattering light that it is no wonder we think
closed-minded, hypocritical, and legalistic when we think of a Pharisee now.
But, if we can adjust our view for the moment and consider this story in more
of an historical context, it takes on a new shade of meaning. If the
historians are right, the Gospel writer would have known that these men
prided themselves on being the exact opposite of how we view them now. If
this is true, then the gospel writer paints such a negative picture of the
Pharisees precisely because they were the ones who should have been the most
open to what Jesus had to offer.
The Sadducees would have understandably found Jesus incredibly threatening,
but the Pharisees should have found him enlightening, exciting, a thrilling
confirmation of their whole world view. Here was “the Word made flesh” “the
Torah made flesh” a living breathing embodiment of on going interpretation who
they could learn from, and yet they were blind to him.
They rejected him. They see the truth— the evidence is undeniably clear— and
yet they refuse to look beyond Jesus’ method of healing to see that it is more
than a random miracle performed at an inconvenient time. They refuse to see
it as a sign from God that this man, Jesus, is the incarnation of all they
hold dear. It’s tragic really. You wonder what could cause such blindness.
The answer, I believe, lies in today’s quote from Swedenborg.
Listen to his words again: “Where there is no compassion, selfishness is
present and particularly a hatred for everyone who does not agree. This is
why such people see nothing in their neighbors except what is wrong with them;
and if they see anything good, they either regard it as insignificant or find
a bad interpretation for it” (AC 1079).
The Pharisees could see nothing good in this miracle, and therefore nothing
good in Jesus, because their compassion had dried up. Anger can blind even
the most open-minded person. Selfishness can blind. A lack of compassion,
that is, an unwillingness to feel with another human being, can and will alter
our vision until we can’t see anything for what it is anymore. It seems
ridiculous to me that the Pharisees could witness this miracle and not be
overcome with joy for this poor man’s change in fortune. I almost can’t
believe that anyone could see such a complete transformation and then turn
away immediately and try to figure out what was wrong with the whole
scenario. But when we let anger or fear, selfishness or mistrust lead, we
blind ourselves to the truth. This is tempting to do, especially when we have
already made up our minds about another person or a specific situation. But
no one, not even a Pharisee, is all bad. There is always some good left, some
bit of truth that God is still working with and that we, if we can see with
eyes of compassion, can speak to and work with, as well.
Swedenborg continues: “compassionate people scarcely see what is wrong with
others. Instead, they are alert to everything in them that is good and true,
even putting a good interpretation on things that are evil and false. All
angels are like this and receive this attitude from the Lord, who bends
everything toward the good” (AC 1079). This is a delicate truth. A truth we
need to apply very carefully.
It doesn’t mean that you lovingly accept people no matter what they are
doing, and just stand by with a kind of benign grin on your face while they
wreak havoc. Love takes a stand, keeps people from harming others and harming
themselves, but love goes a step further and trusts that deep within the most
difficult person the Lord is still present, and that love and truth are still
operating within them searching for expression. When we find ourselves
discounting others as all bad, we are blinding ourselves to the possibility
that God is still at work in that person. It is important to be aware. We
can be blinded by good intentions and righteous anger, just like the
Pharisees, if we approach people with our minds already made up. But, if we
can continually, with the help of the Lord, seek to view each person and each
situation through eyes of compassion, we may just see miracles at work.
I don’t want to be blind like the Pharisees. I would rather see with the eyes
of this blind man, see the truth right there beside me and say, “Lord, I
believe.” I believe in you and that you are at work in all of us. We cannot
give up on each other, no matter how difficult or hurtful or frustrating
things become. With all that has goes on in our church and in the world, the
temptation to give up on each other can be strong. But if we ever really do
that, we will be willfully blinding ourselves to the fact that the Lord is
still present in us working all things to the good. We will become like
Pharisees, and when miracles of transformation or reconciliation are laid out
clear as day before us, rather than rejoice, we will set our minds to
searching for what must be wrong rather than see what has become right. I
don’t want to become that kind of person.
So let us pray for eyes that see clearly what God would have us see.
If you look a round, even in the midst of our struggles, there are so many
miracles and blessings at work. In fact, when I look out from here in this
pulpit at all of you, I am struck by what a miracle each and every one of you
represent in the context of this community. It is almost effortless for me to
view you with eyes of compassion because I love and appreciate you all so
much. It is in looking beyond the confines of our community that I struggle
at times, and maybe some of you do too. So if you struggle with this, let us
struggle together, and if you have already grown beyond this, then I invite
you to reach out your hand and be an encouragement to those of us who need
that extra bit of support.
Let us pray.
Copyright 2003 by Rev. Sarah Buteux
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