The Blind Servant

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In the ancient world, and even into the middle ages, to be blind left open a peculiar set of employment options. Two jobs often reserved for blind men were poet and prophet/priest. In many cults of the past, the prophet or priest or seer was often blind. It was thought that a blind prophet had his power to see the physical world replaced with an ability to foresee the future, or to see the will of the gods.

The blind poet is a stock figure in history. Legend has it that the great Greek poet Homer was blind, as well as John Milton, James Joyce, and several other significant writers throughout history. Church history even has its own blind bard, if you will – the fourth-century Alexandrian theologian Didymus the Blind, known for his incredible memory and stirring theological insights. The archetype of the blind poet assumes that because one has been deprived of the physical sense of sight, the eye of the mind is opened to other ways of thinking and processing, and thus new forms of creativity.

Today's Old Testament lesson speaks of the blind and deaf servant of the Lord.

Do You See?

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Jesus and His disciples encountered a man who was blind from birth. Following the general Jewish mindset about such things, the disciples asked Jesus who had sinned to cause this, the blind man himself, or his parents.

To them, and to the Jews observing them, it seemed like a natural question. We know from the Scriptures that all dysfunction and calamity come about as a result of sin. Furthermore, the Lord says that He will punish the children for the sins of the fathers to the third and fourth generation. So the logical outflow is that if something bad befalls you, someone must have done something to merit it happening. Therefore, who sinned – the blind man or his parents?

This line of thinking is very tempting, not only to first-century Jews, but to everyone. Jesus confronts those who think this way when He addresses the situation of the Jews whose blood Pilate mingled with pagan sacrifices. Did they do something to deserve such a death and desecration? No one could point to special wickedness that caused that.