14 March

Dear friends, 

We are nearing the end of our Lent journey. 

This Sunday we will read the text of Jesus restoring the sight of the blind man in John’s gospel. This text asks some serious questions about how we think of Jesus’ ministry, healing, a theology of disability, and, most importantly, how we think about our own ‘sight’ and ‘seeing’. 

The irony of this story, of course, is that it’s the blind man who really sees. Whereas the pharisees, disciples, and the man’s parents are all unable to perceive what is happening right in front of their eyes. It is almost as if their set ways of ‘seeing’, certainty, and knowing blinds them from seeing who Jesus really is. 

This reminds me of the poem by Yehuda Amichai

“From the place where we are right

Flowers will never grow 

In the spring.

The place where we are right

Is hard and trampled

Like a yard.

But doubts and loves

Dig up the world

Like a mole, a plow.

And a whisper will be heard in the place

Where the ruined 

House once stood.”

Marius Louw