The Least Expected

John 9: 1-41 (shortened version)

 As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. He spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, saying to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, ‘Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?’ Some were saying, ‘It is he.’ Others were saying, ‘No, but it is someone like him.’ He kept saying, ‘I am the man.’

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, ‘He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.’ Some of the Pharisees said, ‘This man is not from God, for he does not observe the Sabbath.’ But others said, ‘How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?’ And they were divided. So they said again to the blind man, ‘What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.’ He said, ‘He is a prophet.’

Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ He answered, ‘And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.’ Jesus said to him, ‘You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.’ He said, ‘Lord, I believe.’ And he worshipped him.

So, what do you think you really know about God?

The first reading and the Gospel for this week both focus on the fact that God does not pay much attention to our common assumptions about what his intentions are in any situation. How uncomfortable for us! We surely would like to follow a God who is completely predictable and safe. But if there is one thing that is a constant in the spiritual life, it’s that God is surprising and that he doesn’t pay a lot of attention to what we think he should do according to who we think he is. 

In the first reading, Samuel was sent by God to find the one who was to be anointed to be king. Samuel looked at Jesse’s son, Eliab, and was sure this was the one God had chosen. He was the one Samuel would have chosen and Samuel was a prophet. Eliab had all the right characteristics and qualities as far as Samuel could see. Right there is where we all make our mistake: we see things as far as we can see. In other words: not very far. God told Samuel that he looks at the heart and not on the outward attributes that everyone else looks at. Samuel was open enough to listen to God’s perspective and let go of his own assumptions. Are we that open? 

In the Gospel, according to the Jewish law and according to the discernment of the Pharisees, Jesus was a sinner. They were totally convinced that he was not God’s chosen one because his actions were not in line with the common perception of righteousness. In their view he didn’t look like a Messiah, he didn’t act like a Messiah and he didn’t talk like a Messiah. Therefore, he was not the Messiah and people faced expulsion from the Jewish religion if they accepted him as the Messiah.

Now, Jesus could have fulfilled their expectations if he had wanted to. He could have done everything perfectly according to the law and according to what everyone thought was holy and right and he would have been a lot more acceptable to a lot more people had he done that. But he didn’t act in order to be acceptable to people and to fit in with prevalent attitudes about holiness or beliefs of what someone sent from God would look like. To the Jewish authorities, the prognosis was clear: Jesus was a write-off and a failure.

Another problem with Jesus was that he didn't choose followers who fit the common expectations of who should be the Messiah’s right hand people. He chose the broken, the sinful and the ones who failed to live up to the mainstream holiness criteria. He chose the uneducated, the blind, the excluded and the ones with a sketchy past. He chose those who had been beaten by life, disappointed by broken dreams and beleaguered by unasked for circumstances. These were the Chosen Ones, the ones he discerned had the capacity for true holiness within them.  He chose them, healed them and sent them. He never said to them, “You go change who you are and clean up your own mess and then come back to me and we’ll see if you can squeak by on the righteousness scale.” All he did was love and accept them, touch their wounds, open the kingdom to them and ask them if they would believe in him. He chose the ones who could simply love and accept him in return.

He has not changed. Every mystic the Church has ever known will tell you the same thing. He has not changed.

Do you sometimes feel small, inadequate and not up to the task? You are a Chosen One.

Do you feel like you made some choices or were pushed into circumstances in your life that have marked you as a failure in areas where failure really is not an option? You are a Chosen One.

Do you habitually compare yourself to others in your faith community or to the saints and feel like you’re just not making the grade and maybe never will? You are a Chosen One.

He has not changed. Not one of his followers in scripture was adequate for the job and not one of them had the power to do anything about it. Every single one of them had to come before him in all their vulnerability, moral failures and spiritual poverty. When they saw not only how loved they were but also how much he valued them without them having done anything, their joy overflowed and their love for him was pure and full of gratitude. When he sent them out, they didn’t go in order to earn his love for them; they went because they were passionate about expressing their love for him and bringing others to the same place of healing.

If you are like most people, you will read this and agree that in scripture Jesus seemed to be more comfortable with the failures and the poor in spirit but you won’t really believe it’s still the same today. It couldn’t be that easy. Now that the church has been around for a couple of thousand years, we all know better and Jesus expects more of us than he did when he walked the earth because people knew nothing about Christianity or what it is that makes us acceptable to God. Right? If we all go to Mass every week, study the bible, read spiritual books and endeavor to have a consistent prayer life, he’s going to expect more from us than if we were prostitutes or rough, ignorant fishermen or people who are lost, destitute and blind. Right?

He has not changed. He did not choose the ones he chose because he had no choice. He chose the least and the poorest because they had the most capacity to receive him. He has not changed.

Do you know what the Lenten season is? It’s a ‘Come As You Are Party’. It’s a time to drop all your assumptions and self-expectations of what a good Christian looks like and come to the Lord just as you are. Come as the prodigal child, the tax collector, the woman at the well, the blind man, the woman caught in adultery, the hungry crowd, the desperate father, the lost lamb, the grieving soul, the sick at heart, the terribly betrayed, the unfairly misunderstood, the weary, the doubting, the discouraged.

He has not changed. Just come.