John 9:1-41

Year A - Fourth Sunday in Lent or Conviction ^[4]

March 30, 2014

John 9:1-41

Don’t you often fall back into wishful thinking that G*D is not just concerned about judging your immortal soul, but should pause to change things so you might become a poster child for miracles? It is a significant temptation that keeps coming around.

At stake here is something more than miracle—it is the regular word “Neither” when faced with a choice that is, on-the-face-of-it, too small a question.

Just being able to say, “Nope, too restricted a question that asks me to buy into a view aimed at assessing blame”, is a needed miracle always at hand, ready for use.

We might shift this into the question of orientation in today’s world—“Who sinned, this L or G or B or T or I or Q person or their recruiter?” There just isn’t a way to get at this matter for it forces people and cultures/tribes into false choices. “Wrong question”, is the only helpful response available. Even giving evidence for someone to see what is before them doesn’t work for those committed to the benefits accrued to them by virtue of a rigged system.

Do note that this false question does ultimately end where it begins. It moves directly from the leading question of, “Who sinned” (verse 2), directly to the predetermined response of, “You were born entirely in sin” (verse 34).

Lent is an opportunity to practice catching on to trapping questions more quickly than before and to both stepping aside from it and using your spiritual jujitsu to help the momentum of the false question fall flat on its face. Attend to these next days to practice identifying what false questions come from family, community, and tribe so that by Sunday you can encounter this passage again with a fresh example.