The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
March 2, 2008
Vol. 11 no. 09

Everything But...
           It’s an awful thing to have no one know your name. Sitting in the pew, you know what that can be like, especially in a strange new place. But one of the regrettable faults of the Biblical Story is that so many names are remembered and so many more are just not mentioned at all. Another long story from John presents us with the down and dirty healing of a local blind man, blind from birth, a man everybody seemed to know, except that no one ever gives him a name. Jesus opens his eyes with dirt and spit and the blind man who is no longer blind sees and feels what true blindness exists in the souls of some people.
           Of course, there is a calculated advantage about not knowing a character’s name in a story. If he or she has a name and they accomplish something important or sin mightily, it is easy to think, “Well, that’s what Joseph did or Mary has achieved. That doesn’t apply to me.” Give the character no name, then she could be anyone, and that just might be you.
           The hero is not exactly Jesus, but this poor blind fellow who receives his lifelong wish to see and still can’t do anything right. The assumption in antiquity was that such a birth defect was caused by a previous terrible sin, usually that of the parents. Therefore, he was always looked down upon as a barely human collection of sins. Once he is healed, he is caught in the middle between Pharisees who want to attribute Jesus’ powers to Satan and the amazing grace he has received. “One thing I know, that though I was blind, now I see.”
           The once blind man may not know much. Certainly, he couldn’t read and it is doubtful he would have been allowed in the synagogue to hear the Torah read, but he can proclaim the Gospel like few others. Let’s see.