THE MAN BORN BLIND March 15, 2026

     As Jesus walked along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. The disciples react in a very human way. "Who sinned, this man, or his parents, for him to have been born blind?" No matter how much we understand about cause and effect in medicine or in other areas of life, we often still want to attach moral blame to our misfortunes - indeed, sometimes our misfortunes are a result of our sins, sometimes not. But this is not the point here. Our Lord's answer to his disciples' question suggests the way in which we are to look at this story. "Neither he, nor his parents sinned," Jesus answered. "He was born blind so that the works of God might be displayed in him."

     Even in this short exchange at the beginning of the Gospel, a number of important themes have already emerged. If he was blind from birth the disciples rightly surmise that his affliction cannot easily be considered as a punishment for any actual sin the man may have committed. This difficulty surely underlies their question, "Who sinned, this man or his parents?"

     Our Lord's answer rules out any suggestion that sins committed either by the man himself or by his parents are to blame for his misfortune. It may well be the case that our failures in the moral law sometimes lead in the natural order to physical affliction for ourselves or for others. We think at once of food, drink, drugs and sex, but of course jealousy and pride also lead to some pretty destructive behaviour. All this is in the natural order and cannot be seen in terms of punishment - just breakdown as a result of misuse. If you fill the washing machine until the sheets and towels are bursting out of the door, you are not being punished when the kitchen floods. This is just what happens when you ignore the maker's instructions.

       Is it then a question of "supernatural" punishment, not related to any particular failure but directly and arbitrarily imposed by God? Again, the answer seems to be "no". "Neither this man nor his parents sinned. He was born blind so that the works of God might be displayed in him." The themes here are sin, blindness, inheritance and the power of God. The sin is not actual sins we commit and are personally responsible for, but the condition we inherit, original sin, being cut off from God. The man born blind is in a sense "everyman", his blindness an image for the condition of mankind since its origins. The Greek word for birth is the same as the word for the first book of the Bible in which this "original" sin at the beginning of creation is described - "Genesis”.              ~  Fr. Paul Dobson.