John 9:1-41
Lead in: With my impaired vision, I don’t see that well. Even so, I get used to thinking that what I do see is all of reality. But every once in a while, people point out things that they can see that I can’t. Like the moose at the side of the road that I missed but everyone else saw. That’s when I was again reminded that there’s so much more to reality that I’m not seeing.
Prompt: Was there ever a time when you thought what you were seeing was all of reality, but then you had your eyes opened to see that there’s so much more of reality that you hadn’t seen before? What did you learn from that experience?
Lead in: There are two different kinds of blindness in John 9:1-41. There is the blindness of the man born blind and there is the blindness of those who can see, but in the smallness of their hearts refuse to believe. Their stubborn refusal to let go of what their pride can’t let go of becomes their blindness.
Prompt: Reflect on a time when the stubbornness of your own heart, driven by pride, so blinded you that you refused to let go of what you needed to let go of.
Lead in: When the religious authorities learn that Jesus had healed the man born blind, they go to the man and try to bully and shame him into admitting that Jesus was not of God because he broke the Sabbath. When the blind man speaks his truth, their insults turn to violence, and they throw him out of the temple.
Prompt: Reflect on a time when you were bullied or shamed into capitulating to the pressure put on you. How did you respond? Would you do anything differently were it today?
Lead in: The people in the time of Jesus believed that blindness was the result of sin. This is the fate of the man born blind. People believed him to be a sinner. Such was the harsh judgment put on him.
Prompt: Reflect on a time when you experienced the harsh judgment of others. What did you learn from it?
Prompt: Who are those whom you are tempted to view in a condescending or harsh way? How are you dealing with that tendency?
Lead in: The religious authorities interrogated the man born blind, demanding to know how it was that he could now see. The man responded, “He (Jesus) put clay on my eyes, I washed and now I can see.” What he knows to be true was not from a book. It’s what he knows to be true from his own lived experience.
Prompt: What is it that you know to be true that comes to you not from a book, but from your own lived experience?
