The Disability of Certainty

Part of the current series “Seeking: Honest Questions for Deeper Faith” we visit the story of Jesus healing a blind man. It is a long story with its 44 verses. A meager 7 verses describe the empowerment and healing of a man born blind as Jesus takes on the identity of one who has experienced divine restoration. The lion’s share (33 verses) focuses upon the exhausting questions and bickering by the religious authorities of the day. This powerful story is a cautionary tale about how our certainty can prevent us from truly seeing people. It’s a cautionary tale about how, if we aren’t careful, our narrow imagination can harden into accusation and blame. It’s about how easily we can be threatened by new ideas or shifts in someone’s identity. Thankfully, this story is not just a cautionary tale, but a transformative one as Jesus’ encounter with the man meant that he was no longer required to live into the identity imposed upon him by a community who had no desire but to judge and condemn. This episode follows a Lenten series produced by @sanctifiedartllc and incorporates the work of their commentators along with artwork. Used with permission.

Artwork: “Insight”; Artist Lisle Gwynn Garrity

Tags: [John 9:1-41; Gregory Porter’s “Take Me to the Alley”; Bruce Reyes-Chow; @sanctifiedart llc;  the “spotlight effect on our libraries and librarians Baptist News Global; Tennessean)