When Sight Disrupts

In today’s Gospel lesson, a man who had been blind from birth is given sight. It is a remarkable event, and everyone around him wants to make sense of it. They ask questions. They conduct interviews. They summon authorities. They search for a framework large enough to contain what has happened.

And again and again, the man refuses to give them what they want.

He does not offer a theory.
He does not construct an argument.
He does not explain the mechanism of his healing or defend its legitimacy.

Finally, pressed and pressured, he says the only thing he knows to be true:

“I only know that I was blind, and now I can see.”

That sentence frustrates everyone who hears it.

It frustrates the religious leaders because it cannot be controlled.
It frustrates the neighbors because it cannot be categorized.
It frustrates those who…