Truths, half-truths, and lies

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 16:16-34
IN THOSE DAYS, as we apostles were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by soothsaying. She followed Paul and us, crying, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation." And this she did for many days. But Paul was annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, "I charge you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." And it came out that very hour. But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market place before the rulers; and when they had brought them to the magistrates they said, "These men are Jews and they are disturbing our city. They advocate customs which it is not lawful for us Romans to accept or practice." The crowd joined in attacking them; and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and every one's fetters were unfastened. When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, "Do not harm yourself, for we are all here." And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out and said, "Men, what must I do to be saved?" And they said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household." And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their wounds, and he was baptized at once, with all his family. Then he brought them up into his house, and set food before them; and he rejoiced with all his household that he had believed in God.

JOHN 9:1-38
At that time, as Jesus passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him. We must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day; night comes, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." As he said this, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and anointed the man's eyes with the clay, saying to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar, said, "Is not this the man who used to sit and beg?" Some said, "It is he"; others said, "No, but he is like him." He said, "I am the man." They said to him, "Then how were your eyes opened?" He answered, "The man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, 'Go to Siloam and wash'; so I went and washed and received my sight." They said to him, "Where is he?" He said, "I do not know. They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. The Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, "He put clay on my eyes and I washed, and I see." Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the sabbath." But others said, "How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?" There was a division among them. So they again said to the blind man, "What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?" He said, "He is a prophet. The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight, and asked them, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?" His parents answered, "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age, he will speak for himself." His parents said this because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess him to be Christ he was to be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, "He is of age, ask him. So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and said to him, "Give God the praise; we know that this man is a sinner." He answered, "Whether he is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I know, that though I was blind, now I see." They said to him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?" He answered them, "I have told you already and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you too want to become his disciples?" And they reviled him, saying, "You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from." The man answered, "Why, this is a marvel! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing." They answered him, "You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?" And they cast him out. Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, "Do you believe in the Son of man?" He answered, "And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?" Jesus said to him, "You have seen him, and it is he who speaks to you." He said, "Lord, I believe"; and he worshiped him.

 Truths, half-truths, and lies. In this digital age, we have access to more information than the human race had ever dreamed possible, all of it lives right here in our pockets, and maybe half of it is true. Somehow we’re supposed to discern what the true from the false and make important decisions about how we live our lives base on what we learn. And while this may seem like an impossible task, it is not a new task. In fact, sorting truth from lies is something humanity has been struggling to do for ages. And today, on the sixth Sunday after Pascha, the Church offers us two stories that are themselves full up with these truths, half-truths, and lies. And in the life and actions of St. Paul and a blind beggar Jesus meets on the street, the Church will offer us two strong examples for how we might deal discern between them.

The first story we heard this morning was of St. Paul and St. Silas in Philippi. Paul and Silas are doing their work, sharing the Gospel, when they begin to be pestered by a slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination. We are told that this girl’s owners make quite some profit off her ability to prophesy. She follows Paul and Silas around for several days we are told. And did you catch what she said about them? "These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation." She, and the demon inside her, are proclaiming the truth.

And why? St. John Chrysostum suggests that this demon was making these true claims to legitimate himself. The idea is, of course, that Paul and Silas will accept this high praise, because why wouldn’t you, and by accepting her words as true, she could then pass other things off as true. But notice Paul and Silas don’t accept this praise. St. Paul sees right through this game. We are told he’s annoyed by the girl. And recognizing the abusive situation this girl is in, how she is being simultaneously possessed by this demon and exploited by her owners, he does the only compassionate thing there is to do, he saves this girl from her evil spirt. And, of course, this act of compassion causes all kinds of issues. Because St. Paul hit these slave owners where it hurt, in their pocket book.

In reaction, they grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them before the town magistrates. And here we get a half-truth. These men couldn’t accuse Paul and Silas of healing their slave. That would give Paul and Silas credibility. So their accusation to the magistrates has absolutely nothing to do with the problem. They accuse Paul and Silas of being Judeans and causing the Romans to neglect their Roman duties. These are true facts, but they have nothing to do with the actual issue at hand. These particular facts were not chosen to get at the truth, but rather to stir up hate and anger. And they accomplished just that.

The magistrates rip their clothes at the horror of it all. And the mob in the marketplace begins to beat Paul and Silas. These magistrates, even though it is their job to judge in situations like this, show absolutely no discernment. They don’t even really try. They were just sitting there, waiting to get whipped up by xenophobic rhetoric of these slave owners and then watch the mob go crazy. After the mob beats Paul and Silas, they are thrown into a prison to be kept until morning. But God has something else in mind. He sends an earthquake in the middle of the night that miraculously frees all of the prisoners. When the jailer realizes that all the gates have fallen open, he presumes all the prisoners have escaped. And he is just about to kill himself when St. Paul calls out from inside his cell that they are all still there.

And this man, who moments before thought his life was over, does the most peculiar thing. He falls to the ground and asks Paul, “What must I do to be saved?” Now that’s a really odd question, if you think about it. “How can I be saved?” He had just been saved, from death, at his own hands. What kind of salvation is he asking St. Paul for? John Chrysostum writes: “Do you see how the wonder overpowered him? He wondered at Paul’s kindness; he was amazed by his boldness, in that he had not escaped when he had it in his power, and that he even hindered the jailer from killing himself.” Paul and Silas’ actions are so inexplicable, so miraculous, that the jailer recognizes something different within them.

These are not men concerned with their own power, with their own lives. Paul and Silas are not like the slave owners protecting their income, or the magistrates protecting their prestige and power. Paul and Silas are free. They saved the slave girl from her possession. And now they saved this jailer from death. And even now, when God has miraculously opened the gates and broken their shackles, Paul and Silas feel no need to try to escape and save their own necks. That is a higher level of freedom than this jailer had ever imagined possible.

Paul responds to the jailer’s inquiry with simply, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.” In other words, change your ruling authority. Don’t be driven by personal pride, don’t be ruled by your possessions, don’t be governed by the mood of the crowd. Do everything for Christ and you will be free. And from that very moment on, the jailer begins to do just this. We are told he takes in Paul and Silas, feeds and washes them, and even is baptized that very night.

In my memory that’s the end of the story, and that’s even where our liturgical reading cuts off today, but it’s not really the end of the story. There’s one last little detail that I love, now that it has been pointed out to me by St. John Chrysostum. To wrap up this story, St. Paul demonstrates a little civil disobedience. You see, there was one little detail that got left out of the slave owner’s accusations. It was true that Paul and Silas were foreigners and that their teachings went against Roman traditions. But they failed to mention, and maybe they didn’t even know, that Paul was a Roman citizen. And, while it was fine and dandy to beat up and imprison foreigners in a Roman colony, it is not how you were supposed to treat Roman citizens. Roman citizens held the right of appeal to a higher authority, even to the Emperor himself, so you always needed to be very cautious when prosecuting Roman citizens. And the magistrates knew they had not been cautious.

So Paul lets slip that he is a Roman citizen and this word gets to the magistrates. And early the next morning they send over the police to release the prisoners. But, just like the night before, St. Paul refuses to leave his cell. He says the magistrates beat me publicly and then threw me in here, and now they want to quietly let me go in the dark hours of the morning? No way. They can come let me out themselves. If they want to beat me publicly, they can come exonerate me publicly.

See how he leverages his Roman privilege? He doesn’t deny his privilege or abandon it, he uses it to help others. In his writings, St. John Chrysostum makes it clear that St. Paul does this for the sake of the jailer and of his fellow Christians in Philippi. By making the magistrates come apologize publicly, he is helping to ensure that a beating like his doesn’t happen to them. The magistrates ultimately come to let Paul and Silas out of prison and publicly apologize to him. And then, of course, they immediately beg them the troublemakers to leave town.

So that’s story number one. Story number two starts just with Jesus passing a man born blind on the side of the road. I think by “born blind” the text is telling us that his eyes were malformed or even unformed. This was not an old man that had developed cataracts or anything like that, where one might be more likely to expect healing. This is a man who for all intents and purposes didn’t have eyes.

And as they pass, the disciples ask a question: “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he might be born blind.” And I want you to listen to Jesus’ answer. Jesus answered that neither of these was the cause, but rather he was made blind “so that the works of God might be made manifest in him.” That’s an odd phrase. What does it mean for the “works of God” to be “made manifest in him?” Let’s hear the rest of this story and try to answer that question.

Jesus takes dust from the ground and some of his own spittle and makes clay. I think we are here to see Jesus participating in the act of creation. Where God created humanity out of clay in the book of Genesis, here Jesus is using clay to complete His own work in creating eyes for this man. Is miracle, is this act of God, what Jesus was talking about? Are we supposed to thing that the Lord of creation made this man blind for his entire life, just so that He could heal him later to demonstrate his power? I don’t think that’s it. Or it’s at least, I don’t think that’s all of it.

Next Jesus tells the man to go wash in the pool of Siloam. John Chrysostum spends a lot of time pointing out how unnecessary all this is – Jesus could have just healed him on the spot – and concludes that all of this - the spittle, the mud, the washing - is all done to test the man’s faith. Unlike many of Jesus’ other healings, this man had not asked to be healed. He had not struggled to get to Jesus. He had in no way demonstrated his faith, and so Jesus offers him this test.

And he passes. Notice how the blind man doesn’t complain at all. How often are we prescribed some physical therapy, or a special diet in order to improve our health, and we complain about it the whole time. The doctor said I needed to eat less. The doctor said I needed to walk more. Not our blind man. Jesus spits in the mud and wipes it on his face, and then tells him to walk across town and wash it off, and he just does it. He shows a miraculous amount of faith in this man he doesn’t know. And I think it is this faith, this humility, this patience, more than the healing itself, that are “the works of God being made manifest” in this man. Those years of blindness have worked to prepare this man’s heart for this very moment in a way that little else could have. And as we’ll see, our blind man is one of the most clear sighted individuals in our story. That is not a coincidence.

When the blind man returns from the pool able to see, we have this great moment where we see the crowd react to what has happened. Human nature has not changed at all. First they’re like, “That’s impossible. How’d that happen?” And then when they get their explanation, they remain incredulous and conclude, “That’s not even really him, he just looks like him.” And then, perhaps the most ridiculous, they say, “Wait? Did you say Jesus did this to you on the Sabbath? That’s just wrong.” And they drag him to the Pharisees.

And then the Pharisees are divided among themselves over this question of working on the Sabbath and simply cannot figure out this puzzle – “This man is clearly sinful, because he works on the Sabbath. But how can a sinful man do such works?” They are completely stumped by this dilemma. They go back and forth with the man. They drag his parents out to vouch that this is actually him. I love it when his parents are like, “Yup, that’s our son, but he’s of age, so just talk to him. We don’t want to get involved.” Thanks, Mom. Thanks, Dad.

Only one man present in this whole crowd has the ability to see the obvious answer right in front of everyone. And that’s our blind man. All of this back and forth ends with this profound truth, which comes to us from the mouth of this blind man: “Why, this is an amazing thing, that you don’t know where he comes from, and he opened my eyes! We all agree that God doesn’t listen to sinners, and that he listens to those who do His will; and from the beginning of time we have never heard that anyone has ever opened the eyes of someone born blind; and you still can’t figure out where he comes from? If this man were not from God, he wouldn’t be able to do anything.”

This is a bolder and more public statement than any of Jesus’ disciples had ever made at this point. We won’t be seeing them vouching for Jesus in this way until after the crucifixion and resurrection and Pentecost. But this man, this blind beggar who literally doesn’t even know who Jesus is, was somehow able to discern the truth of the situation. And willing to proclaim it boldly, even at risk of his own wellbeing. How was he made ready for this?

Thankfully, Jesus tells us. Our reading today ended with an exchange between the blind man and Jesus where Jesus reveals to the blind man that he is indeed the promised messiah and Son of God and at this revelation, the blind man bows down before him. But our reading cuts off this ending, too, so let me read to you Jesus’ final words to the blind man: “For judgment I came into this world, that those who are blind might see, and those who see might become blind.” Think for a moment about that. We’re all good with the first half, Jesus opening our eyes, either physical or spiritual. That’s great. But what Jesus blinding people. What does that even mean? Thankfully, there are some Pharisees in proximity to this conversations and they ask this question for us: “Are you calling us blind?” Jesus answers them, “If you were blind, you would not be such sinners, but you say, ‘We see!’ and therefore your sin remains.” How about that? If you think you understand how the world works, that very thought can make you blind. Years of poverty and blindness had taught our beggar this truth. It had purified his mind so that he could see the truth when all the wise and educated Pharisees we completely unable to figure it out. Life’s hardships can be gifts. And what we like to call blessings, can often turn out to be curses.

So, those are our two stories. Both stories begin with healings that cause those involved to be dragged before those in power. And those in power refuse to even talk about the human beings and their miraculous healings. Instead of being grateful that these individual have been saved from their respective maladies, our power brokers in both situations worry about protecting cultural norms. The magistrates in Philippi worry that Paul and Silas are corrupting Roman society; and the Pharisees in Jerusalem are all worried that Jesus healed this man on the Sabbath. They are shown to be completely blind to the plight of the blind man and exploitation of the slave girl.

This is the blindness that God wants to heal us from, an inability to see those in need. And as physical blindness helped our beggar to see more clearly, it is often our own difficulties that help us to recognize the suffering found within others. After all, we must remember that God also used blindness to transform the Pharisee Saul into the Apostle Paul. So when difficulties arise in our lives, as they always will, it is left for us to accept these difficulties as tests, as opportunities to learn and to grow. It is for us to demonstrate our faith by saying, “Not my will but thine.” And in time, this patient, faithful endurance will help conform us ever more into the likeness of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, to whom be all glory and honor forever. Amen.