From Ashes to Alleluia: With Jesus at Siloam

The Fourth Sunday in Lent
March 15, 2026
John 9:1-41

“From Ashes to Alleluia: With Jesus at Siloam”

We are now midway through the season of Lent. On our Lenten journey, we’ve been with Jesus in all the places and with all the people that he encounters on his way to the cross. We’ve been with Jesus in the wilderness where he was tempted by the devil for forty days, and overcame the power not only of temptation but the tempter himself (Matthew 4:1-11). We’ve been with Jesus in his late-night conversation with Nicodemus about being born again of water and the Spirit (John 3:1-17). We’ve been with Jesus as he talked to the Samaritan woman at the well about living water (John 4:5-30, 29-42). And now today, we are with Jesus as he gives sight to a man blind from birth, telling him to go and wash at the pool of Siloam. Today’s Gospel account is unique to the Gospel of John, and it demonstrates Jesus’ power to heal and to save. Who else but God alone could do this? And Jesus, who is true God and true Man, has done this. The message for today, based on the Gospel lesson, is entitled: “With Jesus at Siloam.” May the Lord’s rich and abundant blessing rest upon the preaching, the hearing, and the living of his Word for Jesus’ sake.

What’s it like to be blind? We’ve all played games as children where we were blindfolded, but to lose one’s sight? Or never to have had it at all? Hard for us to imagine. For many years, a blind man lived next door to my mother and father-in-law. He was very independent, lived by himself and got along fine. Several years ago, some major repair work was being done on the street in front of their homes. Although there was lots of noise and disruptions, my father-in-law enjoyed watching the work and seeing what was being done. While out talking with the work crew one day, my father-in-law happened to see the next-door neighbor come out of his house and head straight for a gaping hole that had not yet been fenced off. He quickly told one of the crew who immediately ran over to prevent the man from falling headlong into a pit and injuring himself. We recognize blindness as a disability today, and accommodations are provided for those who are sight-impaired: Braille materials, seeing eye dogs, those little bumps that are at crosswalks and intersections, properly called tactile paving or detectable warning tiles. But things were very different in the ancient world where blindness reduced people to begging, and where it was viewed as a curse from God; a punishment for sin.

John’s account of this begins with the disciples talking about the blind man, rather than with him. Seeing him, they asked Jesus a very pointed question: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2). And there it is: the idea that the man blind from birth was somehow cursed. Whose fault was it? His or his parents? We can well imagine the blind man, sitting there within earshot and hearing this whole conversation. He was reduced to some kind of object lesson; a prop instead of a person within the disciples’ theological framework. Sometimes we are guilty of the same thing. We see someone who has a disability of some sort, and can easily start talking about the person rather than with them. And the whole idea of this being a curse is not just from long ago and far away; a holdover from the ancient world. When tragedy befalls us or something bad happens, what do we often say, whether out loud or to ourselves? “Why is God punishing me? What did I do to deserve this?” Jesus reframes all of this into something that is beautiful and full of blessing. He responds to the disciples’ question by saying: “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him” (John 9:3). That changes everything! Suddenly, because of Jesus, we now see things in a completely new and different light. All of the things we think of as disabilities, deficiencies, deformities are now,  because of Jesus, vehicles for the grace and glory of God to be revealed in us and through us. We can approach life and faith in one of two ways: we can choose to stand apart and above it all, arguing as the disciples did about who messed up and whose fault it is, reducing people to mere objects. Or, we can enter into the brokenness of the world and see everything as an opportunity for the works of God to be revealed.

“Having said these things, [Jesus] spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing” (John 9:6-7). And what’s the first thing the man now sees? The people around him, neighbors who had known him all his life, arguing over if this is really the man who was blind. And then he sees the religious leaders fighting over who gave him sight and how this was done, and whether this conforms to the teachings of the Law. And then he sees his own parents distance themselves from him because they were fearful of these same religious leaders. And then he sees Jesus who opened his eyes and caused him to see. There is a progression here of how the man sees Jesus. At first, he says to his neighbors: “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight” (John 9:11). And then when questioned by the religious leaders, we are told: “So they said again to the blind man, ‘What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?’ He said, ‘He is a prophet’” (John 9:17). And finally, we are told this: “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 is speaking to you.’ He said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshiped him” (John 9:35-38). From just an ordinary man to a prophet to saving faith in the Son of Man. The man who was blind now sees – truly sees – Jesus.

Today we are with Jesus at Siloam where he opened the eyes of the blind man. The Baptismal font is our own Siloam where we, who were blind, dead and enemies of God, have been reborn to new life. Our eyes have been opened to see who Jesus really is – more than just a man and more than a prophet. He is the Son of Man who came to give his life on the cross as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world; for your sins and mine. With our eyes of faith now opened to see Jesus and believe in him, let us go forth from this worship service out into the world so that the works of God might be displayed in each of our lives. Amen.