Yesterday the quote from James Alison dealt with the change of perception about what is sin - the blindness of the blind man or the blindness of the exclusion by the religious leaders. Alison now move more deeply.
The change of perception is precisely the change that was wrought by the resurrection of the crucified Christ. That is to say that what John has done is apply to one of Jesus' no doubt historical healing of a blind man on the Sabbath the revolution in the understanding of sin that came about as a result of the resurrection. The sin of the world is understood quite specifically as being involved in the work of "your father the devil, who " was a murderer from the beginning." Sin is recast entirely in the light of the casting out of Jesus. Jesus is quite specifically shown as having no problem with the sort of "sin" that is taken to exclude the "sinner' from the community: he cures the blind man with no problem at all (just as, in the previous chapter, he held nothing against the woman caught in adultery, but everything against those who would stone her). Sin is revealed as the mechanism of expulsion which is murderous, and those are blind sinners who are involved in that mechanism without being aware of what they are doing.
I stopped here because I thought of Jesus' words on the cross "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." We can - for what appears too be all the right and good and proper reason - be a murderous bunch of people. And then, we don't even see that this is our condition. Instead, we continue our crusades to make the world as we know it must be no matter what the cost. One of the observations I've made across faith boundaries is how quickly religious groups condemn or exclude or simple endorse murderous actions toward others. It may not always be literal murder - the pharisees didn't murder the blind man but their actions toward him did everything they could to make his life worthless and outcast. We can especially see this kind of action within religious movements that are bound up with moral legalisms. This is right - that is wrong. These people are welcome - those people are not be belong. That act is evil - This act is holy. In and through all of this, warfare is ignited and death follows and it is all done with a sense of righteousness about it. We go to war against sin and in that - become sin.
Connection: Not being aware of how our righteousness is deadly is a part of what makes us need to always evaluate what it is we are saying and doing as people of faith. As followers of Jesus, at great cost to ourselves, we welcome and heal and protect those who are easily made into scapegoats. Too often we may choose to judge - even slightly - because is is easier to act like that than to open ourselves up to be judged by others. And yet, we must put down our arms that are so often used to restrict and ultimately kill.
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