Creative Conversations with Jesus: The Artists Group and the Man Born Blind
This Lent, we asked some of our Resurrection artists and writers to engage with the Bible passages that are the focus of our Lenten sermon series, “Conversations with Jesus.” Today’s pieces are the result of reflections by Resurrection artists on John 9:1-38.
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By Brittney Dunn. Brittney read the John 9 passage and then spent 15 minutes in blindness.
"When I blind folded myself the things I noticed the most were first those abstract blotches that appear under your eyelids after you close your eyes from a bright light. I also became much more aware of my body within space. Often times I felt unbalanced, and either suspicious or curious of what was around me. I found that my hands became almost obsessive over things - trying to create the image of what I was touching in my mind. For this reason I think the mind of a blind person must be full of imagination."
Believing is Seeing (song lyrics)
by Sandy Georgas-Gait
My husband Don was diagnosed with cancer over 6 years ago and although we have seen great mercy on his physical health, he still has cancer. But we have seen how God has done a greater miracle in both Don and me over the last few years. We have learned to receive more of the love of God through his people who have tended to us with such amazing kindness. And God has healed us – on the inside. We now realize more than ever that the greatest miracles are not physical – they are spiritual. And the greatest limitation likewise is not physical blindness, but spiritual.
That truth is well shown in this great passage. The man born blind had much better spiritual vision than the Pharisees. And the greatest miracle in this passage was the second one in the passage, where he learns and believes in who Jesus is. He is eternally changed.
Believing is Seeing
Nine months of joyous waiting
then their little boy arrived.
Laughter turned to sorrow.
Baby's eyes made Mommas cry.
Never to see a rainbow.
Never to witness a sunset.
Reduced to a life of begging.
Yet hope would not be upset.
A once is a lifetime encounter
with mud and a miracle man
rocked beliefs to the core.
No one could understand.
The lack of seeing was prevalent
and only one was freed
in more ways than one.
In every way he could see.
Chorus:
Believing is seeing
and not the other way around.
The opening of the soul
means Jesus can be around.
The man born blind
was the one who could see
that the Man of God
is the true reality.
"Give glory to God",
said the blind Pharisees,
and, "Jesus is bad
so we don't have to see."
But the humble man had courage
and spoke the truth with confidence.
"God heals, not sinners.
Jesus healed me is my only defense."
Chorus:
Bridge:
Jesus found the man a second time
for his second miracle.
He didn't stop the healing
at what was merely physical.
Jesus revealed the truth of who he was
and the open man believed
and then in every way
this believing heart could see.
Looking Up From a Chasm
by Julie Blair
The Blind Man and the Fountain
by Jane Beal
I.
When Jesus was a little boy
he made birds out of river clay
—gave life—and they took flight.
When Jesus was grown,
he made clay with his own spit,
and so divine, gave sight to the blind.
II.
What is this gift of sight?
Do I see? Do I see?
I went looking
for the fountain in the square.
I was in Spain—
I was in love.
Love is blind,
but love does not care.
III.
To the Pool of Sent
the blind man went
and washed away the darkness.
His parents could not explain
if he were mad or sane,
but he knew he was born again in the light.
IV.
I think I saw this fountain
in a photograph taken at night.
It was lit up
and shining.
But here now, it is a gray day
and the fountain looks unimportant.
But it was important to me
because the one I love told me to find it.
V.
The law-men back then
determined the not-blind man
was born in sin
and wouldn't be schooled by the fool
who said Jesus came from God
or he couldn't have healed him—sans tool.
VI.
Maybe I should have made mud
from the fountain-water and Spanish dirt
or at least splashed my eyes
to wash away the dust from the road:
the pilgrimage of the possible,
superceded by the impossible!
The miracle that my love invited me to
was incomplete without him there—beside me.
VII.
Jesus asked the not-blind man
if he believed in the Son of God,
and the not-blind man asked, "Who is he?"
You have seen him, Jesus said.
But to the law-men, he said:
if you were blind, you should have no sin.
VIII.
What is this gift of memory?
Am I blind? Am I blind?
The world is full of light
even on gray days.
Light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not understood it.
The photograph is nothing.
My love is everything.
"I sometimes feel blind but when I put my hand in Jesus' hand, it's peaceful like this scene."
by Lois Easley
-Click here to listen to Fr Stewart’s sermon on the man born blind.
-Find out more about Lent at Church of the Resurrection
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