Who Sinned?

Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1-7

Ted Lasso, the main character in a TV show by the same name, is an American football coach, recruited to come to England to coach a flailing football club (soccer to you and me), the Richmond Greyhounds. The owner of the team secretly hopes Ted’s inexperience will lead to failure. But Ted’s folksy, optimistic leadership proves otherwise. One of the most memorable scenes from the show occurs at the local pub during a tense moment when Rupert (the former owner of the Richmond FC) challenges Ted to a game of darts. Rupert assumes Ted is a novice and bets high stakes, thinking it will embarrass Ted. At first, Ted lets him have his assumption tossing a couple of darts haphazardly at the board and asking basic questions about the rules. Rupert pulls from his pocket his personal set of darts and says, “Oh look. I forgot I had these.” Then, he confidently throws a couple of strong shots at the center of the board. Ted picks up a dart in his other hand and says, “Oh look, I forgot I was left-handed” and sends a dart zinging. Now, Rupert maintains the upper hand as Ted comes up for his last throws. He needs to land all three of his darts precisely to win. He walks to the board and says, “You know, Rupert, people have been underestimating me my whole life. And it used to really bother me. And then one day, I read a quote by Walt Whitman that said, Be curious, not judgmental.” Ted says that’s when it occurred to him that all those people who had made assumptions about him had failed to be curious. They had been quick to judge. Their underestimating Ted had nothing to do with who he was. If they had been curious, they would have asked better questions. Questions like: Have you played a lot of darts, Ted? Ted scores a triple 20 with his next throw and says, “If someone had asked, I would have said, ‘yes sir, every Sunday afternoon, with my father at a sports bar from the time I was 10 years old until I was 16…’” And with that, he throws a bullseye to win the game. The pub erupts in cheers and laughter which prompts a quiet exit from the humbled Rupert.

John chapter 9 is loaded with people like Rupert, who often underestimate others because they don’t ask the right questions.  I read a reflection on this text this week that opened my eyes to see this story differently, it’s a dramedy. That’s right. Part drama, part comedy (like Ted Lasso). There are scenes and lines that land with profound truth. And others that are almost slapstick akin to Looney Toons… or the Three Stooges!  It would be a mistake to talk about all of it with a straight face.[1]

Scholars agree that John presents this story as a play.[2] We only heard the first scene in what Becky read to us. Jesus is a supporting actor in this play. The cast includes disciples, neighbors, townsfolk, and Pharisees (Jewish leaders) all in an uproar over the business of this young man getting healed… on the Sabbath.The lead is played by this unnamed young man born blind.  Let’s give him a name.  "El Roi" is the Hebrew phrase meaning "The God Who Sees Me" or "The God of Seeing," based on the root roi (seeing/sight).[3] How about Roy? (on so many levels this feels right). 

Scene 1 takes place on a street in Jerusalem near the temple. This is John’s (our playwright’s), home turf – the Jewish quarter of the city.[4] Jesus and his disciples are walking along and see Roy. The disciples ask: Who sinned? Based on their long-held assumption that misfortune obviously targets the wicked and good fortune falls to the good.[5] Jesus tells them they are asking the wrong question. There is no one to blame for this, but Jesus is here to shine a light on this bad theology.

         Jesus makes a clay paste with his saliva and presses it on Roy’s eyes. It makes me think of the way mothers scrub something from the cheek of their child. Saliva - the all-purpose cleaner. Jesus sends him to the Siloam pool at the south end of the city, where the priests go to draw water for special purposes at the Temple. He told Roy to go wash there and when he did, he could see.

Scene 2 takes place near Roy’s home, likely in the Jewish quarter: The neighborhood is buzzing with questions, buzzing with assumptions: Isn’t this the man we used to know who was blind, who sat here for years begging? Some neighbors agreed that yep, it was him. Others… couldn’t see it. “It just looks like him.”
Just because Roy could see now didn’t mean that he had lost his keen sense of hearing. He knew they were talking about him, so he called out, “It’s me! I’m the one!”
“How were your eyes opened?” they demand. He tells them the whole story. “He put mud in my eye and I washed in the pool. Now, I can see.”
“Where is this man?” they want to know.
“I don’t know!” Roy answered.

Scene 3 takes place at the Sanhedrin where the ruling body of the Jewish elders meet: The townspeople brought Roy to them. They ask the same questions: “Who did this?! How’d he do it?!” More assumptions: “The man can’t be from God. He healed on the Sabbath. That man’s a sinner…”

It’s noted in the text that others wondered aloud, “Couuuuuld a sinner have restored a man’s sight?”

Then, my favorite part in this scene. They turned to Roy and said, “What do you have to say about him? After all it was your eyes he opened.”  INDEED! How ironic! The clarity of that comment emphasizes the blindness the religious leaders have about the way God works; it magnifies the smallness of their faith, and their myopic vision of WHO Jesus is. With newly opened eyes, Roy says, He is a prophet.

Scene 4, same meeting room: The Jewish leaders drag Roy’s parents into the court religious opinion. The leaders doubt the truth of his ever being blind and are still asking: How can this be -  that now your boy can see? The parents weren’t eyewitnesses and they are reluctant to testify as to what happened. They don’t want to be excommunicated from the community for disagreeing with the leadership. (That’s a tired story-line in organized religion.) They say, “He’s a grown man. Ask him.”

Scene 5, same courtroom. This is where Roy earns his Oscar nomination. They put Roy back on the stand and told him to denounce Jesus and give God all the credit for his healing. When Roy said, “I don’t know about all that. All I know is, I was blind and now, I see!”, they demand for him to explain it all to them again. But he has told it all to them before. Why did they want to hear it again? Do they want to become one of his disciples?! He asked sarcastically. That’s when one of the religious leaders slams his fist on the table and claims he’ll never be anyone’s disciple but Moses’! And then Roy steals the spotlight.

“Unbelievable!” he exclaims. “You say you know nothing about him… But this is who opened my eyes! Obviously, he is a man of God. Only God could have opened the eyes of someone born blind. And you, you just can’t see it!” Shoooweee. They said something like, “How dare you lecture us!” and kicked Roy out into the street.

Behind the Pharisees’ assumptions, skepticism, and cynicism, is fear. Their reactive behavior is more than jealousy of the attention Jesus is getting. It’s more than envy of the crowds he is drawing. These religious leaders have been playing nice with Rome to keep the peace. What they fear most is drawing Rome’s attention, triggering violence against Israel’s people and their sacred places. Jesus is building trust in the crowds of people following him. He is charismatically communicating a vision that is so much bigger than the Jewish leaders can allow themselves to see. Their concerns are legit. But the truth is their worldview is too small to contain the “here, and not yet” reign of God. Emerson Powery says, “authoritarian powers want to shape local religious debates about proper public expressions of faith.” You know why, because they want to limit what you and I believe God can do. The socio-political systems in place work better when the ranks fall in line and stay in their place. A few weeks ago, in the beatitudes, we said:
Jesus had a way of saying to the folks at the top of society, “come down….” “Give up your power, and your explanations… There is another way to live…” And to those at the bottom of society, he said, “come up! You’ve got faith, Go [wash yourself in the pool.] You are enough.”[6]

In the last scene of this play, Jesus finds Roy to make sure that what he sees with his eyes, he also sees in his heart. Roy confessed his belief and worshiped the Lord.  But the Pharisees still have their blinders on.

To what and whom are we blind? The Roys of the world need us to ask better questions, to be more curious, less judgmental; more interested in the person than their problem. We are just as guilty of making assumptions and asking the wrong questions when we say things like, They must be hungry, or need SNAP because someone who could work, doesn’t. They must be poor because they grew up in that neighborhood, or went to those schools, or don’t know how to do right… The poor, the hungry, marginalized, the people at First Stop, our friends who come to class here on Wednesday mornings, people at Manna House, families of children at MLK Elementary… They all need us to ask better questions, to be more curious and less judgmental. And then if we are well-meaning, we take pity and assume we know what people need and try to fix it for them without asking, How are you? What would be helpful? What are the real barriers? We have to get up-close to ask these kinds of questions.

John, the Evangelist, wrote this “play” for us. He knew his readers would be the ones left to do the work of the Kingdom. He also knew that Jesus would continue to be that powerful, sight giving, illuminator of truth, long after he returned to his Father in heaven – through the ministry done by his followers – his disciples, his church. His light is given to the world through you and me. We are the hands and feet of Christ in this world. May we also learn to be his ears, listening carefully and curiously and his eyes, seeing mercifully and compassionately. Amen.

[1] Garnaas-Holmes, Steve https://unfoldinglight.net/2026/03/09/looking-not-looking/

[2] Garcia Bradshaw, Jennifer, Working Preacher commentary, John 9:1-41

[3] Genesis 16:13, story of Hagar

[4] Sloyan, Gerard S., Interpretation commentary series, John

[5] MacCreaigh, Erica, Christian Century, In the Lectionary column, March 2026

[6] Rohr, Richard, Teaching the Sermon on the Mount, YouTube, Center for Action and Contemplation