Confused Roles

The Rev. Joseph Winston

March 2, 2008

Sermon

Grace and peace are gifts for you from God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.1
The stage makes many difficult demands on the actor. Unlike television or
movies where the scene can be spliced together at some later date, a play must
flow smoothly from the start all the way to the finish. This simple requirement
makes an actor’s life difficult. Every line must be memorized because you cannot
use a second take to fix your flubbed delivery. On the stage, you also do not have
the advantage of multiple cameras filming the scene. The director must block all
of your movements out so that the audience can see what is happening on the
stage.
Even if you delivered every one of your lines perfectly and you were where
you needed to be at all times, you have not done enough to be even an average
1
Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Galatians 1:3, Ephesians 1:2, Philippians
1:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:2, Philemon 1:3

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actor. The stage forces you to be larger than life. You do not have a microphone
picking up your lines. You must project so that the person in the back row of the
audience can hear you clearly. In almost every instance, the audience is physically
separated from the actor. Because of this distance, you must exaggerate your mo-
tions so that the audience can see what you are trying to say. The detachment
between the audience and the actors forces another change in the actor’s appear-
ance. Makeup must be worn. Harsh dark lines are drawn on the actor’s face and
garish colors are placed on the lips, cheeks, and eyelids. These cosmetic tricks are
needed to prevent the actor’s face from becoming an undistinguished blob.
Once the play is over, the actor must return once again to the “normal” world.
Here we face a different set of constraints. No longer do we have a memorized
script. Our lines our made up on the spot. A director does not tell us our move-
ments. We make our own decisions on where we need to be. We tone down our
stage presence. We use our “inside” voice. Gestures are smaller. Makeup is either
reduced or completely eliminated.
Despite the fact that none of us are professional actors, we all have settled
into well-known roles. Teachers follow scripts otherwise known as lesson plans.
Chemical workers act in strict accordance to plant guidelines. Families follow this
same pattern. Outside, children can run and scream to their heart’s content. Inside,
this behavior is unacceptable. Parents are no different. Almost universally, moth-
ers and fathers give their children “that look” when they start to misbehave and if
the children do not get the hint then a stern word is spoken to them. However, dis-
agreements between adults are handled in a different manner. We try to tell others

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how the situation is affecting me.
Trouble breaks out when we do not correctly play our roles. Imagine what
would happen if teachers started to act like students. Chaos would rule in the
classroom until some force took over. Tell me what would occur if a chemical
worker randomly opened and closed valves in the plant. At the very least, the
worker would be fired for this malicious action and it is completely conceivable
that something much worse might happen: death and destruction. Allowing chil-
dren to run around without discipline is harmful to both the child and the society.
The child never learns the difference between right and wrong. The community
is then forced to take on the role of parent and correct the child using the judicial
process. This costs us an enormous amount of money.
That is what is happening in today’s Gospel lesson. People are not playing
their parts correctly. More importantly still, Jesus is not acting like God.
The confusion over roles starts right away and it starts with a group that should
have known better. The disciples ask the teacher, “Who is at fault: the man or his
parents?” (John 9:2). In asking this question of Jesus, they hope to show Him
their great knowledge of the Old Testament where God’s part seems to be one of
vengeance (Exodus 20:5; Numbers 14:18; Deuteronomy 5:9; Tobit 3:3-4).2 Jesus
quickly reminds them that they are trying to force fit a role on God because this
blind man will show how God really acts (John 9:3).
What happens next also shows us that even today we do not understand God’s
2
S.D.B. Francis J. Maloney; S.J. Daniel J. Harrington, editor, The Gospel of John, Volume 4,
Sacra Pagina Series, (Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1998), p. 291.

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part in our life of faith. Jesus does not ask the bind man if he wants to be healed,
if he has ever repented of any sin, or even if he believes in anything at all. Instead,
Jesus spits on the ground, makes mud, and without permission applies it to the
blind man’s eyes (John 9:6). Then Jesus commands the blind man, who must have
been surprised by all this commotion, to go and wash off the mud (John 9:7).
It seems as if the blind man knows what to do. He goes and washes and re-
turns seeing (John 9:7). Unfortunately, this action seems to be completely out of
character for him. No one, except for his parents, believes that the formally blind
man and the man with sight are the one and the same (John 9:8-9).
Now the narrator gives us an important fact that he neglected to tell us earlier.
This work performed by Jesus happened on a Sabbath (John 9:14).
According to the Pharisees’ logic, this little nugget of knowledge completely
rules out the option that Jesus is playing the role of Messiah. In their minds they
think, we know the law and who gave it to us. God cannot and will not break
the law because this action undermines the law’s stated purpose to separate those
who love the Lord from those who do not. From testimony, we all know that Jesus
broke the law by working on the Sabbath (John 9:16). Therefore, Jesus cannot be
from God nor can He represent God because He is nothing more than a sinner.
It is clear to them that Jesus must be removed from the show because He is
playing the wrong part.
If we are honest with ourselves, we know that we are not any better today than
the Pharisees were because we have divided up into two different camps.3
3
See Beyond Liberalism and Fundamentalism for more details about this problem.

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 A fundamentalist cannot see how God would work outside of the text explic-
itly found in the Bible. Any deviation one-way or the other indicates that some-
thing has changed dramatically. This modification to the Word, in their eyes, cre-
ates a false god that cannot be worshiped.
A liberal on the other hand, cannot see why God would create the laws of the
universe and then intercede on the behalf of one unworthy individual. For them, a
miracle either shows how God failed in setting up creation properly or it suggests
that God plays favorites. Neither idea is palatable in their minds.
In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus shows us how wrong the fundamentalists and
the liberals really are.
By kneading the dirt and the spit together, Jesus broke one of the thirty-nine
laws associated with working on the Sabbath.4 In the minds of the fundamental-
ists, this action by Jesus is utterly impossible because God cannot make a law,
then turn around, and perfectly disregard it. In this healing outside of the temple,
Jesus shattered this incorrect notion advanced by the fundamentalists. God gave
the law to bring life into the community. By His action today in today’s Gospel
lesson, Jesus shows us that God’s law must be broken when it prevents people
from living.
Liberals will not like to know that Jesus changes the natural order so that one
specific person might be saved. But this is exactly what Jesus tells us in today’s
Gospel. God selected this one flawed individual to bring witness to the light of
4
Brian P. Stoffregen, Exegetical Notes at John 9.1-41 Fourth Sunday of Lent - Year A, http:
//www.crossmarks.com/brian/john9x1.htm.

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Christ. This action by God requires an idea that is totally unacceptable to the
liberal mind. God gave this man the curse of blindness at birth. What happens
next is also outside of the liberal mindset. Jesus chose this unnamed man out of
all the blind men in Jerusalem and only healed him. In giving him his sight, Jesus
gave the man another gift: that of faith. This miraculous healing of the blind man
completely cuts through the liberal rhetoric. God can do whatever God wants.
In these actions, Jesus is showing us another way to live that transcends our
ideas of fundamentalism and liberalism. Christ’s role on earth is to point beyond
Himself to the One who sent Him. This is the Father’s will and it too is our calling.
Today, we have seen Him accomplish this task through a miracle that gives
sight to the blind man. The light that now streams into the man eyes is not the
only miracle that occurs in this Gospel lesson. Jesus also leads this man to see
the Savior of the world. This same light from God illuminates a problem with the
leaders of the temple. They see Jesus before their very eyes but reject Him because
these directors disagree with the role that Jesus plays in the world.
William Shakespeare famously said that,

All the world’s a stage,

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 And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. (Act Two of As You
Like It)

There is some truth in this quote from As You Like It. We all have our roles

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that we play in life and as Shakespeare correctly points out these parts change
with time. However, there is something fundamentally wrong with Shakespeare’s
idea. Jesus does not allow us to quietly slip into the nothingness so eloquently
described by Shakespeare. Christ’s role in the play is completely different. He has
come to save you and I.
“The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus.”5

References

Francis J. Maloney, S.D.B.; Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., editor, The Gospel of John,
Volume 4, Sacra Pagina Series, (Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical
Press, 1998).

Murphy, Nancey, Beyond Liberalism and Fundamentalism: How Modern and

Stoffregen, Brian P., Exegetical Notes at John 9.1-41 Fourth Sunday of Lent - Year
A, http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/john9x1.htm.

5
Philippians 4:7.