NO ONE RECOGNIZES THE MAN BORN BLIND

Because I follow many disabled people on twitter, I am often reminded at how society really just would prefer all disabled and chronically ill people would just go away. American society as currently configured only has use for money and those who can work or otherwise keep the economy going. We are still in the midst of a pandemic that is killing people daily, and yet there is a push to get back to a normal that really only works for white, able-bodied, men. All in service of ‘the economy.’

It is through those same disabled people on twitter that I discovered this Atlantic article highlighting the forgotten 7 million people in the US who have compromised immune systems and for whom the pandemic is still vastly curtailing our activities. Chronically ill and disabled people have been forgotten and ignored during these last few years not because we’re suddenly invisible but rather because we’ve always been invisible.

So, I find it interesting that the Revised Common Lectionary recently read through the Gospel of John, chapter 9; the story of the man born blind. Jesus heals him by putting mud on his eyes and telling him to go wash. When he returns able to see, suddenly, his neighbors and others who had seen him begging don’t recognize him. Because they never really saw him while he was begging. He was ignored because he was ‘just a beggar.’

We are uncomfortable around people with obvious disabilities, partially because we don’t wish to confront the reality that it could happen to us. By and large, we don’t really look at people in wheelchairs, people using canes, or people with prosthetic legs. In the story, no one recognizes the man born blind once he can see, because he no longer occupies his former place in their world.

Their desire for a definitive answer to whether it really is the same man moves the neighbors get the authorities involved. The authorities question the man born blind and refuse to acknowledge the miracle, warning they’ll kick anyone who believes it out of the temple. The authorities go to the parents trying to prove their point. Alas, even the man’s parents aren’t willing to stand up for him, saying he’s and adult and can speak for himself. The authorities continue to give the man born blind a hard time. They call hm a sinner and seem to think he is conning them. their pride won’t let them acknowledge something wonderful that they cannot explain or control.

They ask the man again about his experience, reminding him they think Jesus is a sinner. The man born blind holds his ground well. He tells his story again and then wonders whether the authorities wish to become Jesus’s followers too. He reminds them that never has such a thing happened before and maybe we should embrace it. Their response is to accuse him – a nobody – of trying to teach them. he is kicked out of the temple.

This man’s experience echoes the experience of many disabled and chronically ill people; sometimes neglected by parents, sometimes disregarded or ignored in school, work, or among peers, sometimes not believed (even by doctors) when describing symptoms. We are pressured to go along to get along, to not make waves or advocate for ourselves. This is especially true now, during this pandemic. This man’s journey has it all. But it is more than just a story. It is a reality that many people live with today.

The questions I’d like to pose today are: how can we learn to see disabled people as people rather than ignoring or disregarding them? How can we begin to center them in our thoughts about how the world might be bettered? These questions are important because we all have been socialized in the same society that devalues people who are temporarily able-bodied. Thinking about and prioritizing disabled people, as Jesus calls us to do, goes against a hidden societal rule of which we may not even be aware.

It’s always a leap from seeing people and things from our own angle to seeing them from God’s angle.