From ancient times, the church has chosen three narratives from John’s Gospel for the third, fourth and fifth Sundays of Lent. Last week, it was the Samaritan woman at the well. Today, it’s the healing of the man born blind. Next Sunday, it will be the raising of Lazarus.  

The first reading, 1 Samuel, might seem far removed from the healing of the man born blind in the gospel. The prophet Samuel rejected Saul as king and had to find his successor. The Lord tells him to go to Bethlehem to anoint one of Jesse’s seven sons. But Samuel turns down all of them, “God doesn’t see as humans do” (1 Sam. 16:7). Then Jesse thought of the youngest son outside tending the sheep. “The Lord said, ‘Anoint him, for this is the one!’” The choice went to the youngest, a boy!  

In the Gospel of John, people were sure they knew how God acts, except for the blind man. Jesus brushed aside the question whether the blindness was caused by sin, focusing instead on the man himself so “that the works of God might be made visible through him.” Much of what follows are people’s reactions to the cure — the healed man (and his parents), onlookers, religious leaders, and, of course, Jesus. Throughout the story, the man’s faith grows. At first, he refers to “the man called Jesus.” When questioned next, he says that “He is a prophet.” Questioned again, he shows his exasperation, “One thing I do know is that I was blind and now I see.” Finally asked by Jesus, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” Unthreatened, he now answers, “Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus responds, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” Emboldened, he says, “‘I do believe, Lord,’ and he worshiped him.” That’s as big a statement of faith as we get in the New Testament. 

None of us coast through life on the faith we had when we were young or first converted. We are repeatedly asked a variant of Jesus’s question, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” The man born blind provides us with a prayer, “Who is he, sir, that I may believe?”