When someone’s exploration and research are aimed not at finding truth but at distorting or rejecting it, then spiritual blindness and deafness set in, which does not allow anyone to understand and accept even clear and obvious things.
This was stated in the sermon by His Beatitude Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv and All Ukraine on the sixth Sunday after Easter.
Dear brothers and sisters! Christ is Risen!
On this Sunday, we remember the Savior’s healing of a blind man who was blind from birth. But, as we can hear from the Gospel reading, our attention is not focused so much on the fact of healing itself, which is indeed a miracle, but still similar to other miracles of the Lord – it’s focused on how this miracle was perceived by others.
Outwardly, it refers to the event of the healing of a blind man who had no physical sight. But the essence of the Gospel story is to draw our attention to spiritual blindness. That blindness that the Pharisees and some other researchers of miracles show… And Scripture warns us against it.
Thirty-eight verses from Chapter 9 of the Gospel of John are being recited today, and most of this reading is devoted to the study of how and why the blind man could finally see. And how this fact could be combined with Pharisaic ideas about the rules of the Sabbath and the true Messiah. We, the people of the time, when science and the arguments of reason and the results of experiments are perceived by many as something absolute, can make sure that not all research leads to the knowledge of the truth, this is not always the case. There is no doubt that academic research and the desire to explore give us answers to many questions about nature, the past and present. But these answers are only true when their purpose is to learn the truth. And when the researchers and the audience of those who believe them are biased, then various searches and arguments fail to reveal the truth, instead trying to hide it.
This is exactly how the Pharisees behaved. They were considered to be scribes, experienced in laws and regulations. But when their knowledge and experience faced the need to explain the miracle of a blind man being healing on the Sabbath, that is, on a day when, according to their ideas, this could not be done, the Pharisees directed all their energy and zeal not to learning the truth, but to defending their own beliefs.
They were looking for witnesses to the event, in order to find some clue to back their position in their story, they interviewed the parents of the healed blind man, they questioned him, too. But none of these efforts were aimed at learning the truth or revealing the truth, but at searching for evidence to justify the prejudiced attitude of the Pharisees towards the Lord Jesus Christ.
From the start, these zealots of parental traditions were sure that the One who healed the blind man was a sinner because He allegedly “violated the Sabbath.” Therefore, all the energy of the Pharisees’ research was directed to finding evidence of their rightness. And when they failed to find this evidence, they expelled the blind man healed by Christ, simply rejecting the obvious irrefutable facts.
Last Sunday afternoon, we heard a story about the Savior’s conversation with a Samaritan woman. And in this story, you could also hear about research – the Samaritan woman asks Jesus a number of questions. But let’s note how different the research of that Samaritan woman is from the research by the Pharisees! In form, outwardly, they do a seemingly similar thing – they ask about the facts and give an assessment of what they heard – but in essence, their attitude is completely opposite.
The Samaritan woman seeks the truth. And therefore she finds answers to her questions and directly and directly receives a revelation from the Savior that He is the long-sought Messiah. The Pharisees seek justification for their beliefs about the rules of Sabbath rest, which were allegedly violated by the healing of the blind man. And for the sake of their prejudice, they reject facts. Although they have eyes and ears, they really look but do not see, listen but do not hear. They question and research not in order to learn the truth, but in order to reject it.
So, dear brothers and sisters, we see from two Gospel examples that the Lord does not forbid us to explore, He does not demand from us blind and thoughtless trust. He gives us the freedom to learn the truth, He answers our questions when they are really aimed at learning the truth, not at distorting it. But when someone’s exploration nd research are aimed not at the truth, but at its distortion or rejection, then spiritual blindness and deafness sets in, which does not allow understanding and accepting even clear and obvious things.
So the example we see today from the Gospel warns all of us against such blindness, from Pharisaic bias, and encourages us to be open to the truth. And when we don’t know or understand something, we should ask God to open our eyes, explain these things to us, and point to the right path. And He, Who Himself bears the name of Truth, will give us the knowledge of the truth and direct us to the best.
Dear brothers and sisters!
Today we will honor the memory of the apostle and evangelist John the Theologian, the beloved disciple of Christ, and tomorrow we will glorify Saint Nicholas, the rule of faith, on the occasion of the memory of the transfer of his relics. These two saints give us an example of really following the truth, thanks to which they themselves learned the depths of Divine Revelation and served others as true teachers. Therefore, honoring and glorifying them, we ask them for guidance and help for us as well. May we never be blinded spiritually, but may our eyes always be open to learning God’s truth and following it.
Amen.
