(Un)intentional blindness
Jane Denniston
March 18, 2026
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John 9: 1-12 (NIV-UK)
1 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’
3 ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned,’ said Jesus, ‘but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.4 As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’
6 After saying this, he spat on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 ‘Go,’ he told him, ‘wash in the Pool of Siloam’ (this word means ‘Sent’). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
8 His neighbours and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, ‘Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?’ 9 Some claimed that he was.
Others said, ‘No, he only looks like him.’
But he himself insisted, ‘I am the man.’
10 ‘How then were your eyes opened?’ they asked.
11 He replied, ‘The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.’
12 ‘Where is this man?’ they asked him.
‘I don’t know,’ he said.
You may have heard the phrase ‘nose-blind’, which means we become so used to a smell that we no longer register it. The community this man belonged to had become, in a sense, compassion-blind, they had seen this man so often that they no longer noticed him, or cared about him, to the extent that they weren’t sure if this was the same man or not. They didn’t even understand what had happened to him, superstitiously blaming his blindness on sin. But Jesus noticed, Jesus cared, and Jesus knew that his blindness was neither his fault nor his parents’.
Whom do we pass day by day who is in need, but we’ve ceased to notice? The Big Issue seller? The homeless man? The woman begging? What would it mean to notice them? When we think of them – if we think of them – how do we judge them? Do we blame them for their predicament? Or do we attribute it to the random touch of fate? And does that judgment affect how we treat them?
What small act of kindness could we perform that would help them to feel seen and cared for?
Prayer:
Lord, you know that it’s difficult to care for our neighbours
when our neighbours are not people we actually know.
You know how uncomfortable the Big Issue seller can make us,
or the homeless beggar.
You know that we want to make a difference
but often don’t know how.
Give us courage, Lord,
to show love to those who make us uncomfortable.
Give us wisdom to know what that would mean, Amen
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