“He kept saying, “I am the man’” (Jo. 9:9).
So, who is the “man born blind”? We’re told over and over again that he was born blind: in fact it gets repeated six times in the course of the reading, as the Gospel writer John tells the story. We don’t know his name, even though we meet his parents. The fact that he was born blind is the main thing we know about him.
Even though we don’t know his name, the man takes center stage for a large part of the story; in fact, Jesus himself disappears from sight while the religious authorities investigate his healing. Notice that the identity of the “man born blind” is up for grabs from the first. His neighbors ask him: are you really the same blind man who used to sit and beg? Once the authorities are involved the close questioning begins: tell us how you were healed? How could you let a sinner heal you on the sabbath?
The man’s parents are hauled in for questioning as well. Once again, it’s a question of identity. Is this really your son? If so, how did he come to see? (Notice how his parents redirect the investigators back to their son, and refuse to answer the question.) The Pharisees are keen to discredit the chief witness to Jesus’ miraculous healing, in order to discredit Jesus himself.
Then the religious authorities return to the man who’s been blind from birth. They double down on their inquiry: tell us again how you supposedly came to be healed. Admit that the one who you say healed you is in fact a sinner. They think the whole thing is a put up job to make Jesus look like the messiah. For them it’s not so much who the man is, but who people suppose Jesus to be. The authorities tell the man born blind to make a full confession and come clean, or else. We only get back to Jesus after the man is expelled from the community.
So, back to the initial question: who is the “man born blind”? Whoever he is, he’s a lot like Jesus. He’s persecuted and abused by the religious authorities, in the same way Jesus is. He’s closely questioned by the authorities about his identity, just like Jesus at his trial. He meets his adversaries with courage and dignity, recalling Jesus at the cross. He uses the same words to respond to the authorities that Jesus uses when the soldiers come to arrest him: “I am the man” (Jo. 9:9; Jo. 18:5,6,8). He’s so much like Jesus that he can fill the stage even though Jesus is not on it. In short, his identity is wrapped up in Jesus’ own identity.
The “man born blind” is the model for each and every believer in Our Lord Jesus Christ. He’s an everyman figure, a pattern for all of us who would follow Jesus. When Jesus returns, it says that he “found” (Jo. 9:35) the man born blind: a word that’s typically used in John’s Gospel to describe encounters between Jesus and his disciples. “I once was lost, but now am found”: the words of the hymn give us a sense of how the word is used here.
That’s the case with the man born blind. Jesus asks him whether he believes in the Son of Man. “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.” (Jo. 9:36) Then Jesus says to him, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he” (Jo. 9:37). In other words, the one who healed him is the same one he’s looking for. And then we get to the point, “’Lord, I believe.’ And he worshiped him” (Jo. 9:38). The man has become a disciple.
Today, a number of members of the Church are going to step into the role of the man born blind. They will re-affirm their baptismal vows and their belief in Jesus Christ, and receive the laying on of hands in confirmation. God is powerfully at work in their lives, transforming them by the power of the Holy Spirit. Healing takes many forms, and we are all in need of having our spiritual blindness cured by the one who is the Light of the world. Each of us, in our liturgy today, will have the opportunity to join in the re-affirmation of our vows, and to renew our commitment to Christ. Each of us will have a chance to join in worship and praise.
So, who is the “man born blind”? In truth, he’s each of us, whom Jesus Christ has found and who have been called by him into discipleship. Our identity is wrapped up in his identity. The man born blind is like the cut-out figure at the fair ground, where you place your own face in the blank space. He’s you, and me, and our confirmands, and everyone in this church. Which means that the next person we encounter may be Jesus himself.