Minister’s Message: Who Jesus illuminates
Published 1:30 am Thursday, February 19, 2026
In John 9, Jesus makes the astonishing claim, “I am the light of the world,” then backs it up by healing a man born blind.
Yet for a story about Jesus being the light, there is an awful lot of not seeing going on. The students of Jesus judge the blind man on appearances and come to the conclusion that he is sinful. After Jesus opened his eyes, the townsfolk who walked past this blind man every day for years could not decide whether or not it was the same man. Even the blind man’s own parents show an astonishing lack of wonder or care that their son is healed. They are more afraid of what others will think of them. To top it off, the religious leaders refuse to believe or accept that God has anything to do with healing this man born blind and so they kick him out of their presence.
Not one person actually celebrates with the man who can see for the first time. No one asks him what it’s like to behold color and shape and definition. No one bothers to raise a “hallelujah” or a “praise God!” In short, no one treats him like a human. It’s as if the moment that Jesus opens the blind man’s eyes, he reveals the blindness of everyone else, because everyone else fails to see the humanity of this man.
What a pity if the same would be true of us! Jesus, the light of the world, illuminates the humanity of everyone that our wider culture or media tells us to dismiss, disparage and disdain. Yet, far too often, we close our eyes to Jesus and proceed to treat one another as less than human. I catch myself wondering if we will stop determining the value of another’s life on whether that other is on our side of the political spectrum or not. Or what will it take for us as fellow human beings to stand up and call wrong anyone or any organization or any policy that treats another with cruelty rather than dignity?
There is a moral and spiritual imperative here illuminated by Jesus: to see others as God sees them, be they citizen or immigrant, be they neighbor or stranger, be they protestor or bystander, be they straight or gay, be they Republican or Democrat. In fact, the call of Jesus upon our lives is the same regardless of whom we voted for. Jesus, the light of the world, illuminates the humanity of every other person, then turns to us and says “Now can you see?”
Jesus’ final words of the chapter are the most telling. For those of us who claim to see, yet fail to treat others with the kindness and respect their humanity demands, Jesus says our sin remains. However, if we confess our blindness and acknowledge that we have not treated others with dignity, God meets us with mercy and opens our eyes. So we’ve got to ask ourselves: can we see who Jesus illuminates?
Joshua Gorenflo is the minister at Kenai Fellowship, Mile 8.5 on the Kenai Spur Highway. Worship is 11 a.m. on Sundays. Streamed live at kenaifellowship.com.
