Anchor verses: |Ephesians 5:8-14 and John 9:1-41
Stepping Out of the Shadows
Let us consider the ancient classic, Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. This short story is a powerful philosophical metaphor that illustrates how people can be trapped in ignorance, perceiving only shadows of reality rather than the truth. It depicts prisoners chained in a cave who see only shadows on a wall, representing distorted perceptions, while the outside world symbolizes true knowledge and enlightenment.
Briefly, if you are not aware of the story, let me share it:
As presented by Plato, Socrates’s allegory of the cave imagines a group of people chained together inside an underground cave as prisoners. Behind the prisoners there is a fire, and between the prisoners and the fire are moving puppets and real objects on a raised walkway with a low wall. However, the prisoners are unable to see anything behind them, as they have been chained and stuck looking in one direction—at the cave wall—their whole lives.
As they look at the wall before them, they believe the shadows of objects cast by the moving figures are real things—and the only things. Their visible world is their whole world. The narrative goes on to ponder about what would happen if one of the prisoners were forced to leave. What would they see? How would they adjust? Would they believe what they saw outside? What would happen to them if they returned to the cave? Would they be able to see the same things they saw before? The narrative assumes the freed prisoner would return and try to liberate their fellow prisoners, now knowing how much more of the world exists outside the cave. However, in its conclusion, Socrates and Glaucon agree that the other prisoners would likely kill those who try to free them, as they would not want to leave the safety and comfort of their known world.
As I was studying these scripture passages this week, both the Allegory of Cave and John of the Cross’s Dark Night of the Soul came to mind as did the contemporary problem of evil and the scapegoating problem. Much of evangelical Christianity is based on a theological system that is deeply flawed and scripturally questionable which then creates unbalanced power structures. While we are seeing this on full blast currently, it has been a constant problem for Christianity for centuries.
What if, like in the Allegory of the Cave, we stepped out of the darkness and saw the world as Jesus challenges us to see it? What would the cost be of seeing clearly?
When Light Disrupts Our Darkness
As we wrestle with what it means to truly see the world as God intends, let us turn our attention to the Gospel of John. At first glance, today’s passage might simply appear as another beautiful story—Jesus healing a blind man. And yet, how often do we pause at the miracle and neglect to look deeper, to ask what the Spirit is speaking beneath the surface? Just as last week’s text challenged our assumptions, so too does this story call us to step outside the ordinary and hear a message that still shakes our culture today.
Notice with me how Jesus in John’s account turns an age-old belief on its head. In that time and for some in our time, suffering was widely seen as a sign of sin—a reason to assign blame. But Jesus refuses to play that game. Instead, he points to possibility: “This happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” Jesus shifts our focus from blame to blessing, from searching for fault to opening ourselves to the light. He heals the man, and when the man returns from the pool of Siloam, Jesus is no longer present—but the transformation is undeniable. The man can see, and his life is forever changed.
But let’s not rush past what comes next. There is a cost to seeing clearly. The man who was healed doesn’t just receive new sight—he becomes a living disturbance to those around him. Neighbors are confused, friends are skeptical, even religious leaders are threatened by his testimony. Over and over, he patiently explains what has happened: “I am the man. This is what Jesus did for me.” He speaks only what he knows—no more, no less—and lets the truth stand as it is. There’s courage in that, a kind of holy boldness we are all called to embody. Friends, things are really bad right now. You know what is happening in our world, our country, our community and our Church is not right, is morally wrong even. You are called to speak truth and embody this holy boldness.
Friends, I want you to hear this: Jesus doesn’t point a finger of blame at the man, his family, or anyone else. The crowd, the Pharisees, us today —they all want to assign fault, to box suffering into neat explanations. But Jesus takes a radically different stance. He invites us to see our challenges as opportunities for God’s glory to break through, especially in a world familiar with hardship and pain. This story warns us against spiritual pride and complacency, urging us instead to seek real understanding and life-changing transformation. Consider the modern believer who, despite a difficult diagnosis, uses their journey as a living testimony to God’s goodness and grace. Like the healed man, our struggles can become stories of hope—proclaiming that even in our darkest moments, God’s light can shine and make all things new.
Courage to Walk in the Light
Much of my job as a clinician and in the way I was trained as a pastor was to expose injustice and then work with the community to correct these injustices. Injustice in our society often happens when two things happen, either really rich people take all the money from others and impose rules that we cannot control – something we cannot control – or –we point fingers and blame or stand afraid to expose the darkness around us. In our Ephesians text, we find Paul “inviting his readers to expose the darkness imposed on people like women and children who are secretly trafficked. People whose advancing age and various frailties also makes them vulnerable to all sorts of elder abuse. People whose material impoverishment, what’s more, makes them vulnerable to a variety of secret exploitation. Immigrants whose legal status, on top of all that, makes them reluctant to report their exploitation.” In sum, our readings today summon Jesus’ spiritually sleepy friends, us to wake up. Then, after all, Christ’s light can shine on and through us onto a spiritually darkened world.”
To walk in the light, then, is not simply to possess new knowledge or clearer vision—it is to live with a renewed courage that challenges us to stand apart from the crowd. Like the man born blind, we are invited to testify to the truth we have experienced, even when it disrupts the status quo or invites misunderstanding. True discipleship often brings discomfort, as the clarity of Christ’s light exposes both the beauty and brokenness within ourselves and our communities.
Yet, it is in this courageous living that we find deeper purpose. The journey out of the cave and into the light is ongoing—it means daily choosing honesty, compassion, and faithfulness, even when it costs us acceptance or ease.
We have been working through platitudes or overused and out of context bible verses during Lent and as I was engaging in my lectio for this message, I immediately thought of the phrase “Christ will set you free”. When light disrupts our darkness, our freedom comes from not only truly seeing, but also not being bound by the chains of popular opinion and a simplistic faith. When we are transformed by the renewing of our minds, our faith becomes richer, fuller.
I want to close with thoughts from the poem from St. John of the Cross. John of the Cross, a Catholic monastic and mystic writes the The “Dark Night of the Soul” and is a concept that describes a phase of spiritual purification where the soul experiences confusion and a sense of God’s absence, ultimately leading to a deeper union with God. This journey involves letting go of attachments and undergoing a transformative process that prepares the soul for divine communion.
When we let the light of Christ disrupt our darkness, when allow ourselves to have moments of doubt, confusion, when we meet Jesus by the pool of Saloam, God will wash our eyes and we will begin to see clearly the intentional love God has for all of creation. We will become disillusioned from our illusion of separateness and see that w are all one in the kindom of God.
May we have the strength to embrace this calling, trusting that God walks with us as we step forward, seeing and loving the world with new eyes. Amen
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