Was Blind, But Now I See

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

Above is the first verse of the hymn Amazing Grace. The last line of the first verse ("Was blind, but now I see.") relates directly to this Sunday's gospel reading (John 9) about the man born blind. The question I have is this: What do we mean when we sing that we were once blind but now we see?

I think these words are often said in a manner antithetical to John 9. What we often mean is that we once didn’t know right from wrong, but now we do. Thus, being a Christian becomes a matter of knowing good and evil, and then trying really hard to choose the good.

Put simply, this is not Christianity. In fact, eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the original sin. In Genesis 3, the serpent tempts Eve to eat of the tree, telling her, “when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Gen. 3:4) She and Adam eat from the tree, thereby acquiring the knowledge of good and evil.

The subsequent history of humanity has been marred by the fall that occurred when Adam and Eve acquired this knowledge. If, when we sing “Amazing Grace”, we mean that we now have the knowledge of good and evil, then our singing is nothing more than a confession of sin.

Eating from that tree has two consequences. First, it leads us to hide ourselves from the presence of God: “The man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God.” (Gen. 3:8) The second consequence has two parts: refusing to admit our guilt and, in our refusal, accusing others before God. Asked whether he has eaten from the tree, Adam says, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” (Gen. 3:12) Eve’s response: “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.” (Gen. 3:13)

Hiding from the presence of God, refusing to admit our sin, and trying to get God’s condemnation to fall on others…this is what happens when we eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If this is what we mean by “was blind, but now I see,” then we should be turning away from this so-called sight.

In John 9, Jesus tells the Pharisees that their very claim to see is what keeps them in sin: “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.” The attempt to self-justify leads to a profound blindness. Those who persist in it cannot see that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Rom. 3:23) They cannot see that the sin of their neighbor is only a speck, and that their own sin is indeed a log. (Mat. 7:4) It’s worth noting that the Hebrew word “Satan” literally means “accuser”. To play the role of accuser is to join Satan…not a good thing.

In contrast to the Pharisees – whose self-justification is in fact self-condemnation – the man born blind is simply a beggar. Jesus tells him, “Go, wash…” and he responds with simple obedience: “Then he went and washed and came back able to see.” (John 9:7) The sight of the man born blind is categorically different from the “sight” of the Pharisees. The sight given by Jesus “look(s) not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen.” (2 Cor. 4:18)

The eyes of faith see God’s strength in human weakness. Through faith in and obedience to Jesus, they see the glory of God in the humility of his Son. Ultimately, they see that the crucified Christ is the risen Christ, and that being buried with Him means rising with Him. These are the ones who can rightly and joyfully sing, “Was blind, but now I see.”