Wielding the weapon of healing

In this fourth Sunday of Lent, Phil Kniss, senior pastor of Park View Mennonite Church, takes a deeper look at the "longest healing story in the Bible"--the narrative about Jesus healing the blind man. The story, he claims, is not much about healing, but more about the dialogue between the blind man and the religious powers of the day. Jesus used this healing episode, he said, to address the systemic evil that had accrued under the strict adherence and additions to the Mosaic law, a system that had ultimately blinded the people to the purposes of God. At this second level of brokenness, or blindness, the Pharisees had lost sight of justice, compassion and shalom for all people.