What It Means to See | Lent 2026
By Erin Popova
A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.” He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!” John 9:24–25
What does it mean to see?
When I was little, I desperately wanted glasses. I had a little bit of nearsightedness, but my trip to the eye doctor was more prompted by my desire for glasses than my inability to see. I wanted to be able to see perfectly, and I wanted to look cool doing it. Putting on my glasses for the first time was glorious. Finally, I could see perfectly.
In John 9, the religious leaders are sure that they see very clearly. They’re confident. They have their theology worked out. They know who God is, how He works, and who definitely doesn’t belong in that category. And they’re sure Jesus doesn’t fit.
Then there’s the man who used to be blind.
They push him to explain. To take a side. To make a theological statement. And he basically says, I don’t know about all that. I just know I was blind, and now I’m not.
Sometimes we overcomplicate faith. We think seeing means perfect clarity—no questions, no wrestling, no mystery. We assume that if we really trusted God, we would understand exactly what He is doing and why. We think it means we can explain everything we see.
But that’s not what sight looks like here.
We confuse faith with belief. We confuse sight with understanding. The healed man didn’t have all the answers, but he had an encounter.
Seeing doesn’t mean we’ll always understand God’s ways. It means we can look at our own lives and admit: something changed. Light came in. I’m not who I was before.
Without Him, we’re more blind than we’d like to admit. With Him, even partial vision is enough to start walking with him.
“I was blind. Now I see.”
That’s where our faith begins, and it’s also enough to sustain us when things don’t make sense.
Reflect:
When have you encountered Jesus in a way that wasn’t about “what you know” but “what you experienced”?
