Baptism is sometimes called enlightenment. The gospel for this Sunday is the story of the man born blind healed by Christ. “I was blind, now I see,” declares the man. In baptism God opens our eyes to see the truth of who we are: God’s beloved children. This theme of sight runs throughout today’s texts, both in terms of how God does not see as we see and also in Jesus’ healing of a man born blind, who transforms physically – and spiritually – from darkness to light. May this Lent be a time to examine our own sight.
Lent is a season of grace, but it is undoubtedly a Costly Grace. Lent calls us to take God’s grace seriously and reminds us of its full cost. Dietrich Bonhoeffer coined the phrases “costly grace” and “cheap grace,” encouraging Christians to a life of costly discipleship in response to the great cost of Christ’s death on Good Friday. Throughout the forty days of Lent, we are invited into Costly Grace: “Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ” (Bonhoeffer).
title image: Healing of a Man Born Blind by Julia Stankova. Copyright © Julia Stankova. All rights reserved. Used by permission of the artist.