The scripture today is one of honest inquiry but turns quickly to a realization that what the disciples have known, or thought they knew, is no longer applicable. When it comes to encountering a blind person they turn to what they have been taught. If a bad illness or disability befell a person like the one that befell the blind man, it must be because he or his parents had done something wrong. Today, we understand that if a person is born blind it would be because of any number of prenatal conditions having nothing to do with being a marker of someone’s sin. But science is not at play here. The conclusion of the time, was that a “sin” was passed down from parent to child, hence the blind man was a sign that the parents had done something egregious and the man was a symbol for it.

The di…