MARCH 21, 2023

This year, the UMC General Commission on Religion and Race (GCORR) has provided a free Lenten Bible study, Imago Dei. The Imago Dei (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) Lenten Bible Study is a five-week study written in the style of Lectio Divina. In this form of Bible study all participants are equal, all insights are of equal value, and there are no wrong answers to correct. Week Four begins with a reading of John 9:1-21. See below for the scripture reading.

Download the full Imago Dei Lenten Bible Study here to use throughout these five weeks.

“The practice of reading the Holy Text as a spiritual reading is referred to as Lectio Divina. This monastic practice started in the 6th century. It developed into a four-step process – read, meditate, pray, and contemplate, specifically for a community setting. We can imagine these four movements as dance steps we engage in between the phases.” 

– from Imago Dei: A Lenten Bible Study of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

SCRIPTURE: John 9:1-21 (NRSV)

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s work might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “Is this not the man who use to sit and beg?” Some were saying, “It is he.” But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ Then I went and washed and received my sight.” They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.” 

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was th Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.” Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not observe the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can this man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And they were divided. So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” He said, “He is a prophet.” The Jews did not believe that he had been born blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How does he now see?” His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind, but we do not know how it is that he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.”