Recently, Canada’s single-use plastics ban was challenged in court by the people most negatively affected – the plastics lobby. These industry folks claim that the ban is unconstitutional. They argue that the impact of a single plastic cap on any one animal is insufficient evidence to prove that single use plastics are bad overall. After all, what’s an animal’s suffering in the greater arc of capitalism?
Such arguments are not new. Thriving businesses are important in a capitalist world. How do we balance that importance with other needs? At what point do we prioritise animals, nature, and people? When confronted with these narratives, one question can help: “who benefits”? Who benefits from the single-use plastic ban? Who benefits if it is overturned? What is the worst that can happen? What is the best? When a moment is a battle between status quo and change we can pause and consider: Who benefits as a way to focus our reflection about what is ultimately right and good.
Who benefits? Today’s Gospel reveals that battles between status quo and change have been fought for millennia. The Pharisees liked the status quo. They stood to benefit the most from keeping things the way they were. After all, they held considerable power and influence. They were considered righteous. They were the authorities. They were the ones who decided who was in and who was out. Jesus healing someone distracted from that, undermining their authority and so they presented arguments to undermine what Jesus had done in the hopes of maintaining the status quo.
Who benefits? The status quo didn’t work for the man born blind. He was forced to live as a beggar, constantly asking others for what he needed to survive. This made his life precarious at best. Of course, with the status quo, the assumptions and expectations of the time, the blind man’s suffering was justified – it was punishment for sin! Only God has the power to forgive. Thus, according to the existing status quo, no one was responsible for relieving his suffering and including him fully in the community.
Who benefits? Jesus disrupted the status quo and healed the man born blind. In doing so, the man born blind benefitted. Jesus gave him a fresh start in life. Now people couldn’t use his blindness as an excuse to exclude him from the community. Now he couldn’t be dismissed as a sinner. Now he could explore productive ways to participate in society. Now he had a chance to support himself. Now he would be able to walk with others without shame.
Furthermore, this was no small act of healing. This was someone who had been blind from birth! The transformation was significant making it difficult to ignore! How many others might have experienced a sense of hope and possibility because of this miracle? How many others may have come to believe that transformation can be more than we ask or imagine? This moment was about more than the blind man, more than the Pharisees. This miracle was an invitation and challenge for all who experience this story to see anew!
Jesus said, ‘I came into this world for judgement so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.’
Who benefits? Jesus has a habit of challenging the status quo. In Jesus we continue to be invited to reflect on what is possible. In Jesus we are called to see differently, to ask ‘who benefits’ and continually look for ways to ensure those who are too often left on the margins have what they need to not only survive but THRIVE! In Jesus we are asked to look past distractions, the privileges that work for us and blind us to oppression. In Jesus we are challenged to see anew and open ourselves to something that is more than we can ask or imagine.
Who benefits? It is a question worth asking over and over again! May we let go of our desire to maintain aspects of the status quo and tradition that serve to benefit us and disadvantage others so that we too can continually see, celebrate, and honour the God-given gifts all people offer to our community. This we pray as we sing: (VT) 412 My Soul Cries Out.