Lent 4A - 2026

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Lent, Year A
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
The Rev. Andrew McLarty

The Jukes Case

In 1877, sociologist and prison reform advocate, Richard Dugdale, did a study familial connections among inmates in New York prisons. He used the pseudonym “the Jukes Family” to describe this group of interrelated families, in order to highlight the social, not genetic, causes of degeneracy and to promote education and rehabilitation as remedies.

In the early 20th century, eugenicists completely reinterpreted Dugdale’s data to support the opposite- hereditarian theories, genetic inferiority, and “bad blood,” helping to justify restrictive immigration laws and forced sterilization policies in the United States.

Later historians and sociologists criticized the methodology of the Jukes case. Today, we see environmental deprivation, systemic poverty, and limited access to education as the true drivers of these social problems. The Jukes study serves as a cautionary example of how scientific research can be misused to support discriminatory agendas.

John

In our Gospel today, Jesus encounters a man who has been blind since birth. Immediately the disciples begin ask: “Who sinned?”

Was it him? Was it his parents?

Like the Jukes case, we do the same as the disciples. When we see suffering, we try to explain it away. We want a tidy explanation for pain.

But Jesus Christ redirects it that kind of thinking…

“It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that God’s works might be revealed in him.”

Now that line has troubled me, and has troubles many for centuries. Did God make this man blind his whole life so Jesus could show off a miracle?

I don’t think so.

Because the work of God is not limited to the moment when the man receives his sight.

The work of God is already present in him.

Before the healing. During the healing. After the healing.

This man is not defined by his blindness. And Jesus sees that before anyone else.

Samuel

The same happens in First Samuel today, with the Lord telling Samuel:

“The Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

As the sons of Jesse are brought out one by one, Samuel cannot about any of them as king on behalf of God.

Because God is not impressed by what impresses us. God is not swayed by stature, status, or outward appearance. God looks deeper. God looks at the heart.

John, again

To everyone around him, he is simply “the blind man.”

But Jesus sees a child of God.

Just as God told Samuel centuries earlier: we look at outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.

After he is healed, the religious authorities interrogate him, they doubt him, and they pressure him to deny what has happened. But they cannot quench his spirit.

At first he calls Jesus a man. Then he calls him “prophet.” And finally, when Jesus finds him again, he confesses faith in the Son of Man.

Not only is his sight restored, but so is his exuberant faith.

Yet, the ones who believe they already see clearly cannot recognize God standing right in front of them.

And if we are honest, this is simultaneously a cautionary and inspirational lesson.

Because we live in a world that judges by outward appearances.

We categorize people. We reduce people. We define people by the most visible or difficult part of their lives.

We say: the addict. The poor. The dirty. The immigrant. The criminal. The failure. The outsider.

But the Gospel reminds us that none of those labels tell the whole story. Heaven, after all, is full of the songs of sinners.

The Kingdom of God is not built on the perfection of the righteous, but on the redemption of the broken.

Because we are not just the ones doing the judging. We are also the ones being judged. Every one of us knows what it feels like to carry something that others see first.

A failure. A shame. A struggle. A wound.

We know what it feels like to be reduced to one chapter of our story. But Jesus sees the whole story. He sees beyond the blindness. He sees the heart.

Because the Good News at the center of the Gospel is that Christ looks at every one of us the same way he looked at that man on the roadside.

Not as the world sees us. But as God sees us.

And when Christ looks at us, he does not see our blindness. He sees our heart. And he calls it beloved.

Amen.