When Jesus and his disciples went to the grave of his friend Lazarus, Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”[1] Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.”[2] His words do not prevent Martha from objecting to Jesus having the grave opened. Biblical blindness, if you will, the kind of blindness to God’s presence in the world that begins with the story of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.[3] So today, with the appointed gospel from the supper before the Passover, we hear Philip say to Jesus, using an imperative form of the verb, “You, show us the Father.” Jesus’ reply, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me?”[4] Biblical blindness.
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