Lent 4

March 19, 2023

Text – St. John 9:1-41

“Blind But Now I See!”

“There are none so blind as those who will not see!”  There are those who can’t see, either due to some psychosomatic dilemma or on account of an accident or disease.  However, what is worse are those who WILL NOT see, which has intellectual and spiritual implications. 

Intellectually, plain facts are denied for the sake of meeting some political ends, or to fit the “approved of” narrative, or history is re-writ to serve baser needs of those who will not see!  The crazy thing is that nowadays we appear to be living out the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes and despite the obvious, people are fearful of being persecuted or considered on the outside of the mainstream or are “cancelled” for expressing their point of view.

Spiritually, we are asked to believe some incredible things.  But when you are dealing with God as the highest and best then it is not surprising that with Him “nothing shall be impossible.”  His ways are above our ways so that what He does shouldn’t be confined to the mere levels of human achievement.  So then, there is creation, there are miracles, there are the effects of word and sacraments on the hearts of believers. There are the marvels that God works in everyday life that are so commonplace that we barely think of them as unique, extraordinary, or divine.

But spiritually, the tainted human heart easily rejects things above our understanding and other things that are inconvenient or unpleasing.  Our spiritual blindness becomes evident when we feel stifled by the Sixth Commandment.  Our rebellion comes to the fore when boundaries are set that restrict us and we cross those boundaries for the pursuits of the flesh and the fulfilling of our passions.  The Fifth Commandment forbids hurting or harming our neighbor by what we say or do, and it forbids the taking of life at either end of the spectrum and anywhere in between.  But how easily we destroy our neighbors and loved ones without even pulling the trigger.

In our desire to be the ultimate and supreme authority over our own existence, we step into the place that belongs to God alone and rend asunder the divine intention of the First Commandment as did our first parents. 

If Jesus is an inconvenience either to our high opinion of ourselves or to the heralding of our own righteousness as our ticket to heaven, then we walk in the darkness of Pharisaic unbelief and self-condemnation. This stuff is the essence of the blind man’s story in our Gospel reading.

A man was blind and known by the locals (and his parents) to have been so since his birth.  When he meets up with Jesus, he pleads his need, and his blindness is reversed.  His sight is restored with a bit of mud and spit and a washing in the pool of Siloam… a sort of extension of Genesis, chapter three.  Jesus of Nazareth was definitely the instigator of this Sabbath miracle (just ask the once blind man) yet the narrative of the Pharisees was that Jesus was a sinner, or of the devil, and couldn’t have pulled off such a sign, and He most certainly wasn’t the prophesied Messiah.  They didn’t even work on an alternative to the miracle.  “The poor man must be deluded!” they explained. So, by an act of absolute authority they declared that anyone who believed that Jesus was God’s promised One was to be excommunicated.  The intent was to stem the tide of Israel following Jesus… instead of them.  This would also become the pretext for the leaders of the Jews to try to catch Jesus in just such an offense that they could be rid of Him once and for all.

The discussion regarding the origin of this man’s predicament is so typical of the thoughts that go through our minds when bad things happen and we ask “Why me?”  Well, here they ask “Why? and “Why him?”  Did his parents sin and bring down on their boy his blindness?  Is a specific sin ever the reason for a specific evil result? We think so but it ain’t necessarily so. Yes, sometimes a fetus can garner the effect of their mother’s addiction.  Yes, sometimes a lifetime of abuse can lead to the onset of ulcers, disease, even cancer.  Yes, sometimes being obese and out of shape can lead to a shorter life span.  But, in this specific case a specific sin was not what led to this man’s blindness.  Jesus, considering the outcome of which he was very much aware already, answered that this blindness was going to open many eyes and glorify God at the same time.  This is so “…that the works of God should be revealed in him.”

The crazy thing is that this is all going according to a vast eternal plan regardless of man’s doing.  The hostility against the Lamb of God would redound to God’s glory as the arrest, the trial, the judgment, the crucifixion would complete Jesus’ mission to reverse the separation of God and man prevailing since Eden.

We make the trek from darkness to light, from lost to found, and from blind to sighted and God established the route each man or woman follows to His glory. 

In our hearts is an innate awareness that should there be a supreme being He must be perfect.  He would expect the same perfection from those He created, and we just aren’t at all close to that standard.  To further confirm our plight God gave the tablets of the Law to Moses to codify the Law already written in our hearts.  We would not know that “coveting was a sin except that the Law declared it to be so.” We stand condemned both by our conscience and by God’s Word.

The Scriptures further describe us in our natural, fallen, and unregenerate state as God’s enemies, and spiritually dead as well as blind to the ways and will of God.  Worse is that our flesh plays an active part in pursuing a path that leads away from our Creator and God, and we are very much and continually mindful of it. Apart from the Scriptures and our being brought to faith in what they say and express we could not know that God had any good thoughts about us or our future.  Apart from the Scriptures we would have no details pertaining to the plan that could bring us back safely into His fold as His sheep.

Where the light was shining to uncover our crimes and sin, we preferred the darkness to keep them hidden and us respectable.  As regards God’s revelation of truth we prefer to be illiterate or to suppress what we know for the greater enjoyment of things we think are better than what the Lord prefers.  There are all sorts of symptoms of our sinful nature that finally cause us grief where the Holy Spirit has penetrated the stoniness of our heart and led us to a desire to be a child of our heavenly Father.

The “Jesus” that the blind man discovers to be the solution to his life in darkness is none other than the One who brings righteousness to unrighteousness, and restores life where death once held sway. 

This is our Jesus, here and now, who since the moment of His conception was already redeeming every stage of human life in every one’s behalf, and by His obedience from womb to tomb was working the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets for us.  Then, though perfectly innocent, He voluntarily endured the humiliation, the scourging, the nails, the cross, even death as our substitute.  This Isaiah foresaw and foretold, “He was wounded for our transgressions.  He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.”

Our Father could not leave us in our predicament without there being a way of escape for us from the yawning jaws of hell.  His love was of such a nature that He could never desert us. His love was greater than our sin. His love moved His only Son to “give up His life for His friends.”  But the story of salvation does not end on the cross with Jesus breathing His last breath. It was in taking His life up again that the mission is completed.  It was in walking out of His tomb that our justification and redemption were made more certain and secure.

Whatever wayward track you are following, the return to a life of promise, hope, heavenly bliss and everlasting life is easily brought into the purview of your daily existence and what makes the difference it is our restored, finely tuned sight focused on Jesus, the atoning sacrifice for and the redeeming Lord of the whole world who silences the wrath of God against ever trespass and turns His attitude into one of unqualified acceptance of all who rely on and trust in His Son.

The man born blind, and now sighted, was called on the carpet for the truth he now held dear.  The consequence for believing in Jesus was castigation, persecution, and to be cancelled from the rolls of the synagogue.  His parents deserted him lest they suffer the same fate.  Such, at times, is the demand of the cross of Christ and all its benefits on Christians.  Jesus noted that if they treat the Teacher with contempt, what else might be expected among the Teacher’s disciples.  The example of the early Christians showed what worldly hostility will whip up against the Lord and His anointed.  And more and more, in the present context, Christians are being viewed as backward, ignorant, and a blot on the face of humanity holding the world back from its supposed greater potential.

The man once blind and now seeing, was new and restored.  His life was never to be the same, especially among the Christ-rejecting Pharisees.  The receiving of this miracle was no burden.  The subsequent ill treatment was no problem.  Jesus gave Him his sight.  Jesus makes us seeing to the utmost in the best way.  Jesus gave him new life, and even so, we live in Him and that means we will never perish.  Jesus was His Savior, and He is ours which means heavenly riches are ours which “no thief can steal, or moth eat up, or rust destroy.”   

How could a sinner do such great things and perform such signs as Jesus did? That’s just it; He is no sinner, or just some other ordinary guy.  Jesus is the God/Man who, by His blood, forgives our sins, who gives sight to the blind, who makes the lame walk, raises the dead…  He is the One in whom we trust and in whom we live! 

Amen.