I Was Blind But Now I See

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Fourth Sunday in Lent                                         Trinity Lutheran Church

22 March 2020                                                      Murdock, NE

 

+ Jesu Juva +

 

John 9:1-41

 

The man is blind.  Born that way.  But he’s also spiritually blind.  He’s not a believer.  So on this Sabbath Day Jesus will use him as a salvational object lesson.  Jesus puts it this way:  “that the works of God might be displayed in him.”   In other words, so that he, you and me will believe that Jesus is the Christ and that by believing we have life in His name.

 

Jesus restores his physical sight.  That is a huge miracle.  Unheard of in those days!  But again, that’s really not the biggie!  The biggie miracle is that the man becomes a believer, a disciple of Jesus!  Just like Nicodemus in John 3.  Just like that Samaritan woman and the Sychar Samaritans in John 4.  Just like you and me!  Trust-ers.  Living by faith-ers!

 

We too are all like this blind man.  Not physically blind of course.  But spiritually blind.  Born spiritually blind but given spiritual sight.  Dead in our trespasses and sins but given salvational new life freely by Jesus.

 

Check out how Jesus heals the physical blindness.  Spits on the ground.  Bends downs.  Forms some mud or clay with His divine loogie.  Oh, let’s not forget that molding clay was forbidden by the religious keeping the Sabbath Day big wigs of Jesus’ day.  However, Jesus is the Divine Potter.  And just like in Genesis when Jesus formed Adam from clay so now he makes a mud-ish clay to fix this child of Adam born blind.

 

It’s as if Jesus says:  “Here’s mud in your eyes!” And He’s not offering a toast with a drink in His hand.  Literally:  “Here’s mud in your eyes!”  What a strange solution to blindness!  We’d all be saying:  “Somebody put a stop this!  Jesus will make things worse!  Isn’t it enough that he’s blind?  Mud poked into his eyes!  Don’t do it!  Someone call the CDC PDQ!”

 

Now, check out the next part of the divine healing.  Water and His divine mandate!  “Go.  Wash.  In the pool of Siloam.”  This is absolutely delicious – theologically speaking.  I love it!  Doesn’t this remind you of another Bible story?  Of course it does.  Remember Elisha and leprous Naaman the Syrian.  “Wash seven times in the Jordan and you will be healed.”  Water and God’s promissory Word!  Just like your baptism in the way of Matthew 28:19-20 and how Paul speaks of it in Ephesians 5 when he says that Jesus made you, His church, His bride, holy “by the washing of water with the word.” 

 

Well the man does what Jesus says.  Goes.  Washes.  He can see!  For the first time in his life.  Physical sight.  20/20 precision!  Better eyesight that all of us!  Incredible!

 

But as I said earlier the biggie miracle is yet to come.  The faith point!  More on that in a moment.

 

The Pharisees – the big time Sabbath Day keepers – are in full blown scandalized mode!  They are not only ready to issue enormous fines but eager to cuff Jesus and put Him in the electric chair or on a cross ASAP.  After all, in their legalistic world of man-made rules and regulations Jesus has just brazenly broken the Third Commandment.  How?  By kneading clay! One of the 32 Pharisaical bureaucratic regulations specified that you couldn’t do that particular work on the Sabbath!  So again, according to their inflexible and overbearing religious matrix Jesus is nothing but a low-life, deadbeat sinner!  “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” they argue.

 

And so they ask the healed man:  “What do you say about this Jesus?  Don’t you agree with us?  Surely He’s a sinner.  Right?”  The seeing man doesn’t agree.  “He is a prophet.”  Here he sounds just like the Samaritan woman in John 4 who said the same about Jesus.  Yes He is!  And more!  Much, much more!

 

As we will hear in just a moment.  In the meantime the Pharisees excommunicate the seeing man from the synagogue.  His parents do some serious social distancing from their son since they fear the legalistic Pharisees who nothing about grace but only rules and regulations.

 

Well, Jesus shows up again.  It is the first time the man sees Jesus with His eyes.  Jesus comes to him with a huge question.  The biggest anyone could ever be asked.  It is the salvational question.  “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”  In other words, do you believe in the Savior?  The Messiah?

 

The seeing man asks, “Who is He THAT I MAY BELIEVE IN HIM?”  That’s magnificent!  Wonderful.  “That I may believe in Him!”  So Jesus gives Him the answer.  The epiphany!  The divine revelation!  “You have seen Him!  He’s speaking to you right now!  I AM He!”  Sounds just like John 4 when Jesus said to the Samaritan woman:  “I AM, the one that is speaking to you.” 

 

“Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ,” (Rom 10:17).  The man hears.  He hears Christ Jesus Himself and His words.  From a spiritual nothing Christ’s speaking creates a faith-er.  A trust-er.  A disciple!  “Lord, I believe!”  This is the biggie miracle!  This man is a new creation.  A new creature!  One who worships Jesus in “spirit and in truth,” (Jn. 4)!  Spelled F-A-I-T-H.  Faith is the highest worship of Jesus!  Spiritual sight!  Spiritual enlightenment!  This is what Jesus was after the whole time: “that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

 

Well, of course, this is the judgment. This is the crisis. Faith or unfaith.  The pandemic of COVID 19 is being used by Satan, the world and the old Adam to block, erode or destroy your faith in Jesus.  Stores are emptied of their products. Jobs disappearing. Do you dare touch the doorknob?  Can I ever take the chance to be around anyone who coughs just in the slightest way.  So uncertainty sets in.  Anxiety abounds.  Panic is profound.  And the devil, the world and your old sinful nature work 24-7-365 to do their main evil task:  destroy your faith in Jesus and setting up all kinds of false gods to worship because of COVID 19.

Don’t do it!  I’m here to tell you that Jesus is the light of the world. He is the light the darkness cannot overcome. He is the light of all, shining upon all. But sadly, to unbelief, that light becomes a blinding light, so that those who see become blind, and those who are blind see. The Pharisees, with the 20/20 law-keeping are blind, though they think they see quite clearly. And this man, blind from birth, sees Jesus for who He is and worships Him.

That man born blind is all of us. You and me. Everyone. We are born blind, steeped in sin, beggars. Just as a blind man cannot will his eyes to work, so we cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ as Lord or come to Him. He comes to us in our sin, our blindness, our darkness. He “Christs” us in Baptism. Anoints. Christ-ens with water, Word, and Spirit. Baptism is our Siloam, our sent water, where He sends us to wash and see.

The “seeing,” of course, is by faith and not with the eyes. Like the blind man who believed before he saw Jesus, so we too believe prior to seeing. We will see one day, when Jesus raises our clay and fixes our eyes in the resurrection so that we can look on Him who is our Light, our life, and our salvation. But for now, the seeing is believing.

Once you were in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. You then, as you live in and from your baptism, you are to walk as children of the light and of the day. Darkness belongs to sin and death. Christ has done that all to death in His death. In Christ we see. We see ourselves as the sinners that we are, but more importantly, we see Jesus for who He is, the Savior of sinners.

Like the man born blind, we confess Jesus. It’s hard to keep such things to ourselves. That confession may cost you. Parents may disown you. Friends may be deeply suspicious of you. And the commandment keepers who falsely use the commandments for forgiveness and salvation certainly won’t applaud anyone who believes that Christ is the end of the law and that He alone is the commandment keeper for your salvation. But all you can say is what the blind man said, “I once was blind but now I see,” and fall down and worship Jesus.  Receiving all the more from Him!

In the Name of Jesus.