Prayer of the Day:

Almighty God, look with favor on your humble servants and stretch out your right hand of power to defend us against all our enemies; through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

I’m not sure if you caught the theme or motif between the Scripture readings today.  In one way or another, they all have to do with light and dark and blindness and sight.  When we were in our mother’s womb, none of us could see light. A baby’s eyes work just fine in utero, but infants only know darkness in the womb. We have to be born in order for our eyes to see physical light. It is the same with Christ and faith in him.  We are all born spiritually blind and we need to be born again in order to see the Light of the world, Jesus Christ. So, I have a simple question to ask you today:  What do you see?  There is literal light and then there is spiritual. Just as there is literal darkness, there is spiritual.  This is important to understand because, as Jesus says, those who claim to see do not and those who can’t see, will. So, what do you see?

Now, the disciples thought they could see and understood what they saw.  They asked Jesus a question. It’s probably one you may have asked yourself.  The question is meant to suture the tear between what we see and what we don’t.  It’s the tear between what we perceive as sin and what is the cause of sin.  The Lord doesn’t try to stitch that tear the way we do, but we sure try to get out needles and thread, our magnifying glasses and extra lights so we can focus our attention on this very important matter.  It comes down to the question the disciples whispered to Jesus. It all has to do with who is to blame.  “Lord, who sinned? This man or his parents that he was born blind?”  Lord, who in this room has sinned?  How badly have they sinned, Lord?  What do you see in them, Lord? Show it to me, so that I might see it too. It has to be pretty bad for all the bad things going on in their lives!”

Have you ever thought that way?  Of course not.  Right?  To deny such thinking suggests that you have thought that way because you are tempted to deny what you really need to see in yourself in favor of what you’d really like to see in others. “Lord, let me see how much they did wrong in order to receive such wrong from you.”  The truth is we are prone to look for the worst in one another as well as in ourselves.

Satan wants us to fixate on our sin – What did we do wrong that these horrible things are happening to us?  Christ does not want you to fixate on your sin because he does not fixate on your sin.  Christ Jesus wants you to focus on the One upon whom your sins now reside.  And your sins reside on the shoulders of him who buried them in the tomb of Easter morning.

Don’t just focus on your sin, failure, or potential disqualifications.  Apply that thought to the people we find on the pages of Scripture.  Take Moses for example.  The Lord snatched Moses from the Nile River and appointed him to be the one to lead his people out of Egyptian slavery. Over time, the Lord raised up Moses for the right moment.  Remember Moses’ excuses? He had many.  One of them was that he didn’t feel he was a very good public speaker.  “Lord, I’m not very eloquent.  Please send someone else.”  Now, did Moses really think that the Lord didn’t know if he was a good speaker or not?  No.  And the Lord God did not answer Moses and say, “Oh! I’m sorry, Moses.  I didn’t realize you weren’t very eloquent or that you stammered and stuttered. I should never have picked you!  My bad!”

The Lord knew exactly what he was doing when he picked Moses.  The LORD God deliberately picked a man who would make excuses about his public speaking to be his mouthpiece to the nation of Israel and before Pharaoh.. The LORD God did not focus on Moses’ apparent weakness, excuses, or inability.

Christ Jesus knew exactly what he was doing when he picked this blind man to be his blind man.  There were many others Jesus could have chosen, but he picked this particular blind man to be the one to whom he would restore physical sight, and more importantly, to whom he would grant spiritual sight.

When Moses was debating with the LORD God about his call to be Israel’s deliverer, he argued with God over his choice.  The Lord answered Moses and challenged him: “Moses? Who gave you a mouth?  Who makes you to speak? Who makes people mute?  Who makes people blind?  Is it not I, the LORD?” That’s a stern answer.  It’s the same answer the Lord Almighty gives to us when we argue, debate, or doubt his choice in you and me.  More importantly the Lord gives a stern answer to us when we argue about his choice of others because they don’t seem to check our boxes or meet our standards.

So, what do you see?  Do you fixate on your struggles, weakness, and inability?  Do only see the struggles, sins, weaknesses, and inabilities of others? What do you see?  Realize that with all your struggles, anxieties, difficulties, and pain, your Savior-God still chose you. And he chose you through whom to work out his wonders of grace!  Your Savior is not harmed in his choice.  His reputation is not damaged because he chose you as his own.  He is not embarrassed in you.  He loves you!  Christ Jesus has zero buyer’s remorse regarding his redemptive purchase of your soul!  Are you angry that Jesus still chooses to love others besides you?  Could he possibly love people who do not yet know him?  Could he dare have mercy on those who are weak, who have fallen into temptation, who have wandered away and may have even willfully chosen to live their lives in a way that dishonors him?  What do you see? Do you see a Jesus that still loves them even if you won’t?  I pray that you do because is the same Jesus we have.  And that is the very same Jesus we need!

That also means Jesus doesn’t give you the struggles, issues, or problems you face as if to somehow punish you for some unknown sin.  Think about that.  If there were some unresolved issue or unpaid debt still upon you then Jesus has not fully purchased you from sin.  That means the sin, or the struggle remains so that you must somehow deal with it yourself. You are then earning your own freedom from it.  That means one of two things.  Either Jesus only loaned you his perfect love and you must pay him back or his love was not perfect enough to fully purchase you and you still have to pay the debt yourself.  Either way, it ends up being all on you and not Christ alone.  And that is what the Bible calls blasphemy!

You and I have what we have and we are whom we are for the sake of Christ who achieves glory from us and through us.  That includes the good and bad of this life.  The Lord uses us to his glory.  Moses may not have been the most eloquent orator to ever be taught in Egypt. There were probably better speakers, but the Lord chose to use Moses as his leader.  In fact, he gave Moses someone to help him, his brother Aaron.  There were a lot of blind people in Judea at the time of Christ, but he chose that blind man through whom he’d reveal his glory.

It wasn’t about being able to see or needing brail or corrective surgery or bi-focals or whatever. That wasn’t the point.  It was about spiritual eyesight.  That is really the point of this account in Scripture.  Right before Jesus spits on some dirt and wipes it in this man’s eyes, he makes a rather absurd statement to someone who is blind.  Did you catch it? To this man who has never seen color or light, to someone who has no idea what shadow and sun look like, Jesus says, “I am the light of the world.”  To a blind person that concept has absolutely no meaning.  This man’s whole reality is being blind.  He can’t even understand things in terms of darkness.  That’s because darkness is only understood within the context of being able to see light.  And he can’t see anything!

Jesus is not speaking to this man’s intellect or ability to reason or understand.  Christ is speaking in regards of the faith that he was now creating in this man.  The next thing he feels is warm spittle and moist mud smeared upon his eyes.   “Go to the Pool of Siloam and wash.”  Were there other water sources he could have used to wash his face? Sure. Now, I don’t know how he got to that part of the city.  He didn’t have one of those white canes with the red tips.  There weren’t automated crossing signals that beeped and assisted him across the busy streets.  Maybe someone took him there.  Maybe he just knew how to feel his way.  The point is that every step this man took towards that pool were steps of faith.  And he looked ridiculous walking by faith.  Mud on his face, groping along the city streets, meandering his way to someplace he’d never seen.  He was literally walking by faith, trusting Jesus’ every word to be true and faithful.  He was walking by faith, not by sight.  The physical sight did not come only until after he washed his eyes.  The blind now see!  This is the same for you and me.

We, too, once were blind in sin and unbelief.   We did nothing to cure our own blindness.  Only Christ’s blood sacrificed for our sin can wash away the blindness of unbelief from our eyes.  And Jesus is praised by us because of it.  The blind now see. That is wonderful news.  But there’s a sad turn of events here as well. It’s not only that the blind now see; those who see are also blind.  The Pharisees are sin-sick and blind in self-righteous, short-sightedness and their hatred of their own.  The Pharisees were not happy for this man at all.  Even his own parents aren’t really thrilled with what Jesus did for this guy. Where are his parents?  They bring them in and ask, “Is this your son, was he born blind, and if so, how does he now see?”  The parents are afraid.  They don’t want to get kicked out of the synagogue.  It wasn’t like they could go to the synagogue down the street.  This was THE synagogue.  If you’re out, you’re out.  The parents say, “We can tell you this much, it is our son, he was blind, and now he sees.  Don’t ask us how, ask him.”  Finally, they pin it on the blind man.  After all, he is the one who was healed. He answered them: “He’s a prophet!  I don’t know all that about him being a sinner like you guys think. All I know is he healed me and only God can do that!

Jesus accepted that confession of faith and he used that confession of faith to receive glory.  We might look at that statement and say, “Yeah, but he didn’t explain it.”  It’s as if everything in the Bible needs to be said and done in a way that matches our logic, culture, and comprehension.  He didn’t answer in a systematically, dogmatically, confessionally-sound manner.   It’s as if we doubt the Holy Spirit could work things out in a way that doesn’t match our Western thinking: “He didn’t even recite the Apostles’ Creed? Oh yeah!  That hasn’t been written yet!” C’mon!  I mean who’s blind?

The Pharisees could see very clearly because they got really angry. They knew this man was pointing to Jesus as someone appointed by God.  They knew about Jesus’ reputation. This wasn’t the first miracle he had performed.  This question, however, “What do you have to say about Jesus?” That is the same one the world will ask of you. Your eyes have been opened, too. And there are people all around us who are asking you the same question: “What do you say about this Jesus since he apparently opened your eyes?” In other words, “what do you see?”

Now, before you get all bent out of shape and think you’re judged and convicted for a lack of spiritual insight; this guy didn’t have much of an opportunity to be taught much.  And Jesus was okay meeting him where he was at. Jesus used his words and his testimony.  And he is using you to connect with those people around you, but you need to see Jesu. But Jesus doesn’t leave us where he finds us.

Now, this blind man actually is kicked out of the synagogue.  Jesus finds him in his rejection.  So, what do you see there? Jesus meets us where we are, but he never leaves us where he finds us. Every time you are rejected by others on account of Christ, do you see Christ there with you?  You had better because he is.  He will find you.  Every time you look foolish to the world, Christ is there.  You and I have mud on our eyes, as we walk through this life, not by sight, but by faith, stepping forward and hoping in promises yet to be fulfilled.  With mud on our eyes of faith, we walk towards unseen promises of heaven.  With the warmth of Jesus’ spit mixed with earth – the mud poultice of grace – we walk forward as we grasp the promises of eternal salvation; promises of healing and continued forgiveness. We look foolish as we blindly walk by faith to our own Pools of Siloam.  People will mock us for being so blind and not seeing the world in its true form in this progressive post-modern state of skeptics and cynics.  After all, this is a world that has very little room for Jesus anymore.  This is a world that will challenge every blessing and promise of Christ as if they were all shams and frauds, as if to question: “How dare Jesus love us?”   Christ will comfort you and meet you there even if you have been rejected by others on account of your witness.  But he will not leave you where he finds you.

Jesus also helps to grow and shape our confession of faith just like he did with this blind man.  That is what your Savior does for you right here in this building as well as the building down the way.  Sunday school, Kid’s Church, Teen and Adult class, weekly Bible studies and support groups where you grow in Christ and not as a clique; these are the places where Jesus grows your faith even more as he shapes and refines it.

He does that so you might have a clearer witness and vision of your own faith. Not a clearer explanation, but a clearer vision and witness.  There’s a difference. Jesus finds this blind man and asks: “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”  He answers, “Sure!  I just need to know who he is!”  Jesus basically responds: “You have seen him.  He is the one speaking to you whom you have already heard!”  We are like that man.  At conception, we were all spiritually blind, but we were enlightened and born again by Holy Baptism.  We heard the word of the gospel of Jesus proclaimed and we were given spiritual sight – the gift of faith.  Ever since then we have been seeing Jesus by faith and not by sight.  Sure.  We have beautiful artwork that depicts Jesus.  There are magnificent songs and poems that try to describe his majesty for us.

With mud-faces, we grope on and hope toward those promises.  Just as Job said: I will see the Lord, with my own eyes, I and not another.  How my heart yearns within me!”

The Lord knows how weak and frail our yearning hearts are.  And he wants us to see him as he wants us to know him.  It’s not in some vision or dream or interpretation we create, but as he truly is.  And so, Jesus chooses to reveal himself in water and the Word. He places himself in Scripture, Word made flesh, actual words we can speak and memorize.  He reveals himself in bread and wine.  His body and blood truly present for you.  This same Jesus that blind man saw is miraculously present for you. It is not the bread and wine that makes your faith strong but the words of Christ. And that is what Jesus is proclaiming here. You hear.  And you see.  What do you see? More to the point: Who is it you see? Who is it we would always see?  It is Jesus.  In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Study & Growth Questions

• Read Isaiah 42:14-21. What is spiritual blindness?
• Why does the Lord continually need to address our spiritual eyesight?
• Read Ephesians 5:7-14. Why is it important that the Lord expose the blind spots in us that we don’t always like to see?
• Read John 9:34-39. Why did the Pharisees throw this blind man out of the synagogue?
• In what ways, do we tend to focus on other peoples’ problems while minimizing our own?
• When have you been rejected by someone else because of Christ? How did Jesus meet you even there in that situation?
• List the ways the Lord helps us as we live by faith and not by sight.