Fourth Sunday in Lent
March 2, 2008
The Rev. Charles Henrickson
Jesus Opens Your Eyes--and Tongue (John 9:1-41)
Todays Gospel is the story of the man born blind,
John chapter 9. Thats the thing about Johns gospel,
the chapters are very identifiable. The woman at the
well, John 4. The raising of Lazarus, John 11. Very
memorable, these chapters in John. Often they involve
Jesus in a one-on-one conversation with a person he
meets or helps: Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman, and
so on. And often there is some misperception:
Nicodemus doesnt understand about being born again,
the Samaritan woman doesnt understand living water.
Theyre just thinking in merely earthly categories,
while Jesus moves from the earthly image to something
more, something about Jesus himself and the heavenly
blessings he comes to bring. Then there are varying
reactions to Jesus in these stories, both from the
individuals themselves and from the people around
them, reactions ranging from hostile rejection to a
dawning faith.
Today in the story of the man born blind, there is a
misunderstanding regarding sight. Who is it who
really sees? What kind of sight is being talked
about? And there are varying reactions to Jesus, both
faith and unfaith. Who is this Jesus? Where does he
come from? And just like with the Samaritan woman, so
with the man born blind--the person who meets Jesus is
led to give testimony to his or her encounter with
Christ.
Today Jesus does several things for the man born
blind: He opens his eyes physically. He opens his
eyes spiritually. Oh, and one more thing: Jesus
opens the mans tongue, as well. The good news is, he
will do those things for you also.
First, Jesus opens the mans eyes physically. That is
really something, isnt it? Maybe we gloss right over
that, because weve heard so many stories of Jesus
miracles. But it really is something quite
remarkable. Jesus gives sight to a blind man! This
just doesnt happen! And not only was the guy blind,
he was born blind! It wasnt like the fella just
happened to recover from an accidental trauma and it
was falsely attributed to be a miracle. And there
wasnt the possibility that the guy was pulling a
scam, in cahoots with the phony miracle-worker to
make some bucks. No, this man had been born blind; he
had never had any sight at all his whole life long.
There could be no question that it was a miracle, as
the investigation showed, much to the chagrin and
consternation of Jesus opponents.
Jesus gave sight to a blind man, a man born blind.
This was a remarkable, miraculous healing. A
restoration of creation, really, back to the way it
was in the beginning and the way it will be again at
the end. This healing is a sign of the ultimate
healing Jesus came to bring: A new creation, restored
humanity. The restoration comes ahead of time, kind
of a foretaste, a preview of whats in store, because
of what Jesus came to do. Jesus came to bring the
kingdom of heaven to earth. He came to bring life and
wholeness to fallen man and the fallen creation. He
would do it through his saving mission, which would
take him to the cross, for the sin of the world. And
he would show forth the results that are coming
because of his mission, even now in a few select
cases--like this giving of sight to the blind--to give
us encouragement and hope while we wait for what is
not yet here on a general basis. Its like saying:
Heres what is coming; in fact, Ill give you a sneak
preview. These miracles thus are signs, pointing
to who Jesus is and what he came to do and whats in
store for all of us.
Do you realize this? This is the sort of thing that
is in store for all of us! Someday Im not going to
need these glasses; my sight will be perfectly
restored. Someday, elderly saint, you are not going
to need that cane or that walker. Youll be running
free like a young deer. Someday the retarded will be
thinking clearly. Someday these bodies of ours will
be made whole. Someday, on The Day, the grave
itself will be opened and the saints will receive
glorified bodies, better than new. Jesus makes all
things new. And he will raise up these mortal bodies
and give us life, eternal life. We already have it,
in fact, that eternal life; we just dont see it yet
with these eyes.
So Jesus opens the eyes of the man born blind, opens
his eyes physically. Jesus puts some mud on the mans
eyes and tells him to wash. He specifies a certain
place to wash, the Pool of Siloam. When Jesus
attaches his mighty word to ordinary means, great
things happen. The man goes and washes, and comes
home seeing.
But theres more sight still to come. Besides opening
the mans eyes physically, Jesus will also open his
eyes spiritually. And he will do that as he opens the
mans tongue. As the man is placed in situations
where he has to talk about what happened to him, he
begins to reflect on his experience and who the man
might be who gave him sight. This will lead to a
second encounter with Christ, when Jesus gives him the
gift of faith, spiritual sight.
So the man is healed, and naturally people are
curious. How can this be? Is this even the same
fella we knew before? This is not a scam, is it? No,
its the same guy. We know him. OK, now, what
happened? Who healed you? So the man tells them.
His tongue is opened. He simply restates the
experience in a straightforward manner: The man
called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to
me, Go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed and
received my sight. Pretty straightforward. No need
to spice it up. The magnitude of the miracle speaks
for itself. The man simply gave witness to what Jesus
did for him.
Then hes hauled before the Pharisees, who are
investigating the case, and he repeats the same
testimony: He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and
I see. This infuriates the Pharisees, who hate
Jesus, because he had gone around exposing their
hypocrisy. But theres no denying the power of this
miracle. They cant deal with this. So to channel
their rage, they turn on a nearby target, the blind
man--the formerly blind man, of course. What do you
have to say about him? they ask. The Pharisees cant
even bring themselves to say Jesus name. What do
you have to say about him? The man replies, He is a
prophet. Well, at least hes on the right track. He
knows that Jesus must have power from God. Only soon
the man will discover that Jesus is even more than a
prophet.
After hauling in the mans parents, too, the Pharisees
cannot get around the fact that Jesus really did this
miraculous deed. They cant stand it that people will
conclude that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ.
Thats too much for them. So they bring the fellow
back in a second time. Theyre grasping at straws
now, trying to find something to use against Jesus.
But the man whom Jesus healed stands his ground. Hes
not intimidated. He knows what happened to him, and
hes sticking to it: I dont know that much about
this Jesus. What I do know is that he healed me,
theres no question about that. Now you guys, the
religious experts, you ought to be figuring something
out here. Only God can heal blind people. Jesus
healed me. Therefore God wouldnt be doing this
through Jesus unless God was with him.
As the man is testifying to the Pharisees, at the same
time the light must be beginning to dawn for him.
Jesus opened his eyes physically, he opened his
tongue, and now he is beginning to open the mans eyes
spiritually.
The Pharisees throw the guy out, back on the street.
Jesus hears about this and goes looking for him. Hes
got something more to give him. Do you believe in
the Son of Man? Jesus asks him, using his customary
self-designation. The man replies, And who is he,
sir, that I may believe in him? You see, the field
of the mans heart had been plowed, the seed had been
planted, and now it is ready to sprout. Jesus
answers, You have seen him, and it is he who is
speaking to you. And the man declares, Lord, I
believe. Jesus speaks, and great things happen.
Faith has been created in the mans heart. His eyes
have been opened now in an even greater sense: To see
who Jesus is. To begin to see what Jesus has come to
do--that hes on a mission from God to bring new life,
to restore creation, to make right what had gone
terribly wrong with humanity and this created order.
Jesus came to fix all that. This healing is a sign of
it. Jesus came so that the blind would see, really
see.
You and I, we see Jesus for who he is: One greater
than a prophet, he is the Christ, come from God. Come
with healing in his wings. Come to restore humanity,
restore creation, restore us poor sinners back to God.
Jesus speaks, and great things happen. He has the
words of eternal life. He speaks his creative,
powerful word to you today: I give you new life, he
says to you. I give you eternal life. I will give
life to your mortal body. I will raise you up at the
last day. Jesus has attached his mighty word to
water and applied it to your body; in Holy Baptism he
washed you and made you whole, saving both your soul
and your body. Jesus attaches his mighty word to
bread and wine and gives you his body and blood,
likewise blessing you with forgiveness, life, and
salvation.
Jesus does all this by dealing with the root cause of
all the disability and death in this world, namely,
our sin. Oh, not that you can draw a one-to-one
correspondence between this particular sin and that
particular disability. The disciples tried to make
that move at the beginning of the story, but Jesus
said you cant jump to such a conclusion. Indeed,
Jesus turns it around: He says this is an opportunity
for him to work, to do his good work of renewing
creation. No direct correlation between sin X and
disability Y. Rather, it is the general, widespread
condition of sin that afflicts us all and infects us
all--thats the reason there is all this sickness and
death and misery in our world. But Jesus says he has
comes to bring light into this sin-darkened world.
He will do it in a way that seems most peculiar--by
taking the sin upon himself. All the hatred and
hostility of men who shake their fist at God--those
who think they can see but are really blind--Jesus
takes all this rage against God and lets it hit him.
He becomes the lightning rod for Gods justifiable
wrath against us rebels. Jesus lets it hit him in our
place, on the cross.
Jesus takes our clouded sight, our misperceptions
about God--the blindness of men groping around in the
dark, lost and confused--he opens our eyes and brings
us home to God. The result is life. And light. And
sight. Spiritual sight now--we see Jesus for who he
is, we see ourselves back right with God. And
physical sight, physical healing, is coming, to be
restored along with everything else thats wrong with
this fallen creation. Its on the way; Jesus
guarantees it.
So take hope, my friends, take heart today. Jesus
opens your eyes, physically and spiritually. And he
opens your tongue, too, to sing his praises and
confess your faith, telling the world what he has done
for you: I once was lost but now am found, was blind
but now I see.
Charles Henrickson
4749 Melissa Jo Ln
St. Louis, MO 63128
(314) 845-8811 (home)
(314) 779-8108 (cell)
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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