Rev. Charles Lehmann + Quinquagesima + Luke 18:31-43
In the Name of + Jesus. Amen.
Jesus did not hide anything from His disciples. As He and the twelve began
their journey to Jerusalem for the final Passover, He took them aside and told
them exactly what was going to happen. He said that all the Old Testament
prophecies were going to be fulfilled.
God had promised to Eve that her seed would crush the head of the serpent
and save all people from their sin. Now, on the road to Jerusalem, that was
about to happen. Isaiah had said that the Savior would be bruised for our
transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. That was coming too. David had
said that Jesus would be forsaken by God and that evil men would pierce His
hands and His feet. All of these prophecies and more were about to be
fulfilled.
That, said Jesus, was the reason that they were going up to Jerusalem. But
though the disciples had heard all of these prophecies read, they understood
none of these things, the meaning of Jesus' words—as obvious as it was—was
hidden from them, and they did not grasp what their Lord was saying.
The problem was not with Jesus' words. His words were perfectly clear and
straightforward. The only way that they could have been more clear is if Jesus
had said, “A week from Friday I'm going to be crucified by the Roman governor
Pontius Pilate. By six o'clock in the evening I'll be dead. The night before
you'll all run away. Only John will be there to see me die.”
Even though Jesus didn't get quite that explicit, he'd given the disciples
more than enough detail. The problem wasn't with the words, it was with the
disciples. They just didn't believe what Jesus had told them.
The disciples knew that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
They knew that He was the Lord's Anointed One and that He would reign on
David's throne forever. What they didn't know, or at least what they didn't
believe, was that Jesus would accomplish their redemption by allowing Himself
to be tortured and executed by the Romans. That's not the sort of Savior they
expected.
Messiahs were a dime a dozen in first century Palestine. Nearly every year
there was someone who tried to pass themselves off as the Savior of Israel.
One of them is even mentioned in the Scriptures and we'll hear about him during
holy week. Barabbas was his name, and he had lead a rebellion against Rome.
To the oppressed Israelites, Barabbas was a hero. He was just the sort of
Savior they expected. He was a soldier, a man of action. He would not stand
idly by and watch as the Romans oppressed his people. But Barabbas was no
Savior. Barabbas was not crucified on Good Friday, but he died and is still
dead and buried. He was not the Savior that many of the Israelites probably
thought He was.
But Barabbas the war hero was much closer to the disciples' idea of a
Savior than Jesus was. And because of these false and misguided expectations,
when the disciples heard Jesus predict his death, they did not believe Him.
Jesus had said, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written
about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be
delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and
spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he
will rise.”
When the disciples heard Jesus' words, they thought that He couldn't have
meant them, at least not literally. They thought the Messiah was going to
overthrow the Romans, not be killed by them. They thought that what Jesus was
saying is nonsense. God can't die. Jesus must have been telling a parable.
The disciples thought they just needed to figure out what all the parts of the
story really meant.
They couldn't believe that Jesus meant what He said. They had to come up
with some sort of way to explain the Lord's Words away. We often do the same
sorts of things. If we think a teaching of the Scriptures is too hard, we find
some way to explain it away. Sinful man is quick to defend the Lord against His
own words.
We often want to come to God on our own terms. We have an image in our
minds of what He must be like. We will say He is loving and kind. We will say
He is merciful. We will say He is beyond time. We will say He is immortal.
If I were to ask you to list all the attributes of God, you could probably come
up with quite a list. But as you were doing that, you probably wouldn't say
that God has five fingers and five toes. You probably wouldn't say that He had
a nose and fingernails.
If we try to come up with our own picture of God, Jesus simply isn't going
to qualify. That God has become man in order to win our salvation is more than
our minds can even imagine. But that is exactly what God has done. And
because God has become man to save us, we can say all sorts of other
nonsensical things about Him. We can say that He was betrayed into the hands
of sinful men, flogged, killed, and rose again on the third day.
We can say that God died. We can say exactly what Jesus says about Himself!
But that is too much for our minds. It was also too much for the minds of
the disciples. The sort of straightforward faith that listens to the Words of
Jesus and believes that just as they are is difficult for us. But it was not
too hard for the blind beggar on the roadside near Jericho. This beggar had
nothing, and He knew it. He came to Jesus with empty hands and latched onto
Him for the words of eternal life.
When this blind man learned that Jesus was near, he cried out, “Jesus, Son
of David, have mercy on me.” The blind beggar only knew what he'd heard. He
had heard that Jesus could work miracles. He had heard that He was loving and
merciful. On the basis of what he had heard, the blind man called Jesus the
“Son of David.” On the basis of what he had heard, the blind man asked for
mercy.
Though the blind man did not have the benefit of years of direct
instruction from Jesus, he knew all He needed to know. He knew that this man
was the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and the fulfillment of all the Old
Testament prophecies. We know from that Jesus says later that the beggar's
faith was real and genuine, a true gift of the Holy Spirit. And so, upon
hearing the blind man's confession, Jesus says, “Your faith has saved you.”
Our translation says, “Your faith has made you well.” But the word that
Jesus uses is “saved.” His faith has saved Him. His faith saves because it
holds onto Christ. The word faith can be used in many ways. Faith as a
general idea saves no one. Only faith in Christ saves. Only faith that holds
onto Christ and His promises can give any good gift.
The blind man believes that Jesus is the Savior and because of this he has
received all good gifts in Christ even before his sight is restored. Jesus
restores his sight to show all that the blind beggar's faith is real and
genuine. Blessed is he who did not see, but yet believed.
What was hidden from the disciples was revealed to a man who could only see
Jesus with His ears. What was hidden from the disciples was made visible to a
blind man through the Word spoken by the Word made flesh.
We are in the same situation as the blind man. We cannot see Jesus. We
can only hear the Word about Him. We know the certainty of His gifts because
only we have the sure Word that the Lord has provided.
But the disciples unbelief could not keep Jesus from keeping His promises
to them. And so, just a few short weeks after He spoke the words in our
reading, Jesus was handed over to sinful men. He was flogged and killed. He
died for you. He destroyed your sins. He won life and salvation for you and
all the world. On the third day He was raised from the dead.
And so you are forgiven. You are free from death because Jesus endured
death on your behalf. You will live with Him world without end. Amen.
In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and
minds in faith in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Rev. Charles R. Lehmann
Pastor, Saint John's Lutheran Church, Accident, MD
http://chaz-lehmann.livejournal.com
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