Lent 4A St. John, Galveston 4/3/11<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> It has been some time since I've posted a sermon. Alan Taylor St. John, Galveston “Eyes that See” John 9:1-41 + In Nomine Jesu + Let us pray… “Christ Jesus, be our present joy Our future great reward; Our only glory, may it be To glory in the Lord!” In the name of Jesus. Amen. The text for the message this morning is a rather long section from John’s Gospel. Jesus heals a man who was born blind. John first deals with the issue of why the man was born without his sight. Jesus’ disciples speculated that it was either because the man himself sinned, or, because his parents sinned. Quickly Jesus clears up the confusion. It was neither. The man’s blindness, our maladies and sufferings, for that matter, are not necessarily a consequence of sin, our sin, or, anyone else’s sin. They are, however, opportunities for the work of God to be made manifest in our lives. Friends, if you have suffered from anything, you have also, as God’s dear child in Christ, reaped the blessings that God has bestowed on you in and through that suffering. That is the way God works. “He causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him and have been called according to His purpose.” And so, as Paul says elsewhere, ”we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” It is important for us to dispatch with the notion that God punishes us with, or because of our sin. Truth is, while sin may have its consequences, God has laid the punishment for our sin on His dear Son. Indeed, “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin that we might be the righteousness of God in Him.” “The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” After those introductory comments about suffering and its relationship to sin, John addresses the Pharisees reaction to the blind man who regained his sight. This is, of course, the bulk of the reading for this morning. In short, in the Pharisees reaction, we see, once again, that nothing stirred up their anger and hatred against Jesus like a good, old fashioned healing! Jesus, they thought, couldn’t have healed the man because, from their perspective, He was a sinner, and no sinner could do such marvelous things. Their vision, we would say, was obscured by their preconceptions, by their bias. When I turned about 42 I went to the eye doctor for some glasses. I couldn’t read things close up. I asked the doctor if my condition is what is called “far sightedness?” She said, no, it is called being over 40. My preconception was wrong and I was left with the cold, hard fact that I was simply getting old and I couldn’t see very well. In refusing to see the glory of God in Jesus, the Pharisees were left with the cold, hard fact that it was they who were blind. In their case, however, blindness was a choice, a choice they made in order to protect their place in the religious order, to protect their power and their position. It was when those things were threatened that their blindness became most apparent. They saw that which is good as evil, and that which is evil as good. They considered it a good thing that they should persecute the man who had regained his sight. Why? Well, because they believed that Jesus was a sinner, and no sinner could work such miracles! For them, the whole thing was a ruse to put a mad man, Jesus, in control of their lives and the lives of the people. This miracle in John 9, of course, is only one of many miracles worked by Jesus. John, particularly, was fond of calling Jesus’ miracles “signs.” Signs, as you know direct our attention to something. For instance, on the highway you sometimes see one of those huge billboards that asks the question, “does billboard advertising work?” Below the question it says, “This one just did!” Signs direct, or, catch our attention and they point us to something, a company, a product, or, a cause. When Jesus restored the blind man’s sight the “signs” message was clear. John says elsewhere, “these things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ and that believing you may have life in His name.” The blind man made his confession. “Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” The miracle, the “sign” pointed to the deity of Jesus. In fact, every miracle of Jesus pointed to the one great miracle, that “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.” So, when the man regained his sight, the question that should have arisen in the minds of everyone was, “who could do such things but God, and God alone!?” And yet, the Pharisees stood adamantly behind their bias, for, “they answered (the blind man), “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out.” What can we say, but, no one is so blind as the person who will not see. Even when the light comes to pierce the darkness it cannot break through. The person is left groping in a world of his own creation, a creation where darkness is bliss and the light is to be feared. He perceives the world he has created as “good,” and the good that Christ gives as “evil.” His knee does not bow, and his tongue does not confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. And yet, there but by the grace of God go I! Hope springs eternal. The evil of the world and humanities zeal for power have never been able to put out the light of Christ. “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never been able to put it out.” Good triumphs over evil, even the evil of our brokenness, as our Lord opens our eyes with soothing baptismal water that we might see, that we might repent of our quest for power, our quest for control, and that we might confess Him as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Our knees bow in willing obedience to God who is worthy of all glory, honor and praise. You have, my friends, “(been) delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom (you) have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” You have been born anew. While you still struggle with the desire for power, whether it is over others, over your future, or, perhaps even over your past, you are, by God’s grace, willing, in fact, compelled to forsake it all for the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, who has delivered you from a tortuous life of groping in the darkness of sin. “What do you see?” the little boy asks impatiently as his brother peered into the telescope. “Tell me what you see!” His brother, with the wisdom of the ages, took his eye from the telescope and from the comet, who knows how many light years away, and he said, “This you have to see for yourself.” It is that way with seeing Jesus as the Son of God and Savior. Each of us has to see, one by one, and when we have seen, we can talk about and rejoice in what we’ve seen, and celebrate Him forever. That ability is given to us by Christ, through His Word, and by the power of His sacraments. Our hearts are moved and our eyes are opened, and we cannot but sing… “Amazing Grace—how sweet the sound— That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost but now am found, Was blind but now I see!” In the name of Jesus. Amen. The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen. + Soli Deo Gloria + ____________________________________________________________ Groupon™ Official Site 1 ridiculously huge coupon a day. Get 50-90% off your city's best! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4d94f74f11fab4b3a0est02vuc
