"Seeing with Your Ears" Third Sunday in Lent Oculi March 8, 2015 Luke 11:14–28
From the Scriptures we learn that we walk by faith, not by sight. I suppose that for those who physically cannot see may come a greater understanding of what it means to walk by faith. If you are unable to see something you have to take it on faith that it’s actually there. And so, perhaps we ought to learn from the fact that there are some people who actually cannot see what most of us take so much for granted. It takes no faith to believe that you are in a church right now. You can see it and you can see that you’re in it. Even if you were to close your eyes right now, you wouldn’t be much in the realm of faith to believe that you are still here and that the church walls still surround you. Having walked in here you know that this is where you have come because you saw it with your own eyes. But those who are blind must go on what you tell them. If you bring someone who is blind in here and tell them it’s a church they can’t know it except for that you have told them. They are going on faith. They are believing what they believe because they are trusting your words and they are trusting you. This is why we can learn from them. It is by hearing that they see. That is, based on what they hear they come to understand what it is you are telling them is the way things are. Now of course if someone is blind and deaf they can’t very well hear. But even so, you would communicate to them in some way what are the things they need to know. And so it is still on faith that they see, or know, not on seeing with their eyes. Lent is a time where it is particularly brought home the necessity of being a hearer of the Word. In Lent we take things down a notch. We still give glory to God but we do so in a subdued way as we ponder the Passion of our Lord. We hear things like those that are given in today’s Gospel reading. We hear of demon possession and Jesus speaking of Satan casting out Satan and kingdoms divided amongst themselves and not being able to stand and the stronger man binding the strong man guarding his house. In our thoroughly modern society we don’t resonate with things like demon possession. Have you ever seen someone who was demon possessed? There are horror movies of course. But demon possession isn’t something we run across in everyday life. Are demons even real? Is Satan real? Many people don’t believe in the devil or demons because they can’t see them. And of course there are just as many who don’t believe in God because they can’t see God. By their very nature, spiritual things and beings are unseen. It takes faith to believe they exist. This is where hearing comes in. Since we can’t see things in the spiritual realm it is up to our ears to do the working. God speaks and we listen. God gives us His Word and we hear it. The Scriptures tell us that we walk by faith not by sight. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. There is of course the freedom on our part to reject this Word. We may hear the Word and refuse it. But God sounds forth His Word for us to hear it and the Holy Spirit works through that word to create faith in us. In the Gospel reading we meet just such people who heard and rejected. The irony here is that they not only heard but saw. They saw Jesus casting out demons and still did not believe in Him. They heard the word of Christ and still refused it. One of the main reasons we are here Sunday in and Sunday out is to hear the Word of Christ so that we are strengthened in the faith; so that we do not fall away and end up rejecting our Lord. A woman in the crowd said to Jesus, “‘Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts at which You nursed!’ But Jesus responded to her, ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!’” Jesus had just accomplished a miracle for many eyes to see. Some people asked for another sign before they would believe. Jesus’ emphasis is on the ears. We see by hearing. Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it. Jesus’ response to the woman is much more than a correction of her. She was saying to Him how blessed His mother was in bearing Him and raising Him. His response seems to contradict the woman. No, not blessed is her, but all those who hear the Word of God and keep it. Though it may sound like He was contradicting her, in fact, He was showing exactly how this woman was right. His mother, the virgin who bore Him by the Holy Spirit, had heard the Word of God from the angel Gabriel that she would bear a Son and that it would be a miraculous conception and that this Son would be the very Savior. Think about this word of God that she heard. It was a lot to take in and she in simple childlike faith wondered how this could be. Gabriel’s answer was equally simple: With human beings it’s impossible. With God all things are possible. And at this word of God she responded in the faith born by the Holy Spirit through that spoken word, “I am the servant of the Lord, be it to me according to your word.” Here is the faith Jesus is talking about. It is faith that is not by sight but by hearing. She heard and believed. She didn’t have anything to go on that she could tangibly point to. She heard the Word of the Lord and she believed. She trusted God to bring it about according to the word He had proclaimed to her. Walking by faith and not by sight is tough. All that Mary saw screamed to her to doubt God. All the hushed whispers and disparaging looks of an unmarried woman being pregnant. All the doubts most certainly floating around in her mind of how God Himself could be conceived in her womb and at full term be born as a baby. What she saw with her eyes did not comport with what she had heard with her ears. But she believed because of her ears not her eyes. So if you want to know what demon possession and all the talk of Jesus about Satan has to do with you and your life, see with your ears, not your eyes. Listen to what Jesus shows you in His Word. Satan is real, his demons are real. Satan is always on the attack. You can’t see him, but he is after you all the time. And mostly he tempts you in subtle ways so that you don’t even know he’s attacking you. You need the stronger man Jesus spoke of to bind the strong man that is Satan. The stronger one, of course, is Jesus Himself. Satan may have had a certain kind of victory in Jesus actually dying and being in a tomb for three days. But Satan was actually the one who was bound. Jesus did die, yes, but He accomplished in that death salvation. Jesus was in the tomb for three days, yes, but while He was He descended into hell to go right into Satan’s domain and claim His victory over Satan. And then there is the Resurrection, of course. Jesus walked unbound from His grave, alive for all eternity. Hear His word, because that is how you believe. You heard it first in your Baptism. You didn’t see that in Baptism you were crucified with Christ, but your ears heard the word of Christ spoken and that word joined with the water being poured out on you to crucify your sinful flesh and raise you to new life. You continue to hear it as you hear the Gospel proclaimed and the Absolution pronounced after you confess your sins. You continue to hear it as you approach the altar and the very Lord who cast out demons by His word calls out to you to be in the Holy Spirit not the evil spirits. Because you cannot see Him coming to you and the Holy Spirit at work through His word, He gives you something to see, as He did in your Baptism with the water. He gives you bread to eat and wine to drink. What your eyes see, though, doesn’t tell the whole story. What your ears hear is what you really come to know about your Lord; He gives you His body and His blood in and with that bread and wine. You can only know this by faith. You can only see it by faith. By faith you see Him because it is through your ears that He speaks. And what God speaks He brings about. Blessed are those who hear Him and keep His word. Blessed are you who see with your ears and walk not by sight but by faith. Amen. SDG -- Pastor Paul L. Willweber Prince of Peace Lutheran Church [LCMS] 6801 Easton Ct., San Diego, California 92120 619.583.1436 princeofpeacesd.net three-taverns.net It is the spirit and genius of Lutheranism to be liberal in everything except where the marks of the Church are concerned. [Henry Hamann, On Being a Christian] _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list Sermons@cat41.org http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
