Sermon Text: John
9:1-7,13-17, 34-39
Title: “The
Blind leading the Seeing?”I. Those who have sight will be blinded.
II. Those who are blind will have sight.
JESUS – THROUGH HIS
DEATH ON THE CROSS AND RESURRECTION FROM THE GRAVE – MAKES THE SIGHTFUL BLIND SO
AS TO SEE WITH THE EYES OF FAITH THE SALVATION HE BRINGS.
Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father, and from our
LORD and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The sermon text for this Sunday, is taken from the Gospel lesson just read, I would read again a portion of the verses…
35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and
having found him he said, “Do you
believe in the Son of Man?” 36 He answered, “And who is he, sir,
that I may believe in him?” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is
speaking to you.” 38 He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped
him. 39 Jesus said, “For
judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those
who see may become blind.”
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I.
Jesus often times works and operates in the world paradox. Think back to those old English classes we
had as kids and we were taught what a paradox is – and in answer to your
question, yes I had to look it up to make sure I remembered it correctly! The
dictionary definition for paradox is “something absurd or contradictory: a
statement, proposition, or situation that seems to be absurd or contradictory,
but in fact is or may be true.” Uh –
yeah – Jesus definitely works paradox a whole bunch.”
In our text today we are dealing with the blind and the seeing. Jesus runs into this blind man, not by accident, but on purpose. For what purpose? To show the power of the Almighty that is in Him – that He, Jesus is the Messiah, the Savior of the world, the very Son of God.
So you see – Jesus is not there by happenstance. It isn’t a chance encounter that Jesus has with this blind man. No, Jesus has been directed here – to this point in time – to teach and reveal. Through this poor, blind man Jesus is naming Himself the Son of the Most High – the true Light of the world – that all should follow Him.
And Jesus shows here the urgency of His work. Things must be done while it is still day,
for the night is coming when their will be no work. The majority of work done in the world at
this time was done in the day. At night
people rested for the most part. The
urgency is apparent in what Jesus says. He must work to bring all to the Light
of salvation – which is also our charge as Christians today – to bring the
Light to the world; for the night is coming when it will be too late.
Then the blind man is taken before the Pharisees, the religious
leaders of the people. And here the blind man is put to the question.
Remember, just before this text Jesus had spent a lot of
time in the temple teaching and preaching about who He is – namely the Savior
of the world. The Pharisees were already ticked off at Jesus and how He always
seemed to point to them as the wrong doers and not to the people. After all – they were keeping the Law –
right? Therefore, their works were making them righteous – not like these
people, this rabble, not like this blind man. These Pharisees sound awful lot
like the evangelicals of today who will tell you that you are blind because you
don’t pray hard enough!
The Pharisees were looking for a way to trap Jesus in the
Law and they think they’ve got Him in His performance of this ‘so called’
miracle worked on the Sabbath.
So they begin to question the formerly blind man. They ask
what happened and the man tells them. There seems to be some debate here
between the Pharisees. The text says there’s division among them – two groups
debating. And if I don’t miss my guess – we find our friend, the Pharisee
Nicodemus whom we just saw two weeks ago sneaking out to be taught by the
Master.
One side shouts ‘Law breaker!’ The other says, ‘how can this
be?’ And the debate goes on. They then come
back to the blind man and put him on the spot and ask, ‘who is this man?’ One
side looking for one answer and the other side looking for another. The blind man calls Jesus a prophet.
So after sending the blind man away, the Pharisees call upon
him and begin to question him again. Finally in verse 24 the Pharisees say to
the man…
“Give glory to God. We
know that this man is a sinner.”
And the man replies…
“Whether he is a
sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”
The blind man is starting to get under the skin of the
Pharisees. They ask him once again how and what was done to him. The blind man
answers that he has already told them and asks them if they want to be Jesus’
disciples. You can imagine how this went
over with these leaders of the faith.
The text says they reviled the blind man saying that they are disciples
of Moses. Then the blind man gives an
outstanding testimony about Jesus. He says
to the Pharisees…
“Why, this is an
amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31
We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper
of God and does his will, God listens to him. 32 Never since the world
began has it been heard that anyone
opened the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God,
he could do nothing.”
At this the Pharisees bristle with anger. You can imagine the shouts of blasphemer and
hear the ripping of robes and probably even the calling for this blind man’s
death. The Pharisees say…
“You were born in
utter sin, and would you teach us?”
And they threw him out.
II.
And when Jesus hears of this He goes looking for the blind man
and when He finds him, Jesus reveals Himself to this lowly one of Israel. He tells him that He – Jesus, the healer of his
blindness – is the Savior, the One sought by many, including this man. The man’s reaction is breathtaking, one of
pure faith and yet very simple ‘Lord, I believe.’
Then Jesus gets to that paradox. He says that He came into
the world to give sight to the blind and take away sight from the seeing. Here Jesus speaks not only of this believing
blind man who sees and the unbelieving sightful Pharisees who are blind – but truly
of the world. There are many in the
world who claim to ‘see’ GOD through Allah or Vishnu or Buddha or even – like the
Pharisees – through their own good works. Truly, these sightful people are the
blind ones. Blind in their faithlessness. Blind without the true Light of the
world – Jesus the Christ!
Jesus healed the man’s physical needs in giving him his
eyesight back – but more importantly Jesus healed the man’s spiritual needs by
giving him the eyes of faith. We must become blind in order to see.
That’s right we are back to paradox. Jesus deals in paradox
from the get go. He is born of a Virgin and He is a living dead man! It takes
not the physical eyes to see this, but truly, the eyes of faith. On the surface
– from our eye sockets and our brains this Jesus is just another man, nothing
more and certainly not the Son of GOD!
But in the water and blood that spills forth from His side
on the Cross – truly, Holy Baptism and Holy Communion – our spiritual eyesight
is redeemed, and in its restoration, our eyesight sees in true clarity Jesus is
who He says He is – the Son of GOD Who comes to take away the sin of the world.
Our response? LORD, I believe. Amen.
The peace of the LORD – which surpasses all understanding – will
guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, the Light of the world. Amen.
+ Soli Deo Gloria +
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