In the Name
of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Grace
and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and may our Lord
and Savior sanctify you in the truth, for His word is truth. Amen
The
Fourth Sunday in Lent (2011)
The
Blind Perpetual Darkness of Sin
John 9:1-7
(ESV)
As he passed by, he saw a man blind from
birth. [2] And his disciples asked him,
"Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" [3] Jesus answered, "It was not that
this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed
in him. [4] We must work the works of
him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. [5] As long as I am in the world, I am the
light of the world." [6] Having
said these things, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he
anointed the man's eyes with the mud [7] and said to him, "Go, wash in the
pool of Siloam" (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back
seeing.
Of all the many
physical blessings which God in His love and mercy has bestowed on us, perhaps
none is more precious than sight, the ability to see the beauties and marvels
of God’s creation, to behold the wonders of His love. Imagine, if you can, the
tragic monotony of perpetual darkness or the painful prospect of having the
light of your eyes extinguished and never again to see the colorful beauties of
our countryside or the majesty of our mountains and seashore or the awesome
splendor of a sunrise or sunset. Imagine, never again being able to see the
faces and features of loved ones. Realizing how blessed we are to see the
beauties of the world, can we ever thank God enough for the gift of sight as we
contemplate the tragic possibility of losing that most beneficial gift?
However, even if we were to suffer the fate of blindness now, we should still
have our memories and we could draw mental pictures of our surroundings. Today,
however, in John’s Gospel, we meet a man who has been blind since birth; a man
who never knew what it meant to see, a man who knew his mother only by touch
and the sound of her voice. He was an object of pity to all who knew him.
This blind
beggar sat in his customary place at the
However, there
was more that our Lord Jesus said regarding the man’s blindness. He said the
man was blind so, “that the works of God might be displayed in him” (v. 3). This
was most confusing to this blind beggar. He couldn’t understand the words of
our Savior. But he didn’t have long to wait before Jesus made these words clear
and showed him that his blindness was to lead him to a great blessing; that
through him God would prove to the disciples and to the men and women of
Jerusalem that in Christ, God had appeared among men. God Himself with infinite
power to help the lame, the deaf, the blind, and to heal all the ills of sinful
humanity.
Then our Lord
made clay from mud and anointed the blind man’s sightless eyes and directed him
to go wash in the Pool of Siloam.
The next time we
see this man he is gazing in wonder at his surroundings. For the first time in
his life he saw the brightness of sunlight. For the first time in his life he
could look into the faces of others and really see them. However, not all he
saw pleased him, but this new gift of vision overcame his objections to what
was displeasing and made him forever grateful to the One who said, “I am
the Light of the world” (v. 5). It was truly a great miracle which
Jesus had done. By His almighty power He lifted the veil which had doomed this
man to a lifetime of darkness and opened his life to an endless display of
beauty and light. However, even as great as this gift is, the Gospel points us to
an even greater miracle, the miracle of leading an immortal soul out of
spiritual blindness into spiritual sight.
Far worse than
the blindness of his eyes was the darkness which enveloped the soul of this
man. His physical defect had probably filled him with a sense of bitterness. It
had made him resentful toward others. Why was he singled out to suffer
blindness while others were not afflicted in this way? He knew God only as a
Judge, hard and harsh, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the
children. Grace and goodness, love and mercy, were terms that he never
associated with God—not until that blessed day when Jesus saw him and took
notice of him.
This spiritual
blindness, so common and so universal, is more pitiful and pathetic than any
lack of physical vision could ever be. Those who later learned of the blind beggar’s
miraculous gift of sight try everything they can to discredit the sight giver,
our Lord, Jesus Christ and to attribute the blind beggar’s condition to sin.
However, it is these non-believers who are blind, blind to the great need of a
Savior. Later, after healing the man, our Lord tells him: “For judgment I came into this
world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind”
(John 9:39 ESV). These words of Jesus were heard by Pharisees who were
standing nearby, and they asked, “Are we also blind?” (John
9:40 ESV).
That is a question
which in all humility we, too, should ask. “Are
we also blind?” Or has the Spirit of God wrought the miracle of spiritual
sight in us? Has He given us the power to see our helpless and hopeless state
without Christ? Are we satisfied with ourselves, content, and confident that
our life and conduct is above reproach and that our God is highly pleased as He
looks down upon us? I trust not, because Christ has no blessings for the
self-sufficient, no healings for the whole. If you see hope for yourself by
virtue of your character, your goodness, as did the Pharisees, then you will
remain blind, blind to your desperate need, blind to your Savior, blind to His
help and healing.
Today we see the
human race groping its way blindly down the road to sure and certain ruin.
Frantically, we want to halt this march to disaster. We want to cry out to men
that military might scientific and technical knowledge, or socialist and
authoritarian governments are not the answer to humanity’s need. The only
answer to man’s needs is Christianity; faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and the
redemption He won for us on the Cross of Calvary.
If you were to
make this statement to an unbelieving neighbor, he would probably ask you to be
more specific and say, “What is Christianity?” If asked, what would your answer
be? Would you provide a long theological analysis that would probably bore him?
I hope not. I would suggest that in some very simple and familiar words you
could answer your neighbor by reciting the Apostles’ Creed. “I believe in God
the Father Almighty. . . . and in Jesus Christ, His only Son our Lord. . . . . . . I
believe in the Holy Ghost. . . . ” That would be a very brief, yet accurate and
impassioned answer to this question. If you could enlarge upon this and also
quote the meaning of the three Articles of the Creed, you would have given your
neighbor a full answer as to the meaning of Christianity and its power to save.
If man would only understand that he and all men are the handiwork of almighty
God and that we must look to Him, and to Him alone, for our protection and
preservation; if he would only understand the destructive power of sin and see
the infinite love and pity of God as revealed in the atonement of Christ on the
cross; if he would only understand the importance of this inspired Word,
through which God’s Holy Spirit works the miracle of conversion and fills us
with the sure and certain hope of life everlasting, such an understanding would
surely lead to a solution of his problems, and his blindness would be changed
to sight.
Our Lord Jesus
also told His disciples, “We must work the works of him who sent me
while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the
world, I am the light of the world” (vv. 4-5).
Truth is the
world, like this blind beggar, lives in perpetual darkness. Oh the world has
sight, but it is a physical sight that cannot see beyond the temporal realm.
The world is blind to the spiritual realm; the
However, our Lord
calls on us to proclaim this Gospel while there is still day. A time will come
when the day will end and we will no longer be able to do the work of
proclaiming the Gospel. On that day all who are spiritually blind will remain blind
forever, because that day will be the Last Day, the Day of Judgment when Christ
shall return, seated upon His throne, to judge all humanity. Those who have
been given the gift of spiritual sight, whose names are written in the Book of
Life, they will be granted citizenship in His heavenly home and all who have
not received the gift of spiritual sight, whose names are not written in the
Book of Life, will be cast into the eternal lake of fire.
Yet, we know
that God, “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the
truth” (1 Tim. 2:4 ESV). He does not want to lose a single one of His
sheep. Therefore, He calls upon His church, His people and His pastors to
proclaim the Gospel until the end of time, so, “that
those who do not see may see.”
The blessed
truth of life with Christ and Christianity is beautifully demonstrated in this
story of the remarkable cure which Jesus performed on the eyes of the blind
beggar and in the events which followed this miracle. Although Jesus applied
clay to the eyes of this beggar and directed him to wash in the Pool of Siloam,
we know that neither the clay, nor the water of the pool had any healing
powers. Instead, it was solely the faith of this blind beggar; faith in the
power of Christ that brought sight to his eyes. Later, when Jesus and the once
blind beggar met again, Jesus asked him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” (John
9:35 ESV), and the formerly blind beggar answered, “Lord I believe” (John 9:38 ESV).
Here we have the
final and conclusive test of Christianity. “Do you believe?” Our answer must be
clear; it must be a yes or a no. If it is yes, you will have spiritual sight.
The darkness of uncertainty and doubt will be exchanged for the light of our
Lord’s precious promises. You will be able to say with St. Paul, “I
know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until
that Day what has been entrusted to me” (2 Tim. 1:12 ESV).
However, if you
have lost the Lord Jesus, if your interest in material things has blinded your
eyes to the only thing of real value, then let me urge you to come back, back
to the Father’s house, from which you have gone like the foolish Prodigal Son.
Heed your Savior’s call when He says, “Follow Me!” Follow the example of
this blind beggar when he met Jesus. He didn’t question the procedure or the
instructions which Jesus gave him. He simply did as he was told. Therefore, let
us also follow the directions which He has given us in His Word and live our
lives according to His instructions today and tomorrow until we finally come
into His glorious presence. “For with you is the fountain of life; in
your light do we see light” (Psalm 36:9 ESV). Amen.
May the peace of God, which passes all
understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Amen.