Ears that See Clearly - A Sermon for Quinquagesima

Quinquagesima – The Sunday 50 Days before the Resurrection
February 27^th, Year of Our + Lord 2022
Ears that See Clearly
 

     Lord save us from our lying eyes and wandering hearts. 

     There is a bit of irony in being a church of the “Missouri Synod,” a Christian church from the “Show Me” state.  Missouri, the one state with the nerve to make a motto out of the faithless attitude that certainly predominates in each of these United States: “I’ll believe it when I see it.” 

     Now, maintaining the attitude that “I’ll believe it when I see it.” isn’t a bad approach for earthly life.  In fact it’s pretty wise.  We idealize the contract done by handshake and the faithfulness of a good man or a good woman.  But come on, you know that doesn’t always turn out so well.  There are good and bad reasons that America is the most lawyered up and prone-to-sue-each-other place in the world.  Truly we should celebrate when people make promises and keep them.  Because it isn’t so common. So, by negative experience we learn to say: “Show me.” We decide we will believe something only when we see it.  This is certainly a depressingly low view of our fellow man, but it leads to less disappointments, and fewer times getting shafted by a trickster. 

     The real problem with ‘seeing is believing’ is that it doesn’t work in our relationship with God.  God tried that, first with Israel, when they were in Egypt, and again in the wilderness.  There were 10 visible plagues which freed them from slavery.  The miraculous escape through water at the Red Sea, immediately followed by the destruction of the chariots of the enemy.  God Himself was present to protect and guide them, in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.  Daily bread from heaven each morning.  Water from the Rock.  God made His presence and care for Israel more than visible in the wilderness.  And yet the children of Jacob were faithless, again and again. 

     Jesus also showed God’s presence and mercy with visible miracles.  Which attracted a lot of attention, and large crowds. 

But the people, and the Pharisees, and even the Disciples believed the wrong things.  Each one in turn saw what they wanted, or what they feared in Jesus.  They were incapable of seeing God and taking Him at His Word. 

     The crowds coveted a bread king, who would keep their bellies full.  The Jewish zealots saw a military leader with wonderful powers, who would throw out the Romans and establish a Jewish heaven on earth.  The Pharisees, the religious leaders, saw a rival, a threat to their privilege, and to their belief system, which was built on their own goodness. 

    The 12 disciples seem to have run the gamut in their vision of Jesus.  In every case, instead seeing what Jesus did and taking Him at His Word, instead of His miracles and teaching engendering a living faith of the heart, a humble and confident trust in a loving and just God, almost everyone saw something different.  And wanted something more.  Our eyes always want more, more of what we think we need.  We rejoice when God meets our expectations.  But then after the miracle has passed and life has returned to normal, in two seconds we refuse to believe and follow God.   

     Jesus laid out God’s plan to the Twelve in clear terms: "See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be finished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon.  And after whipping him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise."   No fancy words here, and good news at the end.  The Cross was coming, but Jesus would rise victorious from the dead!  But the 12 Disciples can’t see it. 

    St. Luke cuts them some slack, “This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.”  Perhaps, in order to keep them with Jesus all the way to the Cross, so they could be God’s eyewitnesses, perhaps for this reason, this saying was hidden from them.  But not believing God’s plan of salvation is really our default position.  God’s plan seems crazy, we say, and very unpleasant.  We need more evidence. Show me.  I won’t believe it until I see it. 

    Jesus had displayed such power and wisdom.  He was so wonderful.  So, the way of the Cross always seemed impossible to the Disciples’ eyes.  Impossible to our natural eyes as well, because we would never think to make such a sacrifice.  Impossible to our eyes, and also repugnant to our wandering hearts, which don’t want to confess the truth, the humbling truth that the requirement to save the likes of us was the death of the Holy One of God.   

     Be careful, dear friends.  “Seeing is believing” may be a wise plan for earthly life, but in relation to God, “I’ll believe it when I see it” will lead us to hell.  Because our eyes lie and our hearts wander.  What we need are ears that see, and hearts that believe the promises of God, despite what we see with our eyes, despite everything in our being that screams against what the Lord has said.  We need ears that see clearly, like the blind man on the side of the road. 

     Our blind friend couldn’t see what Jesus was doing.  He couldn’t easily drop everything and travel to see this miracle worker from Galilee.  Our blind friend could only hear.  He could only listen to the reports about Jesus, and ponder.  And by God’s grace, he believed.  Which actually makes sense, because faith, true trust of the heart, comes by hearing.  While being a blind beggar is certainly not the American dream, our blind friend was blessed, truly blessed by God, despite his struggles.  Because he had ears that saw clearly. 

     What did our blind friend believe, exactly, that day outside Jericho?  Did he have any understanding of the coming Cross?  That’s hard to say.  He clearly believed that Jesus was a holy man, the Messiah, the Anointed Son of David, sent from the Father to rescue God’s people.  He believed Jesus would save him, believing strongly enough to cry out, to ignore the rebukes of the crowd, and cry out ever louder, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.”  And Jesus did have mercy. 

     And He has mercy for you as well.  Not just mercy to relieve the struggles of this life, although these are important, and God does care about your day to day.  Your Jesus rescues you from many problems. 

 

And when in God’s wisdom removing your current burden is not the plan, well, then He has mercy to strengthen you to endure the struggles of this life in faithful patience.  All the while looking forward to the day when you will see God face to face, and live in His perfect mercy and blessing, forever and ever. 

     We live in a “show me” world.  God grant us ears that see and hearts that believe the unlikely and unpopular story of God’s grace and love to sinners, revealed in the death, and Resurrection, of Jesus. 

     Our blind friend, his sight restored, joined the followers of Jesus, just in time to witness the first Holy Week, just in time to see with his own eyes the climax of God’s plan of salvation.  Did he follow Jesus from Jericho to Jerusalem?   Did he witness the Son of David dragging His own Cross to Golgotha?  Scripture does not say.  But where else would you be if Jesus had just restored your sight? 

     Jesus, eight days after His glorious Resurrection, declared to Thomas, and to you: “Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed.”  All those who trust in the Son of David are blessed by God the Holy Spirit with the true faith that comes by hearing, the faith that despairs of our goodness, the faith of the heart that trusts not in what our eyes see, nor in our feeble attempts to prove our worth.  No, instead true faith clings solely to the One who died, and rose again, in order to give sinners life.  

     One day, by faith in Jesus, we will see God in His glory, face to face.  Then our forward-looking faith and hope will pass away, for we will have arrived.  In God’s presence, will bask in His love, seeing His glory with our own eyes, forever and ever.  In the meantime, we stick to the Word.  We fill our ears with the lifegiving and powerful Word that makes us see the Truth.  This Truth of Christ, which creates new hearts in us, hearts that rejoice to proclaim the unbelievable plan of God to save the world, the plan that Jesus has finished, for you. 

     See clearly with your ears, and rest in His promises, the promises of Jesus, the Son of David, and the Son of God, your Savior and Lord, Amen.