Blind Jesus - Sermon for the 4th Sunday in Lent

Fourth Sunday of Lent, March 19^th, anno + Domini 2023
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches, Custer and Hill City, SD
Blind Jesus - St. John 9:1-41, Isaiah 42:14-21

Jesus refuge of the weary, Blest Redeemer whom we love,

Fountain in life’s desert dreary, Savior from the world above: 

Often have Your eyes, offended, Gazed upon the sinner’s fall;

Yet upon the Cross extended, You have borne the pain of all. 

      How could He stand it?  How could Jesus, Holy God from heaven, now entered into human flesh, endure looking around Himself, to see the people who had polluted and scarred the good world that He created?  Often have Your eyes, offended, gazed upon the sinner’s fall.  So wrote the hymnwriter Savonarola, wondering out loud how Jesus put up with seeing the likes of us.  

     Isaiah tells us how Jesus did it, in our reading from his 42^nd chapter:  Jesus was blind.  Jesus, the Servant of the Lord in the book of Isaiah, does all sorts of strange things to bring Israel back to the Lord, and today we hear this about Him:  “Who is blind but my servant, or deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is blind as my dedicated one, …  blind as the servant of the Lord?”

     Jesus was not literally blind.  He was not literally deaf.  But, as Isaiah continues, “He sees many things, but does not observe them;  his ears are open, but he does not hear.”  Jesus had to overlook the sin that surrounded Him as He walked the so-called Holy Land.  Jesus had to shut His ears to the constant lies and evil talk that polluted the air all around Him.  

     “Who sinned?” asked the foolish disciples, “this man born blind, or his parents?”  Who, they want to know, is God punishing with this blindness? 

      Who sinned?  How did Jesus resist shouting back at them, “You all did!  You all do, all the time!”?  Jesus could have asked: “Why are you worried about the sin of this poor blind man, when you yourself are filled up with sin, through and through?”  Their question is ridiculous, and suggests two lies: first, that we can connect each particular problem a person suffers to particular sins they have committed, and second, that suffering people are less important to God.  Their suffering is surely just punishment from God, unlike the rest of us normal, healthy people. 

     None of us are normal and healthy, as God originally created us to be.  All of us are sinners, deserving far worse than being born blind.  God has been holding back on our just punishment, ever since the Fall into Sin.  But the disciples are blind to these truths.  They are more interested in dissecting the sins and woes of another, rather than facing their own.  The Lord averts His eyes from the offense of their pointing fingers, which single out the blind man in his suffering, reducing him to a subject for their religious debate.  Jesus covers His ears, ignoring the foolish pride of their words, which suggest they are better off than this man born blind.  “Nobody sinned,” says Jesus, “this was all so that the glory of God could be revealed, through the works that I will do.” 

   It had to be hard, teaching the Twelve.  Jesus, the lone professor at God’s traveling seminary, is trying to prepare the Twelve to be the foundation stones of His Church, to be spiritual leaders and builders.  But they don’t even grasp the most obvious points of Scripture:  “No one is righteous, no, not one…  All have turned away, all our righteous deeds are as filthy rags…  The intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth.”  The great King David, and everyone else, was conceived in iniquity.  Humanity is shot through with sin. 

     From Genesis through Kings, from the Psalms through Isaiah, through story, poem and straightforward declaration, the Old Testament Scriptures, which the disciples had heard many times, make it quite clear that our fall into sin was complete.  Our whole being is infected, all of humanity, no one escapes, no one is righteous in and of himself.  

     And yet, they ask Jesus, “Who sinned?”  These future Apostles, the future architects of Christ’s Church, His future missionary preachers, show no compassion for the suffering, no concern for the wretched life of this poor blind man, no focus on the needs of people.  But they do want Jesus to tell them who sinned, this man who was born blind, or his parents?  And so, as He had to do ever since the Fall, God’s Son again makes Himself blind and deaf, temporarily blind to the sinful ignorance of His chosen disciples, deaf to their ridiculous questions.  

     The disciples, like we also tend to be, are the ones who are truly blind: blind to our sin, blind to our predicament, unwilling to see or hear the hardest truth of all.  Unwilling to believe just how lost in sin we poor children of Adam truly are.  God ever since the Fall has held off, delaying the punishment we deserve.  We sinners like to interpret this mercy to mean we are really not so bad, really not poor miserable sinners.  

Differences over the nature and depth of human sin are what create much of the mischief within Christianity.  Such differences and disputes are common, because no one wants to believe what God has to say about sin.  It’s just so painful.  Our Lutheran Confessions, over four centuries old and still full of contemporary wisdom, get sin right.  I quote:

“In spiritual matters the understanding and reason of mankind are ‹completely› blind and by their own powers understand nothing, as it is written in 1 Corinthians 2:14, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” 2. Likewise, we believe, teach, and confess that the unregenerate will of mankind is not only turned away from God, but also has become God’s enemy. … Just as a dead body cannot raise itself to bodily, earthly life, so a person who by sin is spiritually dead cannot raise himself to spiritual life. ^[1]”

     End quote.  Ugh.  Who wants to talk about that?  Let’s not talk about our sin.  Let’s instead ask who’s to blame, the man born blind from birth, or his parents.  Let’s talk about the weather.  Let’s talk about anything, rathr than deal with the reality of sin as the Scriptures do.  Just like us, the disciples prefer to avoid any real conversation about their sin.  And amazingly, Jesus lets it slide.  He overlooks the foolishness of the Twelve, turning a blind eye to their arrogance, humoring their ridiculous question.  “Neither this man, nor his parents, are to blame,” explains Jesus, “This blindness is so the works of God may be shown in him.” 

     One of the most surprising parts of God’s plan of salvation is that, for a time, for a very long time, God purposely overlooked our sins, in order to bring Christ.  God would have been completely just to have immediately and fully punished Adam and Eve in the Garden.  The same goes for all the rest of us, each time we sin.  But God had another plan.  For God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting our trespasses against us, overlooking former sins, waiting for the right time to reveal the truth. 

      The disciples, like us, prefer to talk about the sins of other people.   How much easier it is to talk about how bad things are, rather than take action to improve things. 

     Jesus, on the other hand, ignores His disciples foolish arrogance, and acts.  Jesus 
works, spitting and making mud and rubbing it on the man’s eyes.  Jesus heals.  Jesus teaches, slowly revealing Who He is to this man born blind, to open the eyes of his soul.  

     And, at the very same time Jesus was healing the eyes and creating faith in the heart of this man, He was also arranging the ultimate solution to human sin and sinfulness, the greatest of all God’s works.  Jesus broke the Pharisees’ rules by giving sight to this blind man on the Sabbath Day, the day of rest.  Even more, through the bold confession that He inspired in this man, Jesus was enraging the Pharisees.  Jesus elsewhere calls these the religious teachers of the Jews ‘blind guides,’ who were misleading the people of God down the path of trying to work their way into God’s favor.  Jesus now directly confronts their lies and challenges their authority, so that they would seek His death.  

   Soon, Jesus would raise Lazarus from the dead, the final straw that hardened the religious establishment in their plan to have Him killed.  Jesus could see into their evil hearts.  All along He could see their plans, better than they could.  But God’s Servant overlooked even this.  Jesus acted to help the man born blind.  But He takes no action to protect Himself from the Jewish leaders’ murderous plans. 

     Jesus turned a blind eye to the Jews’ schemes against Him, so that He could magnify
the Law of the Lord, and make it everlastingly glorious.  But Jesus does not make the Law glorious by dishing out punishment to evildoers.  That’s what I would do.  I would really stick it to the wicked, if I wasn’t one of the them, that is. 

But Jesus, who is not like me, makes the Law glorious by meeting the full measure of the its requirements, keeping the Law every moment of His life.  Then He accepted from His Father the full measure of the Law’s punishments against sin.  These he accepted, in His own Body, even the punishment deserved by the Pharisees, even the punishment deserved by your sins, and mine. 

     This is the path Jesus makes for the us blind sinners.  This is the path we would never find for ourselves, the way of righteousness that runs through the shed blood of the Righteous One, the Lord’s Servant.  He bore our sins, because we could not.   He died our death, because only He could destroy death.  He rose to new life, so that all who believe in Him might not perish, but live, through Him, and in Him, and with Him, forever. 

     See Christ, magnifying the Law of the Lord.  See the pain in His eyes, as He suffers for the wickedness of the Pharisees.  See Him, as He suffers for you.  See your sin, poured out on Jesus.  Confess it.  He suffered in your place.   

     See, on the very same Cross, Christ loving you.  Meet His merciful gaze, which sees you as a beloved child of God.  Jesus is looking at you, seeing you in His resurrection light, loving you by the forgiveness of your sins. 

     See Christ, risen from the dead, bringing light and life, illuminating the darkness, with His Word, seeking the lost, feeding His Sheep.  See Him, and, like the man born blind, suddenly your whole world will look different, new, full of hope, in the light of Christ. 

     In the Light of Christ, the insults, problems and injustices of this life are trifles; they have no power to ruin your future.  You don’t even need to let them ruin your day. 

     In the light of Christ, you begin to see all those sinners all around you as other souls for whom Christ died.  They are, just like you, men and women, boys and girls, all born spiritually blind, but to whom Christ wants to give saving sight. 

     Live with your eyes wide open, seeing the frightening reality of your sin.  But even more, see the limitless grace and mercy of God, the light of Christ, which shines on you, forever and ever, Amen. 

 

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^[1]Concordia : The Lutheran Confessions. 2005 (Edited by Paul Timothy McCain) (477). St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House.