Title: Christ brings sight to the blind!
Text: John 9:1-7, 13-17, 34-39
5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 Having said these things, he spit 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.
In his book, An Anthropologist on Mars, neurologist Oliver Sacks tells about Virgil, a man who had been blind from early childhood. When he was 50, Virgil underwent surgery and was given the gift of sight. But as he and Dr. Sacks found out, having the physical capacity for sight is not the same as seeing.
Virgil's first experiences with sight were confusing. He was able to make out colors and movements, but arranging them into a coherent picture was more difficult. Over time he learned to identify various objects, but his habits--his behaviors--were still those of a blind man.
Dr. Sacks asserts, "One must die as a blind person to be born again as a seeing person. It is the interim, the limbo . . . that is so terrible."
To truly see Jesus and his truth means more than observing what he did or said, it means a change of identity.
Terry Seufferlein Norman, Oklahoma.
Christ brings sight to the blind!
As we look at the story today of the man born blind, the question was asked of Jesus as He and His disciples passed by:
“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
The idea is that the physical blindness that this man was born with was some sort of punishment from God, either brought upon by the man’s sinfulness or that of his parents. To this …
3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.
The thought of the day and in our day as well is that our illnesses, afflictions and even blindness are punishments from God brought on by some act of sin as though God is watching and looking to punish sin with physical ailments.
The truth though is that 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (Rom 3:23) and that 23 … the wages of sin is death, (Rom 6:23a) and we all know all too well the reality of that in our life.
Ill.
Fellow member Frieda Flener is 91 and has been dealing with the reality of her long life for … well 91 years now. She is a long time member of Peace and enjoys working outside. Pastor Merrell and I visited her in the hospital on the 17th of this month and she got home later that day, she can’t see and her hearing is not good so you have to talk loud for her to understand what you are saying. But her mind is strong and she remembers things so well.
After Saturday service my wife was talking to Judy Harroun on the phone when she the ambulance arrived at Frieda’s house. They rushed her to the hospital again. When Monica and I got there we found Frieda and her daughter’s in the emergency room. Frieda had a stroke but was making good progress … so good that the doctors were so impressed with her memory. When they asked why she could remember things so well she said, “When you can’t see you can’t write thing down so I remember them.” Then she looked at me and said Don Pilot’s birthday is April 10th. I hope she’s right because Don is probably getting a card on the 10th.
Frieda’s hope is not in her sight but in her Lord and while in this life she continues to lift up family and friends in prayer and serve them as best she can she knows that it is not what she does … but what Christ has done for her and for all born in this life that matters.
Christ brings spiritual sight to the blind!
Many in this life are blind to Christ. There are some who have never heard about Him and some who have heard but have continued to closed their ears to the truth … looking to their own sinful flesh or the alternate truth that society presents. In the postmodern worldview truth is seen not as absolute but as what is true for you. Many get lured away to what works for them mixing the norms of the culture, other religions, and the social gospel, much like the Samaritan’s from last weekend who mingled with the pagan culture of Mesopotamia and were not brought back into the Israelite community after the exile.
Our children who don’t attend church, don’t hear God’s word proclaims and only hear what society preaches – understandably are in agreement when issues of the Christian faith are pitted against the social diversity that society desires.
Truth is relative we are told. What you believe is true for you because my truth is different. “Who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?”
The truth of our lesson today is not one of a God who punishes His children for the sins that they commit with blindness, sickness or affliction but one “who takes away the sin of the world!”
Christ brings sight to the blind!
Jesus then spit 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.
Truth is stranger than fiction. Luther might ask in the Small Catechism:
“How can mud and saliva do such great things?”
Answer:
It is not the mud and saliva, but the word of God in and with the mud and saliva that do such great things. “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” … So, he went and washed and came back seeing.
This is most certainly true!
The brokenness of this corrupted world creates the blindness to the truth of Jesus and what He has done to take away the sins of the world. The Pharisees saw the man’s sight restored because he trusted Christ and washed. They asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.”
Jesus again last week told us that the true worship is in Spirit and in truth and Pharisees are not interested in truth, change or Jesus for that matter. “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” These are questions reason can’t answer because they must and can only be understood by faith.
17 So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.” You could almost hear the words of Thomas in the upper room, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28)
Now the Pharisees throw him out. They don’t want to hear the truth about Jesus they have their own truth and that truth is close to the light of the world. But for the man born blind … when Jesus asked:
“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.
Spiritual blindness has a cure and it is made clear to the man born blind in He, who is speaking to him. This Jesus that the religious leaders reject is the cure not only for his physical blindness but also for his spiritual blindness as well.
The world, whether secular or religious has a number of truths that lead away us from the one who is “the way the truth and the life.” And this truth is that, “No one comes to the Father except through Him.” (John 14:6)
Because, Christ brings sight to the blind!
39 Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, by faith you have been brought from blindness to sight, and those who see, through the self righteous reason of their own understanding, may become blind.”
Christ is the truth and sight to the blind of this world and by faith and our own washing in Baptism we receive faith and we too see him for who he is.
"One must die as a blind person to be born again as a seeing person.” Our dying and rising in Him is our change of identity. You have been brought from death to life.
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
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