Lent
4
March
30th, 2014
John
9:1-41
Our
Savior Lutheran Church, Whitefish Bay, WI
It
is part and parcel of our sinful nature to get things wrong. Turned
around. Backwards, even.
We
make ourselves God, and try to make God answer to us. We tell
ourselves that God somehow owes us, and we live in denial that we owe
him everything and more. We think we please him with our good works,
rather than trust that Christ has pleased God with his good work for
us.
We
have a keen sense of justice when we are wronged, but are quite lax
and flexible with the law applied to ourselves. We selectively apply
the rules of politeness, kindness, and regard for our neighbor. We
know our neighbor's sins all too well, especially those sins against
us. But when we sin, we are quick with excuses and rationalizations.
We
think we know, when we are ignorant. We think we hear, when we are
really deaf. We think we see, when we are truly blind.
The
Pharisees were no different. Oh, their pride. “You were steeped
in sin at birth, and you would teach us!” We are the teachers of
Israel! We are the children of Abraham! We are the disciples of
Moses! We are the ones who keep the 613 laws! We are the clean, and
you are the unclean. We give to the temple treasury (didn't you hear
the trumpets?) We aren't like those sinners – those prostitutes
and tax collectors, those lepers and outcasts. We're not steeped in
sin like this man born blind. And we would never do work on the
Sabbath, like that sinner, Jesus.
And
so such spiritual chest-thumping goes. But it is madness, and
blindness. And it is us.
We
are all the man born blind. We are all conceived and steeped in sin.
We are all children of our father, Adam. We are sinners who sin,
who can see only own spiritual navels, curved in on ourselves, who
cannot see God. We are all the pharisees, blind to our blindness,
but convinced we see it all, know it all. We think the good people
prosper, or deserve to. And that the bad people suffer, and deserve
to. And of course, we are good.
It
is part and parcel of our sinful nature to get things wrong. Turned
around. Backwards, even.
But
God's way is different. Mysterious to us. But far better, in fact,
divine.
One
seminary professor, Dr. David Scaer, puts it this way:
“...The
divine economy is different from ours. You cannot come to a
conclusion about the morality and sanctity of any person by the
amount of suffering he has experienced. The suffering sinner turns
out to be God’s saint and the hawkers of holiness are rejected by
God…Human suffering is not only an opportunity for God to show that
He is and remains the creator; human suffering is the place where God
shows His glory. Jesus dies so that through the resurrection God
might finally demonstrate to the world who He really is. The Son of
Man is lifted up so that all men may be drawn to him, not in the
magnificence of creation, but in the glory of the suffering of the
cross…God approaches us through what we find reprehensible.”
It
is in Jesus that all of this senselessness makes divine sense.
So
Jesus is the light. Jesus came to take the darkness away. He makes
night into day. He makes blind men see.
No
one has seen God except He who came from God. But in Jesus Christ,
we do see God. No one comes to the Father but by Jesus. But Jesus
is the perfect image of the Father, the exact representation of God,
for He is one with the Father, and He is True God from eternity.
Jesus
came into the darkness, born under the law, to redeem us under the
law. In the dark Judean night, the Light dawned. And on a dark, but
good Friday, when the sun was blotted out and the Lord of Life hung
on a cross, dying... salvation came to light. It was finished, then
and there, for all, forever.
And
so this one “Sent by God”, sends the blind man to the pool of
Siloam, which means, “Sent by God”. No matter that it was the
Sabbath, for Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. Jesus is the Sabbath-rest
of God, who gives us rest from our sins. He who washed the blindness
away for that man, also washes us clean and new in Holy Baptism. And
the scales fall from our spiritual eyes, as faith comes, and we see
and believe.
The
little pharisee in our heart finds it hard to believe. But the eyes
of faith see it plainly. The Old Adam in us fights against it. But
Christian baptism drowns that one daily, in repentance and faith.
And so it goes – and so it goes, as the old and the new continue to
struggle and muddle through this life, growing in faith toward God
and love toward neighbor, but always in Christ, always looking to his
light, the only way we can see.
You
have seen him, but with the eyes of faith. You see him in his word.
You see him at the font. You see him on the altar, under bread and
wine. You see him who speaks to you, and faith says, “I believe.”
So turn your eyes away from your neighbor's sin, and forgive freely.
And turn to see your own sin, yes, but fix your eyes on Jesus, who
takes that sin to the cross. In him, we see forgiveness, life,
salvation, and the peace of God which passes all understanding. May
it guard and keep your hearts and minds in Jesus Christ our Lord,
Amen.
