1.
Grace,
mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word for this 4th
Sunday in Lent is taken from John 9 and is entitled, “Jesus Sees a Man,
Jesus Sees You,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
When
the story begins in creation and ends in restoration, all the moments in
between are filled with the working of God.
Have you ever noticed how John, in his gospel, takes us into small
personal encounters with Jesus? Rather than give us an overview of Jesus’
ministry, listing regions and various kinds of healing, John takes us into the
heart of Jesus’ work, asking us to meditate on how He interacts with people: Jesus
and Nicodemus, Jesus and the Samaritan woman, etc. Today, it is Jesus and
the man born blind. In these small intimate moments, John offers us a vision of
how God works, personally, individually, then and now in the world.
3.
John
chapter 9 begins simply. “As [Jesus] went along, He saw a man blind from
birth.” (John 9:1) Jesus sees a man. I would like you to stop and think
about how profound this is. Jesus sees a man. Sometimes, it’s so hard for us to
see a person. We see things not people. We see the Rolex watch but fail to see
the broken marriage. We see the nose ring but completely miss the lifetime of
childhood abuse. We see the permanent smirk or the broken smile. We see the
news about the coronavirus right now everywhere we look, but we don’t
necessarily see the people suffering from this sickness or another terrible
disease. They are statistics and numbers
to us. We see things but do we really
see people?
4.
Consider
what it means to truly see a person as Jesus sees him or her as we reflect on
Martin Luther’s words considering the plague of his day. In 1527, Ten years after Martin Luther nailed
his 95 Theses to the Wittenburg Door, a plague ravaged Germany. Pastor Johann Hess asked Luther for advice.
Luther responded with a tract titled, “Whether One May Flee from a
Deadly Plague.” Luther’s step one
was to follow Christ’s statement, “As much as you did to one of the least,
you did to me” (Matthew 25:40). Luther continued: “If you wish to serve
Christ and to wait on Him, very well, you have your sick neighbor well at
hand.” Luther knew Satan would tempt
us to flee. He said, “the devil wants us to disregard God’s command in our
dealings with our neighbor.” He called that—“sin of the left hand.” Luther then said, “Others sin on the right
hand. They are much too rash and reckless, tempting God and disregarding
everything which might counteract death and the plague. … They do not avoid
persons and places infected by the plague, but lightheartedly make sport of it
and wish to prove how independent they are.” Luther said when people fail to protect
themselves from the plague, they risk infecting and poisoning others who might
have remained alive. Luther was blunt: “He
is thus responsible before God for his neighbor’s death and is a murderer many
times over. My dear friends, that is no good. … Shun persons and places
wherever your neighbor does not need your presence.”
5.
Now
concerning our present-day situation with the coronavirus in our nation. We still don’t know how far and fast it will
spread. We don’t know how lethal it will be, but we need to take precautions.
We should carry on with necessary personal and public conduct but avoid the
unessential. We
should postpone pleasure trips and cancel big public gatherings. Luther said pastors “must admonish people
to attend church and listen to the sermon so that they learn through God’s word
how to live and how to die.” Let’s
conclude with one-way Luther talked back to Satan: “If Christ shed his blood
and died for me, why should I not expose myself to some small dangers for his
sake and disregard this feeble plague? If you can terrorize, Christ can
strengthen me. If you can kill, Christ can give life. If you have poison in
your fangs, Christ has far greater medicine. … Get away, devil. Here is Christ
and here am I, his servant in this work. Let Christ prevail! Amen.
6.
It
is hard for us to see a person. Maybe
even harder when we are facing the danger of a serious virus or disease. When your life is in danger. When the
disciples see this man, what do they see? They see a problem, not a person.
Listen to what they say to Jesus: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his
parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2) For the
disciples, he is a teaching moment, an educational instance which has reduced
this human being to a theological dilemma.
7.
The
disciples think they are practicing theology, meditating on great theological
questions. But, their theology takes them away from the world. So, they stand
at a distance from a person, observing the man, but not seeing him. Talking
about him but not with him. They do not see him. They do not speak to him. They
do not touch him. They do not put shoes on his feet or a piece of bread in his
lap. They do not grasp his hand and lead him to Jesus. They stand apart from
the world and talk theology with their teacher.
8.
But
Jesus… Jesus does something different. Jesus sees the man. And Jesus sees this
man as part of a greater story. The
disciples had written a story which was too small. It was a story of sin and
punishment from God. This man was blind, and someone had sinned. Either he did
or his parents and God punished the sin with blindness. I don’t know if you
have ever encountered people who tell the Christian story this way. It’s just a
story about sin and an angry God. We become the morality police in the world.
We are there basically to tell the world how everyone sinned, and God is
punishing them. We’re there to discipline rather than disciple. We police the
world rather than participate in the good life God has given.
9.
Jesus,
however, sees this man as part of a much greater story, a story of creation and
restoration and resurrection. Jesus knows a greater story. It does not begin
with sin but with creation. It does not end with punishment but with
restoration & resurrection in Him. When the story begins in creation and
ends in restoration & resurrection, all the moments in between are filled
with the working of God. God who comes to take His broken creation and fashion
it into a new creation.
10.
So,
Jesus looks at this man and sees him as part of a greater story. Jesus says to
the disciples, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened
so that the works of God might be displayed in his life.” (John 9:3)
Then Jesus stops talking theology and starts living it. He kneels on the ground
and begins to create again. He spits and makes mud from the dust of the earth.
Forming it. Fashioning it. Putting it on the man’s eyes. And then He speaks to
him and tells him to go wash in the pool of Siloam.
11.
This
one who said, “Before Abraham was, I Am,” (John 8:58) now shows
just how far back He goes. He was there at the first creation, forming a world
that was beautiful and fashioning beautiful creatures to live in the world. The
One, who was there at the original creation, has come into creation again and
is going to work to bring His broken world back to restoration &
resurrection. He will take this man and give him sight. That is His work. And
He is willing to die to do such work. In fact, by dying He will do even greater
things than these. Jesus did not come to condemn the world but that the
world might be saved through Him (John 3:17). He will capture our sin and
condense it into His death and then He will rise to create new life. Life for
this man. Life for you. So, Jesus sees
this blind man, He sees you in your sin and He is willing to die on the cross
for you and rise from the dead in order to give to you a new life.
12.
What
a blessing for Jesus to reveal Himself like this today. How easy it is to
reduce God’s story to sin and punishment; to see problems, not people. To take
a colorful world and reduce it to black and white until the only thing people
hear from the Church is sin and punishment.
13.
But
Jesus comes today and gives us a glimpse of a much greater story. Baptized into
the death and resurrection of Jesus, you are children of God. You are dead to
sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ. You are not slaves to sin but children of
God, servants of His righteousness. Jesus opens the door of His Father’s
Kingdom and gives us a glimpse of His greater work. He teaches us to live, not
by the littleness of our minds (talking about people) but by the greatness of
His Kingdom, working with people, “that the works of God might be displayed.”
(John 9:3) Amen. Now the peace of God
that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until
life everlasting. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment