Fourth Sunday in Lent

Fourth Sunday in Lent (A)

March 19, 2023

Text: John 9:1-41

            Blindness to sight, darkness to light.  The miracle in our text is a sign of the grand, cosmic healing and restoration the Lord has come into the world to accomplish.  And it is a sign of the miracle that He does for you.  To heal you and restore you.

            Aside from Jesus, every character in our Holy Gospel this morning is groping in blindness.  Of course, we understand that the man born blind quite literally, physically, can’t see out of his eyeballs.  But that isn’t the worst of it. 

            The disciples are blinded by the theology of Job’s three friends.  If this man is suffering, it must be because he, or perhaps his parents, sinned some grievous sin, and so he deserves this as a punishment from God.  Divine justice.  Divine retribution.

            The neighbors who had seen him before as a beggar aren’t even sure if this is the same guy.  They were blind to him before.  Blind to his value as a human being.  Blind to his need.  Sure, they tossed him a few coins now and then.  Alms are impressive before the eyes of God and others, and most of all, my own eyes.  Alms are also good for easing the conscience and hiding the plight of miserable people, like this blind man, from the eyes of my heart.  Plus, the neighbors are probably also operating on the theology of Job’s three friends.  Why was the man born blind?  Sin.  Maybe his own, in the womb, or foreseen by God.  Maybe his parents’.  But it’s only natural to assume that great suffering is merited by the sin and guilt of the sufferer.

            The Pharisees…  If anyone should see with eyes wide open, it’s them.  Experts in Torah, masters in Holy Scripture.  But they are blinded by their clouded interpretations of the Law, their darkened hearts, and frankly, the lightless rays of their own self-righteousness.  In their zeal for the Sabbath regulations, they are blind to the miracle that has taken place before their very eyes.  In fact, they are worried that the manner of the man’s healing, making mud on the Sabbath, may have broken, not God’s Law in Holy Scripture, but the man-made oral prohibition against kneading dough on the Sabbath... Right?  To make mud with dust and spit, you have to knead them together.  If there’s one thing God would not want, it’s for a blind man to receive sight on the Sabbath at the cost of rubbing one’s hands on the ground!  Blindness.  Utter blindness.

            The man’s parents?  They are blinded by fear.  They don’t want their fellow Church members to think badly of them.  They don’t want to risk being thrown out of the Synagogue.  At least they acknowledge their son, I suppose.  But they also throw him under the bus.  He is of age.  Ask him.  If he’s stupid enough to follow this Jesus character, he’ll have to suffer the consequences himself.  Notice, the parents are willfully blind.  That is what fear does to us.  They cover their own eyes.  They just don’t want to see.  They are afraid to see.

            But Jesus…  the Word of God made flesh, who was with God in the beginning, and who is God (John 1:1-2, 14)… the Word God spoke at creation, “Let there be light,” and there was light (Gen. 1:3; ESV)… the true Light, that gives light to everyone, who was coming into the world (John 1:9)… He comes to open the eyes of the blind (Is. 42:7), and flood His light into every corner, obliterating the darkness (John 1:5).  “As long as I am in the world,” He says, “I am the light of the world” (9:5).

            He comes to the blind man, and it’s probably a good thing the man can’t see what Jesus does next.  It’s pretty gross.  He spits on the ground and makes mud with His saliva.  And then He smears it on the man’s impotent eyes.  What is Jesus doing?  Actually, He is undoing what has gone wrong in His good creation.  This is an act of New Creation.  The man of dust.  Water from Jesus’ mouth.  Water included in God’s command and combined with God’s Word.  A refashioning of the eyes.  “Go and wash in the pool of Siloam” (v. 7), which means, “Sent.”  Jesus is the Sent One.  “Immerse yourself in Me.”  So the man does.  And he comes back seeing!

            It is a tremendous miracle.  But notice that it is only the beginning.  The man hasn’t even seen Jesus yet.  There will be a growth in his sight.  First the eyes are opened by the washing connected with God’s Word.  The lights have been turned on.  From here, the man will progressively come to believe and confess that Jesus is a prophet (v. 17), then a man from God (v. 33), all, mind you, in the face of great pressure and repugnance from the Pharisees.

            But it is only when the man comes face to face with Jesus that the eyes are fully opened.  “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” (v. 35).  “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” (v. 36).  “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you” (v. 37; emphasis added).  This is the greater miracle.  Not just that the eyeballs see images, but that the eyes of faith have been opened.  Jesus speaks it so.  You have seen Him, He says, and so it is, by the same creative Word that fashioned the heavens and the earth.  And the man confesses, “Lord, I believe” (v. 38).  And he worships Him.  No longer blind.  Not physically.  Not spiritually. 

            Jesus has refashioned our eyes and given us sight by washing us in Holy Baptism.  Water included in God’s command and combined with God’s Word.  Water from His mouth.  He has given us His Holy Spirit, and faith that ever looks to Him, to His cross and death for the forgiveness of our sins, to His resurrection for life and salvation. 

            But there is always the danger that we will close our eyes in blindness once again.  It happens whenever we turn our eyes away from Jesus, when we turn our ears away from hearing His Word.  When we listen to the serpent’s temptations.  When we follow the example of the unbelieving world.  When we give way to our own fleshly desires, what we call in theology, “concupiscence.” 

            What are the things we look to that lead us back into the dark abyss?  What are the things that lead us to look away from Jesus?

            The theology of Job’s three friends.  It blinds us to our responsibility for our suffering neighbor.  It blocks out love.  It blocks out compassion.  That guy deserves it.  Or… At least it isn’t me.  Blindness.  Utter blindness.  We don’t see that our fellow human being is precious in the sight of God.  That God created him.  And we don’t see Jesus.  We don’t see Jesus in him.  We don’t see that Jesus died for him. 

            A clouded interpretation of God’s Law.  Reading the Law in such a way that I’m better at keeping it than others, and particularly those who suffer.  Being a stickler for the rules in such a way that there is no place in me for mercy.  In fact, adding my own man-made rules on top of God’s Law, and treating my rules as more important than God’s Law.

            Self-righteousness.  That is the big one.  Self-righteousness appears exceedingly bright to blinded eyes.  But it is really the darkness of self-delusion.  I’m righteous enough within myself, I don’t need Jesus’ righteousness.  Not really.  At least not much of it.   

            Or, despair.  Despair is the mirror image of self-righteousness, and it comes from the same place.  Namely, gauging my merit before God on the basis of my works.  In self-righteousness, I think I’ve done enough good to merit life and salvation.  In despair, I think I’ve done enough bad that God cannot possibly save me. 

            In either case, I’m looking, not at Jesus, but at myself.  And that never ends well.  It always ends in the blindness of the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. 

            And then, fear.  Fear causes us to be willfully blind.  Don’t look at Jesus… don’t confess Him… because, if you do, what will other people think?  What will they say?  What will they do to you that will cause you suffering?  Okay, I promise you won’t get thrown out of this Church for it.  But you may be unfriended on Facebook.  Or more seriously, you may be rejected by friends and family members to whom you dare to speak the truth.  And persecution appears to be right around the corner, my friends.  We’ve had it so good, for so long, but we shouldn’t, for that reason, let suffering take us by surprise.  Fear of such things makes us cover our eyes.  Hide under the blankets.  Maybe even under the bed.

            That is why Jesus comes to us.  He continually comes to us, and He speaks.  He speaks our eyes back open again.  Repentance.  Faith.  He gets right up into our face and says, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?  Now, you know who He is.  You have seen Him.  And it is He who is speaking to you.  Eyes and ears on Me.” 

            Beloved, confess the things that tear your eyes away from Jesus.  Those who claim they can see just fine betray their utter blindness.  Those who know they are blind receive new eyes from Jesus.

            Eyes that see what the man born blind saw.  Jesus alone is our healing.  He is the Prophet sent from God.  He is the Son of Man, Messiah, the Son of God.  We believe.  And we worship Him.

            Fixing our eyes on Him, our eyes are now open to others as He sees them.  With eyes full of compassion.  With eyes full of love. 

            And our eyes are now open to ourselves as He sees us.  Sinners forgiven.  Born blind, but who now see.  Created anew.  Washed clean at the pool.  Water from Jesus’ mouth.  Included in God’s Command.  Combined with God’s Word.  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17).  “For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord… Therefore it says, ‘Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you’” (Eph. 5:8, 14).  Healing you.  Restoring you.  Blindness to sight.  Darkness to light.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.