SPEAKER_00 0:01

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we come to a point where we can pause and listen to your word. We pray, Father, that you would open our eyes today so that we can see Jesus. In his name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. So far in Lent, we have been walking our way through John's Gospel. And there are many ways in which John's gospel is unique from the other gospels, but one of the things that really stands out is the way that John records Jesus making back and forth trips to Jerusalem. On his back and forth journeys, Jesus has encountered Nicodemus and the woman at the well. Jesus was sharp and clear with Nicodemus. The only way to enter the kingdom of God is to be born again. Nicodemus, the teacher of Israel, did not understand Jesus' message to him at first. However, we know from the end of the gospel that he was not disheartened by the conversation that he had with Jesus, because later on he's there at the crucifixion taking care of the body of our Lord. On another journey back to Galilee, Jesus stops and speaks with the Samaritan woman. She is confronted with her sins, but also with the offer of living water. She's not daunted by the realization of her sinfulness, but eagerly asks for the living water that would quench her deepest thirst. In some ways, Jesus' meeting with Nicodemus and the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman, he meets with them in the same way, giving them both a glimpse into their deepest needs. The difference, of course, rests in the way that the two people saw themselves. Nicodemus, the teacher of the law, believed that he already knew who Christ was to be, who the Christ was to be, and that he would be able to weigh in on the matter himself. He sought Jesus for confirmation of what he already taught and believed. On the other hand, the Samaritan woman knew her neediness. After all, she was the one going out in the middle of the day all by herself to draw water. She knew her sin. And this morning we've made our way to John chapter 9, and the same themes and ideas that were present in Jesus' interaction with Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman are here. We have another story of need. Jesus is offering, Jesus is offering mind-bending insight and teaching into water and light. All of these things, Jesus is addressing these needs. Again, Jesus is back in Jerusalem and has just had a series of confrontations with the Pharisees in the temple. And as the rest of the day unfolds, the focus of the story refocuses on a blind man who had been blind from birth. And in the few verses that Jesus is offstage, the Pharisees put all of their malice for Jesus on the man who had been born blind. Their questions and their rejection of the plain truth that stood right in front of them demonstrate that Jesus restored sight to the blind man and demonstrated that all people are spiritually blind. The spiritual blindness that all people have is what keeps them from being able to recognize the truth of the gospel. And like the man who received his sight in John chapter 9, we are all blind from birth. But the joyous gospel truth is that the light of the world, Jesus Christ, still restores sight today. What I'd like to do this morning is sort of walk through the story in John 9, and then as we get to the end of the gospel reading, we will zoom in on Jesus' comments that include the Pharisees there at the end. Jesus has left the temple in John chapter 8. And in John chapter 8, he tells the Pharisees that they are sons of their father, the devil, and that they are a bunch of liars, all of them. And that he, before Abraham was, he says, I am, and in that declaration of his identity, as one with the Father, the Pharisees and those gathered together, his opponents, grab to gather up stones to kill Jesus. But Jesus just sort of leaves the temple. I don't, he's just sort of magical in that way. He just has the ability to just get out of sticky situations, and he finds his way out of the temple, and the disciples are with him. And as they're on their way out of the city, there's a man sitting there, blind from birth. Evidently known to the disciples and to Jesus, because they know that he's been blind from birth, and the disciples stop Jesus and they point at the man and they say, Who sinned? This man or his parents, that he was born blind. Their question was about the source of blindness in someone who had been born blind. Who sinned, they want to know. Jesus' answer to their question is not what they would expect. He tells them that it was not sin that caused this man to be born blind. Rather, he was blind so that the mighty works of God would be displayed in him. On one level, it should be reassuring to us that blindness is not a punishment for sins that the man was going to commit in his life. Think about it. If Jesus had said this man who had been born blind was going to be such a sinner that God made him blind so that he wouldn't commit these sins, we would have had a sort of a kind of a takeback moment of realization that, like, God could have done any of that to us. What did he do to us to prevent us from some sin? But Jesus says, no, it wasn't a sin that he was going to do in his life that caused him to be born blind. And likewise, it wasn't his parents' fault that he was born blind, which is an encouragement to parents in the room who are wondering about their own children this morning and thinking, well, is that the reason why my children didn't do exactly the way that I wanted them to do? I mean, frankly, Jesus' answer is reassuring to everybody. The problems in my life and the problems in my children's life are not the result of somebody else's sin. However, Jesus' answer brings up another question about the justice of God in having this person born blind. The church fathers were very concerned about this question, and John Chrysostom answers the question about whether or not God is just to have this man born blind and grow up blind and suffer as a blind man a beggar, just so that God's glory can be revealed in him. John Chrysostom answers this question in this way. He says, Did the man suffer wrong for the glory of God? Tell me what God did wrong. For what if God had never willed to make the man at all? But I assert that he even received benefit from his blindness, because he recovered the sight of the eyes within. What were the Jews profited by their eyes? They incurred the heavier punishment, being blinded even while they saw. And what injury did this man have because of his blindness? For through his blindness he recovered his sight. And as then the evils of this present life are not evils, so neither are the good things good. Sin alone is evil, but blindness is not an evil. And he who had brought this man not from being not from not being into being, also had the power to leave him as he was. In other words, blindness and the things that happen to us in our lives are not necessarily the evil we think they are. In reality, the things that we encounter in our lives are the process of what God has us on to redeem us from these things. And of course, God, who has the power to save us, could also not save us. And so God has done no wrong in this man's life. And so, as Jesus points out, his actions are to declare the glory of God. And in this man's life, his redemption is going to be a testimony to God's glory, and his life will be marked not by a grievance against God for the blindness that he suffered, but for the joy of having received his sight. Jesus turns to the blind man and spits on the ground and makes mud, and that's gross. Jesus uses, just kind of put that out there. I'm the only one who thought that's really gross. Jesus takes the mud and smears it on the man's eyes. And that action is so sacramental. Jesus is using ordinary things to bring about something that he could have done with a thought, with a word. He used the earth from which the man had been taken and mixed it into mud with his saliva, which came from the mouth of the incarnate word of God Himself. You could call this an act of recreation. Just like in the Garden of Eden, when God formed man from the dust of the earth. I say from the Garden of Eden, it was the Garden of Eden that hadn't been planted yet when God formed man out of the dust of the earth. But God formed man out of the dust of the earth and breathed into him the breath of life. This man who is sitting here with his body corrupted by the sin that's evidently in the world has his mind, has his eyes reopened by the power that acted in creation. All the elements of the original creation are present, but this man, this time the man is being renewed. And I call this act sacramental because God is using things that are ordinary to communicate grace to this man. Without getting too far into the weeds about sacraments, it's enough for us to say that we live in a world in which God meets us in all kinds of ways to bring us into his grace. From the smallest trivialities to life-altering events, we find ourselves growing in God's grace and understanding the depth of God's love for us. And what do you call growing, a growing assurance of your salvation and a deeper desire to fight off the sins that so easily beset you? But what do you call that except for an act of God's grace? And when God meets us in those ordinary things, we don't fight against that or we don't reject that idea. And yet there would some who would say God doesn't meet us in bread and wine. But in these ordinary things, like earth and saliva and like bread and wine, God meets us and does his work of grace in our lives. After Jesus has anointed the man's eyes with mud, Jesus tells the man to go and wash. When he washes, his sight is restored. In my mind, the conversation must have occurred with relative proximity to the pool of Siloam, but in any event, the pool must have been well known to the blind man because he heads off right away without a word. Once he washes in the pool, his sight is restored. Here again, we have water doing something in John's gospel. Yet it ought to be clear that the power of restoring sight resides in the promise of Jesus and not in the water. That is why a dip into a river doesn't wash away all manner of ailments and our sins. It's in the word of promise, it's in the gospel of Jesus Christ that we are made whole. And the people who knew this man realize, the people who knew this man, when they bumped into him again and he's got his sight back, they realize that something has happened and they're marveling at it, and they're so shocked by the fact that this man has received his sight. Some people can't even believe it's him. And when they ask him how they got his sight back, he tells them, and it blows their mind. So much so, and so much of a fervor is being stirred up that the Pharisees get pulled into all of this, and the Pharisees are upset, not because the man has been born blind or that he's been healed, but that all of this took place on a day when you're not supposed to do any work on the Sabbath. Which is ironic because they seem to hold a whole trial on the Sabbath this afternoon. That afternoon, they're holding a whole trial to question the man, and under questioning, the man retells the events of his healing, but the Pharisees are still not satisfied. In a section of John 9 that we didn't read, uh the man's parents are pulled in, and they're also questioned, was he really born blind? Is this your son? And they were like, This is our son, he was really born blind, we took care of him all of his life. And then not only that, they they they turn to the parents and they say, Can you tell us how this man was healed? And of course, they weren't present when Jesus healed this man, so they said, He's of age, ask him. They're scared, and they want out of the situation. The parents exit stage right as quickly as possible, and the man is back on the scene, and he is being interviewed again. And the same questions, until the exasperated response of the man who had been born blind is, How could you dare say that the person who's able to restore the sight of a blind man, even a blind person who has been born blind from birth, is not from God. The interview with the man's parents, the repeated questioning, all of this situation would be funny if it weren't for the overtones of threat, abuse, and violence hidden in the Pharisees' comments. In the end, the Pharisees expel the man who had been born blind from the temple and the synagogue. He's excommunicated. When Jesus heard about this excommunication, he sought the man out. And he seeks him out to ask him a question. That kind of seems out of left field. See, he seeks the man out and he doesn't say, Do you know who I am? I'm the guy who healed you. No, he seeks him out and he says, Do you believe in the Son of Man? And the man, of course, has no idea who the Son of Man is. We don't even know if he understands that phrase's Old Testament significance. And so he says, Who is he that I may believe in him? And Jesus answers him in this wonderfully direct way. And you know, if you know Jesus is speaking in the gospel, he rarely answers these questions like this. With the woman at the well and with this man who had been born blind, he answers the question who is this Savior of the world? Who is this Messiah? Who is this who is this Son of Man? Jesus answers him, you have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you. And the verbs in that sentence are really interesting. You have seen him, indicating a previous experience of sightedness, right? But this man hadn't been sighted. He did not have the ability to see until that day. And when had he seen Jesus? Jesus was gone by the time he got back from the pool of Siloam. He didn't know who Jesus was by sight. But Jesus says you had seen him. And it is he who is speaking to you right now. And the text says that he says, Lord, I believe and he worships him. And Jesus, standing on the day of rest when the people of God are supposed to worship God, accepts the worship of this man and doesn't defer. And now at this point, other people are starting to pay attention to this scene. Jesus has found this man in public. He's talking to him around the people who just a few hours ago were ready to kill Jesus in the temple, and the Pharisees' ears pick up because Jesus concludes his conversation with a new disciple by teaching him what sight is really all about. At the end of John 9, verses 39 through 41, they echo other words of Scripture about the sight that Jesus is really talking about. If we look back at the Old Testament reading just a moment ago from 1 Samuel chapter 16, we see that God looks at the heart and not at the outward appearance like we do. This means that the normal way that we judge good and bad is not the way that God judges good and bad. And that's why John Chrysostom could say that blindness is not an evil. Because if you're living with blindness, then you could say it's very difficult, and I would really like for it not to be. It's like a curse. And so, how can someone say that this is not bad, this is not an evil? Well, because when God looks at a situation, he's not looking at it in the outward appearance. He's not looking at a handsome, strong, broad-shouldered Saul and thinking he's the king for us, because God knew that man's heart. Right? And David, who's small and scrawny and young, is the king that God is going to use to bring justice to his people Israel, and even though he's not even considered member of the family, he's out there taking care of the sheep when the prophet comes to town and he's going to bless that whole family with that offering. God doesn't look at situations and call them good and bad the way that we do by the outward expression of our eyes with our five senses. J.C. Ryle, when commenting on John 9, says, the same thing may be seen in other places of Scripture. The servants of Pharaoh saw the finger of God in the plagues of Egypt when their master's heart was hardened. The servants of Naaman saw the wisdom of Elisha's advice when their master was turning away in rage. The high, the great, the noble are often the last to see spiritual lessons. Their possessions and their position often blind the eyes of their understanding and keep them back from the kingdom of God. It is written that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. In another place, St. Paul said that the gospel seems like foolishness to the wise, and to others the death of Jesus seems like defeat, not triumph. Yet to St. Paul the gospel was the very power of God for salvation and the very wisdom of God on display. And the message that he preached was Jesus Christ and him crucified, because in the crucified Christ we find the light of the world. The light of the world which shines into darkness, the darkness of our sin-stricken world, where death, blindness, hunger, injustice, and deceit rules. The light of the gospel shatters the darkness of men's hearts and baptizes them into living waters which bring them life and sight. At the end of John 9, Jesus tells the Pharisees that ask him if he is blind, that ask them if they are blind. Sorry, I'm going to get this sentence right. I'm going to read it as I wrote it. Jesus tells the Pharisee that asked him if he is blind that if he knew about his blindness, he would be guiltless. In other words, that's really just a bad sentence, is what it is. I've read it now twice and it's still terrible. Sorry. As it says in John chapter 9, the last verse there, if you were blind, you would have no guilt, but now that you say we see, your guilt remains. That's what I was trying to communicate. However, the blindness of the Pharisee remains. He sees with his eyes, and yet he misses the blindness of his heart. The man who had been born blind is standing there with eyes of faith opened by the light of the world, and yet this man stands there blind. But seeing. The light of the world, Jesus Christ, still gives, restores, brings sight today. It may be the outward physical eyes that need to be restored for some people. But all of us, 100% of us, need the eyes of our hearts to be opened. However, bad news. There's nothing you can do. There's nothing you can do to make this happen all on your own. It's not up to you. The good news is there's nothing for you to do today other than receive the word of promise found in the gospel. Like the blind man who was sent to wash in the pool of Siloam, we are commanded to repent of our sins and put our faith in Jesus. However, like the blind man, we are not completing a checklist when we put our faith in Jesus that qualifies us for our redemption. Washing in the pool of Siloam is not a good deed or a prerequisite for receiving sight. It was the promise from Jesus, like Naaman of old, washing in the Jordan River. The washing serves as a tutor of the gospel. The real work of healing is not about the cleanness of the Jordan River, because you go find other cleaner rivers, as Naaman pointed out. It's not about any merit in the water of the pool of Siloam either. The real work of saving is not about turning, our turning or our believing. The real work of salvation was accomplished on a Roman cross and in a rough-hewn Jewish tomb by our Savior Jesus Christ. Our eyes are darkened. And yet, through the veil that is pulled back in our Savior Jesus Christ, in the preaching of the gospel, and the reading of his word, and in the repetition of the sacraments, we see over and over and over and over and over and over and over again the mercy and the grace of Jesus Christ given to us freely. And we come and we receive from his hands all that he has for us. Sometimes when you hear a sermon, you wonder, what's there for me to do? What's there for me, what's my neck, what's my to-do list for this? What's my application? What should I take home from all of this? And in Lent, I mean, we do this all the time practically, but in Lent, we especially want to just remind you that there's really nothing but to come and receive from Jesus the mercy that He has for you. Don't think of yourself and beating up of your own body and getting your disciplines just right and having all the I's dotted and all the T's crossed as you getting closer to Jesus. That work is done. Heaven came down, Christ came down, and he lifted us out of the earth. And he's coming again to do the same thing again for us. So we rest and trust in our Savior Jesus Christ, who opens the eyes of the blind. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that we can go to you. That our blindness, that our helplessness, that our neediness, that our thirst, our need for rebirth, which is an impossibility for us. Lord, all of that comes from you, from your spirit, from the work of the gospel in our hearts and our lives. We pray, Lord, that you would open our eyes, that you would turn our hearts, that you would give us faith, that you would draw us to yourself, that you would remind us again of your love for us, that we would meet you in the ordinary, everyday means of grace, that we would meet you in the sacraments you have appointed in your church, that we would meet you in the faces and in the hugs and embraces of fellow Christians. As we do that, Lord, remind us that you have met our needs and that you will always meet our needs, that you will be for us our rock and our redemption, that you will be the light of life for us, that you will be living waters for us. We thank you for the mercy that you have shown us in Jesus Christ, and we praise you in his name. Amen.