Sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Lent

Text: Luke 9:24-25 A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.” He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”

I was blind but now I see!

The novelist Arthur Conan Doyle created stories featuring a master of logic and deduction.  His main character was the great detective Sherlock Holmes, who solved many intriguing crime mysteries with his assistant and companion Dr. Watson.  Maybe you’ve read or seen a movie of one of Sherlock Holmes’ crime mysteries. 

Anyway, the great solver of mysteries Sherlock Holmes and Watson went camping.  After a good meal and a bottle of wine, they settled down for the night and went to sleep.  Some hours later, Holmes woke up and nudged his snoring friend beside him. “Watson, wake up!  Look up and tell me what you see.”
After a while Watson sleepily replied, “I see millions and millions of stars”.
Sherlock Holmes then said, “Well Watson, what does that tell you”?
Fully awake now Watson pondered for a minute and then replied,
“Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets.
Astrologically, that’s Leo over there and Saturn is in Leo.
Horologically, (that’s the study of time) I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three.
Theologically, I can see that God is the all-powerful creator of a magnificent universe and that we are a very small part of it.
Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. Why, what does it tell you”?
Sherlock Holmes responded, “Watson, my dear chap, you’re very clever in so many things but … you are a dimwit.  Seeing the stars means someone has stolen our tent”.

Watson had missed the most obvious.  He was clever enough to notice the complexities of the stars, but he missed what was plain and simple.

Jesus saw a blind man.  He saw the obvious, a man needed help. He mixed some dirt with spit, smeared it on the man’s eyes and told him to go and wash in the Pool of Siloam.  The man did this and he came back seeing.  To other people things aren’t so obvious.  They can’t believe that this was the same man.  The man they knew was blind, but this man can see!  The obvious is right in front of them and, like Watson, they just couldn’t see it.

To the once-blind-man everything is clear and replies in just a few words, “The man called Jesus made some mud, rubbed it on my eyes, and told me to go to Siloam and wash my face. So I went, and as soon as I washed, I could see”.  That’s the plain and simple truth.  What’s so difficult about that – “Jesus has healed my eyes and I can see?” 

The healed man is not only given physical eyesight but also spiritual eyesight.  As we read John’s record of this miracle, we see this man's faith developing – firstly John reports the once blind man saying, “The man they call Jesus healed me” (v11), then a bit later he calls Jesus a prophet (v17), then he recognises Jesus as the Son of Man (v35) and finally worships him as “Lord”, (v38).  You can see how this man’s spiritual eyes are opening wider.  Not only had his eyes seen light for the first time, but he could also see the Light of the World.  Not only had his eyes been opened so that he could see colour, and people, and trees and flowers, but his eyes had been opened to see the beauty of God’s love in Jesus and see Jesus as his Lord.  Jesus had truly opened his eyes! 

To the question, “Do you believe in the Son of Man”, the once blind man fell at Jesus’ feet worshipping Jesus and confessing, “I believe, Lord!”  What a miracle of grace – healing both body and soul.  What a moment of joy for this man.

In the background of this miracle, however, there is turmoil.  To everyone the blind beggar was a mere landmark.  “Go down to the corner where you will find a blind beggar and there take a left turn”.  He’s been there since anyone can remember.  How is it possible that he can now see?  This must be some kind of trick!

When someone was healed like this, it was customary to get the Pharisees involved.  Like Watson, they couldn’t see the obvious.  They didn’t believe that this man had been given sight.  This was impossible – he had been blind since birth.  And besides, how can someone like Jesus, who was a sinner, who disregarded every rule of the Sabbath, perform a miracle such as this? 

They heard the man’s description in clear and simple language how he was healed and who was responsible. He clearly states that only someone from God could do such a thing.  But the Pharisees just can’t see it.  They did what Watson had done.  They said,
logically, a blind person can’t be made to see again; 
rationally, this man’s sin or his parents’ sin caused his blindness;
medically, it’s not possible to cure blindness;
theologically, only God can heal; 
historically, no human has ever done anything like this before;
ecclesiologically, Jesus has broken every Church rule about the sabbath. 

To all this Sherlock Holmes would say, “Watson, my dear chap, you have missed the point completely.  It is clear this man can see because of God's grace and power in Jesus Christ.”

This man's story is an example of pure grace.  Jesus sees a man and without hesitation and with love not only opens his eyes to a world he had never seen before but also opens his eyes to his Lord and Saviour.  He sees Jesus’ love as few people so far had seen it – generous, overflowing, seeking, limitless, without discrimination. 

At the same time, neighbours, Pharisees and the man’s parents can’t see this love and recognise that God does provide outside their narrow understanding of how God works among people.  As the blind man receives his sight, they remain choked up with all kinds of rules and logic, becoming more and more blind.  

Only the man who has been healed understands what has happened and understand Jesus and truly sees.  The rest can’t change. 

This is where we find one of the main points of this rather long reading from John’s Gospel.  An encounter with Jesus brings everyone to the brink of either accepting who he is and of the change he brings into our lives, or of being bewildered, suspicious, unconvinced and reject his claim on our lives. 

For us here this morning our story goes like this.
We want to be free of troubling sin and the fear of death. 
We want to follow the call of faithful living. 
We want the light of Christ to shine through us so that others can see what a difference Christ makes in our lives.
We want the grace of God to make a difference to the way we act and speak, to the level of our commitment to following Christ and trusting him when the chips are down.
We don’t want to know Jesus with just our heads but with our whole heart, and love and worship him with all our heart, soul and mind.

We want all this, we read our Bibles, come to Sunday worship, we know the Bible stories and can retell them a good deal of accuracy, but even though we want all this still we can be like the Pharisees and be blind to who Jesus really is. 

The Pharisees were very pious people.  They were diligent when it came to the scriptures.  They committed every word to memory.  They knew all about the Messiah from the Old Testament but still they missed the point.  When they saw Jesus, they did what Watson did.  They saw everything else except what was right in front of their noses.

It's just as easy for us to miss the point.  Jesus can just be someone we talk about, sing about, pray about, but until we come to the vivid realisation, the conviction, the awareness, the comprehension
that God became a human in Jesus Christ at Christmas for me;
that Jesus served the sick , the poor, the dying while on earth for my sake; to show me the tremendous power of unconditional love;
that Jesus suffered and died terribly and cruelly for me;
that his resurrection means that he is my living Lord today right now and throughout my life;
that on my sick bed, my darkest valley of depression or sadness Jesus is there with me.  He is my always present strength and comfort;
that even in my dying moment, he is my Beginning and End, my way to eternal life;
that he is my good shepherd who guides me, he is on my side when everything is against me, he is my strength and fortress, he is my resurrection and life in the face of death.

Christ in our life means trusting him to make a difference, believing that he can change things, having the faith that Jesus can truly turn the darkest moment into courage, hope, confidence, peace and joy. 

It's interesting to note that paintings on the walls of the catacombs of Rome (burial tombs where the early Christians worshipped) Jesus’ healing the man born blind is portrayed as a symbol of Holy Baptism. One of the writings from that time says: "Happy is the sacrament of our water, in that, by washing away the sins of our earthly blindness, we are set free unto eternal life." 

The early Christians looked at their baptism as leaving behind blindness and darkness and stepping into the glorious light of God.  Being baptised was having their eyes opened to the brilliance of the grace of God in all its beauty and then living in this light. To use the words of the blind man, “I was blind but now I can see”.

Maniosa, was a Papua New Guinean man who stayed at the manse during General Synod many years ago.  He told us about the day of his baptism.  On the way to his baptism, there was a great ceremony as he and the other candidates took all the things that represented their pagan religion and superstitions and dropped them into a deep hole – they were glad to be with finished with all of the darkness of the past and were stepping into the light of Christ through the water of baptism.

There may be reason for us to do the same.  Check out the struggles that get you down, your personal hates and dislikes that turn you against other people, the temptations that suck you in all too frequently, your inability to let go and let Christ lead you, hold you, guide you, comfort you instead of worrying and fretting – maybe it’s these kind of things – these bits of darkness that need to be thrown into a deep hole so that the light of Christ can surround you completely.

The miracle of the man born blind presents us with a very real dilemma.
In what ways and how often have we missed the point?
Remember Jesus is always waiting to fill our empty hands and hearts with his love and presence?
He is always right there beside us when we, like Peter, are gurgling our last “Save me!”  His love will not let us down.  Looking into his loving eyes, trusting him, will open our eyes to see that with him all things are possible, even facing death without fear.

May we join with the blind man who was healed, and confess: “I was blind but now I see!”