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Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus is said to have performed more miracles of the kind we heard in today’s Gospel Reading, the healing of the man blind from birth, than any other kind of miracle. To be sure, Old Testament prophecy, such as that in today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 42:14-21), foretold that the Messiah would give sight to the blind, and, if the Gospel Reading stopped with the man who had formerly been blind’s coming back seeing, this sermon might be just another sermon about such a miracle. But, the Gospel Reading does not stop there: as we have it, the Reading somewhat‑strings‑together excerpts totaling a little less than half of the ninth chapter of the Holy Gospel according to St. John. The Reading includes questions and answers about the purpose and result both of the man’s being born blind and of the related coming of Jesus. Thus, the Gospel Reading is about more than just another blind person being healed. The Gospel Reading is even about more than the blind man’s being given spiritual sight. The Gospel Reading is also about those who thought that they saw’s becoming spiritually blind. Such spiritual blindness even among God’s chosen people was also foretold by Old Testament prophecy, such as that in today’s Old Testament Reading. Thus, given the concluding statement of today’s Gospel Reading regarding the dual purpose or result of Jesus’s coming, this sermon’s theme is “That the unseeing may see and the seeing become blind”.
As today’s Gospel Reading tells the miracle, one Sabbath day, Jesus passed by a man blind from birth. They were probably in the Temple area, and the man may well have been begging (John 9:8). Jesus’s disciples ask Him whether the man or his parents sinned that he was born blind, and Jesus answered that the man was born blind that the works of God might be displayed in Him—likely both God’s work of granting him physical sight and God’s work of granting him spiritual sight. Having spoken more about the works of God and being the light of the world, Jesus spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva—such kneading apparently was one of 39 tasks the Jews expressly forbid on the Sabbath. Jesus puts the mud on the man’s eyes and sends him to wash in the pool of Siloam, and the man went, washed, and miraculously came back seeing. Omitted intervening verses tell how first the man is questioned by his neighbors, who take him to the Pharisees, who question him again. Omitted intervening verses also tell how the Pharisees also question the man’s parents and then call the man himself again, before putting him out of the synagogue. Having found the man, Jesus identifies Himself as the Son of Man that the man who had formerly been physically blind might see spiritually. And, Jesus says that He came into the world “That the unseeing may see and the seeing become blind”.
Today’s Gospel Reading specifically mentions sin in four places. First, Jesus’s disciples asked Jesus whether the man or his parents sinned that he was born blind. Second, Jesus answered that neither the man nor his parents sinned. (Incidentally, Jesus’s answer does not mean: that the man and his parents were sin‑free, that they did not sin at all, nor that there is no connection between sin in the world and someone’s being born blind.) Third, some of the Pharisees essentially said Jesus sinned, apparently by making mud on the Sabbath, and other Pharisees said a sinner could not do such miraculous signs. And fourth, the Pharisees said the man who had formerly been blind was born in utter sin. The Pharisees were not always wrong!
The Pharisees were right that the man who had formerly been blind was born in utter sin. You and I likewise are born in utter sin (Psalm 51:5), and, as a result, we sin in countless and unspeakable ways. By nature we, too, are blind to God’s revelation. As the blind man in the Gospel Reading increased in physical and spiritual sight, others increased in impenitence and failure to see. If we think, as the Pharisees thought, that, despite our inborn spiritual blindness, we on our own see, then we remain guilty before God (John 9:40-41). Jesus came into the world that those who do not see may see and those who see may become blind. And, indeed, those who think that they see, who reject His gift of spiritual sight and so reject Him as the Light of the World, do become blind. There is a division, as there was among the Pharisees; there is judgment, even though that is not primarily why Jesus came.
In a very real sense, Who Jesus is and why He came are at the center of today’s Gospel Reading. In John chapter 9 the man who had formerly been blind seems to progress from thinking of Jesus as a mere man, to thinking of Jesus as a prophet (if not the Prophet), to thinking of Jesus as One Who has disciples, to thinking of Jesus as One from God, and apparently eventually to thinking of Jesus as the Son of Man, God Himself in human flesh (Daniel 7:13), worthy of worship. Those who reject Jesus and fail to worship Him reject God’s salvation and bring upon themselves judgment. The Son of Man is associated with judgment, but He primarily came to save the world (John 3:17; 12:47)—to save the world by being lifted up on the cross, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life (John 3:14-15l 8:28). The man blind from birth’s and our being saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ is the greatest work of God. When we repent of our sin and trust God to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake, then God truly does forgive our sin, whatever our sin might be, forgiving even our sinful nature. And, as Jesus healed the man blind from birth in a very specific way, so God forgives us through specific means of grace.
Mud made of saliva spat on the ground put on the blind man’s eyes may sort of gross us out, but Jesus is God, Who in the beginning created man from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7), and Who now re‑creates us in Himself, so we hardly want to reject His means. Not only was the Pool of Siloam a symbol of the blessings that flow from the Temple (Isaiah 8:6), but the Pool of Siloam also provided water for the rituals that were part of the Feast of Tabernacles, which apparently was being celebrated at the time Jesus healed the man blind from birth. Later, the Pool of Siloam may well have been used for Christian baptism. At a minimum, early Christian art closely associated the events of today’s Gospel Reading with Baptism, as do modern lectionary series, such as that which we follow here. To be sure, Baptism is the saving washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, poured out on us (Titus 3:5-6). There, at the Baptismal Font, Jesus finds us and enlightens us, opens our eyes to Who He is and What He does for us. Today Jesus’s ministers, according to their vocations, continue to do the works of God Who sent them: not only baptizing, but also preaching, as in this sermon; individually absolving sinners who privately confess the sins they know and feel in their hearts; and distributing the body and blood of Christ in, with and under bread and wine for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. For, Jesus says, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you (John 6:53). As the Jews put the man who had formerly been blind out of the synagogue, so we practice closed communion, recognizing, as the divinely‑inspired St. Paul wrote in connection with the Lord’s Supper, that some factions (or, divisions) are necessary so that those who are genuine may be recognized (1 Corinthians 11:18-19). And, as the man who had formerly been blind confessed and worshipped Jesus, so, as you‑all are baptized, absolved, and in the Lord’s Supper strengthened and preserved in body and soul—you‑all according to your vocations, also work the works of God, walking in the light, as today’s Epistle Reading describes (Ephesians 5:8‑14).
Jesus said He came “That the unseeing may see and the seeing become blind”. By nature we are spiritually blind, and at times even we who have been enlightened still might give ourselves too much credit for what we see. But, as we live each day with repentance and faith, God forgives us and brings forth from us the fruits of faith. By His love, mercy, and grace—to paraphrase today’s Old Testament Reading—may He ever lead and guide us in the ways and paths we otherwise would not know and turn the darkness before us into light, the rough places into level ground, here and now, and for eternity.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +