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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
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.
Can you and I even imagine being born blind, as the man in today’s Gospel Reading had been born? At first we might not know that we lacked one of our senses, but no doubt over time we would come to know that we were lacking our sight. Today, at least some cases of what is called “congenital blindness” reportedly can be cured by things such as gene therapy (Wikipedia), but, in Jesus’s day, as we heard, never since the world began had it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. The Divinely-inspired St. John does not tell us precisely how old the man was, and so how long he had been suffering, but St. John’s Gospel account does report the man’s parents’ saying that he was of age, what would have been at least 13 years and one day old. Maybe we can easily imagine, at any age, the man’s wondering where God was in his life, why a loving, all‑powerful God would not bring an end to his blindness and begging, and why that God allowed the blindness in the first place.
We might say that today’s Gospel Reading is about the man’s, the Jews’, and our “Seeing the Son of Man”, not just seeing Him literally with our physical eyes but also seeing Him figuratively with the eyes of faith. For, even before the man had seen Jesus with his healed eyes, having been enabled to perceive Jesus with his mind, the man already to some extent believed in Jesus and had begun to confess Him. The man’s being granted physical sight is obviously an important part of the Gospel Reading, but more important is Jesus’s being the Light of the World and whether people either see Him and are forgiven or do not see Him and have their guilt remain.
St. John uniquely reports that, one Sabbath day, as He passed by, Jesus saw a man blind from birth and opened the man’s eyes. The Gospel Reading includes a number of related “interrogations”: between the disciples and Jesus; between the man’s neighbors and the man; between the Pharisees and the man; between the Jewish leaders and the man’s parents; between the Jewish leaders and the man again; between the man and Jesus; and between the Pharisees and Jesus. And, those “interrogations” were about such things as who sinned; whether the man was the same man and had been born blind; how his eyes were opened; where Jesus was; whether Jesus was a sinner because He did not keep the Sabbath the way the Jewish leaders expected Him to keep it; and Who the of Son of Man was. After all of that, the man believed and worshiped Jesus, while the Jewish leaders did not believe and had their guilt remain.
What about us? As the number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus worldwide tops more than a quarter-million, as the death toll worldwide surpasses 11‑thousand, and as the United States becomes one of the countries hardest hit, are we wondering where God is in our lives, why a loving, all‑powerful God would not bring an end to this disease, and why that God allowed this disease in the first place? Are we judging God for not working the way that we expect Him to work? Are we too concerned about violating wrongful rules about the Lord’s Day? Are we more concerned about stemming the spread of the coronavirus than about fostering the spread of the Gospel? Do we, as the disciples did, misinterpret suffering (German, CPR 30:2, p.23)? Do we critically judge and reject God’s revelation? Can we see God right before our very eyes?
Of course, by nature we cannot see God, literally or figuratively. Not only the man born physically blind but also the Jews and also all of us are conceived and born sinful and so are spiritually blind. Steeped in sin, we deserve both to die here in time—and in that sense the coronavirus is nothing “novel” or new but a means to that end—and we deserve to be tormented for eternity in hell, unless we repent. For, when, enabled by God, we turn from our sin and in faith see the Son of Man, then we are forgiven for Jesus’s sake.
Jesus’s coming results in judgment between those who do not repent and believe and those who do repent and believe, but, as Jesus says earlier in St. John’s account, He was sent out of God the Father’s great love for the world not to judge but to save the world (John 3:16-17). More than a prophet, Jesus is God in human flesh, the Christ, the Son of Man, Who did the work of Him Who sent Him. Miracles such as opening the eyes of the man born blind revealed Jesus to be the Savior. In the words of today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 42:14-21), Jesus led the blind in a way that they did not know; in paths they did not know He guided them; and He turned the darkness before them into light. As was necessary for us and for our salvation, He died on the cross the death that we deserved, in our place. Now, He shines upon our human darkness and pierces the night that shrouds our race (Lutheran Service Book 914:1). Especially on this Lord’s Day, He reveals Himself to us so that we can have faith in Him and receive His forgiveness.
When actor Joaquin Phoenix played the role of Jesus in the 20‑18 movie “Mary Magdalene”, he would not do as Jesus did—spit on the ground, make mud with the saliva, and anoint a person’s eyes with the mud—because Phoenix thought it did not make any sense (CNN). Indeed, the humble and unusual ways that God works His miracles do not make sense to us! The man born blind washed in a pool named “Sent” and came back seeing. As we are washed in Holy Baptism, He Who is the Light of the World finds and illuminates us, as He this past Thursday night illuminated Ezio. As we heard in the Epistle Reading (Ephesians 5:8-14), at one time all we who believe were darkness, but now we are light in the Lord. Unlike the man born blind who was “excommunicated” from the Jewish religion, we, who privately confess the sins that particularly trouble us, are individually absolved, forgiven by our pastors, as validly and certainly as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us Himself (Small Catechism, V). And, in the Sacrament of the Altar, our Lord feeds us on Himself, with bread that is His Body given for us and with wine that is His Blood shed for us, for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Especially here is where God is, giving us the medicine of immortality, the food for the way through this life, strengthening and preserving us in body and soul unto life everlasting.
As we worship Him by seeking and receiving the forgiveness of sins from Him in these ways, as with the man born blind, the works of God are displayed in us. God is present and working in us as we make this Lord’s Day holy, not despising but holding sacred God’s Word and Sacraments. God is present and working in us as we love and serve our neighbors, not divided in the one body that is the true church but having the same care for one another, suffering and rejoicing together (1 Corinthians 12:25-26). Even in this coronavirus pandemic, God is present and working in our leaders, in doctors and nurses, and even in those who collect and donate blood, as we are scheduled to do again on April 18th. We walk as children of the light, and that light shines through us. In the third century, when Christianity was illegal—so every meeting of the church was against the law—a plague struck Rome that at its height reportedly left some 5‑thousand people dead each day. At no small risk to themselves, Christians continued meeting together and served those who were suffering and so showed their faith by their works, and, using their witness, God added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Daly)
As one writer put it, “Unexplained tragedy, unspeakable suffering[,] and inconceivable circumstances of all kinds have marked humanity down through the years” (Daly). Yet, God, in His inscrutable wisdom and with His sovereign might, has fixed a limit to all suffering and uses that suffering for His good purpose, for our faith and salvation and so for His glory. By faith we are “Seeing the Son of Man”, so we are forgiven and do not need to fear, worry, or doubt. We prioritize preaching the Gospel and distributing its forgiveness through the Means of Grace. Even the man born blind, whose eyes Jesus opened, died in this world. But, as St. Paul writes to the Romans, neither death nor life, nor angels or rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation—including the coronavirus!—will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +