John 9:1-7, 13-17, 34-39 Sermon

The Third Sunday in Lent

Shepherd of the Hills Ev. Lutheran Church (WELS)

Displaying God’s Work

John 9:1-7, 13-17, 34-39

1 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. 14 Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. 15 Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.” 16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided. 17 Then they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” The man replied, “He is a prophet.”

34 To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out. 35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.” 37 Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.” 38 Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. 39 Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” 40 Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?” 41 Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains. (NIV)

As you are vacuuming the living room, you notice something on the carpet that leads you to ask yourself if you should test out how powerful the vacuum cleaner is, or if you should just do the easy thing and bend over to pick it up.  No brainer.  You text the power of the vacuum cleaner, and sure enough, the larger-than-usual-but-still-little object is gone.  Then, about 15-30 seconds later, the vacuum shuts off.  It must be one of two things, right?  Either the bag, which hasn’t been emptied for some time, is full, or the object you just tried to suck up got lodge in the intake or the brush.  Once you check the bag and find out that it isn’t quite full yet, then you’ve ruled out one problem, and feel pretty confident it must be that something got stuck.  After turning the vacuum upside down and taking a look, you don’t see anything stuck anywhere.  You’re left stumped and frustrated.  So you take a break and head around the corner to the other room for a bit.  Of course, just as you turn the corner, what do you notice?  You look down and see that the cord came unplugged from the outlet.  “Duh,” you think to yourself.  You were so certain that it was one of two things that caused the problem, that you completely overlooked that there might be another solution. 

The disciples must have been hit with a similar “duh” moment.  While not entirely confident that they were able to pinpoint the precise cause of the man’s blindness, they were pretty sure they had it narrowed down to one of two possibilities: either the man himself was guilty of some specific sin or it was the sin of his parents that caused his blindness.  Their line of reasoning followed what was the common perception of the day: physical challenges such as blindness were considered to have come as a result of past sins.  Either way, they were feeling pretty good about one of those two possibilities being the cause – either the man’s sin or his parents’, and to determine who was at fault, they turned to the Rabbi.

And what they found was an entirely different possibility all together. “‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned,’ said Jesus, ‘but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him’” (v.3).  They turned the corner and saw that the cord had come unplugged from the outlet when Jesus responded.  It was a possibility they hadn’t even entertained.  As it turned out, discovering the root cause of his blindness should not have been their focus, but rather determining what purpose his blindness would serve.  In a few short moments, when suddenly that man who had not seen the light of day for so much as a second of his life, suddenly had his eyes opened, it also became clear to the disciples.  His blindness served a completely different purpose all together.  It wasn’t about a wrong that had been committed in the past, but rather about how God intended to use it for good in the present and the future.

We need to remind ourselves and one another of this possibility more often, don’t we?  When life throws us more than just a curve ball, when we feel as if we’ve just gotten hit by the pitch, we can slip into the same faulty reasoning the disciples did, thinking that it must be because of some past transgression.  Jesus’ point was that not only is that not the case, but that we also may be overlooking another possibility altogether: that God may be desiring to put his works on display.  Hard as it may be to accept when we’re feeling like a punching bag on the receiving end of blow after blow, it may very well be that God’s whole intent is to put his grace on display through our challenges.

Just how might he do that?  While it may not be directly through a miraculous recovery like the man healed of his blindness, aren’t there other ways God can put his works on display to us?  Don’t we, for example, have a tendency to bend our ear toward God and his Word a little more while going through adversity?  So if God has used that adversity to draw me to his Word more frequently, in the end of things, hasn’t that adversity been a blessing to me in that regard?  And chances are that if I’m in the Scriptures more often, my prayer life is likely improving as well.  So again, even if God doesn’t bring about miraculous healing like he did for the blind man, he may still be providing me with much-needed spiritual medicine.

Consider also that whatever burden God allows in your life, whether big or small, may be just as much intended to make an impact on somebody else’s life as on yours.  Or, to put it another way, it may not just be that God intends to put his works on display to us, but possibly through us.  One time in a Bible class someone shared the story of a nurse in a hospital who actually ended up seeking a Christian church because working in the hospital had allowed her to witness how Christians handle pain, suffering, and death much differently than others.  God was putting his works on display for her through others. 

God put his miracle on display to and through the blind man when he restored his sight.  There was more to the story than just his physical blindness.  I don’t believe that when Jesus said his blindness “happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him’” (v.3), that Jesus only had in mind that God’s miraculous work of restoring sight would be all that was on display.  Otherwise, couldn’t we assume the story would have stopped right there?  The man was healed.  Sight was restored.  God is powerful and miraculous.  End of story.  Except that the healing was really only the beginning of the story, wasn’t it?  That part of the account only filled seven verses of John’s Gospel, but there was much more to it after that – 34 verses, to be exact.  So if there was more than just the miraculous healing that God wished to put on display, what else was it?

Is it safe to say that it wasn’t just the work Jesus did on the man’s eyes, but the work he did on his heart that really stands out?  After all, isn’t that truly why Jesus came, to change hearts?  Sure, he performed countless wonderful miracles, but those weren’t the main attraction; they were merely intended to serve as opening acts, so to speak.  The real purpose was later put on display at Calvary.  Jesus crucified, hanging to die, put all previous works of Jesus during his ministry to shame.  Compared to Jesus’ death, no miracle of Jesus really belongs in the same conversation.  That’s because it wasn’t only my Savior who was nailed to the cross, but my sin along with him.  My selfish tendencies that fail to recall that God desires to display his goodness even through times of toil and testing; my self-serving interests, my ego and on and on… all these sins were nailed with him to the tree.

But his death was just the beginning!  As proof that all sin had been paid for, the Father didn’t allow death to keep its cold, clammy grip on him, but pried apart death’s hold on Jesus and raised him up three days later.  Jesus lives, and so will we.  Our sin no longer condemns us.  An amazing thing happened on that day when Jesus undid blindness and restored sight, but the greatest thing happened when Jesus undid death and restored life.

And through faith in all of that saving work that would be carried out on his behalf, Jesus changed the heart of the man born blind.  Initially, the man acted on trust when Jesus told him to wash his eyes in the Pool.  He then showed gratitude and confidence in defending Jesus’ actions before the skeptical Pharisees.  Finally, he showed saving faith and evidence that Jesus had changed his heart when Jesus asked him, “‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ ‘Who is he, sir?’ the man asked. ‘Tell me so that I may believe in him.’ Jesus said, ‘You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.’ Then the man said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshiped him” (v.35b-38). The man’s physical condition had changed, yes, but what mattered eternally was that his spiritual condition had been changed as well.  Jesus had transformed his heart…    

…just as he did ours.  Now it’s true – God has been amazingly good to us in our lives.  We cannot log or keep record of every detail of his goodness, but we can thank him for his greatest goodness to us: the same gift he gave to the blind man, the gift of faith.  For we were blind, too, spiritually unable to see our sorry state or the harsh end that would have been ours apart from Jesus; but faith opened our eyes to see the forgiveness and salvation that are God’s gifts to us.  God has put his works on display to us, too.

Now, like the blind man, let us recognize that God’s desire is not only to put his works on display to us, but also through us.  We’ve already been set apart for salvation.  We already believe.  God has already worked his gift of saving faith in our hearts.  So why are we still here?  It’s not so that God can somehow save us more than we’ve already been saved.  Heaven is already ours.  So why are we still here?  From the moment he made you his, he has kept you here on earth for the purpose of putting his work on display through you.  Allow God’s gifts of forgiveness and salvation to free us from our selfish indifference to countless others who remain spiritually blind, and put God’s those gifts of forgiveness and salvation on display for others to see and hear.  Tell them about the One who made you see, so that one day, they might share the same confession as the blind man and each of us: “Lord, I believe.”  Amen.

                                                            

“For the freer confidence is from one’s own works, and the more exclusively it is directed toward Christ alone, so much better is the Christian it makes.” (Luther)