A sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on March 2, 2008 based on
John 9:1-38
Intro:
Today as we consider our Gospel lesson, we are going to learn something crucial about the nature of suffering in our lives and also about what I will call the LBR’s of salvation.
Listen, Believe, Receive.
First, a word about suffering and a Misconception about Illness:
We read that “[Jesus] saw a man blind from birth.” His disciples asked Jesus a question that reflects a fundamental misconception about the nature of Illness: (v2) “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answers the misconception saying, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
The misconception is that Illness is caused by someone’s specific sin. Under this misunderstanding, illness logically is a punishment upon individuals. This in turn leads to a conundrum about the Nature of God: How could a good and loving God ‘inflict’ suffering upon people He is supposed to love – especially innocent children who are hardly culpable for their actions? This is so confusing to the modern mind that people often reject the Bible altogether and say there is no way to reconcile the problem.
One example of this is a religion professor from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, Bart Ehrman. Dr. Ehrman is a prolific author. Some of his titles include:
Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why
The Gospel of Judas
Peter, Paul, & Mary Magdalene: The Followers of Jesus in History and Legend
Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew
Lost Scriptures: Books that Did Not Make It into the New Testament
The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings
Dr. Ehrman’s most recent book is:
God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question--Why We Suffer
Here is an author who has come to the conclusion that there really is no answer to the problem of human suffering. I don’t have time here to go into an explanation and rebuttal of Dr. Ehrman’s book, but there are several important points to be made here:
One: The Fall of man caused the entrance of sin and suffering into the world. The doctrine of Original Sin tells us that the guilt and stain of Adam and Eve comes to each one of us as the result of inheritance, completely apart from any works we have done. We are all born into a world that is radically marred by Sin. Every area of our lives is marred by Sin. Illnesses are not the direct punishment or result of someone sinning. Rather, we live in a world corrupted by Sin, where genes mutate and often cause people problems.
Although some illnesses, such as Cirrhosis of the Liver, are usually (not always) the result of specific sinful behavior such as alcoholism, sometimes we suffer because of the sinful behavior of someone else – such as when a loved one dies at the hands of a drunk driver.
Two, God does not Smite us for our sins because we have passed out from under the Wrath of God through the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross. He bore our sins and suffered the chastening for our well-being (Is. 53). Therefore, the Christian does not ask,”Who committed what sin?” Or, “ Why is God Smiting me thusly?” There is no need for this kind of punishment.
God’s Purposes
(Third) Instead, we understand that there are numerous causes for various ailments. Some of these causes involve the purposes of God, which only He can know. And so Jesus’ answer to the disciples is that the man was born this way to demonstrate God’s Glory. Keep in mind that this is a specific story about a specific man. This particular man was born to demonstrate how Jesus heals him. Not every blind person is born blind in order to demonstrate the Glory of God this same way.
Everyman
Nevertheless, we can learn something Universal about ourselves from this man’s plight: The Blind Man is US! We are all born spiritually blind, and every one of us needs to receive our spiritual sight. This particular man’s story demonstrates the glory of God because it highlights the difference between the man’s true faith and the spiritual pride of the Pharisees; between true sight and spiritual blindness; between begging for Truth and being spiritually blind guides of the blind; between the true light that comes into the world and the darkness put onto people by the arrogance of the priestly class.
A Word about the Uniqueness of Jesus’ Healings
This particular healing was accomplished with ‘means’. Jesus used mud to effect the healing. Every healing Jesus did was unique. So, by extension, we can assume that every person gets well in his or her own unique way. Medicines and medical care are often a crucial part of a healing regimen. But no less an authority than the CDC estimates that as much as 85% of illness has its roots in emotional or psychosocial problems!
I am happy to believe that Jesus saliva contains healing power and the mud may have been medicinal in some cosmic way, but it’s also easy to see that the mud was an instrument to help the man to activate his faith.
But what will the neighbors say?
Jesus asked the man to do something rather ‘silly’ or potentially embarrassing: “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means ‘Sent’ or piped in from another water source). We often are worried about how we will appear to others if we obey the simple commands of Jesus. Our rationalism or pseudo –sophistication inhibits us from being too childlike or simplistic in our believing. As a result, we sometimes miss great blessing.
John tells us that the man ‘went and washed and came back seeing.’
He had to do something to receive his healing. Real faith is not simply passive: “God do something to me”, but active: “God I participate with you in receiving faith” This does not mean that my works affect righteousness. Only God’s grace can produce righteousness. But God is interested in us acting upon our faith, and this story illustrates how one man did just that. (Incidentally, it also provides us with the quintessential Christian Toast: “Here’s mud in your eye!...)
So this is a story about hearing (Listening to) God’s word, Believing it and acting upon our belief. The result is that we Receive Salvation (From the Latin word ‘Salve’: whole).
8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” 10 So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.”
Witnessing
Receiving Salvation transforms us and causes people to notice. This gives us an opportunity to share our story – otherwise knows as Witnessing. A witness tells what he has seen or experienced, no more, no less. Sometimes, we get all upset about what kinds of theological justification we can offer to others, as if we have to be real apologetics experts in order to witness effectively. But in reality, all we have to do is tell what Jesus did for us. We are like the formerly blind man, a beggar telling others how we got our sight. “… One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”
Unfortunately for the Pharisees this is not enough. They demand a theological explanation from a man who had no education at all. Born blind, he never learned to read. He never went to seminary. He couldn’t give the fancy theological answer. Yet they demand such an answer from both the man and his parents.
The Pharisees also demand that Jesus fit into their theological mold: You can heal, just not on the Sabbath. They show their arrogance by saying, “We know that this man is a sinner. He doesn’t observe our traditions (small ‘t’ tradition). But God never said you couldn’t heal anybody on the Sabbath. This was an application of the law developed by the Pharisees – people who took the Scriptures seriously and tried to apply it to every area of their lives. Their application did not fulfill the Law of Love, because it would have left a man in his suffering just to abide by a man-made convention.
Relentlessly they press the hapless man for his statement about Jesus. Finally, under duress, he declares: “He is a prophet.”
The Failure to Listen
If you want to know whether God has a sense of humor, right here is all the evidence you need. Here we see an exquisite biting irony:
The Jews continue to pressure the man to explain how Jesus healed him, and he finally tells them pointedly, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?”
They get puffed up in their pride, their lineage: We are disciples of Moses – we don’t know where this man came from. Hrmmph!
Now the zinger: “Here is an amazing thing you do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes!” This is an open rebuke to their unbelief and obtuseness. The man goes on, “31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. 32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
In their indignation the Jews demand, Are you trying to teach us?!...” They drove the man out into ‘outer darkness’ while they themselves stayed stuck in their spiritual blindness.
35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” 38 He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
This passage culminates in a simple demonstration of how to believe. Jesus asks a simple question, and makes a clear claim to Deity. The man accepts it and ‘gets saved’ and then worships Jesus.
So we have the LBR’s of Salvation: Listen, Believe, Receive , ,
The blind man first had to Listen to Jesus. He couldn’t see him, so all he had to go on was his voice. Unlike the Pharisees he listened to the Voice of God .
Then he believed. He first believed enough to Jesus put the mud in his eyes, and then he fulfilled the second part of listening, he obeyed and went and washed in the pool of Siloam.
As a result he received his healing – and more than that, his salvation.
This uneducated man, born to give Glory to God, personified the right response to Jesus. He contrasts with the learned Pharisees, who didn’t listen, who were blind and as a result could not receive either Jesus or the fruits of His work: Healing and Salvation.
They missed it because reality did not conform to their expectation.
They were a little bit like economists, who observe something happen in reality and fight about whether it could happen in theory.
The Message for Today
The message for us today is clear. First of all, we don’t understand our lives. We don’t know why good things happen, much less bad. We don’t have to be intimidated by Pharisees like Bart Ehrman, who write books demanding that the Bible explain suffering. It’s enough to say that things happen in our lives for reasons – many reasons and we will never be able to understand them all.
Then, we need to know that God specializes in redeeming bad situations. The Son of Man came into the world to seek and save that which was lost, to bring light into darkness and to make alive those who were spiritually dead.
The right way to respond to Jesus is through simple faith. “Yes, Lord, I believe.” Don’t try to make God fit into your theory about how He should work. Just let Him be God. Simply receive his work in your life. Remember, the old canard about God helping those who help themselves’ is not in the Bible. The truth is that just as Jesus healed this helpless blind man, God helps those who cannot help themselves. So come to the end of your own wisdom. Stop trying to figure things out. Listen to the Simple Word of God and Believe it. If you do this you will receive your sight, and you will be able to sing, “I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see”. AMEN.
