Jesu Juva
“Who Is Really Blind?”
Text: John 9:1-41; Ephesians 5:8–14
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
Who can see? Who is blind? This isn’t just a question for Jesus’ day. Today, this debate rages on as well. Both in the world and in the church.
Consider the economy and inflation. Some say spending more will improve things - how can you not see that? Others say spending more will just make it worse - how can you not see that!
When it comes to abortion, some say it’s healthcare - how can you not see that? But for others, it’s murder - how can you not see that!
Look at what’s going on with gender. For some, your gender is whatever you think it is, and there are many genders to choose from; gender is of the mind - how can you not see that? But for others, gender is of the body; there is male and female - how can you not see that!
And there’s lots more examples I could cite and you are probably thinking of. And these are important questions. Life questions. People feel and act passionately about these issues. But while important, they are questions that pale in comparison to questions that concern eternal life. So while something like transgenderism is trying to fix my life here and now, and transhumanism - trying to blend man and machine - is trying to somehow overcome death and give my life a future, Jesus has come to do what not these or anything else can do: transfigure us. Not just fix up this life, or extend this life, or save this life, but give us a new life. A new life in Him. A new and glorious life. And so how we see Jesus is a matter of utmost importance.
And so the account we heard today - a story not so much of a man born blind who can now see, but of how we see Jesus. And how Jesus sees us.
For that’s how this story begins: with Jesus seeing. Jesus sees a man who cannot see and could never see; a man blind from birth. You get the feeling this man was invisible to most - they didn’t see him, they just walked right on by him, as we do to a lot of folks. We’re busy, we’re preoccupied. But not Jesus. He sees him. This man matters to Him. Jesus pays attention to him, cares for him.
So once Jesus sees this man, then the disciples do. Oh yeah, this guy. What happened to him, Jesus? And why? Who sinned, this man or his parents?
Jesus’ answer is important. That’s not how God is, tit for tat. That’s how we are. But God is not like us. God has a special plan for this man. I’ve been looking for him, Jesus says, to work this work of God in him. To be the light of the world for him. Not just so he can see the things of this world, but so that he can see Me. See and believe and have eternal life.
But there is a kernel of truth in what the disciples asked - this man was blind because of sin; because of the sin of his parents. Not his mom and dad, but his very first parents, Adam and Eve. That’s why there’s something wrong with him, and that’s why there’s something wrong with us. All of us are born in sin and with sin. It manifests itself in us in different ways, perhaps; but it’s true for all of us. We’re all by nature sinful and unclean. We’re all by nature blind and dead. We all need Jesus. So Jesus comes for us. To see us that we may see Him.
The man didn’t ask for healing - Jesus just acts. He acts as the Creator. What Adam and Eve ruined and plunged into sin, Jesus restores. So just as He did in the Garden when He formed Adam from the dust of the ground, Jesus uses the dust of the ground to make mud and give this man eyes, as it were, to see. And then tells him: Go, wash in the pool of Siloam. He does, and He sees.
What then ends up happening is that this man who maybe thought he had been rejected by God (which seemed to be the implication of the disciples’ question) and relied on the world to help him, now is rejected by the world and relies on Jesus. He confesses Jesus and worships Jesus for He sees Jesus - not just the man Jesus, but the Son of Man, Son of God, Jesus. A happy ending, we might say.
But one not easily arrived at! For in between, we get this investigation by the Pharisees. They drag the man in, and then his parents, and then the man again. And in all this, there are really just two questions to be answered: Who is this man? And who is Jesus?
Is this the same man who used to be blind, blind from birth, who used to sit and beg? Some said it was, some said it wasn’t - this man just looked like him. Because it couldn’t be the same man! A man who’s been blind his whole life couldn’t possibly now see. Can’t be. But wrapped up in that question was the bigger question: What if it was the same man? And if it was, then who is Jesus? Is He from God? Is He a prophet?
Well, they know. They know what happened. Everyone’s dancing around it, but they know. His parents won’t say it because they’re afraid of the Jews and getting tossed out of the synagogue. The Pharisees can’t say it because they think Jesus broke their Sabbath rules and they couldn’t condone that. They know, but they deny, they won’t confess. They see, but they’re blind. To which the man-born-blind-but-now-seeing says: Why, this is an amazing thing! How can you not see this? How can you not acknowledge the truth? How can you not see, that is, believe?
The Pharisees then accuse him of being a sinner, that is, one who is blind and cannot see. Which is pretty ironic! The one who couldn’t see but can now see the Pharisees say cannot see! For them, the one who confesses Jesus is blind, and the ones who do not confess Him, they can see.
Which is what our world says today as well. Christians are dumb, stupid, not seeing, blind to what is obvious to all. We need to get on the bandwagon with the world. We’re told that what we say is true is really false, and what we say is false is really true. And we who have been washed in the waters of baptism and given the eyes of faith to see are not welcome in the synagogue of this world, among the learned of this world. You and your faith must stay out of the public square. But then, and now, who is really blind?
And then we see the Good Shepherd at work. The Creator, who is also the Good Shepherd. The one who at the beginning of this story saw the one who could not see, now finds the one who can see and so was rejected, tossed out, and left alone. Jesus finds him and cares for him, catechizes him and reveals Himself to him. Before, the blind man only heard His voice; now he sees Him in the flesh, and worships Him.
And so will you. The one you now hear, His voice speaking to you in your Baptism, speaking to you His Absolution, speaking to you His Gospel, and speaking and giving to you His Body and Blood, you will one day see with your eyes, when the transfiguration begun in your baptism is brought to completion in your resurrection. That is the future that awaits you. You who have been born in utter sin, but the Lord saw you and rescued you and made you His own. Your sins forgiven, your life restored, and your future assured.
That reality is hidden in this world of sin and death. But it is reality nonetheless. Jesus has changed you and given you eyes of faith to see and believe. Your identity is no longer person born in utter sin, but baptized child of God. That’s who you are. Or as St. Paul put it in the Epistle today, For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. That is, once you were dead in your trespasses and sins, but now you are alive in Jesus. Once you were blind, but now you can see. Once you had no future, but now you have a glorious future.
So, Paul says, live like it! Walk as children of light.
That man-once-blind, everyone could see he was different. They tried to deny it was the same man, but they knew it was. Do you think he lived differently from that day forward? Not only because he could now see, but because he saw Jesus and now knew his Saviour? Nothing would, could, be the same for him now.
And that’s true for you, too. Maybe you look exactly the same before and after Baptism. Maybe you look exactly the same before and after Absolution. Maybe you look exactly the same before and after receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus in His Supper. But are you the same? Or are you different? How could you not be different?
So wouldn’t it be great if people noticed that. If they looked at you and said, is that the same person? It is, but it isn’t. You’re the same, but at the same time different. You’re still a child of man, but you’re also now a child of God. And you can see. You can see the truth, and live that truth. Not what the world says is truth, but what really is. And for that, you may get tossed out, rejected, mocked, even crucified. But through it all, your Good Shepherd is with you. The One who created all things, was born in a manger, showed His glory in His Transfiguration, and then hung on a cross. All the same God, all for you. So that you who were created by Him, be born again in Him, transfigured to be like Him, and then die and rise to a new and eternal life with Him.
Because that’s what matters most of all. There are a lot of questions about life in our world today - how to have it, how to keep it, how to improve it, what it is, what it means. And those are important questions. But none more important than to see Jesus and His life as the source of your life. The man in the story we heard today was blind for a number of years, maybe a lot of years! But his Saviour came for him and he would see forever. And you, too. For your Saviour has come for you. You may be invisible to the world, but not to Him. He sees you. Come see, hear, taste, touch, confess, and worship Him, now. And then, on the Last Day, as we just sang,
And then from death awaken me, That these mine eyes with joy may see,
O Son of God, Thy glorious face, My Savior and my fount of grace.
Lord Jesus Christ, my prayer attend, my prayer attend,
And I - a man born blind - will praise The without end (LSB #708, v. 3).
In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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