Sermon - Lent Midweek 4, 2021

“As Jesus passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”” This is the same type of thinking we’re tempted towards also. Bad things happen, and we just assume that those bad things are happening because someone sinned. Jesus answered quite clearly, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents.” 

Now, to be entirely fair, it’s easy to see how we fall into this line of thinking. Afterall, there are often earthly consequences for sinning. For example, we Americans tend to live very unhealthy lifestyles, eating and drinking to excess, and as a consequence we tend to be more susceptible to viral illnesses and we develop heart, lung, joint, and blood problems. 

It’s also true that the fruit of our sin is death. We have physical, mental, and emotional problems because we are sinners. We are all going to die as a result of our sin. Because all sin, all therefore die. Nevertheless, it’s not true that every evil thing that happens to us is the direct consequence of a specific sin. Usually we’re in the dark as to why bad things happen to different people.

Why do some people have disabilities and others don’t? Why do some children die before they become adults and some adults don’t die until they’re a century old? Why are some faster or smarter or richer or more attractive? I don’t know. Too often we’re in the dark, we’ve no idea why bad things are happening to certain people at certain times. To us this world is dark. We’re like the blindman, and we just plain can’t see what’s going on around us.

Thus, Christ enlightens our dark world. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.” Jesus makes the blind to see! “Jesus spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.” Jesus does the same thing with us, maybe He doesn’t literally rub spit in our eyes, but He does anoint us and wash us in the waters of Baptism, and then we see!

What do we see? We see that the works of God are displayed in our weaknesses and frailties! St. Paul lamented of the thorn given him in the flesh, in order to keep him from becoming conceited. He pleaded that God would take this from him. But God replied: ““My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”” In fact, Paul goes on then to say that “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” How is Paul made strong? By being weak and relying upon God’s grace and strength!

That is the light which Christ has come to reveal. Salvation is not by our strengths and abilities. Frankly, all of the temporal gifts we might boast of are not worth boasting about. It’s not about who has disabilities and superabilities, those really don’t matter. What matters is that we all realize we’re in the dark, we’re all weak and frail, we’re all the blind beggar on the side of the road, and the only one who can rescue us is the Son of Man! That’s what matters!

We all get so preoccupied with recognition awards and our accomplishments! Too often if there’s no one to see our work and tell us thank you, we don’t even want to do it. Culturally even, we consider it good to kill people with various disabilities (both with abortion and euthenasia), because we don’t think their lives would amount to enough for them to be worth living. But all of that conceited thinking is the real blindness!

Those who think that they’re so great and can see without problems, Jesus says those are the blind ones! The ones who can truly see are the ones who realize their great weakness and ultimate frailties. Those who know their sin and beg of God for His mercy, those are the ones who truly see. Those who, on account of stubbornly clinging to Christ, are cast out of this world, those are the ones whom Christ heals and saves.

So let us all be as the blind beggar, and have our eyes opened by Jesus. Let the world cast us out into the dessert, for there Christ promises to find us. When He finds us, He washes us and heals us; He restores us. “Though your sins are like scarlet,they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” Jesus promises to open the eyes of the blind, since He is the light of the world. In His brightness, we are shown to be weak and sick, and thus Jesus binds Himself to us to make us strong with Him.

With the blind man, let us in our weakness learn to prostrate ourselves before Christ and Worship Him. Let us speak as ones who now see Jesus clearly: “Lord, I believe.”