Fourth Sunday in Lent

Preached Text: John 9:1-7, 34 - 41

Sermon Title: Awake, O Sleeper, For Christ Will Shine On You.

Sermon Outline
OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST BAPTIZES THE BLIND INTO THE LIGHT OF FORGIVENESS

1. Our sinful flesh is blind to the works of God in Christ.
2. Christ Jesus works the works of God by baptizing us and bringing us into the light of forgiveness.



Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. AMEN.

Introduction
The loss of any one of our sensory or motor functions is a reality that reminds us of the fallen natures that we abide with. As we age our eyesight worsens, we’re a little stiff in the joints getting out of bed, and the aches and pains of life are constantly there. Some people are born with the loss of certain functions that we take for granted. Some are born into the world with holes in their heart and need to have emergency surgery to repair it. Others are born with developmental disabilities. For some, they are born into a world without sound, being deaf and mute. Still others are born into a world of darkness, having been made blind and unable to see. Many people are not born with these infirmities, but accidents and disease rob them of their health and natural born abilities. The frailties of humanity remind us, especially in this season of Lent, that we are dust, and to dust we shall return.
Maybe you don’t suffer with any of the these physical ailments right now, and maybe you never will. If so, then all praise, glory and thanks be to God. If you do suffer with physical infirmities, we are reminded by Scripture to thank God in all things, and we learn to pray with Paul: For I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:11-13). It’s difficult though to be content when we suffer and we wonder if God has abandoned us because of our afflictions.
Though we don’t suffer with the same sufferings of the body, we do all share in a common spiritual ailment: blindness. This is a spiritual blindness that has been brought about by the infection of sin in our souls. Because you are human, you cannot escape this spiritual blindness, for behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me (Ps 51:5). Today, the Gospel text before us speaks to our spiritual blindness, in which a physically blind man is used by Jesus to reveal the truth that:

OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST BAPTIZES THE BLIND INTO THE LIGHT OF FORGIVENESS
Sermon Body
(I. Our sinful flesh is blind to the works of God in Christ.)
As he passed by, he say a man, blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Having said these things, he spat 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 wen and washed and came back seeing. (John 9:1-7) His whole life this unnamed man had lived in the darkness of his blindness. He didn’t live in our modern world with its convenience’s and technologies that are available for the sight impaired. Being unable to contribute to society, he would’ve been considered a burden and outcast. What’s more, physical disabilities were seen to be enfleshed punishments for his sin, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Has the mindset changed so much from then to now? Don’t we look at the weak, the disabled, the blind and the lame and pity them, wondering what they must’ve done that God would have created them to suffer in that way?
But this isn’t the way of thinking in the kingdom of God. Jesus addresses this false belief and thinking, saying: “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in Him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of world” (vv. 3- 5). Don’t mistake what Jesus is saying here. He isn’t saying that the blind man or his parents were without sin. They weren’t. The cause of the blindness was not because of personal sin. The weakness of blindness has been given so that the works of God might be displayed in Him. This is the way of the kingdom, the way Jesus turns the world upside down, because God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God (1 Cor 1:27-29).
The blind man is humanity reduced to one. He is a physical and spiritual representation of all humanity. In his physical blindness, he represents the frailty of mankind in the weakness of their flesh. This blindness also reveals the spiritual blindness of mankind. We share in the same infirmity of the soul: we’re blinded by the darkness of sin. The sin has infected our spiritual eyesight, causing us to be blind to God. We can’t accept this spiritual blindness as we’re caught in the throes of self-justifying lifestyles. So we lash out in our blindness against those around us. We lash out at each other through the swords and clubs of our words, speaking and thinking ill thoughts against our neighbor. We lash out at God through not accepting that we can be blind, so we try to make our own self-made path to salvation, eventually falling even further into the ravines of sin. We lash out in our blindness and the isolation that comes from the darkness by seeking out the seductive comforts of the world. In our blindness we are dead and being dead we are blind. Thus, we become the deaf and blind spoken of by Isaiah, in our OT reading: Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see! Who is blind by my servant or deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is blind as my dedicated one, or blind as the servant of the Lord? He sees many things, but does not observe them; his ears are open, but he does not hear. The Lord was pleased, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify his law and make it glorious (Isaiah 42:18-21).
(II. Christ Jesus works the works of God by baptizing us and bringing us into the light of forgiveness.)
Yet out of the darkness there comes a Light. This Light is the very Son of God, and in him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:4-5). The Son of God, as the light that pierces through our blindness comes and declares: I will lead the blind in the way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them (Isaiah 42:16-17). So Jesus takes the blind man and works in him the works of the Father, declaring: I am the light of the world. This light breaks into the darkness of the blind man and frees him the physical blindness that had plagued him his whole life. He covers his eyes with mud and spit and sends him to wash in the pool of Siloam. In the washing away of the balm of spit and mud in the pool of Siloam, the man rises to new sight. In other words, Jesus works the works of God by baptizing the blind man and bringing him into the light of forgiveness. The miraculous restoration of his eyesight leads him to be questioned by the spiritually blind leaders of Israel, who in their own spiritual blindness reject the works of God and so endure in the blindness of their sin. They refuse to see the Light of God, all the while the formerly blind man is led to confess His belief in Christ. Jesus said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” The one who had been blind answered, “And who is he, sire, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” He said, “Lord, I believe” and he worshiped him. Jesus said, “For judgement I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind” (John 9:35-39).
Our Lord Jesus baptizes the blind into the light of forgiveness. So it is that you’ve had your spiritual eyes covered with the saliva and mud of Jesus and have been washed in the waters of baptism. You’re blindness is no more and you clearly see the light and truth of Jesus as he guides you on paths you had not known. He does this as one who having been baptized with the darkness of the sins of the world in the Jordan, goes to Golgotha to die upon the cross as the perfect sacrifice on your behalf. He baptizes you into the light of forgiveness, a light that eternally shines forth from the face of Jesus Christ forever and ever, as one who has overcome death and hell. The light of forgiveness surrounds us and purifies us by the wounds of our Lord. Now we are forgiven for speaking and thinking ill thoughts against our neighbor. We are forgiven for lashing out at God and for attempting to save ourselves. We are forgiven for taking refuge in the seductive comforts of the world instead of the grace He so freely gives. You are forgiven and now see the light of life in your Lord. You are freed from bondage to your spiritual blindness to live in the light of forgiveness.
But what does this now mean for us? How does one live in the light of forgiveness? The Apostle Paul speaks to this when we declares in our Epistle reading this morning: For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you” (Eph 5:8-14).
Conclusion
Awake, O sleepers, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. As we awake from the dead we confess our Lord and live as forgiven sinners in the midst of the dark world that we live in. We awake and see that that it is the Lord who is our lamp, that the Lord our God lightens our darkness (Psalm 18:28). Though once blinded, God has revealed to us the light of salvation through His Son. In this light we shine forth with good works towards our neighbors, always forgiving one another as Christ has forgiven us. Awake, O sleepers and live as baptized children of God, who’ve been raised from death into the light and life of Christ. In our daily remembrance of our baptism into the light of forgiveness, we remember the burning candle given to us at our baptisms and the words spoken by our pastor: “Receive this burning light to show that you have received Christ who is the Light of the world. Live always in the light of Christ, and be ever watchful for His coming, that you may meet Him with joy and enter with Him into the marriage feast of the Lamb in His kingdom, which shall have no end (LSB, 271, Rite of Baptism).

The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. AMEN.

Vicar Duncan Sprague