For waters break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.
The burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water in the haunt of jackals where they lie down.
The grass shall become reeds and rushes, and a highway shall be there.
And it shall be called the way of holiness.
The unclean shall not pass over it.
It shall belong to those who walk on the way.
Even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.
No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast come upon it.
They shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there.
And the ransom of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing.
Everlasting joy will be upon their heads.
They shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Our epistle reading is recorded for us in Paul's second letter to the Corinthians, the fifth chapter.
So we are always of good courage.
We know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord.
For we walk by faith, not by sight.
Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him.
This too is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
I invite the congregation to please stand for the reading of the Gospel.
The Gospel is recorded for us in the Gospel of Saint John, the ninth chapter.
The story of the healing of the man born blind actually takes up the entire chapter of John 9.
We are going to only read portions of it.
We are going to read the first part and then we are going to read the end.
And I will just give you a little summary of the missing portions, which is going to be a big part of the sermon.
As Jesus passed by, he saw a man born 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 spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva.
Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and he said to him,
Go wash in the pool of Shalom, which means sent. So he went and washed and came back seeing.
The next encounter is with neighbors and others is how it is described in the Scriptures.
Not recognizing this young man or this man and asking him questions about his healing.
Then they turn him over to the religious leaders who also inquire about the healing and who actually call his parents in to give testimony in what can only be considered a trial.
And then we pick up and then they go at it a second time and that's where we pick up our reading again.
So for the second time, the Pharisees called the man who had been born blind and said to him, give glory to God.
We know this man is a sinner.
He answered, whether he is a sinner, I do not know.
One thing I do know that though I was blind, now I see.
They said to him, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?
He answered them, I have already told you and you would not listen.
Why do you want to hear it again?
Do you also want to become his disciples and they reviled him saying you are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.
We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.
The man answered, why?
This is an amazing thing.
You do not know where he comes from and yet he opened my eyes.
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.
Never, since the world began, has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind?
If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.
They answered him, you were born in utter sin and would you teach us?
And they cast him out.
Jesus heard that they had cast him out and having found him, he said, do you believe in the Son of Man?
He answered, and who is he, sir, 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.
This too is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Grace to you in peace from God our Father and from our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ.
Amen.
This story of the man that Jesus healed from blindness is actually one of the longest narratives that we have in the Gospels.
But it's interesting that this man's physical blindness introduces us to the spiritual blindness of the disciples,
the religious leaders, and most especially of us.
So the story starts with those who can see and yet in their sight are blind.
The disciples.
The disciples after having seen so many miracles don't see this man's need.
Their focus is on a theological debate, on sin and its consequences.
And listen to the judgment they render.
Rabbi, who sinned this man or his parents that he was born blind?
Wow, that's it.
One of two options.
Either this man sinned or his parents did.
Well, you know, it's not just them.
Most of us operate with a knee jerk reaction that well, you know, good people get rewarded and bad people get punished and,
oh, wow, born blind, you must have done something really bad there.
And it's not just medical ailments.
We are more than willing to make critical judgments about others and their struggles in their lives.
We think we have this grand insight.
If only they would do this or if only they would do that, if things would have turned out so much better.
But Jesus sees this moment of encounter with a person in blindness, not as an occasion for judgment,
but as an occasion for shining God's amazing grace upon those in the darkness.
The blind man here doesn't even ask for this grace that Jesus gives,
but he does clearly become the beneficiary of that grace.
And as his story progresses, he will see how this moment of encounter links him with Christ's promises forever.
I am the man.
This is the part of the story we didn't read.
The blind man's first confession is to make public that it is indeed him.
The same blind beggar sits on the street.
Neighbors and those who passed by him day after day had trouble recognizing him.
I'm willing to bet that most likely it was an issue of never having ever really looked at him.
They saw his begging, never took time to see him.
Their lives were impacted by his only by noticing,
certainly not by caring and certainly not by calling out demonstrations of mercy.
Again, not that we're like that at all, you know, writing people off without showing mercy,
categorizing people, us and them.
Not like we would ever divide people into those who deserve our attention and all the rest of them will just pass by.
We fail so often to see how many others in our world are living with the same kinds of struggles and fears that haunt our own lives.
And so often fear keeps us from demonstrating the love and mercy that Jesus calls us to.
And even worse, oftentimes we're totally blind to this.
And yet as Luther said on his deathbed, we are all beggars.
And that's the mortifying truth of our own poverty and need.
The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes and said to me to go to solemn and wash.
Then I went and washed and received my sight.
The man now makes his confession even more clear to those who are still blind, still walking in darkness.
His reason for seeing from being called out of the darkness into the light is credit to this man called Jesus,
who touches life with healing and washed away his darkness.
They will be forever linked.
And have you noticed how physical this healing is? Spittle, mud, anointing, a word reserved for priests and kings,
anointing his eyes, washing.
It's as physical as our baptisms.
We receive this washing away of sin, of guilt, of blindness, of darkness.
We were once walking in darkness.
We were once walking in sin, but now we have been called to the newness of light and life in Christ.
His grace, His mercy, His love at work in us to be shared by us with others.
Our lives also are linked forever with Jesus.
I do not know.
Where is the one who healed you? He's asked.
But here we run into this grand irony.
Because he was sent to wash in the pool, the man had not actually seen the one who had healed him.
So while in his case we could say, the scene is believing, he's trusting not in the restored site, but in the one who healed him.
And he won't let go, even though things are going to get worse for him.
Because these neighbors and others now bring him before the religious authorities.
He put mud on my eyes, then I washed, and now I see.
So this man who had been born blind is now brought to trial.
When they asked for the details on how the healing takes place, the man confirmed what he had already said.
But we come on a new detail.
The authorities seem less concerned with the healing of this man than with the fact that this healing took place on a Sabbath.
In fact, in their blindness, they were insisting that because this healing took place on a Sabbath, that very act made Jesus a sinner in their lives.
And yet others, others are asking this question, how can a man who is a sinner do such signs?
It's interesting to see how this man's testimony, as brief as it is, leads to a division of the house.
This division is not the result of the act of the man or of his healing.
What they were divided about was Jesus himself.
Whether he really could be the Messiah, an agent of God's grace, or whether he was just a wretched sinner.
And indeed, then they pressed this man to witness to his faith.
What do you say about him since he has opened your eyes?
He is a prophet.
Oh, a prophet.
Well, say, he is a prophet.
Hardly a bold confession of faith.
There are already many people affirming that.
But as this man's trial progresses, his faith deepens and he becomes bolder in his confession.
But for a moment now, the trial actually turns to the words of this man called to testify.
They ask him, is this your son who you say was born blind?
How then does he now see?
The parents have neither the courage nor the faith of their son to face this time of trial.
They won't even affirm their son's testimony.
I mean, you can practically hear the thumps of the tires rolling over their son
as they throw him under the bus.
Ask him, he's of age.
He will speak for himself.
And John tells us that his parents were living in fear.
They were living in fear because the authorities had already decided that anyone
who even hinted that Jesus might be the Messiah, the Christ, would be put out of the synagogue.
And if you are cast out of the synagogue, your social life became a scandal.
And who wants the word scandal attached to their life?
I actually will find the answer to that question relatively soon.
Even as the authorities again call the man who had been born blind to testify a second time,
they say, give glory to God.
We know this man is a sinner.
I do not know whether he's a sinner.
One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.
Notice how the scandal has essentially flipped on its head.
The man does not denounce the scandal of his own life.
He had been born blind.
But he adds, now I see.
He will not put any distance between himself and Jesus,
even if the religious authorities are considering Jesus a scandalous sinner.
And in fact, the cross is referred to as a scandal.
It's referred to a scandal especially for those who are too blind to see the merits for our good.
But Jesus accepts the curse of his death on a cross in order to heal our lives.
Jesus accepts the curse of death on a cross in order to heal those of us who are blind in our sins
and give us his grace.
Jesus and the man, even in the scandal, are forever linked.
The blind authorities cannot understand.
They thrash about in their darkness repeating the question the man had already answered earlier.
What did he do to you?
How did he open your eyes?
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?
Now this confession puts the authorities on the stand.
You guys testify to your source.
What's your grounding?
And so they do.
You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.
We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.
Here's an astonishing thing.
You do not know where he comes from and yet he opened my eyes.
We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will.
Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind.
If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.
The boldness of this man will now not be silenced.
And his answer is too good to go unspoken.
The man who has regained his sight, his faith shines bright in this moment.
And he stands on the solid ground of God's grace in Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ.
Even as he gives witness one last time before these authorities.
But these blind authorities cannot see the light of his answer.
Instead, they again denounce him just as they would denounce Jesus.
Their final judgment, you were born in utter sin.
Would you teach us?
And they cast him out.
But even in being cast out, the man is forever linked with Jesus.
This trial was really not about this man, it was about Jesus and his amazing grace.
And that grace holds this man firm.
Jesus will be with him always, not in just this moment, but all the moments of life.
And in his grace, Jesus secretly seeks him out again.
Do you believe in the Son of Man?
And who is he, sir?
Tell me, so that I may believe in him.
You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.
Now, this blind man's sight is now fully his faith.
Lord, I believe.
Lord, you have brought me from blind beggar to one healed by your grace.
Lord, you have given me courage to stand up and witness to your grace.
Lord, you have comforted me even when others cast me aside and deny me, you're still with me.
Lord, you have freed me now to stand with all who are cast aside, cast aside by a world blinded in sin and fear.
There was a little more to the story that we didn't read.
Jesus said, I came into this world for judgment, that those who do not see may see,
and those who do see may become blind.
The critical, law-driven authorities thought of themselves far more nobly than they should.
They responded, Jesus, surely we are not blind, are we?
But Jesus responds, if you were blind, you would not have sinned.
But now that you say we see, your sin remains.
And so it is.
So it is whenever we refuse to confess our sin, whenever we refuse to see our beggarly need.
Lent is a time for us to confess the truth of our blindness and our fear.
And all the number of times it has stopped us from being God's agents of grace and mercy
to so many people who are in need.
But Lent is also a time for us to confess the grace that we have indeed received in Jesus.
Grace, which has continually poured out in us and on us for our forgiveness.
Grace, which continually fills us with mercy.
Grace, which overcomes our fears and strengthens us to face any and all obstacles.
Grace, by which our lives are forever linked with Jesus.
So with the blind man, we too say, I was blind, and now I see.
Darkness gives way to Christ's own magnificent light.
Amen.
Thanks for listening to Lightly Salted.
We'd love to hear from you.
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Our thanks to Eric Medias at soundimage.org for morning dew.
God's blessings.