https://app.dropwave.io/episode/4120a2f5-73bc-4571-b879-19358625fec4/quinquagesima-ad-2025.mp3

++ JESU JUVA ++

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The disciples are confused. Luke puts it this way: “they understood none of these things; this saying was hidden from them, and they did not know the things which were spoken.” Their confusion is odd because Jesus has been perfectly clear. He’s not speaking in riddles or hiding anything. With perfect plainness, Jesus says: “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished. For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.”

Why do they not understand? Could it be that from their own experience they have made certain conclusions about Jesus and His work, and these words about suffering and death just do not compute? They have never seen Jesus act in weakness. They have seen only Jesus’ strength as He has fought against temptation; done rhetorical battle with the scribes and Pharisees; His speaking with authority and not as the scribes. They can’t imagine Him being killed. This man? Put to death? Executed for the crime of being the Savior? That is absurd!

But what does Jesus say? He shall be delivered over to the Gentiles. Who shall deliver Him over? The citizens of Jerusalem — His own people — even the most publicly pious and godly people. — even be one of the Twelve — one whom Christ had called to be a Christian and a member of the Twelve. Surely NOT I would betray Him! Or maybe their rejection is less pious: — that they believe they have Jesus already, so the Word He speaks is redundant, and therefore irrelevant.

But whatever is going on, it seems that their physical ability to see is getting in the way of true faith. Their experience is obstructing them from hearing and believing the doctrine. Instead of relying on the Word to know what to believe and confess, they rely on what they can see.

How about you? Does what you see with your eyes in your daily life get in the way of your faith? Does seeing injustice in the world make it harder to believe that God is in control? Do the hardships of your daily life impede your faith in God? Does your imagination of what you want God to be prevent you from receiving Him as He is? Do you have desires that God would permit certain behavior — and it seems that the wants of your heart prevent you from seeing the real Jesus?

If that describes you at all, then consider the blind man in our text. This man in the ditch beside of the road doesn’t have any trouble recognizing the way things are. He is blind. His eyes do not work, and he is well aware of this fact. Because this man knows he is blind, he knows he cannot help himself; he must live by the mercy of others. From God’s Word, he knows that Jesus has come that those who do not see may see. From the Word, he knows that Jesus has come to give mercy. Most of all, from the word, he knows that he must live by the mercy of Jesus alone.

So he cries out to his Savior for help: Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! His confession of Jesus is perfect. His cry for help is fully sufficient. Yet, as he calls out for help, others are bothered and seek to silence him. Shut up. You’re making a scene. There’s no room for needy people at church. Yet he persists. He does not care whether others disagree. He will not be stopped because they are offended at his need and his confession. He will not submit to their rebuke. In the face of the world’s opposition, he continues to confess. Rather than being silenced, he cries out all the more. His longing to confess the truth is unbroken; his cries become louder, more vigorous. He will not relent.

The world will tell us that such a bold confession of the truth is mere hubris, arrogance, and pride. —that speaking with certainty is foolishness and closed-minded. But when this is a confession based upon the Word of God, then that confession cannot fail. When what is confessed is nothing other than what the Word says, no one can oppose it. This blind man is audacious because he trusts in the certainty of God’s Word. In this way, the blind man already sees Jesus rightly, because it is by faith in the Word that he sees Jesus.

So are you beginning to see? Is the Word becoming clearer? For now, we see dimly. For now, we look forward to the day when our faith shall be sight. The blind man on the side of the road had his prayers answered. He received the mercy of Jesus. By faith in Jesus, his eyes were opened. Our ESV reading translates Jesus’ words this way: Recover your sight; your faith has made you well. But the text literally says: your faith has saved you. Jesus is not just talking about physical sight. Through the Word of God, Jesus has given this man faith. Now, Jesus comes to acknowledge and bless this faith: your faith has saved you!

Now he can see with his eyes what he had previously known only by faith. It is by faith, and by faith alone that he comprehends his Savior. That’s why he cried out for mercy. And so it is also, that when he now looked at Jesus using the eyes in his head, he still beheld Jesus not primarily by sight, but by faith. His faith informs what he sees — and not the other way around. The Word of Jesus tells him what Jesus must do. The Word tells him that Jesus must go to Jerusalem; that everything written about the Son of Man must be accomplished. The Word tells him that He will be delivered up to the Gentiles; that He will be mocked, shamefully treated, spit upon; that He will be flogged; and killed; — and the third day, He will rise from the dead.

By the eyes of faith, he regards this Man as his crucified and risen Savior. He sees rightly, because Jesus has opened his spiritual eyes. Jesus has granted him spiritual understanding. Faith comes, not by sight, but by hearing the Word of God. But remember that this man, even while he could see nothing with his physical eyes, he could still see Jesus clearly by faith. He believes. He trusts. He glorifies God for his healing. Through His Word, Jesus brought this man to faith; healed him; and invited him to follow his Savior. And now, because he also has physical sight, his faith in the Word leads him to physically follow Jesus on the journey toward Jerusalem.

Apart from the Word of God, you are blind to spiritual things. And this is not just because the culture around you is opposed to God, and you have drunk deeply of the modern notions of right and wrong. It is because, apart from the Word of God, the things of God cannot be known. One of those things of God is the knowledge of your own blindness. Apart from the Word of God, many people believe they can see. Whenever you try to live apart from God’s Word, you are acting as a blind may. But with the Word of God, your eyes are opened. You begin to see. The things of God begin to come into focus.

In this life, it still might seem like you don’t have all the same blessings of that formerly blind man. After all, it’s not as though the healing of your blindness comes in the way it did for the blind man that day. It’s not as though Jesus is walking around now like He was back then, headed, with His disciples, toward Jerusalem. Yet it is the same Word of God that Jesus also speaks to you. And it is the same Jesus, through the very same Word, who has brought you to faith; healed you; and invited you to follow Him as He journeys to Jerusalem — to present unto you once again, His suffering and death.

Do you suffer from spiritual blindness? Have your spiritual eyes become impaired? It is through the proclamation of His suffering and death that He brings sight to you who sit in darkness. Many of you — even perhaps every one of you who hear these words today have heard them many times already: that Jesus suffered and died for sinners. And many more in the world have heard this truth, yet they don’t believe it. Even the disciples in today’s text don’t believe it yet — not fully anyway. They had trouble with these words because they had never permitted these words to pierce their stony hearts. Like we heard about with the seed on the path last week, it was as though when this Word was preached unto them that they immediately brushed it away and redirected their attention elsewhere.

Consider how it goes with Peter: When he has confessed made the great confession of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, and Jesus goes on to talk about His suffering and death — then Peter tries to brush that word away, saying, “No, Lord, this shall NEVER happen to You!” Perhaps Peter and the others want to have no more of this talk of death because Jesus is their beloved friend, but this danger of dismissing the cross and suffering of Jesus is not limited to those who refuse to accept the facts. No — this danger of dismissing the cross exists also for us who know well the events of Holy Week. For if we do not continually meditate upon these words — ‘suffered, crucified, died, buried’ — then these words will lose their meaning for us, also. They will become either common and boring — said without thinking —or they will become utterly foreign, having no meaning whatsoever.

We have the basics of the Christian faith. Many of you know — or at least KNEW at one time — the Small Catechism by heart: that is, the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer; Baptism and Office of the Keys and the Sacrament of the Altar. But also the Daily prayers; the Table of Duties; the Christian Questions and their Answers. Now what do you suppose happens to one who knows all those things by heart, but never uses them? What happens to one who knew God’s Word at one time, but never again draws from it? — never seeks to search? to learn? to grow? Then, what we have once learned and treasured becomes lost. The words that had once dwelt in our heart now become foreign and strange — like the long-lost language that we studied for a year in school, but then never touched again. Then we become again like those disciples who understand none of these things.

So it is that this foundational message which Jesus speaks to His disciples, and which we have heard so many times, must be heard and grasped yet again. And do not think that Jesus is thereby pressing a great burden upon you as though you will come to understand Him and His Word only by your own reason and strength. Pay attention to the Word He speaks. Discover therein how Jesus is teaching and instructing you. Do not be like the faithless disciples who brush away the seed from their heart. Rather, listen to what Jesus says.