Seeing Blind

As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. -John 9:1

The LORD your God has undertaken this day to sound into your ears that which concerns your eyes, both your physical eyes with the iris, cornea, rods, optic nerve and all that is needed to capture through vision all that is brought to light outside of your being, for without light you might as well be blind . . .

. . . And then your spiritual eyes, the eyes of faith, which look not to what is seen, but what is unseen and preached into your ears, namely the Gospel of your LORD Jesus Christ through Whom you are saved from sin and death, to be preserved together with your eyes and ears, reason and senses – your whole being - both now and at the resurrection of the dead on the Last Day.

What the LORD God has sounded into your ears this day is a cast of characters and a set of themes that is, to say the least, wide in compass. As far as characters go, there are the disciples, the blind man, the blind man’s parents, the crowds, the parents, the pharisees, and Christ Jesus, all of whom have a say.

As far as themes go there are blindness, poverty, misplaced judgments, ridicule, fear, joy, and most peculiar of all, a procedure no ophthalmologist today would dare to undertake: making a paste out of his own spit and rubbing it onto the eyes of a patient who is blind from birth.

This whole episode in John Chapter Nine is written so that your eyes would ever be looking to the LORD, who plucks your feet out of the net; so that you may seek one thing, that you may dwell in the House of the LORD all the days of your life. And here you are.

What do your eyes see? They see a baptismal font. They see an altar. They see preachers – vested preachers - so that you do not consider their person but consider Christ Jesus Who has called and ordained them to act in His stead and by His Command.

Your eyes see the bread of the Holy Communion, as small as it is. They see the wine of the Holy Communion, as simple and dark as it is. In seeing these things your eyes see Christ Jesus, Who laid down His life for you and took it up again, and now makes a way for His risen body and life to be imparted to you in a bodily way, so that you are joined to Him and may call upon Him in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.

But that is not all your eyes see. For you inherited a blindness from Adam that is worse than that of a man born blind and begging, a blindness that can only lead to an eternal death and an eternal grave where there is no hope or comfort, but only everlasting pain and a regret of indescribable magnitude.

Your eyes may be open, but they also are inclined to take what they see and turn it into an object of worship that is neither meet, right, nor salutary. I am talking about your tendency by nature to worship the creation rather than the Creator.

Think about all the things you’ve seen just in the past week. How much of it has caused you to give thanks to God for His creation? The fact is, very little, if any. How much, instead, did you want more of and worry about what you see? The fact is, very much, if not everything. Your flesh says, “I want it all, and I want it now.”

To dig a little deeper, when was the last time you gave thanks to God for the set of eyes He gave you? Are they not magnificent? Are they not a most precious instrument to take in the blessings and beauty your Father in heaven has placed before you in every way?

And yet you with your eyeballs want more stuff and worry about the stuff you have more than you give thanks for what you already have. I say again that kind of blindness is worse than that of a man born blind, and the poverty it brings is worse than a lack of earthly goods.

But here’s the thing: The LORD God, your Father in Heaven, sought you out with His eyes; the eyes of His mercy. You see it even here as He looks upon this blind beggar. If there is one thing you must see and hear; if there is one thing that sums up the whole of John Chapter Nine, it is that the LORD God has had mercy upon you and saved you apart from any merit or worthiness on your part.

There is absolutely no indication in this text that the blind man saw Jesus coming, or even heard Him coming. He does not cry out for help. “As He passed by He saw a man blind from birth.” He sees you who were blind from birth, too. Blind to His law. Blind to His presence. Blind to His mercies.

Instead gaping about and making judgments about others, like the disciples did – even His own disciples – who said, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” It had to be one or the other, right? The correlation between a major flaw in physical condition and sin must be direct, right?

And when Jesus says, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents,” your proud reason jumps up and says, how can this be, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, so both this man and his parent had to have sinned.”

But that is not the point. Your LORD Jesus Christ, Who created all things and sustains all things, created this man born blind for the precise purpose of showing you that God does not deal with you and His creation the way you think. In so doing, He has made you His child, who walks in the light and does not chase after what your eyes see.

Instead, by baptizing you into His Name and by feeding you with His body and blood He has given you eyes of faith to know and believe the mercies of God are hidden under the Cross of this one Who would use His own spit and the dust of the earth, together with His word on the Sabbath as the One Who fulfills the Sabbath, to give eyesight to a man who in no way could help Himself.

There is a lot of wrangling that goes on in this text. The disciples get it wrong. The pharisees get it wrong. The blind man’s parents who fear getting kicked out of the synagogue get it wrong. The crowds cannot figure out whether the same man who now can see is the one who used to sit by the wayside begging. But the text makes clear Who is right, namely your Christ Jesus, Who together with the Father and the Holy Spirit must work the works of Him who sent Christ Jesus as long as it is day.

This He has done and this He is doing. Working the works. By the mystery of His holy incarnation; by His holy nativity; by His baptism, fasting, and temptation; by His agony and bloody sweat; by His Cross and passion; by His precious death and burial; by His glorious resurrection and ascension; and by the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, He is saving you while it is day, giving you His life this day so that you may walk in it with the eyes of faith wide open, as with daily contrition and repentance you navigate all He has laid before you in the way of good works.

The poverty that was yours in blindness - a poverty that would run away from God or seek to please Him with your own good works – that poverty your LORD Jesus Christ has replaced with the riches of His mercies toward you while you were yet dead in sin, so that the works of God might be displayed in you, and they are; in frailty and weakness, to be sure, in the midst of death, to be sure, with fear and trembling, to be sure, but the works of God nevertheless He works for you and in you, hidden under the Cross, which is His greatest work and glory for you, His own dear Child.

I said at the beginning that there are many characters and many themes in John Chapter Nine, perhaps the longest of any Gospel readings we are given throughout the years, but there is one thing about this text that is especially peculiar, and that is how Jesus uses His own spit and the dust of the earth to make a clay which He then applies to the blind man’s eyes. Can you think of any other time in the Gospels when such a specific means is used in healing the sick or raising the dead? I cannot, but I am willing to stand corrected.

What about this spit? What about this dirt? This clay, this anointing, and this washing that opens the eyes of a man who never in his life has been able to see? It is not that Jesus has some kind of magic spit, or that the dirt was of a special composition meant to be used in an eye-opening concoction. You know, the crowds make a big deal out of how Jesus did it. The man who received his sight did not hesitate to say it clearly: “He applied clay to my eyes, and I washed, and I see.”

Beloved in the LORD, this is simply how it had to be in this case where “since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind.” The ordinary means of clay and washing at the command of Christ Jesus accomplish the extraordinary purpose of bringing a blind man not just clear vision to see the creation physically, but to be joined by the eyes of faith to Christ Jesus, who is greater than the synagogue.

Likewise, the ordinary means of Holy Baptism, Holy Communion, and the preaching of the Holy Gospel under the apostolic ministry of your LORD Jesus Christ accomplish the extraordinary purpose of delivering you from all evil, and keeping you safe within the body of Christ Jesus.

And so it is: The fair beauty of the LORD you may now behold. To seek Him in His temple you may now do, for He has redeemed you, a lost and condemned person, and placed you into His own body and house, a body and house that is crucified, dead, and buried on the one hand for the forgiveness of all your sin, and a body and house that is risen and ascended on the other hand, so that you may live in His innocence, righteousness, and blessedness forever and ever.

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The Baptism of Our Lord

“Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

How it works. How it is made. Both of those are fascinating subjects.

With the Baptism of your LORD, which you observe by faith and by hearing this day, it has very much to do with how it works and how it is made. For what had been hidden before the foundation of the world has been made known to you, and to the nations in Christ Jesus. The fulness of His glory is shown not in the moon and the stars, or in great big machines, but in His being found in the substance of your mortal nature.

Well, what is the substance of your mortal nature? You don’t need a mirror to figure it out. All you need to do is pinch yourself. Look at your hands. Look at your feet. The substance of your mortal nature is skin and bones, yes. But not just skin and bones. It is everything you are made of, and you know what you are made of is not just a heap of chemicals thrown together by accident of nature.

You are God’s creature, knit together by God’s plan and by God’s desire from the beginning. As His creature you certainly have skin and bones, but if you ask any physician who has applied himself to the substance of your mortal nature he will tell you that who you are and what your are is unlike anything else in the world.

Not like cats or dogs. Not like clouds or lightning. Not like stones or trees (although God could easily cause stones or trees or lightning or clouds or dogs or cats to sing His praises should He so choose and declare by His Word. But you are different. Formed from the dust of the earth, and now inhabiting an assembly of such a nature that even the wild beasts fear you.

The substance of your mortal nature. It is not a machine, though there are some great big machines. How they work, how they are made, and what they make is something almost everyone who is curious likes to learn about. You would have to walk about 17 miles in a circle to see the largest machine ever built so far. But why do that when all you have to do is pop the hood on your car to see a machine that works. Or at least it should

The battery might be dead. A spark plug might be missing. You might be out of gas. And that is kind of the point here. It all has to be put together in the right way for it to work; for it to do what it is supposed to do.

What have you done with the substance of your mortal nature? You have committed idolatry by elevating people and stuff above your Creator, giving them your most devout attention while God receives an occasional wink and nod as if He is at your beck and call.

In committing idolatry you have committed adultery. You have coveted and you have become jealous of your neighbor because you want what your neighbor has and are not satisfied with the portion God has given you.

Those hands and those feet are quick to feed your passions and desires, but not so keen on putting to death the self-serving appetites for anything and everything that satisfies, as long as you can get the next paycheck, expand your bank account, improve your honor and reputation, and simply do what ever it takes to feel good about yourself.

That is what you do with the substance of your mortal nature. You sin, and by your sin you work, earn, and deserve only one thing: eternal death with all its consequences, including a great deal of misery in this life plus an unquenchable, indescribable misery in the life of the world to come.

But look at this. Look Who has taken upon Himself the substance of your mortal nature. It is God Himself.

He did not do this as an afterthought. He did not create the heavens and the earth and crown all that beauty with man – with you - and then say, “Ooops, I made a mistake,” although with Noah and the flood He came mighty close. No. What we are talking about here are things that were hidden from before the foundation of the world.

That God would purchase and win you through the innocent sufferings and death of Christ Jesus is a thing that He knew from the beginning, acted upon from the beginning, and is still acting upon by calling you out of darkness into His marvelous light, which He has done and is doing.

Take a closer look at what the Gospel says to you this day: Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him. But John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?” But Jesus answering said to him [and this is very important], “Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

That is how it works. That is how salvation is made. That is how all righteousness is fulfilled. Not by your works, but by the work of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for you, given to you freely out of love.

You need to understand this well, beloved in the LORD, so that you may draw comfort and joy this day and be at peace with God and with your neighbor. When Jesus says, “in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness,” He is not saying, “Okay, John. It’s you and me now. We have to do this thing together and it will all work out. Just watch.” No. John is beside himself that Jesus would even come to him for baptism.

You see, the “us,” Who is fulfilling all righteousness here, is the Holy Trinity. It is God Himself, through His beloved Son, by testimony of the Holy Spirit, who in the substance of your mortal nature, is going to fulfill all righteousness and has done so for you. That is how it works. That is how salvation is made.

Thus says God the LORD, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who gives breath to the people on it And spirit to those who walk in it,

“I am the LORD, I have called You in righteousness, I will also hold You by the hand and watch over You, And I will appoint You as a covenant to the people, As a light to the nations.

This baptism of your LORD Jesus Christ in the River Jordan under the hand of John is the one that fulfills all righteousness, which is to say it satisfies God’s demand that you be holy as He is holy. Everything included in Jesus’s baptism is included in your baptism, so that all the evil works done by the substance of your mortal nature have been taken away by the substance of His mortal nature.

There’s a lot that’s in there. In fact there is so much you will never be able to recount it, or to give thanks enough for it. All the words of Moses and prophets are fulfilled in this baptism. Not to mention the walls of Jericho. The slaying of Goliath. The Philistines taken down by Samson with the jaw of a donkey. The tower of Babel. Daniel in the Lion’s den. Pharaoh and his army drowned in the Red Sea. Abraham placing his only son on an altar of sacrifice simply because God told him to do it. Joseph sold into slavery. Dr. Luther excommunicated by the pope.

You get the idea. All of this is included in the baptism of your LORD.

I know. I know. You say, “How can the baptism of my LORD Jesus fulfill all righteousness when He has not yet even suffered upon the Cross and risen from the dead?” Well, that is because His suffering and death upon the Cross and His resurrection from the dead has been, and always will be, the steadfast and immovable will of God from the foundation of the world. It was finished before it started.

God has always viewed you and His creation through His only-begotten Son, Who this day speaks to you and tenderly invites you to partake of the substance of His mortal nature, so that the substance of your mortal nature is joined to Him, to be raised up at the last day. The promise is to you, and to your children, and to your children’s children, and it stands for ever.

That is how it works. That is how it always has worked: One man, given among men, Who is both God and Man, crucified as your substitute in the flesh, and risen from the dead as proof of God’s mercy toward you and toward His entire creation.

Saint Paul does not mince words about this. He says, “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”

What is contained in Jesus’s baptism is contained in your baptism. This is your state of being now. This is who you are, and it is because Christ Jesus, having taken upon Himself the substance of your mortal nature, has fulfilled all righteousness, and has placed that same baptism upon you.

Tell me, is that not reason for pure joy and simple thanksgiving? While you, with the substance of your mortal nature have transgressed, God the Father Almighty, with that very same mortal nature except without sin, has intervened out of an everlasting love and has redeemed you, a lost and condemned person, at great cost, which cost you will soon be contemplating as the season of Lent is drawing closer.

But for now, just remember, this is how it works, and this is how salvation is made: Through your LORD Jesus Christ, Who gladly, willingly, purposely in the heart of God from the foundation of the world, laid down His life for you and took it up again, and then made a way for His work to be attributed and given, imparted and bestowed, upon your body and soul both now and forever.

Now come and eat. Come and drink. For that same body and blood that was baptized in the River Jordan God has arranged for you to receive into the substance of your mortal flesh unto life everlasting.

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