“Encounters with Jesus: The Man Born Blind”
John 9:1-38

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Third Sunday after Pentecost—June 10, 2018

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

I got my first pair of glasses in the seventh grade. I was excited about it; I thought glasses made me look grown-up. But, it wasn’t long before I considered glasses nothing more than a nuisance; necessary, but a nuisance nonetheless. Having to wear glasses is bad enough. But, think how much worse it is for those who are actually blind, like the blind man in today’s Gospel Reading.

The only blind person I have ever really known was a fellow student at the seminary. Like the blind man in today’s Gospel Reading, he had been blind since birth. Despite his handicap, he always wanted to be a pastor. So, he went to college and seminary. He had to study Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and German, all in Braille. Most students have enough trouble handling all those languages the regular way; I’m always amazed he was able to learn them in Braille.

Since most college and seminary textbooks aren’t available in Braille, he spent many hours listing as volunteers read to him aloud. He used tape recorders to take notes in class, and then his wife, who is able to see, would type out his notes on a Braille typewriter. What’s truly astounding is that despite his handicap and all these obstacles, he completed four years of college and four years as seminary with a perfect straight A, 4.0 average. He’s now a pastor in St. Louis, working with our Synod’s ministry to the blind. In fact, he might be preaching a sermon this morning about the story from today’s Gospel Reading of Jesus giving “sight to the blind.”

We continue our sermon series “Encounters with Jesus” with this episode, recorded in the ninth chapter of the Gospel of John.  On the streets of Jerusalem, Jesus encounters “The Man Born Blind.”

In those days, long before the invention of Braille, and all the other advances that allow blind people today to lead productive, normal lives, there was really only one career option for a blind person—to be a beggar. To sit in the street and beg other people for money. That is what this blind man was doing when he met Jesus. Jesus has compassion on the blind beggar, but he gives him something much more valuable than money. He gives “sight to the blind.”

“Jesus spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. He told him, ‘Go and wash in the pool of Siloam.’ So the man went and washed, and came home able to see.”  Imagine the blind beggar’s joy that day. He was born blind, but now, for the first time in his life, he could see.

A few years ago in England there was a 53-year-old housewife who also had been born blind. For 53 years she was unable to see anything at all. Imagine what that would be like. Just blackness, dark nothing. Like shutting your eyes and never being able to open them again.

But, one day something amazing happened to this woman, who had been blind for 53 years. She tripped on a sidewalk, fell down, and bumped her head. When she got up off the ground and opened her eyes, for the first time in her life, she could see. The first site that woman ever saw was the face of her three-year-old granddaughter, who came running over to see if Grandma was okay. Grandma was more than okay; she was overjoyed. But, her doctors are baffled. They didn’t know why she was blind to begin with, and they don’t understand why, for the first time, in her life she could suddenly see.

When Jesus healed the blind man, everyone was baffled. They wanted to know what had happened, how Jesus had done it. They kept asking the man questions about Jesus. Finally, he said, “I only know one thing; I was blind, but now I see!”

Scripture teaches that all of us are born with a type of blindness: spiritual blindness. Because of our sin, we are blind to God, unable to see what he desires of us in our lives. In today’s Epistle Reading, Paul describes it as a “veil” that has “blinded” us.

Have you ever walked through your house at night, in the dark, with all the lights off? You think you know just where everything is, but when you stub your toe against a chair or table or footstool, you find out fast that someone has rearranged the furniture. Without God’s help, that is how we all go through life. Feeling our way in the dark, never sure what’s ahead, always afraid we are going to run into something and hurt ourselves. Without God we are spiritually blind, helplessly groping our way through life in spiritual darkness.

But, Jesus gives “sight to the blind.”  The mud he puts on the eyes of the man born blind symbolizes our sin, and spiritual darkness, and blindness.  The water in which Jesus tells him to wash symbolizes the blood of Christ, which John says, “cleanses us from every sin.” 

And the washing in the Pool of Siloam also symbolizes Baptism.  This is how Paul describes Baptism in Ephesians: “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word.” 

Your Baptism is like the water that washed away the mud from the eyes of the man born blind.  For, through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, “the washing with water through the Word,” your sins, like that mud, are washed away. As Peter and Paul say in Acts, “Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. . . be baptized and wash away your sins.”

“I am the light of the world,” Jesus says.  “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  “For you were once darkness,” Paul says in Ephesians, “but now you are light in the Lord.”  “Declare the praises of him,” Peter says, “who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”   Like the man born blind, you no longer have to go groping your way through life, for the Light of the world has come, for you.

Just as that blind beggar washed the mud off his eyes and could suddenly see, in the same way your sins are washed away in the waters of Baptism. Through Baptism you are no longer in spiritual darkness, spiritually blind. Like the man Jesus healed, once you were blind, but now you see! Paul puts it this way in today’s Epistle Reading: “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”

Because Jesus Christ gives “sight to the blind,” you are no longer “in the dark,” about who God is, what his attitude is toward you, and what he desires of you in your life. His attitude toward you is love and forgiveness, for he is your loving, forgiving, heavenly Father. And what he desires of us in our lives is to believe in his Son and worship him.

After he heals the blind beggar, Jesus asks him: “‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ ‘Who is he, sir?’ the man asked. ‘Tell me so that I may believe in him.’ Jesus said, ‘You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.’ The man said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshiped him.”

That is what the Lord desires of you in your life; that is what we are doing here this morning. Like the blind beggar healed of his blindness, we are here this morning to say, “Lord, I believe,” and to worship him.

To worship him, because he gave himself on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. To worship him, because he rose from the tomb on Easter morn. To worship him, because he ascended to heaven and is our heavenly King. To worship him, because he has given us and all believers a place in his kingdom. To worship him, because he has promised us everlasting life.

Like the man born blind, Jesus Christ turned your spiritual darkness into light, healing your spiritual blindness, revealing your loving, forgiving, heavenly Father, and showing what is ahead for you: eternal life. Do not keep this Good News to yourself. Like the man born blind, spread the joyous Good News, tell others what he has done for you, reflect the light of Christ in your life.

Amen.