4th Sunday in Lent

Sometimes I wonder if Jesus is thinking:
What is the matter with you?
To us: and to his disciples at the time, I can imagine him saying:
Why do you never seem to understand what I say?
You have ears: Why do you not hear me?
Or are you blind? Can you not see what I am doing?
You have eyes: Why can't you see?

Our Bible lessons for today speak directly to us.
It is as if they were written with us in mind.
They all make at least some reference to problems of deafness and blindness--
to the problem that plagues us.

Maybe you’re thinking: HUH? These lessons don’t have anything to do with me.
I’m not blind.
I’m not deaf.
I don’t need that kind of healing.

And that may be true—physically.
But these lessons about blindness and deafness have everything to do with us.
Because humans are often, in one way or another deaf and blind--
particularly when it comes to God.

So in what way does blindness (and deafness) have to do with us?
Part of it has to do with how we read the Bible.
Sometimes, when we hear these stories we are tempted to think:

"Oh, all that is interesting, and it is wonderful to think that God could do this for
people long ago;
but it does not have much to do with me"
To overcome our deafness and blindness,
we have to be prepared to find ourselves in those stories.
To see ourselves in those stories.
To hear God talking to us.
We come to learn a little bit about who we are by identifying ourselves with the
people in the Bible.

So how do we identify with the blind man in today’s Gospel?
The blind man is brought to Jesus on the Sabbath day,
And Jesus heals him by putting some clay on his eyes.
Clay mixed with Jesus’ very own spit, by the way!

But my favorite part of this story is the gratitude that this man has for Jesus.
This gratitude brings true faith--
True faith that teaches us something about ourselves.
Like the blind man, we have all been touched by the Good News of Christ.
In a way, this Good News of Christ heals us from our own blindness.

This is what Paul is talking about in today’s Epistle reading when he says:
“Once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of
the light.”
(It reminds me of the song “Walk in the light, beautiful light: come where the
dewdrops of mercy shine bright. Shine all around us by day and by night, Jesus
the light of the world.”)

We are not in darkness; we are not spiritually blind anymore.

That is:
If we remember and truly and deeply know that all we have is given to us by God.
Given graciously, lovingly, in great mercy.
Not Blind
Not walking in darkness.
But living in the true light of Christ.

And like the Blind man’s gratitude,
We witness to our own gratitude in Christ and witness to our faith by our
attendance here--
Worshipping the living God who continually opens our eyes and ears.

But there’s more:
After being grilled by the Pharisees,
After telling the Pharisees about what a great guy Jesus is,
The blind man runs back to Jesus.

And Jesus asks him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
The Son of Man, meaning: The messiah, the savior of the world.
The blind man--
(who’s no longer blind, but we’ll call him that because we don’t know his name)
The blind man: Looks at Jesus, after being healed by him and says:
“And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him.”

Jesus answered: “You have seen him, and it is he who speaks to you.”

It’s crazy!
Here is the answer, right in front of him.

The blind man has experienced Jesus’ great power.
He can see, his eyes are working fine,
But he’s still blind to who Jesus really is.

And sometimes, so are we.

Week after week we come here.
To hear the good news of Jesus Christ.
To worship the living God.
But does it make a difference in our lives?

Time and time again, we have heard the good news of Jesus--
Urging us to live by faith.
How many times have we been urged not to be anxious about the future?
Yet we keep worrying about tomorrow.
How many times, have we heard about Jesus’ healing power.
How many times, have we heard about God’s love?
That God loves us just the way we are.
That we don’t have to earn God’s love.

Yet no matter how many times we hear it, we need to hear it again and again.
Because sometimes we’re deaf.
Because it’s hard to get it to sink in.
Sure, we “know” that God loves us.
But too often, we don’t take the next step.

We don’t live our lives in the complete confidence that we are loveable.
Instead we worry about what other people might think about us.

But it’s okay.
Because again and again the good news of God’s love for us is told to us.
It comes to us in God’s Word. In the Bible.
It comes to us in the Sacrament of the Eucharist when we use our sense of taste.

Yet sometimes, we have not really seen, heard, and tasted.

Jesus talks about this at the end of the Gospel story.
Some Pharisees were overhearing Jesus’ dialogue with the blind man.
And Jesus said to them: “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that
you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.

We say that we can see,
but in actual fact we do not notice all that God has given us.
We really must be blind.
And we need to admit that we are often deaf and blind.

But Listen deaf and blind people!
THIS IS GOOD NEWS.
Because God isn’t done.
God is still eager.
God is still Working.
God is still here.
Present right here.
And God is eager.

So let’s open our eyes,

And open our ears,
(and walk in the light, beautiful light, come where the dew drops of mercy shine
bright.)

And see and hear God.

Amen.