CALVARY
BAPTIST CHURCH
Rev. Fred Weimert March 2, 2008
Day and Night
In the fourth
chapter of Luke’s Gospel
when Jesus outlined his ministry
in the synagogue in
he read from
Isaiah 61 the following words:
“Thhe
Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because
he has anointed me” (Lk. 4:18)
In the
passage
Jesus read that he had been anointed for
several things
one of which was:
“recovery of sight to the blind, “
So it isn’t surprising
that one of the stories
which is
found in all of the Gospels
is
a story of Jesus healing a blind person.
Mark’s
gospel has two different stories
of
blind person’s receiving sight
one
up in
at
the
other of a man in
down
in
whose
name is even given
as
the son of Timaeus.
Luke
tells the story of the man
cured
of blindness in
Matthew
tells the same story,
but
says it was 2 men who were healed.
And as different as
John’s Gospel can be
he too has
the story of a blind man being healed…
It
must have occurred in or around
possibly
near
because
the man is told to wash
in the pool of Siloam.
which is inside
the city of
But John’s
story
is
hardly a simple healing miracle…
it
is a full blown sign…
with
an “I am” saying:
I
am the light of the world.
Fr. Raymond
Brown says of this story in John 9:
“The
internal construction of the story shows consummate artistry;
no
other story in the Gospel is so closely knit. We have here Johannine
dramatic
skill at its best.” pg. 376 Anchor
Bible vol. 29
This is a great
story
you can feel the tension building
The irony of that hazy
line
between
being blind
and being sighted…
We
won’t read the whole story
it
is the entire 9th chapter of John’s gospel…
We
are just going to read vers. 1-25.
John
9: 1 – 25
As he walked along,
he saw a man blind from birth.
His disciples asked him,
"Rabbi, who sinned,
this man
or his parents,
that he
was born blind?"
Jesus answered,
"Neither this man nor his parents sinned;
he was
born blind
so that
God's works might be revealed 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."
When he had said this,
he spat on the ground
and made mud with the saliva
and spread the mud on the man's eyes,
saying
to him,
"Go,
wash in the pool of Siloam"
(which
means Sent).
Then he went and washed
and came back able to see.
The neighbors and those who had seen him before
as a beggar
began to
ask,
"Is
this not the man who used to sit and beg?"
Some
were saying,
"It
is he."
Others were saying,
"No,
but it is someone like him."
He kept
saying,
"I
am the man."
But they
kept asking him,
"Then
how were your eyes opened?"
He
answered,
"The
man called Jesus made mud,
spread
it on my eyes,
and said
to me,
'Go to
Siloam and wash.'
Then I went and washed
and
received my sight."
They
said to him,
"Where
is he?"
He said,
"I
do not know."
They brought to the Pharisees
the man who had formerly been blind.
Now it
was a sabbath day
when
Jesus made the mud
and
opened his eyes.
Then the Pharisees also began to ask him
how he had received his sight.
He said
to them,
"He
put mud on my eyes.
Then I
washed,
and now
I see."
Some of the Pharisees said,
"This man is not from God,
for he
does not observe the sabbath."
But others said,
"How can a man who is a sinner perform such
signs?"
And they were divided.
So they said again to the blind man,
"What
do you say about him?
It was
your eyes he opened."
He said,
"He is a prophet."
The Jews did not believe that he had been blind
and had received his sight
until
they called the parents of the man
who had
received his sight
and
asked them,
"Is
this your son,
who you
say was born blind?
How then
does he now see?"
His parents answered,
"We know that this is our son,
and that
he was born blind;
but we do not know how it is that now he sees,
nor do
we know who opened his eyes.
Ask him;
he is of
age.
He will
speak for himself."
His parents said this
because they were afraid of the Jews;
for the
Jews had already agreed
that
anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah
would be put out of the synagogue.
Therefore his parents said,
"He is of age; ask him."
So for the second time they called the man who
had been blind,
and they said to him,
"Give
glory to God!
We know
that this man is a sinner."
He answered,
"I do not know whether he is a sinner.
One
thing I do know,
that
though I was blind,
now I
see."
Here ends the reading for us today:
On this past Friday
morning in the Washington Post
on the front page was an article
“Pleas for Tickets to Papal Mass Inundate
Archdiocese”
Pope
Benedict XVI is coming in April
and
will perform masses in
and
and
the seats are limited
One of the letters requesting
a seat is quoted:
“At this point in my life, although my HIV
is manageable,
it is not at the point where my doctors want
it to be
and
I just don’t know what the future will hold
and
to be honest I am scared.
This is why it is so important for me to
attend Pope Benedict’s Mass—
not
only to be a part of history,
to worship the Lord with the Pope
but also to receive his
personal blessing
and
hopefully continue the miracle of Pope John Paul
and
help me to live and be healthy.”
It would be so easy
to make light of this personal
plea for a mass ticket.
Come on, is the story really
true?
Does God work this way?
It would be easy for
me to get like the people in the Gospel story…
Drag this man in for questioning…
Just what was this
miracle of Pope John Paul?
was it
confirmed by doctors?
It would be easy to
call this kind of faith simplistic
shamanism…
Something…
primitive…
something…
far less sophisticated than my faith…
but who am I to
judge
the working of God.
Can I set the parameters within which God
can work?
or
how “that
peace which passes understanding
can keep people’s hearts and
minds
In
Christ Jesus our Lord?”
I know this kind of
spirituality leaves faith more open to the criticisms of
The Sam Harris’,
and Richard Dawkins’,
and Christopher Hitchens’…
our world’s current crop
of atheist and skeptics…
who bellow
out about blind faith…
Those
clear eyed skeptics.
Toward the end of
the ninth chapter
Jesus says:
“I
came into this world for judgment
so
that those who do not see
may
see,
and
those who do see
may
become blind."
There is an old
rabbinic saying
about a Rabbi asking his students
how to discern when dawn
has broken, and the day begun.
Each gives an acceptable
answer…
finally the
rabbi responds
“all
good answers,
but
dawn truly comes
when
one is able to see the image of God
in
the face of a stranger.”
It is
probably the same moment
when
sight is restored
and blindness is cured.
So may we be found sighted…
Servants of God in this world…
Amen.