St. Paul Lutheran Church
Sermon by Pastor Balogh

FEB 24, 2008 - listen to this sermon in mp3!

John 9:1-7, 13-17, 34-39  (The text is the same as our Gospel reading.)

Over the past few nights I have now seen two TV movies that irritated me
to no end.  Both movies were watched on the Hallmark Channel and I was
struck with the similarity of the statements that were made.  About the
only thing I can say is that at least in both movies, despite the
statements, the outcome was happy.  Yet the statements were put out there
and I think for a purpose.
In both situations families had suffered.  In one movie the husband had
been killed in an accident which sent the wife into a spiral of drug
abuse and destructive behavior.  In the other movie a son had been killed
in an accident.  It is this trauma and the results that precipitated the
statements.  The statements basically said, "If God is so loving why did
this stuff happen to me.  I didn't deserve to have this happen.  Why
would a loving God do this?"
I don't know about you but such statements want me to ask these people if
they even consulted a real theologian, a real Christian about the issue
before they wrote the script? Clearly in my mind, what was said was an
attack against the True God of the Bible.  Clearly the statements were
made to put God in a bad light.  And yes, though the movies had positive
outcomes it was made clear that the people overcame their troubles
despite God's problems and lack of care.
Worse yet, I know and understand that there are a lot of people in this
world who wrestle with the same issue.  They wrestle because they do not
know what God's Word says.  They wrestle because they are ignorant of the
truth of God and though that truth is right in front of their eyes they
often refuse to see the truth.
What is the truth?  What does the Bible say?  The Bible says that God is
not the cause or the author of sin but rather sin was brought into this
world by Adam and Eve!  They disobeyed God, abandoned the perfect image
of God that they had and brought sin to the world,  Yes, they opened the
door that Satan and his evil might reign in this world.
Do you understand the importance of that?  What does our Catechism
summarize in this regard?  We look to the Seventh Petition of the Lord's
Prayer.  There we read: But deliver us from evil.  What does this mean?
In conclusion we pray in this petition that our Father in heaven would
deliver us from every evil that threatens body and soul, property and
reputation, and finally when our last hour comes, grant us a blessed end
and graciously take us from this world of sorrow to himself in heaven.
The Catechism then asks: What is meant by evil?  All the bad things which
are a part of our life on earth as a result of Adam's fall into sin.
Again the next question: How does the evil in the world affect our lives?
 The evil in the world brings many hardships into our lives because evil
threatens our bodies and souls, property and reputation.
That's the simple version.  It says that the bad things in this world are
from sin, the result of Satan's deception of Adam and Adam's believing of
Satan.  God is not the one who brings evil or hardship into our lives,
the forces of evil are.  God is the one who provides the solution, who
gives the strength and wisdom to overcome the problem, yes, God is the
one who took every step necessary to correct the problem.  Please note
that God is not done with His work yet.  God does tell us that there will
be a time when He will put an end to sin and then all who have trusted
and believed in his Son will enjoy eternal and sin free life with Him.
It always irritates me when God is blamed.  I want to ask, Don't you
believe in Satan and evil?  Don't you believe what God's Word proclaims?
Don't you believe the Truth of the Bible?  Don't you believe in the
purpose and life of Jesus?  I ask all of those questions because they are
all clearly related and have bearing on the issue.
As you listened to our gospel reading did you hear the "I won't believe
God" attitude that prevailed throughout?  Such attitudes exist because of
sin.  Sin leads to a failure to believe the Lord.  Our theme for today
will be: THE CASE OF BLINDNESS!  1st. The Blind Man.  2nd. The Pharisees.
 3rd. You and me!
First, recall what happened in our Gospel text.  Here is this wonderful
history recorded for us to marvel at.  Jesus is simply going about doing
what he was born to do: preach the message of God and salvation and
perform miracles so that people would grasp he was of and from God.  In
his travels Jesus ran across a blind man.  Did you pay attention to what
was said?  The man was born blind.  The importance of this is that
everyone knew this man and everyone knew he had never seen a thing in his
life.  In other words, there was no way this miracle was faked in anyway.
Now I do want to briefly mention the thoughts of the disciples here.  The
disciples ask Jesus about who had sinned to cause this condition, the man
or his parents.  This was one of the silly teachings of the religious
leadership in those days, because they didn't pay attention to the truth
of God.  They had it partially right, sin, the destructive force found in
the world because of Adam's sin was the root cause of this plight, but
that's not what they believed.  They believed that personal sin, the fact
that a person didn't obey God, was the cause of such bad things.  Any
person who had a physical ailment or handicap was spurned by these people
because as far as they were concerned God was punishing that person
because of their horrid sins.  (And yes, it is clear that these men
believed that even babies in the womb could sin!)
It is Jesus who clarifies the truth.  He says, "Neither this man nor his
parents sinned but this happened so that the work of God might be
displayed in his life."  Jesus tells us that God was working for the good
of this person.  Did you hear that?  This blindness would serve the
eternal good of this man.  That is always God's purpose: to get us into
heaven.  Some of us God has to work harder at just to get our attention
and others God has an easier time with.  Paul put this truth into these
words: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those
who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
In regard to all of this please note that this blind man was a believer.
He believed in the Messiah who was to come.  He didn't know who the
Messiah was but He believed he would come.  Despite his problems this man
still put his confidence and trust in God's mercy.  When Jesus revealed
to this man that He was the Messiah, the man's response was simple:
"Lord, I believe," and he worshiped him."  He worshiped Jesus.  He
believed in Jesus as the Savior.  Believed because of how God's mercy had
brought the power of the Savior into his life.
In contrast to this man are the Pharisees.  They are investigating this
whole miracle.  They have a man born blind, a man that everyone including
his parents testifies was born blind.  They have the fact that Jesus put
mud on his eyes, told him to wash in the pool of Siloam and now the guy
sees.  But that is not their hang up.  They know a miracle has been done.
 They know it was Jesus who did it.  But listen to verse 22, "For already
the Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the
Christ would be put out of the synagogue."
In other words, they were already opposed to Jesus.  The miracle stared
them right in the face and they couldn't see it.  They focused on the
fact that Jesus healed this man on the Sabbath, a wicked and evil thing
to them.  Of course, what they believed about the Sabbath was man made
rules not what God's Word said of the Sabbath.  Didn't matter, Jesus was
garbage as far as they were concerned.
I marvel at the simple facts of this situation.  Listen to some
overlooked facts.  Verse 16: "How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?"
 They didn't want to believe in Jesus.  Though none of them could later
on prove Jesus guilty of any sin, they considered him a sinner.  Later
on, these deniers would say that Jesus did miracles by the power of the
devil.
The blind man himself when asked what he thought of Jesus said, "He is a
prophet."  That meant that the blind man believed Jesus to be a man of
God.  When pressed all the more the blind man then says, "Whether he is a
sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know.  I was blind, but now I
see."  The man goes on, "Now that is remarkable!  You don't know where he
comes from, yet he opened my eyes.  We know that God does not listen to
sinners.  He listens to the godly man who does his will.  Nobody has ever
heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind.  It this man were not from
God, he could do nothing."
They threw him out.  Instead of believing the obvious (at least what was
obvious to many of the people) they simply refused to believe that Jesus
could be of and from God.  What a remarkable thing!  Those who claimed
they knew the truth of God couldn't see the truth of Jesus.  Those who
claimed they were godly in sight were blind to the simple facts of God's
Son.
That brings us to you and me.  Which side are we standing on?  Are we the
blind who now see because of the wonder and marvel of Jesus or are we the
seeing who are now blind because of the refusal to see the wonder and
marvel of Jesus?  Well, welcome to the battle of our world.
On the one hand we have this message of a Savior, yes, the Son of God who
came to atone for our sins.  That's the highlight of our Lent season.
Jesus, after living the perfect life we could not, has become our
substitute in punishment.  He went to the cross to pay for our sins.
That's why he came.  To first take care of the spiritual problem of sin
that we have.  Because he did this, we have the promise of eternal life
and salvation.  Why?  Because Jesus gives it to us!  Because in love he
sacrificed himself, paid the horror of hell and rose from the dead to
declare victory by grace though faith in Him.  As if that's not enough he
sends the Holy Spirit to call us to faith, keep us in the faith,
strengthen our faith and so on.  Jesus has come to do it all for us.
Because of Jesus we are God's children: forgiven, purified, adopted and
loved eternally.
Then there is the side of the Pharisees.  Refusal to believe.  Refusal to
yield to God's Word the truth.  God's Word had promised them they could
identify the Savior because of the host of miracles he would do.  God had
even said, "the eyes of the blind would be opened" (Is 42, Ps 146).
Jesus fit every promise, every prophecy of Scripture concerning the
Messiah and still these men would not believe.  They closed their hearts
to God's Word, to God's way and will, yes, even to God's love because
Jesus didn't fit what they wanted: a political and world power Messiah.
Their focus was themselves: Jude says of such men: "These men are
grumblers and faultfinders, they follow their own evil desires, they
boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage."
Dear people, may your heart confess the wonder of Jesus in the same way
that the once blind man did, saying, "One thing I do know.  I was blind,
but now I see.  Amen.