Blind Faith
St. Luke 18:31-43
February 27, 2022 anno Domini
Quinquagesima. I can say it. You can see it spelled out in your bulletin, but it means nothing to you. It’s just another one of those big words I use to show you how smart I am. However, if you’ve been here the last two Sundays though you have grown wise to these Gesima words – Septua – seventy. Sexa – sixty. Quinqau – fifty days until Easter. It’s Latin and that’s not your mother tongue so you can hear it, read it, but you can’t understand it unless someone reveals it to you.
God’s Word is a foreign language to our ears. It’s not our mother tongue and so it appears strange. It looks out of step. God doesn’t work the way we work and so God’s Word calls for faith alone, to trust Him even when we cannot see what He is up to.
Take today’s Old Testament reading from 1 Samuel. Saul had been rejected as God’s King for his unfaithfulness and Samuel has been tasked with anointing a new King. Samuel is reluctant. The incumbent is still in office and Kings don’t like prophets who don’t preach the party line. God tells Samuel to get going, to go to Jesse the Bethlehemite’s house to see and anoint the new King from among Jesse’s sons. As Jesse parades his sons before Samuel. Samuel assumed that God would choose the firstborn because the firstborn son was a picture of Christ – God’s only-begotten Son. So Eliab the firstborn comes and Samuel thought, “He’s the guy. One and done.” but the Lord no. (Read 1 Sam 16:7). Well, if it wasn’t number one son, it must be number two son, Abinadab. Nope. Number 3, Shammah? Nope. Four more sons were paraded by Samuel. After number 7 Samuel thought, “Finally. I’ll anoint this one and I can go home. I’m not used to working more than one day a week.” But the Lord said none of these. There was something Samuel wasn’t seeing and so, he asks Jesse if these are all his boys. Jesse didn’t even think of David. He’s the youngest. He’s tending the sheep. He’s not King material, but the Lord said, “Anoint him.”
In today’s Gospel reading Jesus could not have said more plainly how He would accomplish the salvation of the world. (Read vs. 31-33). The Apostles had been in catechesis for 3 years. They were days away from the final exam, but they were clueless. They didn’t understand. They could not see God’s anointed King betrayed to the Romans, mocked by the people, spit upon by the soldiers, paraded before the crowds like a fool, whipped nearly to death and then nailed naked to a cross. That’s not the way Kings rule.
The disciples are blind to God’s way, but then Jesus encounters a blind guy who sees Jesus even before his sight is restored. Being blind may have been to his advantage because his ears worked well, really well. He heard the commotion as he sat begging on the road into Jericho. “What’s going on?” he asked. Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. The blind guy had heard of Jesus. Jesus had healed lepers, cast out demons, raised the dead. He made the lame walk and He gave sight to the blind. (Read Luke 18:38) It’s bad enough to have beggars on your streets when royalty is passing by, but a loud-mouthed beggar is even worse. So the crowds try to silence him, but the blind man is seeing too much to keep his mouth shut. (Read vs. 39)
Jesus stops and asks the blind beggar what he wants, as if Jesus didn’t know, but Jesus asks so that we might see what faith is – faith confesses what God’s Word says, faith asks for what God wants to give. (read vs. 41). The blind man was asking Jesus to be who He is – the God who created humans and the God, who in love, restores humanity to being human again. The blind man received his sight back.
Faith is more than hearing the Word of God. You can hear the Word of God and still not see it, not believe it, or trust it. You can be like the 12 who heard all the Words but did not want to see their Savior suffer and die. You can hear the Word of forgiveness but see it as permission to keep on sinning. You can hear that same Word of forgiveness, but see your worst sin and say, “Not me. His forgiveness doesn’t apply. My sin is too great.” You can hear God’s promise that all things are under His control. That He is loving and good, but then see Russia invade Ukraine or cancer invade your daughter or pornography invade your marriage, and you’ll be like Samuel looking at David or the twelve envisioning the cross and saying, “This will never work. God is not in control.”
In today’s Epistle reading Saint Paul speaks God’s Word of love. It is one of the best-known chapters of Scripture. Couples want it read at their wedding. It is beautiful. It’s poetic, but if you don’t see what it means, you should hate it.
Do you love in the way of 1 Corinthians 13? Are you patient and kind or do you get impatient and nasty? Do you let others have their way or insist on your own way? Do rejoice in the truth or do you like it when one of your enemies suffers wrong? Do you bear all things or complain about all things? Do you hope or do you despair? Do you endure or do you give up?
If 1 Corinthians 13 is primarily about our love for each other, we ought to be deathly afraid of these words for they convict us. How many times in the name of love do we deny God’s Word and remain silent about the truth? How often do you love yourself and insist on your own way? How patient is your love with a spouse or child or parent? How quick is your anger?
This love of 1 Corinthians 13 is not about you. It’s Jesus. Love is Jesus. Jesus is patient and kind. Jesus never rejoiced in wrong, but in the truth. Jesus bore all sin. Jesus endured hell to the end. Jesus hoped in His Father’s will alone. Once you see that, 1 Corinthians 13 becomes most beautiful, because you are the recipient of this unbelievable love – a love that is not reasonable or logical or calculating or self-serving. This is God’s love for you in Christ.
In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis, likens being a Christian to being a soldier in enemy occupied territory. Since he wrote during World War 2, he said coming to church was like listening to the wireless to get the good word from headquarters. But the Word from headquarters is completely unlike what you are seeing around you. God’s Word calls you to a weird place – to be blind to the world and to close your own eyes. God calls you to see with your ears alone, to believe His Word alone. Why? Because Quinquagesima. The answer is about 50 days from now. The answer is Easter. Jesus of Nazareth walked out of His tomb 3 days after He was most certainly dead. The facts prove it. To misquote Jerry Mcguire, “Show me the body.” To this day the body of Jesus is missing from His grave. He is risen as He said. That is the one reason to trust the Word over your eyes. The guy who rose from the dead is the sole subject of that Word, He held to God’s Word, preached that Word, taught that Word, died and lived again by that Word. Jesus promises, “Whoever believes in my Word is forgiven, will live forever, and will rise on the last day.” I know. It doesn’t look like that. So shut your eyes when your sight misleads you, silence your reason when it disagrees, and hear the Word, believe the Word, have faith. In the name of Jesus. Amen.