The True Jesus
Luke 18:31-42
by Vicar Luke Otten
In the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Ghost, Amen. The text for our sermon today comes from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke the 18th chapter… Jesus was well used to having crowds around him. Great crowds followed him all the time. They followed him into wilderness. They follow him down the mountain after the sermon on the mount. They press up against him in homes, by the sea, and as he enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. People knew of Jesus and wanted to be by Him. They knew of his teachings, yes, but they especially knew of His miracles. That’s why so many people crowded around him and followed him, to see a miracle or perhaps be the beneficiary of one of Jesus’ miracles. But how many of crowd saw Jesus for who he truly is?
Not many, and we can see that in today’s Gospel. The blind man sitting on the roadside hears the crowd and asks what’s all the commotion is about and notice how St. Luke depicts the response to his question. “They told him ‘Jesus of Nazareth is passing by’” (vs 37). “They told him,” it’s a collective response, indicating the general confession of the crowd for who Jesus is. He is Jesus of Nazareth; he comes from Nazareth. It’s a true statement, but what does it confess about who Jesus is? Not much. It doesn’t explain who he truly is, only where he comes from. Jesus of Nazareth is an open naming of Jesus that can be used by anyone at any time for anything. It’s a pretty empty confession of who Jesus truly is.
Just look the secular scholars of today. While for a time it was a common academic belief that Jesus never existed, now it is uncommon to find anyone who says that. Watch them on TV, visit them at a university, the learned of this world will say that there was indeed a man named Jesus from Nazareth. For them Jesus of Nazareth could be anyone from a moral teacher, sorcerer, rabbi gone wild or a revolutionary zealot. This isn’t much different from what Jews and Muslims say of Jesus of Nazareth. Muslims say he was just another prophet, nothing too special. Jews say he was a blasphemer claiming to be God. All these people know Jesus existed as this man from Nazareth, and that’s true. But as you can see, by just saying Jesus is from Nazareth, there’s a lot that can be added or subtracted.
You hear what’s added or subtracted from Jesus today. People will tell you Jesus was a queer. People will tell you that Jesus doesn’t care what you do as long as you are happy. People will tell you Jesus only loves and doesn’t judge. People will tell you Jesus teaches us morals and how to live a good life. Do you believe what you hear from these people? Is Jesus whatever you want him to be? Well maybe not fully whatever you want him to be, but maybe in some ways how you want him to be. You don’t want him to be omnipresent when you’re committing a secret sin. You don’t want him to forgive your enemies. You’d like him to fix every one of your health problems, your family problems, work problems and the like. But in God’s word, you hear about the real Jesus, the one that is forever omnipresent and merciful. The one that promises full restoration of health and relationships in the resurrection, not something that guaranteed now on earth. Yes, sure you may wish for God to be a little less present or act in different ways at some times and the opposite at others, but God isn’t going to change His revelation or nature just for you. God has revealed himself and his ways through the Scriptures and his Son. You can’t change God and so you can’t fit Jesus of Nazareth into whatever box you’d like.
And so we don’t just stop at calling him Jesus of Nazareth, for the blind beggar didn’t either. He saw there was something more about Jesus, something more than him being a man from Nazareth who can apparently heal people. Reports of Jesus’ words and deeds had been spreading about the whole region. Everyone was either seeing or hearing about what Jesus of Nazareth was doing. As for the blind man, he was only ever hearing the reports. He couldn’t see Jesus and his miracles. He could only hear about them. So when he heard a crowd going by and asked what was going on, he was told by the crowd Jesus of Nazareth was coming. And in his cries for mercy we hear that he already knew that Jesus isn’t just a man from Nazareth, but he also saw that he was the Messiah, the Son of David.
The Scriptures are riddled with texts concerning the Messiah. In 2 Samuel the Lord promises to King David this: “the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever” (2 Sam 7:11-16). Just as David was anointed in our OT lesson today and he was filled with the spirit, so too would David’s coming offspring be filled and anointed with the Holy Spirit and then establish an eternal throne and kingdom. When the blind man calls Jesus the Son of David, he is calling him the long-awaited Son of David, the Messiah.
And yet so many couldn’t believe that, even if they saw Jesus, a physical descendant and offspring of David. That’s what happens throughout Jesus’ ministry, and it all began in Jesus’ hometown at the beginning of it. For in Luke chapter 4, Jesus of Nazareth is rejected in Nazareth. In the synagogue, he reads from Isaiah 61: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Lk 4:18-19) and then he says “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk 4:21). The Nazarenes couldn’t accept that. They couldn’t believe that Jesus is the anointed one, the Messiah, the son of David. No. There’s no way. That’s why they say, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” (Lk 4:22). They can’t see Jesus as the Son of David, rather only as the Son of Joseph and a now a blasphemer. This Jesus of Nazareth wasn’t the Jesus they wanted him to be, so they then tried to kill him by throwing him off the a cliff. The world always tries to get rid the Jesus they don’t like. People don’t like the true Jesus.
Now the blind man would have heard about Jesus of Nazareth being rejected at Nazareth, and why it happened along with all the other things he had heard about Jesus. He had heard the words Jesus quoted in Nazareth throughout his life. And in his hearing, he would have seen and what many overlooked. He saw that in the Messiah’s coming, Jesus was the one was sent to recover the sight of the blind as Isaiah foretold, for as Jesus says, “everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished (vs 31). And so when he hears that Jesus is coming by, he cries “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me” (vs 38). If he had any doubts about Jesus being the Son of David, the Messiah, they were going to be confirmed or denied here now. And what does Jesus do? He has the blind man brought over to him and heals him. He restores his sight, for Jesus is indeed the Messiah and that’s what he was sent to do, and he accomplishes all that was written for him to do, for that is why he was sent.
The blind man saw there was more to Jesus than him just being a man from Nazareth, he knew the scriptures. He knew that Jesus of Nazareth came as the Son of David to be the Messiah. And as the Messiah, Jesus came to accomplish that to which he was sent, chief among that being that “he [would] be delivered over to the Gentiles and [would] be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they [would] kill him and on the third day he [would] rise” (vs 32-33). But not everyone sees and understands that. Some are scandalized by it. It’s a saying that’s hidden from some and revealed to others. For you see what happens when people see Jesus of Nazareth apart from him being the Son of David and the Son of God. It’s not the Jesus they want, and so the true Jesus becomes a stumbling block to them. They instead see him purely as a historical figure of cult like influence. But as the true Messiah, Jesus’ influence isn’t just worldly. For in his crucifixion, where he was mocked, spit upon, flogged and killed, he won you a new eternal life with liberty from the sin and death of this world. When you say “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me,” (vs 38) he does. He restores your being and he responds, “Your faith as made you well” (Your faith has saved you) (vs 42).
So let this Jesus be your Jesus. The world will try to tell you who Jesus of Nazareth was and is. Jesus was a homosexual. Jesus was transgender. Jesus wasn’t God. Jesus got rid of the commandments and now “love” is whatever what you want it to be. Jesus was created by the Father and isn’t eternal. All of these are clear lies as can be seen from scriptures. So abide in the scriptures that you have heard it read to you for years, for that’s where you see who the true Jesus of Nazareth is, who the true Son of David and of God is. That’s what the blind man did. He had heard the scriptures and knew them so well that when Jesus came, he saw exactly who Jesus truly was without ever seeing him. Even before his physical eyes were opened, his spiritual eyes were already opened. The sayings of scriptures were not hidden from him, and they are not hidden from you too. For by the grace of God, your eyes have been opened to the sayings of the scriptures. You know who Jesus is and why he came into the world, so don’t let the world twist you by preaching a false Jesus. Remain in the true words of the true Messiah, and you’ll forever have sight into eternity. In Jesus’ precious and holy name. Amen.