Luke 18:35-43
“As he approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard a crowd going by, he asked what was happening. They told him, ‘Jesus of Nazareth* is passing by.’ Then he shouted, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Those who were in front sternly ordered him to be quiet; but he shouted even more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Jesus stood still and ordered the man to be brought to him; and when he came near, he asked him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ He said, ‘Lord, let me see again.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Receive your sight; your faith has saved you.’ Immediately he regained his sight and followed him, glorifying God; and all the people, when they saw it, praised God.”
Let us pray: Holy and Everlasting God, pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here that we might see you, see your love at work in the world, and remember how beloved we are to you. Amen.
It’s good to be back with you after a trip to my parents home in Virginia to preach the 75th anniversary at the church in which I grew up. Hurricane Matthew turned the remainder of our trip to Virginia and the beach into an adventure when destination cities and routes became flooded. We had a great celebration last Sunday in worship and I shared with Lakeside congregation of your 160 plus years of ministry in this community. In looking back to our founding stories, we can help see where we are called to go in the years ahead.
I heard that Reverend Tommy Ward did an excellent job last week helping lead you in worship. Many of you have shared already with me how great of a storyteller Tommy is. Last week, our choir assisted in worship at Tulip Street United Methodist Church’s homecoming as a ministry of outreach and nurture to that community.
We are back in our third week of the preaching series called Living Your Faith Story with stories of transformation from the gospel of Luke. I’ve asked you to consider how did you get to this point in your life of faith? What have been the obstacles along the way? How has the grace of God brought you thus far? How do you see Jesus? How does Jesus see you? How do you see your neighbors?
Some years back when I returned from international travel, I went to Vanderbilt to have some blood drawn because I was feeling under the weather. As the lab tech retrieved the samples, I slowly felt my vision diminish first from the edges and then toward the center until it was completely gone. I was still conscious. I could feel the arm rests pressing against my forearm. I could hear the tech talking to the patient in the chair next to mine. I even spoke a few words indicating I was not feeling well, could not see, and probably needed something to get my blood sugar up.
For probably less than 90 seconds, I could not see. That’s nothing in comparison to millions around the world whose visual impairment has been part of life since birth or as the result of injury and age. I spent some time this week seeking to understand blindness or degrees of visual impairment, its causes, ways to minimize it, and the challenges of prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and reeducation.
As I searched about blindness, I recalled a viral video on the internet I had seen some time back. The video is of a four month old baby named Leopold Reppond whose condition, oculataneous albinism, makes it very difficult for him to see. As his dad videotapes, his mother slips a pair of custom made glasses over his eyes and says ‘hi sweet boy.’ Instantly, something connected in his mind that the familiar voice and touch of this woman was his mother he was seeing for the first time. His grin from ear to ear seals the moment. Just imagine. Seeing for the very first time.
In trying to understand blindness and the individuals who live with it, I thought I might be able to open this text up for us so that we might see Jesus more clearly.
As Jesus makes his way to Jericho, a grown man, with no name, who is blind sits on the roadside hoping that passersby will provide enough alms so that he can eat. He probably has no method of employment given his disability and so his survival depends on the generosity of his neighbors. He hears the crowd around Jesus coming down the road catching pieces and parts of conversations but not quite enough to make out what is going on. He feels the vibrations in the ground as dusty feet pass him by. But still the nature of the crowd’s business is unknown.
Who is it? Who is commanding this amount of time and attention from the crowd? Jesus of Nazareth. What happens next is purely a declaration of faith. The man who is blind has not yet had any direct conversation with Jesus or been the recipient of a healing through direct contact with Jesus. He cries out as an act of faith and trust, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.’ In other words, you, Jesus, are the Messiah, the one who is of David and Solomon’s royal lineage. You are the fulfillment of our hopes for deliverance, restoration, and hope.
A man who is physically blind sees the nature of Jesus quite well. The man who is blind bestows the messianic title, Son of David, upon Jesus. But the crowd would have none of his interruption and plea for mercy. Disruptive. Inconvenient. Not worthy or deserving of Jesus’ time and attention. Just like when the disciples attempt to keep children from coming into Jesus’ presence, this time, those at the front of the crowd want to make sure that Jesus is not interrupted by a beggar who is blind. But not to be quieted, the man who is blind and begging cries out a second time to the Messiah. ‘Son of David, have mercy on me.’
Jesus stops moving. The crowd stops. You could probably hear a pin drop as the crowd wonders how Jesus will entertain the man’s plea for mercy. Time and time again, there are people who Jesus spends time with, converses with, breaks bread with who don’t get the time of day from anyone else in their community. The man who is blind joins the ranks of the woman who anoints Jesus’ feet, Zaccheus the tax collector, the woman who hemorrhaged for 12 years, and the debilitatingly ill woman who is healed on the Sabbath. Folks scoff when these individuals come around or enter the marketplace. They whisper at the gates of the temple because how dare one of them come to offer praise to God among the righteous and the ritually pure.
I promise you there are some assumptions at play in the community which undergird this attempt to keep the man who is blind, quiet and away from Jesus. In John’s gospel, there is another story of a man who is blind being healed on the Sabbath. As Jesus is on the move with his disciples, one of them asks when they notice a particular man, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’
The prevailing assumption is that some unsavory action in the man’s life or his parents led to his blindness. Sin or rebellion against God is believed to cause physical punishment and disease. This assumption is at work in the story of Job-he must have done something horrible for God to destroy his farm, family, and reputation. And if indeed there is some unsavory action that led to the man’s blindness then the reasoning goes that this sinner has no business getting near Jesus, the Son of David, the Son of the Everlasting God.
So those at the front of the crowd try to make determinations on who is worthy enough for Jesus’ attention. I think the crowd might unable or unwilling to imagine God’s reign in such a way that the most vulnerable, displaced, marginalized, and morally despised and despicable have a place right next to the religious zealot. Those who attempt to thwart the man’s efforts don’t seem to see and understand the power of his declaration and plea from a place of faith.
That there is a spiritual inability to see clearly. The inability to see a neighbor as a child of God is a condition of the heart. Moreover, the readiness to imply or declare that a brother or sister, whether economically, racially, nationally or different in some other way is less than the full
image of God puts us squarely in the camp of those at the front of the crowd. If we start suggesting who deserves time with Jesus, we might be surprised when everything stops and Jesus calls forth the unsuspecting neighbor who sees with faith the reign of God in their very midst.
Even before the healing takes place, even before Jesus calls for the man so he can address him-the man who is blind knows clearly who Jesus is. I can’t explain it. He just knows that Jesus is the one that the Old Testament prophets announced who would bring salvation. Jesus asks him what he wants. He wants his sight restored. By the power of God in Jesus Christ, the man’s physical ability to see is restored. This miraculous healing is cause for great celebration and points to the glory of God at work in the world. The man’s physical sight is restored; but remember, he could already see clearly who Jesus was.
If only we all could see as clearly as the man whose sight was restored.
Church, I think one of our greatest challenges to ministry and discipleship is that we do not see clearly. I’m not talking about us as an individual church or a community of folks from Kingston Springs, Bellevue, Pegram, and White Bluff. The thing that plagues our public and private lives together is that we see one another in ways that diminish one another’s belovedness from God and ways that do not reflect the gospel of Jesus Christ in the world. Election season only exacerbates our inability to see the world and our neighbors clearly the way that God sees us.
We use these terms to describe what we see in one another.
Poor. Immigrant. Disabled. Old. Divorced. Single. Illegal. Unemployed. Democrat. Republican. Gay. Black lives. White lives. Blue lives. Conservative. Progressive. Racist.
In scripture, Jesus describes those around him with some of these words. Faithful. Servant. Beloved. Disciple. Healed. Blessed. Children. Neighbor.
How clearly do you think we’re seeing the world and our neighbors the way that God sees it and loves it?
Bless you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.