Leaning Into Lent | Week 3 | Gospel Lesson (3-13-26)

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:07

Hey everybody! It is Friday. It is um March the 13th. It is time for the gospel lesson for the week. Um, we are on the fourth Sunday of Lent. We're leading up to it. We've got the Reverend Dr. Christian Wright with us here finishing out the week. Thank you for being with us. Um, we've done our passage, our Old Testament passage on Monday, did our New Testament epistle on Wednesday, we read the Psalm on Monday, and today we come to the gospel lesson. And um, it is no secret or surprise to uh Reverend Wright, Pastor Christian over here, um, that this is one of my favorite passages in all the Bible. I love preaching this passage, and we'll talk more about that in a second. Um, but instead of reading the whole thing today, so sometimes we read the entire text. This one is really long and it might take the majority of the episode. And so we're gonna do a little quick summary of it and then talk about it, the things that stood out to us and the things that really um, you know, this is the same thing we do with all the other ones. So uh in John 9, 1 through 41, um, what you have here is Jesus walking along with the disciples and they come across this guy who's blind and they uh they say, Why was he born blind? Did his parents mess up? And Jesus says, Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the God might be displayed through him as long as this day, you know, got to do the works of the one who sent me. And then he spit on the ground and he made some mud of saliva and he put it on his eyes. He said, Go and wash in a pool of salon. Um this word means sent. All right. So the man went and washed, and his neighbors who thought he came back, he was seeing, and his neighbors are like, Oh my gosh, can this is the guy you just see? And somebody's like, No, this kind of looks like him, but it's not actually him. He goes, No, I'm him, I'm that man. I used to be blind, now let's see. And they say, uh, where is Jesus? Uh he said, Jesus did, and they say, Where's Jesus? I don't know where he is. Um, well, it goes on that the Pharisees kind of dive in and they say uh to him, What happened? And he said, Oh, he put the mud on my eyes. And then some of the Pharisees say, This man is not from God, for he doesn't keep the Sabbath. So here again, Jesus did this on the Sabbath. Um, how can the sinner perform such signs? Others said. Uh, some people said he's a prophet. There's all these questions about who Jesus is. Um, they went and asked the man's parents, this is your son, and they said, How can you see you? He said, We don't ask a son, but we do he was born blind. We don't know how you could see. Um, anyway, so that they summoned the man a second time and he said, Let's give glory to God, because um, you know, we know that this uh by telling the truth, because we know that this man was a sinner. And he said, Whether he's a sinner or not, I don't know. I just know that I was blind and now can see. Amazing grace, how sweet this sounds, right? Um, and so then he goes on, I've already told you, and you didn't listen. And they go talk about being a disciple. So the man answered um that this was remarkable. Um, and yeah, there it is. You're steeped in sin at birth. How dare you lecture us? And I threw him out, which is kind of funny. They asked him to come and they're like, get out. So, um, all right, so let's kind of go through first pass. Um, I'm gonna let uh I'm gonna ask uh Reverend uh Wright, I'm gonna ask uh Tay Tay over here is what we call her in my family. Uh what what uh what stood out to you? What did when you read this passage, what did you think of?

SPEAKER_03 3:12

Well, I thought about you and when you would preach about spit mud when we were at Huntingdon. But secondly, um, it really struck me this time that no one celebrates his healing in this passage at all. That's a good word. I didn't think about that. I mean, that's like really depressing. This man who has been blind since birth is healed. And people care, but not that he was healed. Not not that his he has sight. Um, nobody celebrates it, nobody's happy about it. Everyone's just confused and troubled, right? How did that happen? Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 3:43

Yeah. There's other the guy who did it, he must have he's a bad guy. Like, why why why are we why we not go let's go get him? What would I know? It's it's it's crazy town.

SPEAKER_04 3:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:52

How about you? Um Pastor Sarah? Anything? First kind of pass before Devin?

SPEAKER_04 3:59

First kind of pass, honestly, um Jesus just seems kind of sassy throughout the whole thing, and I really love that. Um and um one of the notes that I took that of what stood out to me the most throughout the whole thing is you know, there's a I think there's a difference between somebody who legitimately just like can't see and somebody who just won't open their eyes. And I see two of those I see those two people in this one passage.

SPEAKER_02 4:25

Um I have I I'm in such a conundrum here because I'm gonna preach this text on Sunday. And I I love preaching this text, but also want to talk about it right here. So I'm trying I'm trying to f you know, new uh finagle this a little bit. Um, but uh I think there's so much about this passage that is both uh surprising and uncomfortable and uh wonderful and annoying. Um and so I guess some of the things I'll talk about on Sunday is this idea like us participating in salvation. Um and uh it it strike me that when we read it, the man is not healed when Jesus puts the spin mud on his eyes. The man is healed after he goes and journeys to the pool. And so there's this idea of participating in the activity of Jesus. Right and he meets Jesus, his life is transformed, but the journey is not done. There's still work to do. Um, but the other thing, and the the more humorous part, the reason why Christian remembers me talking about this is because I think it's gross, just absolutely disgusting. I think spit is nasty. I mean, they're in the desert area, right? This is this is in Israel that I mean it's gonna take a lot of spit to make mud. This isn't just like a one little like, right?

SPEAKER_03 5:41

This is gross. This is cover someone's eyes.

SPEAKER_02 5:44

Cover their eyes. There's so much this hawk and loogies in the sand. And I said that to somebody one time, I appreciate it a bunch of times. They go, but it's God's spit, so it's holy. Oh, Jesus is 100% human.

SPEAKER_03 5:55

Right.

SPEAKER_02 5:55

I'm a Trinitarian spit. Jesus, that's Jesus spit, that's human spit loogies in his eyes.

SPEAKER_03 6:02

And he couldn't see it coming. I mean, he's just sitting there, he was just like, Oh, it's mud.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

Yeah. No, he had to know because it you he's sitting there. He probably hears it. It's gonna take a while to make the mud, right?

SPEAKER_02 6:14

He's like and the man's like, what is happening? Hello? And and like if you're like watching from the side, you're like, why is that guy spitting in the mud? And then you watch him pick it up. He's like, What are you gonna what is you gonna do that mud?

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Like, no, let me say it, don't do it.

SPEAKER_03 6:30

Got him.

SPEAKER_02 6:31

Oh, got him grow gross. This story is nasty, it is wonderful because he can see. Yeah, so here's another lesson. Even from the most disgusting um you know, vile things, something amazing can happen. Well, let's dive a little bit deeper. The context that I I want to provide as we think about this passage has to do with the idea of understanding punishment and crime for an ancient Israelite. The reason why this text is important, um, well, there's a lot of reasons, but one of the things that is important about this text is the very beginning when the disciples had this assumption about why there this man is in this circumstance. Who sinned that he was born blind? Was it him or his parents? Now, um the weird part of the question is did he sin and that's why he was born blind? Doesn't really work, right? Chronologically. You can't sin before you're born and then as a consequence of your sin be born blind.

SPEAKER_03 7:27

Right. It must be his parents.

SPEAKER_02 7:29

So it must be his parents. And and and that is uh a very common understanding of crime and punishment for ancient Israel is this idea that a sin of a parent, um, the the punishment for can be passed down to a child or even into further on the lineage. I mean, it's part of the reason why some of the issues happened um with the prophets in the Old Testament talking about because of the uh the works of the kings that were so bad, Israel continues to be punished. And so the the apostles, the disciples, they're walking along with Jesus. They see a man just minding his own business, being blinded there on the side of the road, and they just kind of call him out, which is it's kind of rude to begin with, and they say, What did his parents do to make him like this? And Jesus in the must Jesus would say, What are y'all talking about? Neither him nor his parents sinned. And this is what caused it. And it's almost this way of like helping us realize sometimes bad things in life just happen. Sometimes they're not anybody's fault. Sometimes you're in a situation, not because uh you caused it um or somebody else caused it. It's just sometimes um we live in a fallen world. Life isn't perfect.

SPEAKER_04 8:38

Yeah. That's one thing that I took out of it too, is that in that moment Jesus isn't focusing on trying to explain to them why something bad happened. He's shifting the focus to how God can or how God will work through the bad thing that has happened. Like let's not focus on trying to figure out why bad things happen, but focus on the good that can come out of it.

SPEAKER_03 9:01

And yet everyone in the story is obsessed with the the bad thing and like how this could be and why would Jesus do this on the Sabbath. And people are obsessed with trying to make meaning out of the whole thing.

SPEAKER_02 9:15

Doesn't that remind you so much of like our modern world and like the new cycle and everything to we want to the first time something bad shows up, like, well, well, why did I did that? Not what can we do just to resolve it or rehope or healing or celebrate when it's anything like this we have this propensity to focus on the bad thing.

SPEAKER_04 9:35

It's like what you were saying. The people did not celebrate or anything. They were like, Well, how did they happen? Why was he blind? Why who healed him? Because that dude must be kind of kind of crazy too.

SPEAKER_03 9:45

Yeah. And I think the the part that's connected to that too is that this story shows how the Sabbath laws had become this barrier to people that they they couldn't recognize the grace of God and joy in that moment because all they could see were the laws and this understanding of sinful must equal this, or you know, difference equals bad.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

Um so as we um kind of turn, let's I think we kind of summarize the tension in the bridge here together because we we we've done a couple of these things already. I think it's important to see the tension in our lives of one, we are drawn to bad things to try to explain them or to like just fix it on them. We want to know the reason for things. It it reminds me of the the very popular non-Christian phrase, everything happens for a reason. We assume that there's a reason for this. For those of you who don't know, that is not in the Bible. We'll preach about that later this year, but there's nothing in the Bible that says everything happens for a reason. But it does say uh that God can make good come out of all things, Romans 8.28. And so this is kind of Jesus' um um enacting of that concept, that even in the bad things, God can make something if not everything is good. The world is not all good because although it's made good, it has fallen into sin. That God can make good come even out of the worst things. Um and so I feel not only as a tension, but like in our own lives, um, I think that when we wallow in our sin and shame, when we um feel lazy and just sit by the side of the the road, you know. Um that it doesn't have to be the end of our journey. That God can still redeem even the worst cir circumstances. What else?

SPEAKER_03 11:27

Um, this might just be an observation, but it's interesting how at the beginning, well, Jesus like totally disappears. Like he makes the spit mud, he puts it on his eyes, he's like, Oh gosh, he's out of there. I mean, they don't they don't know where he is, he can't point to him because he's never seen him. Um, Jesus is gone. And so initially, when they ask him, how is it your eyes were open? And he says, the man called Jesus did it. Then the next time it's he is a prophet. And then at the end, you know, he says, I've already told you when you won't listen. Do you also want to become one of his disciples? Which kind of implies that now he's claiming himself as a disciple. Yeah. Which is really cool. Like in this passage, while he's defending himself, while he's trying to celebrate, like I can see now, he goes from it was a man to it was a prophet to it's someone that I am a disciple of now.

SPEAKER_02 12:16

That was a good word. That was a really good word. I love that. It's this progression of you experience Jesus and the the longer time goes, the more you're drawn into relationship with him. That's good. I say to um, if I were preaching this, which I would be one of the things I think that um I I I think can land, and I think that's important is uh where are we placing blame in our lives on fairly? On whom are we assuming that, you know, are doing the wrong and bad thing, and so therefore the situation is the way it is. You know, these people sinned, and so that's why God is sending the hurricane to wherever, right? Like maybe you aren't doing that to that extreme, but you might have some idea of cause and effect in your mind, suggesting that because these people are doing that thing, this thing is happening to them. Um, another thing that I think is what's causing us to remain stuck in place? What is a circumstance that has impacted our life in such a way that we don't feel capable of then going to the pool so alone? Um, because or maybe even though it is, you sit feel so blind in life. Uh and it's a reminder too, um, as I started with, that salvation is an ongoing experience. Just because you meet Jesus doesn't mean your life is perfect. I think we can all attest to that.

SPEAKER_03 13:28

Right, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 13:29

Uh our first encounter with Jesus can be transformational. It can be it can be unbelievable. It might be somebody hawking loobies on spent sand, putting our eyes unbelievable, right? But that doesn't mean that after that everything is perfect. You still have a sanctifying journey. You still have to go, you still have to walk to the bullish alone. And then he had to walk back and defend like his life continued on after that. I don't like it whenever we have the bow your head, raise your hand moment, and then like turn people to loose. Like, I'm so glad you experienced salvation. But salvation is more than just a moment. And this story really helps reinforce the fact that you you need the church, you need people, you need um to to be a disciple, and you just continue following Jesus after you meet him.

SPEAKER_03 14:11

Right.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

Okay. Well, anything else for um this gospel lesson that you want to make mention of or point out? Anything else that would be a good thing to leave people with today?

SPEAKER_03 14:24

I think it's been a theme this week to be open to the surprise of God.

SPEAKER_02 14:29

Yeah, the surprise. There are there are things we cannot see, but the God is doing behind the scenes. That's a good word. All right. Um, well, I'd like to close us with a word of prayer, and uh, I hope we see you at worship on Sunday. Um, Kristen, Reverend Dr. Kristen Curtis Wright, it has been such a pleasure to have you with us. You are an amazing pastor, an amazing friend, an amazing godmother. Um, and I'm so grateful for you uh taking the time to be with us. Pastor Sarah, thank you as always, and let's pray together. God, we thank you for this chance to be able to uh discuss scripture, to think about your work in our lives, and to uh follow where you're leading us, even if we don't know what that looks like or where we're headed. Um, we ask that you continue to help us experience the Lent to its fullest and looking forward to Easter. Um, we thank you for your son, and uh may we follow you with all that we have. Um in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.