Ecclesia Princeton
Ecclesia Princeton
7 Signs: Lent 2025- Ian Graham: Seeing Jesus
Pastor Ian Graham merges the themes of Palm Sunday with the sixth sign in John's gospel, inviting us to consider if we our eyes growing clearer or dimmer.
Good morning friends. My name is Ian. It's really good to be with you today. Today marks the beginning of Palm Sunday, which marks the beginning of Holy Week, and each year, as Christians, we gather to tell the story of what Jesus has done. And today sets off a sequence of events in the last week of the life of Jesus, and we try to tell the story well, obviously, when we're gathered.
Speaker 1:Savannah mentioned gatherings on Good Friday and Sunday, but there are events that transpire throughout the course of this week that the gospel writers Matthew, mark, luke and John account for, and there are moments, specifically in John, that Jesus accounts for in the last week of his life. And so my exhortation to you, if you're a follower of Jesus and you're here today there's so much that happens in our culture that we just live in this deluge of information, of kind of schizophrenia, of just kind of looking everywhere, and one of the things that is a great gift to us is to actually just slow down and to contemplate the life of Jesus. And so, simply, this week, I implore you, pick a gospel, matthew, mark, luke and John, turn to the end of that gospel, the last chapter, and then scroll back about three pages and you're probably in the neighborhood of the last week of Jesus's life that begins when he triumphantly enters in Jerusalem, a text that we will look at today and just allow the day to be guided by what Jesus did on that day. In John's gospel, you have him intimately sharing with his dearest friends about what is to come about, what he's done for them. In Matthew's gospel, you have him pronouncing woe and blessing in all of these very mysterious ways, and then Jesus going through all of these different events of Holy Week. But I encourage you, don't just let this week happen without participating in it. Immerse yourself in the story, because we are people of the story that declares that God is making all things new, and there's something about going through the valley of what Jesus has done, especially on this, what we call the Passion Week. That makes Resurrection Sunday even more sweet, and so we are anticipating that. But we don't bypass the events of Maundy Thursday, of Good Friday, of Holy Saturday, as we make our way towards the empty tomb. All right, so find a gospel, immerse yourself in the story.
Speaker 1:Today is Palm Sunday, and I'm not from a tradition that celebrated Palm Sunday, so this is kind of new for me, but as a church, we have been a people who have gotten the palms, and I remember a couple years back we had a student from California and she was asking me she's like where did you get the palms? And I said I ordered them online. And she was like that's ridiculous. I was like, yeah, we're not in California. This is not a tropical paradise that we live in here. We have to import these kinds of things. And so, yes, these are delivered from the equivalent of some Amazon service that specializes in palms, but Lauren has graciously formed a lot of them into crosses that remind us of the juxtaposition of Palm Sunday. And that's where we want to start today.
Speaker 1:John, chapter 12, beginning in verse 12. The next day, the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, so they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting Hosanna Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel. Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it and, as it is written do not be afraid, daughter of Zion, look, your king is coming sitting on a donkey's colt. His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him. So the crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to testify. It was also because they heard that he had performed the sign that the crowd went to meet him. The Pharisees then said to one another you see, you can do nothing. Look, the whole world has gone after him.
Speaker 1:We've been in this teaching series on the signs that Jesus performs in John's gospel, of which there are seven, and here we see, in John chapter 12, we've already been given a little bit of a preview of what will be the seventh sign, the raising of Lazarus from the dead. But today, on this Palm Sunday, we're going to go back to the sixth sign, where Jesus will heal a man who has been born blind. But we see, as we encounter Jesus in John chapter 12, we find Jesus on that first Palm Sunday, and the juxtaposition between the crowds on Palm Sunday and Good Friday could hardly be more jarring. How can the crowds welcome Jesus with such elation and fanfare as he rides into Jerusalem on a donkey one day and, a mere five days later, be jeering him with bitter cursing and contempt. The same crowds that are yelling Hosanna, save us. And but a few days are yelling crucify him. We have no king but Caesar.
Speaker 1:Of course, this is a complex question with layered answers. Anytime we're talking about a historic group of people really anytime you're talking about a whole group of people at large, you are oversimplifying, vastly right. So we're talking about the mindset of first century people that were outside of Jerusalem, hailing Jesus as king. But one strand that we can follow is that the people wanted Jesus to be a certain type of Messiah. They were gathered in Jerusalem to read the Passover story, which, as we talked about, is a story of God liberating slaves from an imperial, oppressive power, and they read that story and they're like that sounds a lot like our current reality. These people were not under the thumb of the Egyptians like their ancestors, but were under the thumb of the Egyptians like their ancestors, but were under the thumb of the Romans, and they wanted God to do the Passover thing again. And so, when Jesus has been working all these miracles, in some way they're saying maybe this is the new Moses, maybe this is the prophet like him, and they're also associating him with people like David, david, the most famous king in the line of Israel's kings, a conqueror, a military leader, one who established Israel as one of the foremost nations during his time. And so they see Jesus in all the things that he's doing. They realize that God must be with him in some way to enable him to do these miraculous things that he's doing, and they say yes, that is our king, please save us.
Speaker 1:And throughout John's gospel, there's a key friction point of the signs is that, as people bring their own assumptions about who Jesus is and what he should do and Jesus constantly disappoints them with what he's actually up to, and what we find is, as we kind of transpose this Palm Sunday story, this John 12 story, onto our broader text for today, which is in John 9, there's a key question that this text raised for the people that encountered Jesus on that day and that will raise for us today Is the power and the love of God causing our hearts to grow softer to what God is up to in the world, causing our eyes to be opened, or is the converse happening? Is encountering Jesus actually causing our hearts to harden and our eyes to grow dim? Elizabeth Brunig writes of the tension of a burgeoning expression of Christian faith in Silicon Valley. She's a writer for the Atlantic. Under the direction of people like Gary Tan and Peter Thiel, there's been kind of this recent nascent movement of Christians in Silicon Valley and historically this was not the case. As recently as the 2010s. It was sort of stereotypical to say that Christianity was illegal in Silicon Valley. And yet, beginning in the last several years, there have been venture capitalists meeting to talk about the Christian faith. And I love what Brunig does here because she's not cynical, and I really appreciate this, because anytime there's sort of a new movement of Christians, it's easy for more seasoned Christians to start dismissing it as immature or as not really real, and we do that to our own discredit, right? This is what Jesus talks about and he's like don't judge. So she's cautious, but I think she's cautious in some good ways and she's looking at the expression of faith in Silicon Valley.
Speaker 1:There's a piece in Vanity Fair by a woman named Zoe Barnett that you can read. You can also read Elizabeth Bruning's piece, but she summarizes some of what she's experienced there, as these people, who historically may not have been people that express faith in Jesus, are at least gathering in Jesus's name. She says this. She says, in that sense, silicon Valley Christians perhaps see Christianity as a kind of technology, which is to say a product used to accomplish human purposes. But Christianity at its core is not a religion that can reliably deliver socially desirable outcomes, nor is it intended to be. That's why you'll never hear us at Ecclesia saying like Jesus is going to make your life better. You will, but you might do that by making your life considerably worse. But Christianity at its core is not a religion that can reliably deliver socially desirable outcomes, nor is it intended to be.
Speaker 1:Christianity disrupts life as we know it, rather than reinforcing a self-serving status quo. It venerates generations of Christian martyrs, whose examples are prized precisely because they placed obedience to God before more advantageous beliefs or activities. The formation of their faith was not contingent or it was contingent, excuse me, not on temporal success, but rather on another principle altogether that Christianity is worth following, not because it has the potential to improve one's life though it can but rather because it is true. This is key because if Christianity is true, if we really were created to love God and one another and were then rescued from our sins by the sacrificial intervention of Christ, then everything else one believes must flow downstream of that essential reality. Believers' personal philosophies, practices and politics are all answerable to the Christian religion. There is no domain of life outside of God's interest, and he requires that all things be brought in accordance with his will. And so the dynamic that we're beginning to sort of crack the seal on here today is seeing Jesus not as an instrument to the life that we think we want, not as utility to get that which we've always thought we desired, but to see Jesus and to allow him to inform both the outcome and our desires. And we encounter this dynamic here in John, chapter 9.
Speaker 1:If you have a Bible, a paper Bible, those relics from Vigon Age, you can open it up. I will be reading from the NRSV and the words will be behind me on the screen, but you can follow along on your phone or on a paper Bible, let's read in verse 1 of John, chapter 9. Your phone, or on a paper Bible, let's read in verse 1 of John, chapter 9. As he, being Jesus, walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him Rabbi, who sinned this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Now the disciples see a man born blind and they ask one of the most poignant and enduring questions about human life why is this man suffering? Their assumption is that root of this man's condition is some sin, either his own sin or his parents' sin. Now look at the text and what it tells us. The text tells us that the man was blind from birth, in verse 1, which, to my mind, demands the question how would it be that this man, when he was in the womb, would have sinned in such a way that his life would be so wretchedly determined?
Speaker 1:Jesus' disciples are echoing the theological assumptions that are latent in their culture. We see this specifically in the book of Job Job's friends who see their friend in desolation If you know about Job or you've read that book, job famously endures a catastrophic loss of everything dear to him and in the wake of that loss, his friends come to him and for a while they do the exact right thing, often the best thing that we can do for people who are mired in deep grief. They come to Job, they put on sackcloth and ashes and they sit silently with him for seven days Perfect, no notes, and they don't say anything. They don't say everything happens for a reason. They don't suggest that maybe this is your fault, job, not yet. Seven days.
Speaker 1:The Jewish practice of sitting Shavuot calls to mind what Job's friends did. But then, but then they speak. And as they speak they start to not so subtly suggest that, job, perhaps everything that happened to you is not just random chance, but perhaps it is the effect of your own life, of your own life. You see, this was prominent in the imagination and the framework of both Jewish people at the time of Job and Jewish people in the first century that were following Jesus is that there was a cause and effect at play in the world, and if you do good things, you get good things, and if you do bad things, you get bad things. And this was the root of the assumption behind the question. As they encounter this man born blind and they're walking with Jesus and they've seen Jesus do some miraculous things they turn to Jesus and say what's the cause of all this? Now we'll see. Jesus answers their question, but it's interesting how karmic their assumptions sound. And again, as I've said recently, karma tells us that we get what we deserve. And the good news of Jesus tells us exactly the opposite is that God takes what we deserve and we get what God deserves, and that's good news.
Speaker 1:The problem of suffering, decay, human sin, in a world that has God as its creator has been rolled into a broader category called theodicy. At the base of any theodicy, that theological category, is the mystery of God's will. Different streams of Christians have tried to account for life in different ways. There are those who are determinists that everything that happens is in fact an expression of God's will. And if it could have been stopped by God's sovereignty and wasn't, then of course it was God's will.
Speaker 1:It would seem that Jesus may be suggesting this answer here in verse 3. Let's look as we trace along in the story in John, chapter 9, verse 3. So the disciples ask him teacher, rabbi, why was this man born blind? Was it his sin or his parents? And look at what Jesus says, verse 3. Jesus answered neither this man nor his parents sinned. He was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him. Who sent me? While it is day, night is coming when no one can work, and as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. So there we have it right. Jesus says this man was born blind and has suffered this truly awful existence for his entire life, from birth, so that at some point he would encounter Jesus later on and that God's works might be revealed in him.
Speaker 1:I understand why some people find comfort in these explanations. I do, and I in no way would like to diminish the level of faithfulness and trust that this requires in God's careful hands, but for me this also raises some questions. Does it raise questions for you? Huh? So this man has been suffering his entire life just so at some point in his adult life, god can encounter him and heal him? Are we just puppets in the hands of God, where he's pulling the strings as he pleases in service of his glory? How would we respond to a parent who had manipulated their child's circumstances so they would suffer for years on end?
Speaker 1:Now, what I am always trying to do is to allow the text to determine how I see God. Now, that's not infallible, as we know here, but what I'm trying to say is, is the answer to the question somehow wrapped up in the text itself? And I really try not to do this, because there's an important caveat that's provided to us by the Greek text. And I try not to do this because we are in Princeton. There are scholars of all different sorts, there are some biblical scholars amongst us, but most of us are not biblical scholars, and so if I start talking about the Greek text, what we have here is me saying oh, in the Greek it says this, and most of you will be like I don't know, don't read biblical Greek. And so for us, how do we allow the possibility of an alternative interpretation to meet us here today? So in the Greek the phrase so, that is the conjunction hina, all right.
Speaker 1:This word is used 11 times in John's Gospel and it often introduces what biblical scholars label purpose clauses. You can see that so that these things would happen, right? So the phrase in four of those instances where he not appears in John 11 clearly precedes the main sentence, and so it's placed. Greek grammar is not like ours, where sentence order determines how the sentence is spoken. It's a case grammar, and so you have to determine what's the case of this particular word and how is it working with other words around it. So if in our text that's a lot of semantics John 9 follows the same pattern, then the sentence would read something like this and let's see if this is a little different. He says Neither this man nor his parents sinned, said Jesus. But so that the work of God might be displayed in his life, we must do the work of him who sent me while it is day. You see, there's a shift. Now that shift is not unequivocally endorsed by every biblical scholar. This is what happens when reading the Bible.
Speaker 1:When you're talking about translating a work that was written in a separate culture, in a different language, into our own language, with our own assumptions, you're talking about doing the work of interpretation of theology. It would be incredibly nice if every idiom, every instance of language mapped perfectly onto our language. But that's not how language works, is it? How many of you speak other languages? And when you're speaking in English and you're trying to say it's kind of like this right, so we have that tension here. I just want to always illuminate that tension.
Speaker 1:It doesn't mean we can't know anything. It doesn't create endless ambiguity, but it does mean that we have to be willing to say okay, what are the possibilities here? So I'm presenting to you another possibility that Jesus is saying something quite different. Not that this man was born blind so that at some point he can encounter Jesus and receive healing and be a part of the divine story forever. No, but so that Jesus could step into his life and display the works of God. While it is day, new Testament scholar Gary Burge, who taught at Wheaton until recently, says this he says the purpose clause, or the clause introduced by Enoch, now explains that Jesus must work so that God's work may be displayed in this man's life. God had not made the man blind in order to show his glory. Rather, god has sent Jesus to do the works of healing in order to show his glory. Now, I know we've been on a detour here, but I read these things and sometimes I'm like I have a question and sometimes those questions that I have can be a gift to you. Other times you're like okay.
Speaker 1:Verse six when he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with saliva and spread the mud on the man's eyes, saying to him go wash in the pool of Siloam, which means scent. Then he went and washed and came back, able to see. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask is this not the man who used to sit and beg? Some were saying it it is he. Others were saying no, but it is someone like him. He kept saying I am he. But they kept asking him then how were your eyes opened? He answered the man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes and said to me go to Siloam and wash. Then I went and washed and received my sight. They said to him where is he? He said I don't know. So Jesus encounters this man and moves past the disciples' questions, walks up, approaches this man I assume Hawks, a big loogie. I mean, how else are you going to drum up a lot of spit, like just, you know I not going to make that noise, but he just spits in the mud. Now I don't know.
Speaker 1:Some of us have read the other parts of the biblical story. Are there parts in the story where Jesus just says be healed, like, take up your mat and walk. Why does this guy get this particular diagnosis and healing? Why does Jesus do this? It's interesting, right? Why doesn't Jesus say eyes be opened? No, he makes mud and then he wipes it on our dear friend's eyes Again, just really, just rubbing it in, right, just really going for it. And then, as if that's not enough, he's like hey, make your way over to this pool, which John tells us that the title of this pool is Scent Siloam, which in John's gospel that's just a little nudge. Jesus is the sent one, and so, as Jesus sends this blind man to be healed in the pool called Scent, john is just trying to say, hey, all of this comes from Jesus, all of it is at the gift of his hands. But Jesus undertakes a lot of very interesting activities here. Now, there were traditions associated with both Jewish folklore at the time and the cult of Asclepius, which was a Greek healing cult that thought that the spit of holy and wise men had healing power.
Speaker 1:Jesus then directs the man to go to the pool called Siloam, the pool called Sint, and then the man's neighbors see him walking about and they see him and like is that who? I think it is. They start to ask, like aren't you the guy? And they start talking like about the guy, not to him, like isn't he the one? And he's like I am he. And they're like yeah, yeah, yeah, but like isn't that the guy?
Speaker 1:Now, I don't know if you had this experience. I had this experience specifically during COVID but if you ever watched superhero movies Batman, superman especially have you ever wondered how the people that are dearest to our superheroes can't actually figure out who they are, especially Superman? I mean, let's get real, the guy's alter ego disguise is a set of thick-rimmed glasses and maybe his hair is not nicely done. All of a sudden, superman shows up and he's you know, he's quaffed. And they're like oh, we had no idea that was Clark Kent. Now, during COVID, I actually had a little more sympathy for this experience, because when people had masks on, sometimes I was like is that, is that? Like I think you know obviously, people that are good friends I could figure out, but sometimes I was like I think this is who I think it is, but I'm not so sure.
Speaker 1:And I think John is trying to tell us a couple things. How often do we really notice those who are outcast in society? You know this man's been present at their gates. The community has collectively been caring for this man at some level. Right, that was part of their collective responsibility. But had they really seen him? Was he just machinery scenery to them? But also, the man keeps protesting. I am he. And they ask him how were you made? Well, verse 13,.
Speaker 1:The interrogation goes on. They're like okay, we can't quite figure out who this guy is. So they bring in the religious leaders, the Pharisees Verse 13, they brought to the Pharisees the man who had been formerly been blind. Now it was a Sabbath day. Ah, why was Jesus making mud out of spit? Well, one of the things that the oral law prohibits on the Sabbath is kneading of bread. And so Jesus just subtly undertakes that which be qualified as work on the Sabbath. And we've seen this before In John 5, jesus heals on the Sabbath, and it's the exact same tension point. Why is Jesus doing this on the Sabbath? Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he'd received his sight. He said to them he put mud on my eyes, then I washed.
Speaker 1:Now I see it's interesting how sparse this man's answers are to the Pharisees. In contrast, if you just read this alongside the healing story in John chapter 5, in John chapter, it becomes very clear this man, who's received healing, who can now walk very much, wants to get out of the crosshairs of the religious leaders and is very willing to throw Jesus under the bus to do so. But this man is not willing to do that. He's very, very short with his answers to the Pharisees because he doesn't want to get Jesus in trouble. Verse 16,.
Speaker 1:Some of the Pharisees said this man is not from God, for he does not observe the Sabbath. Others said how can a man who is a sinner perform such signs? And they were divided. So they said again to the blind man what do you say about him? It was your eyes. He opened. He said he is a prophet. Okay, so the neighbors have brought the Pharisees to investigate.
Speaker 1:We see that it's a Sabbath day and the Pharisees are incredibly passionate about the Sabbath day. Again, this isn't because they're passionate about rules. It's because they are trying to, by their faithfulness, invoke God's action. They read in places like Deuteronomy, where it says that God will keep his covenant if we are faithful to him. And so they're trying to say we have Roman oppressors, we are in exile, we want God to act. So we have to be very, very meticulous in our observing of things like the Sabbath. And so we've talked about that in the past.
Speaker 1:And the man is interrogated by these Pharisees. He leaves out all the bits about being commanded to go to the pool. He says this is what happened. And they turned to the man again. They said okay, you tell us. Who do you think he is and he says he's a prophet. Let's go on to verse 18.
Speaker 1:The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked him is this your son, who you say was born blind? How, then, does he now see? His parents answered we know that this is our son and that he was born blind, but we do not know how it is that he now sees. Nor do we know who opened his eyes. And again, in a very similar move, they're like we would like to be out of this interaction now. Ask him, he is of age. He will speak for himself. His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, the religious leaders, for the religious leaders had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore, his parents said he is of age.
Speaker 1:Ask him so, religious leaders, in order to confirm that this was in fact, the man who was born blind from birth. Bring in the man's parents and they say is this your son? They say yes, was he born blind? And they say yes, and that is the end of what the parents want to participate in, because they are scared of being put out, exiled from the religious life of the community. So they say ask him, he's plenty old. And so they do. Now these religious leaders go back to the man for the second time, verse 24. For the second time they called the man who had been blind and they said to him give glory to God. We know this man is a sinner and if you're in a court of law you hear objection leading. They're giving him the answer right, verse 24, go on. So they bring the man back and they ask him a leading question. It's interesting that their questions start with the instruction, the leading question give God glory.
Speaker 1:The whole episode started with Jesus declaring that Jesus is working so that the glory, the work of God might be displayed in this man's life. The work of God is surely the sign of the healing this blind man can now see. But, as we've discussed throughout this series, the signs are not ends unto themselves. They're leading us to a point of decision, to a question will we believe, will we become Jesus's disciples? And we see throughout John's gospel that people that witness miraculous things answer that question. No, they don't become Jesus' disciples. The man who is instructed to walk doesn't become Jesus' disciples. The people, the thousands, who eat at the miraculous hand of God slowly trickle away as they realize that Jesus will disappoint them in their expectation that he will keep doing the bread thing over and over again. The signs are a means to an end, and that end is to point us to Jesus and to follow him. The Pharisees try to tell him to give God glory by telling a lie, and that is impossible. But the man born blind now sheds light on the truth.
Speaker 1:Verse 25,. He answered I do not know whether this man, jesus, is a sinner. One thing I do know that though I was blind, now I see that's good theology there. They said to him what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? He answered them I've told you already and you would not listen. Why Do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples? Then they reviled him, saying you are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not even know where he comes from. The man answered here's an astonishing thing you do not know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. Notice the Pharisee's conclusion you were born entirely in sin. Teacher, who sinned this man or his parents? That he'd be born blind? They've completely come to the wrong conclusion and they drive him out Now.
Speaker 1:This is a hilarious interaction and this blind man is one of my favorite characters in the scriptures, and I think there's a couple of things going on here. You know how creative people tend to have endured some sense of like social ostracism, or they see the world a little differently. I mean, think about this guy's life and think about what kind of observer of people he probably is. And so they bring him before these Pharisees and he is just giving the business right back to the Pharisees, right? He says why do you want to hear the story again? Are you interested in becoming his disciples? They're like oh, we follow Moses here, right, but he's very much, just very, attuned to what's going on here, and the scene ends with the man being driven out of the synagogue, which is a form of discipline and exile.
Speaker 1:But then, as this man has been cast out yet again, jesus finds him in verse 35. Jesus heard that they had driven him out and when he had found him, said do you believe in the Son of man? This is the question that all of the signs are demanding that we answer. And he answered who is he, sir? Tell me so that I may believe in him. Jesus said to him you have seen him and the one speaking with you is he. Notice what he says. Lord, I believe, and he worshiped him Throughout Jesus's earthly life.
Speaker 1:There are only a few instances where people see Jesus for who he is and they worship him. And for a first century Jewish man, to worship another man means that he has been given some insight, some revelation into the fact that this is not a mere mortal, this is God, and he bows down and he worships him. Jesus says I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind. Now the Pharisees are overhearing Jesus. Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and said surely we are not blind, are we? Again, you do not want to ask Jesus leading questions. Jesus said to them if you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say we see, your sin remains the question that Palm Sunday, the question that this sixth sign are leading us to entertain, to wrestle with, is the question that we see so emblematic in the religious leaders. The religious leaders, in encountering this wonder of Jesus, this man who was born blind can now see, find hardness of heart, and eventually it is they who are blind spiritually. And, conversely, this man who started the day in darkness now sees Jesus revealed for who he really is and responds appropriately with worship.
Speaker 1:John is trying to put us all in the position of this blind man and to say that we all start with blindness. Absent the revelation of God, absent his revealing himself to us, absent his gift of healing. We do not see. Now, none of us want to assume the position of somebody who doesn't see clearly, who doesn't see rightly right. We all think like, even though we would acknowledge, hey, I could be wrong. We think we're right, don't we? And so we all think that we're people who see, and whether that be theologically or politically or socially, we think that we are those who see clearly, that everybody else are just sheep. But what John is trying to say to us is that all of us carry a measure of blindness. We start out in darkness, but within that assessment, god is not saying oh, you're all blind, you're all stupid, you're all dumb. God is saying but there is light. Jesus in John 8, I am the light of the world. You can see, not because you can somehow construct the ability to see on your own, but because I am the light of the world and I have given you invitation to see.
Speaker 1:1. John says it this way later on this is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true. But if we walk in the light, as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he, who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.
Speaker 1:Now, I know it's easy to sort of like distance ourselves from religious type folks and to say that's the people that God is talking about here, people that are very religious. But that's not the kind of blindness that's at issue here. The blindness is anything that obstructs our view of Jesus. For these religious leaders, yes, it was their hope that God would work on their behalf because of their faithfulness. But for us it can be so many other things. It can be so many things that we place in obstruction to the reality, the revelation of God. And so, even if you're not overly given to religion, you are overly given to something. And how are you allowing Jesus to take that, to remove the obstruction, the veil, and to show us himself?
Speaker 1:Bonhoeffer says this. He says Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others, we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are. If, when we judged others, our real motive was to destroy evil, we should look for evil where it is certain to be found, and that is in our own hearts. We start in darkness, but God is light.
Speaker 1:Second thing I want you to see today we see Christ revealed, not in a greater accumulation of knowledge, as we conceive of it, as in knowledge about God, but in obedience. For so many of us, we have this ideal, this threshold we're trying to hit, where, once we know enough about God, then we'll start living a life with him and for him. And it's an illusion, because we don't come to know Jesus by merely assenting to a set of propositions and beliefs. We come to know Jesus first of all in blindness, as he lifts the blindness from our eyes, and then by following him. And we see this in the man born blind. We see this progression throughout the story. The man born blind, as he slowly walks the path of faithfulness, sees Jesus more clearly Verse 17,.
Speaker 1:They ask him who do you say this man is? He says he's at least a prophet. Right, but by the end of this section he is bowing down and worshiping him because he knows that he's more than a prophet. Nobody worshiped Moses, but they're bowing down before the God of the universe and this man as he's encountered by the religious leaders has every off-ramp to say you know what? I don't want to be in the crosshairs of these guys, I don't want to be put out of the religious life of my local community. Talk to him, talk to Jesus. But he just bears witness, he tells the truth, he tells the story as he knows it and he endures their persecution, endures their shame and he keeps walking the path with Jesus.
Speaker 1:And it's in obedience that we come to know Jesus. And for many of us, we're trying to accumulate knowledge. We're doing podcasts, we're listening, and there's nothing wrong with head knowledge. There's nothing wrong with that. But the Christian faith is experiential. It is a life with Jesus. It is a life that is lived on the road with Jesus. In saying God, if you don't show up in this interaction with this person, if you don't move, then I am going to miss all that you have for me and so many of us. We kind of we design these sterile spaces where we can learn and converse, and I'm all for that. But sometimes we have to see that God is inviting us to the road of obedience. Jesus goes and he finds the man and he reveals himself to us. Let me invite our worship team forward. Palm Sunday, as we gather here on this day, is a crossroads of seeing God. And if we insist upon seeing God through our own preconceived categories, we will grow blind and our hearts will grow hardened. But if we commit ourselves to seeing Jesus, to receiving him, to obeying him, to worshiping him, we will see Jesus exalted and we will truly see.
Speaker 1:The Gospel of John is divided up by scholars into two sections. The first 12 chapters are called the Book of Signs, and that's where we've been focusing, and the last half is called the Book of Glory. And at the conclusion of the Book of Signs Jesus says in John, chapter 12,. He says whoever sees me sees him. Who sent me. I have come as light into the world so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness. I do not judge anyone who hears my words and does not keep them, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the darkness. I do not judge anyone who hears my words and does not keep them, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge On the last day the word that I have spoken will serve as judge, for I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak, and I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I speak, therefore, I speak just as the Father has told me.
Speaker 1:And as we embark upon this holy week, ecclesia, we have this tension between that which we have perceived God to be and who God actually is, the kind of throne that we would design for him, hailed upon our ambitions, our adulations. Yes, god, do this exact thing that we want you to do, when, all along, jesus is doing something quite different and far better, and we allow God to show us himself, to remove the veil of blindness, to reveal himself to us and see the life that he has prepared for us. And all of us start in blindness, ecclesiastes, and as we see in the story, that is a very safe place to be, because Jesus is not standing at arm's length. He is walking up, approaching us, healing us, guiding us, revealing himself to us. Let us pray, god. We remember your cross, lord Jesus, the cross where you answered our cry to save us, but not in the way that we would have designed the cross where your blood covers all sin, god, where true healing begins to flow.
Speaker 1:God, yes, we have our physical ailments, lord, and they are not small in your sight. Yes, we have our physical ailments, lord, and they are not small in your sight, lord, but you're constantly showing us, through the signs in John's gospel, through the signs in the gospels, lord, that there is a deeper healing, lord, the healing of our knowledge, the healing of the fractures between us and God, between us and our neighbor, lord, between us and creation. Lord, are you undertaking all of it, lord? Lord, you are not settled for our small ambitions and platforms, god. But, lord, you'd be raised up to draw all people to yourself. But, lord, you'd be raised up to draw all people to yourself. So, god, draw us now.
Speaker 1:I want to invite you, ecclesia, just to think about the story that we read in John 9. And just to position yourself somewhere within it. Are you the disciples asking Jesus a question? He has an answer for you. Are you the blind man encountering Jesus? Has he told you ways to go and receive healing?
Speaker 1:The healing is sure. Sometimes the obedience is the way that we receive it. It doesn't mean we make it happen. It's a gift from God. It's a wonder, but if the blind man had never gone to the pool, what would it become? Are we in the position of the religious leaders? There are wonders at work. God is doing miraculous things and we're concerned that it's a Sabbath day. God, would you heal us, heal our sight, lord, that we may see you, that we may know you. God, show us the judgment that you have. It's not a judgment that condemns us, god, but a judgment that condemns the darkness, that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it. Jesus, we pray for your Holy Spirit to come to minister to your dear people here. Lord, we pray these things in your name. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, we pray Amen. I'm going to invite you to a time of response.