SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus, you may be seated.
SPEAKER_00: I'll just say this.
SPEAKER_00: It's always tricky when the Trinity sign isn't there and it should be, so don't sorry about that.
SPEAKER_00: It's my fault.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for standing.
SPEAKER_00: The world's position on faith is always the same.
SPEAKER_00: We like to hold the position that if we believe in something, then that's a choice that we make.
SPEAKER_00: Let's say, for example, you're at work and your co-worker regales you with the story of his youth.
SPEAKER_00: And you think to yourself, I don't know about that.
SPEAKER_00: But in your heart, in your mind, you decide, well, maybe I'll believe him for now, even if it seems like a crazy tale.
SPEAKER_00: There you go.
SPEAKER_00: You decided whether you would believe your friend's story or not.
SPEAKER_00: The decision appears to be in your court, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's our opinion about everything we believe.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not really how it works.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not really how believing in Jesus works either.
SPEAKER_00: Having faith or believing in something is always brought about by the object of what we believe in.
SPEAKER_00: We either receive what they're giving or we reject it.
SPEAKER_00: And when our human reason gets involved, we think that faith is a mental intellectual exercise when it isn't.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the truth: Jesus must open our eyes of faith.
SPEAKER_00: It is a gift of his Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And he opens our eyes by his word and action.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus speaks, the Holy Spirit speaks, just as our text reads, just as you sang in this last hymn.
SPEAKER_00: We either receive what he says or we reject it.
SPEAKER_00: We either receive what Jesus is doing or we toss it out.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the problem with the Jews and the Pharisees in our gospel lesson.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, as Jesus passed by, he saw a man born blind from birth.
SPEAKER_00: And the disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that just how we look at the problems of this world?
SPEAKER_00: It's almost the same kind of story that Jesus told his disciples in the Gospel of St.
SPEAKER_00: Luke about those who died when the tower of Siloam fell on them.
SPEAKER_00: But our Lord asks the right question.
SPEAKER_00: Were those who died worse sinners than all of Jerusalem?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: But that's how a broken, sinful people like to reason through tragedy in their minds.
SPEAKER_00: You can almost hear Christian voices everywhere chattering in our modern day.
SPEAKER_00: Wow, did you hear about that fire in California?
SPEAKER_00: It obliterated hundreds of miles.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder what they did to deserve all that.
SPEAKER_00: They must have been pretty bad for God to make that happen.
SPEAKER_00: And the insinuations go on and on.
SPEAKER_00: These comments are no different than the Old Testament friends of Job who don't understand the works that God is doing.
SPEAKER_00: But in today's gospel, the reality is exactly how Jesus speaks it for the disciples to hear.
SPEAKER_00: It was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not the answer we'd prefer to hear.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the answer we'd prefer to offer.
SPEAKER_00: But the word of Jesus says it all.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, how difficult it is for us to see that trial and tribulation really leads us to rely upon Christ, that the works of God might be displayed in and through us as well.
SPEAKER_00: But this isn't a cerebral exercise, nor is it an intellectual feat.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus must open our eyes of faith to see these things as well.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus tells his disciples the same as he tells us.
SPEAKER_00: We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day.
SPEAKER_00: Night is coming, when no one can work.
SPEAKER_00: As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Having said these things to his disciples, he spat on the ground and made mud with saliva.
SPEAKER_00: Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloom, which means sent.
SPEAKER_00: So he went and washed and came back seeing.
SPEAKER_00: A little spittle and dust make mud.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus heals with the same resources he created from in the beginning of time, when the mist hung in the air at creation, and God formed man from the dust of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: As God created all mankind through Christ, so now Christ, who is God in the flesh, recreates man, healing him from the effects of sin and death.
SPEAKER_00: But the Jews couldn't believe it, nor would they receive it.
SPEAKER_00: The man kept saying, I am the man.
SPEAKER_00: So they said to him, Then how were your eyes opened?
SPEAKER_00: He answered, The man called Jesus, made mud, anointed my eyes, and said to me, Go to Siloam and wash.
SPEAKER_00: So I went and I washed and received my sight.
SPEAKER_00: But the Jews refused to believe the testimony of the man who was healed.
SPEAKER_00: They refused to believe the works that Jesus was doing.
SPEAKER_00: So they took him to the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, the teachers of the law will clear this matter up, but they refused to see Jesus as he had made himself known through the works that he did.
SPEAKER_00: They refused to let Jesus open their eyes with his word and his works.
SPEAKER_00: Some of the Pharisees said, This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: But others said, How can this man who is a sinner do such signs?
SPEAKER_00: They were divided.
SPEAKER_00: So they questioned the seeing man again.
SPEAKER_00: What do you say about him since he opened your eyes?
SPEAKER_00: He said, He's a prophet.
SPEAKER_00: But still the Jews did not believe he had been blind and had received sight.
SPEAKER_00: So they brought in his parents and questioned them.
SPEAKER_00: And they answer as they have been asked.
SPEAKER_00: He is our son, but how he sees we do not know, nor do we know who has opened his eyes.
SPEAKER_00: So we remain at the same problem as before.
SPEAKER_00: His parents haven't yet res been given the eyes of faith to testify to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: If they had, they'd confess him too.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore his parents said, He is of age, ask him.
SPEAKER_00: So the Pharisees asked the man a second time, and accused Jesus of being a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: But in stand the med instead the man born blind refused to call Jesus a sinner, only that he had opened his eyes.
SPEAKER_00: They asked him again, How did he open your eyes?
SPEAKER_00: And he answered, I've already I've told you already, and you would not listen.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you want to hear it again?
SPEAKER_00: Do you want to become his disciples?
SPEAKER_00: And they reviled him, saying, You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.
SPEAKER_00: We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.
SPEAKER_00: But if they were truly disciples of Moses, they would have recognized God in the flesh, standing before them, recreating the man's eyes, like Moses recorded the creation of man in Genesis.
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees nor the Jews had the eyes of faith to see Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They refused to recognize him or recognize from where he comes.
SPEAKER_00: They do not receive his word or his works.
SPEAKER_00: And so they remain blind.
SPEAKER_00: The man answered, Why is this an amazing thing?
SPEAKER_00: You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes.
SPEAKER_00: We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.
SPEAKER_00: Never since before the world began it has been heard that anyone open the eyes of a man born blind.
SPEAKER_00: The man confesses what he believes.
SPEAKER_00: He confesses Jesus, both word and works.
SPEAKER_00: If this man, Jesus, were not from God, he could do nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Truly, only Jesus does God's will.
SPEAKER_00: But we mustn't think that doing God's will is something we have the capacity to carry out on our own either.
SPEAKER_00: If it were, we would be as blind as the Jews and the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: But instead, we need to hear the answer that Jesus gives his disciples when they ask this question in John 6.
SPEAKER_00: They ask, What must we do to be doing the works of God?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus answers them, This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.
SPEAKER_00: So believing in Jesus is God's work, and believing in Him is God's will.
SPEAKER_00: But the Pharisees and the Jews refuse to receive God's word spoken through the mouth of Jesus, and so they remain blind.
SPEAKER_00: They refuse to receive the work of God in Christ Jesus and the testimony of the man, so they toss him out.
SPEAKER_00: But the truth remains, only Jesus can give us the eyes of faith.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus heard that they had cast him out, he found him and said, Do you believe in the Son of Man?
SPEAKER_00: He answered, And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to him, You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Lord, I believe.
SPEAKER_00: And he worshipped him.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.
SPEAKER_00: It is the same with us.
SPEAKER_00: When we have a problem with how Jesus works, what we're saying is that we're no different than the Pharisees who refuse to receive Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Both Jesus' word and his works that Jesus does in our presence.
SPEAKER_00: Who else is the light of the world than Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: And that light shines through us when we have Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: If we want to be doing the works of him who sent Jesus, then we must be a part of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Because apart from Jesus, you can do nothing.
SPEAKER_00: If the branches are not grafted into the vine, well then you can't be doing the works of him who sent Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not grafted into Jesus, you can't have your eyes opened.
SPEAKER_00: You must be about being grafted into Jesus his way.
SPEAKER_00: We must be about receiving the works of him who sent Jesus His way.
SPEAKER_00: As Christians, we're either about doing the work Jesus does, making disciples by baptizing and teaching, or we're not.
SPEAKER_00: We're either about giving people what Jesus is giving out, his word and his sacraments, or we're not.
SPEAKER_00: We're either about receiving Jesus the way he gives himself to us, or we're not.
SPEAKER_00: We can't have it both ways.
SPEAKER_00: It's his way or no way.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the problem with the Jews and the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: But it needn't be the problem with us, his beloved baptized saints in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you were blind, you would have no guilt.
SPEAKER_00: But now, if you say we see, well then your guilt remains.
SPEAKER_00: So we dare not say, are we so blind?
SPEAKER_00: Or worse yet, we see.
SPEAKER_00: We must recognize that we're blind.
SPEAKER_00: We must recognize that we need Jesus to open our eyes of faith.
SPEAKER_00: But if we come here every Lord's day, already thinking that we're able to see, well, then our guilt remains.
SPEAKER_00: We must come before the Lord's altar each and every Lord's day, realizing how blind we really are, so that Jesus can open our eyes of faith.
SPEAKER_00: Let your Lord convict you of your sin with his righteous, perfect law.
SPEAKER_00: Let him make your hearts contrite.
SPEAKER_00: Then you will confess your sins, and he will cleanse you from all unrighteousness, his way.
SPEAKER_00: Because when you receive Jesus, his word and his works, his way, you will realize that it is he who is speaking to you.
SPEAKER_00: And you will believe and worship him in word, in truth, and spirit every Lord's day.
SPEAKER_00: You will come to believe in what he is handing out to you.
SPEAKER_00: The forgiveness of all your sins delivered to you in word and spirit and body and blood, the whole Jesus in his word and his works for you.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you have Jesus, you have the forgiveness of all your sins.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.