Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (Luke 18:31-43)
As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. And hearing the crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.”
Prayer: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
In our gospel reading today, we have two quite different things that happen: first of all, Jesus foretells his death and resurrection. He prophesies about the future and what is going to happen to him. And secondly, Jesus heals a blind beggar.
Now we might scratch our head at this reading today and say, “What do these two things have to do with each other? Are they just two unrelated events which we happen to read together?”
But also, today’s reading is not simply about Jesus foretelling his death and resurrection or simply about Jesus healing a blind beggar. Today we read these two things together. Also, we have to remember that even though the gospels were written down by the evangelists, like St Luke here, the Holy Spirit himself inspired the Scriptures, and so the words of the bible are the Holy Spirit’s own words. And so also, in the bible we have not just a random collection of events all thrown together and chucked together like clothes in a washing machine. Each part of the bible and each chapter of the bible has a particular sequence, and a particular order, which is also designed and inspired by the Holy Spirit.
So it’s easy to simply focus on one of these two things in our sermon today. It’s easy simply to focus on Jesus prophesying his death and resurrection. It’s easy simply to focus on the event of Jesus healing the blind beggar. But what do these two things have to do with each other?
Well, first of all, when we read about Jesus performing miracles of healing, we shouldn’t imagine then that Jesus is some sort of magic-man who went around doing nice tricks to help people. He is our Saviour, our Redeemer, our Lord and our God. He came into the world to suffer and die for our sins and to rise again from the dead. This is main thing that we have to know about Jesus. The creeds don’t mention that Jesus performed many miracles: they mentioned that he suffered, died, was buried and rose again. If it is in his power to die for the sins of the world, and make a perfect sacrifice on the cross, and to rise from the dead, then it is also in his power to bring healing to people’s bodies and heal them from their sickness, blindness, or whatever. These two things go together.
Listen to what Jesus says in the first part of our reading:
“See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.”
Isn’t this amazing! It was amazing thing that Jesus suffered, died and rose again from the dead, but here we read that he knew about it in advance. He knew exactly what was going to happen to him and he didn’t try to escape from it. He became obedient unto death, even death on a cross, as St Paul says. And not only did he know what was going to happen to him, but he knew about it is in great detail. He says: “He will be delivered over to the Gentiles.” Jesus knew that the Jewish high priests would take him to Pontius Pilate, who was a gentile from Rome. He says: “He will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon.” We read later that Jesus had a king’s robe put on him, and a crown of thorns on his head, and that the soldiers made fun of him and spit at him. Then Jesus says: “And after flogging him, they will kill him”. We read later that Pontius Pilate ordered that Jesus would be flogged, but still the crowd shouted out to him, demanding that he be crucified. And then Jesus says: “And on the third day he will rise.” He knows not only the fact that he would rise again from the dead, but he knows the precise time when this event would take place.
Now after this, after Jesus has told his disciples these things, we read about the blind beggar. He hears that Jesus is passing by, and he says, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Now in Australia, we’re not all that used to seeing beggars. In fact, I think that begging is illegal in Australia. In Jesus’ time, and still today in many parts of the world, beggars would have certain phrases that they would always use to ask people for help. Mostly they would say: “Lord, have mercy!” Master, have mercy! Do something merciful to me.
Now, you will recognise these words which we sing together towards the beginning of the Divine Service each week. When we come into the presence of our living Lord Jesus, having our sins forgiven, and preparing to hear his word and receive his holy and precious body and blood in the Lord’s Supper, we come to him as a church full of beggars, and we say: “Lord, have mercy!” Give me a hand-out, Jesus! Put a coin in my hat! Give me what I need, Jesus!
In English, when we talk about giving some charity to a poor person, the bible uses the expression “giving alms.” And in Greek, the word for giving alms, or giving charity, means “giving mercy”. The word “Lord have mercy” is “Kyrie eleison”, and the word for “giving alms” or “charity” is “eleimosyne”. (You can hear “eleison” and “eleimosyne”). So when Jesus says, “Be merciful as your father is merciful”, he’s saying, “Hand out my gifts to people, as your Father has given you a hand-out.”
Everything that we have in this life, body and soul, is from God. There is nothing that we have that we have not received. So when we come into the presence of God, and into the presence of our resurrected Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in the Divine Service, we say, “Lord have mercy!” You have everything, Jesus – give me everything that I need. Martin Luther’s last words are said to be, “We are all beggars, this is true!”
So this man comes to beg from Jesus not just for money, but he comes to Jesus to beg for his eyesight. In the same way, we should also beg from Jesus what we need. In fact, our whole Christian life should be learning how to beg. First of all, we need to recognise that we are poor and needy. We need to recognise that from ourselves, in ourselves, we have absolutely nothing. We are completely trapped in a world of sin. We are totally blind to seeing God’s hand at work in our lives and in the world, and we are totally deaf to hearing God’s word. Sin has completely impoverished us. But secondly, we also need to recognise who can actually help us. So, it’s not only important, that we learn how to beg, but also that we learn to beg from Jesus Christ.
When Jesus gives the blind man his sight, we read, “And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God.”
We read, he was “glorifying God.” This word “glory” is very significant. He was acknowledging that all glory belonged to God.
But also, in Exodus, we read that the glory of God came down upon the tabernacle in a great cloud. This was a magnificent and powerful event. This refers to the physical presence and power of the living and eternal God.
So this blind man, also glorifies God when Jesus heals him. He opens his eyes and sees Jesus standing there, and he glorifies God. He acknowledges that the fullness of the glory of God is in Jesus. He sees that Jesus is truly God, and that his flesh, his body is the temple of the living God.
When we come together in the Divine Service, this is the same Jesus that we come to meet. He is present in the church in all his resurrected glory. And we sing, “glory,” here, and “glory” there. The Jews never sung the word “glory” in their services, only Christians. We are constantly in the presence of the living Lord Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, and all glory belongs to him.
In the liturgy, straight away after we sing, “Lord have mercy”, what do we sing? “Glory to God in the highest!” This is the song the angels sang at the birth of Jesus: “Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth among those with whom he is pleased!” But that’s not the only place. We sing, “Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” And also in the “Holy, holy, holy” we sing, “Heaven and earth is full of your glory!” Also, before the reading of the gospel we say, “Glory to you, O Lord.”
This is an amazing thing that we do each time we come to church! We have two songs that we sing: “Lord have mercy!” the song of the beggars, and “Glory to God in the highest” the song of the angels.
But one thing I just want to mention. Right in the middle of our reading today, after Jesus has foretold his death and resurrection, and just before the blind beggar comes up to Jesus, we read this: “And hearing a crowd going by, [the blind man] inquired what this meant. They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by!”
Listen to these words and imprint them on your mind: “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by!”
This little sentence describes exactly what happens in church. “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by!” And he is not just passing by in such a way as if he’s not rest of the week, but he passes by so that he will be with us always to the end of the age.
There are many people in the world today who call themselves Christian and never come to church. And there are all sorts of reasons why they don’t. But if you want to reach out and help someone understand what they are missing out on, remember the words: “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by!”
At the end of the day, if people don’t want to come to church, the main reason is that they simply don’t believe that Jesus is actually here. We don’t come to church to socialise with a group of people. It’s not important that the people who are at church think like you, or are your own age. We don’t even come simply to offer something to God and to do something for God. The important thing is that Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. He is here to speak his words to us for the week. He is here to refresh us and strengthen us with his body and blood in the Lord’s Supper.
Often you hear it said, “I don’t need to come to church, because I can worship God at home”, or something like that. Could you imagine if the blind beggar heard that Jesus was passing by and then said, “But I don’t to go and see him, because I can talk to God anytime?” Of course, he could pray to God whenever he liked – but that’s not the point. The point is: Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. That’s not an opportunity that should just be passed up lightly. This is the man who prophesies his own suffering, death and resurrection.
And now, this same Jesus Christ, who suffered, died and rose – he’s passing by today as well. Learn to beg from him. What is it that you need to beg from him this week! Say to him, “Lord have mercy” – give me what I want: time, money, happiness, whatever. But also he gives you more than that: he gives you baptism, his word, the Lord’s Supper, forgiveness, life, and salvation.
And so Jesus says to the blind man just as he says to us: “Recover your sight, your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God.
We’re all beggars, this is true!
Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased! Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ, we know that you are passing by today, and not just passing by to leave us alone for the rest of our lives, but passing by so as to be with us always until the end of the age. Give us what we need, teach us to beg, and also teach us to recognise you as the Creator and Redeemer of the world, the giver of all good things. Glory to you, O Lord. Praise to you, O Christ. Amen.
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