Sermon for Quinquagesima - Lk 18:31-43

 

Quinquagesima

                                                                                      Lk 18:31-43

                                                                                      2/11/24

 

 

          Those who can see are blind, but the one who is blind sees. That is the contrast that we find in our Gospel lesson this morning.  The disciples who can see, don’t understand Jesus as once again he predicts his passion.  The man who is blind calls out in clear faith as he asks Jesus for help.  In this contrast we learn to follow the blind man and his faith in Christ.

          Our text begins by saying, “And taking the twelve, he said to them, ‘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.”

          This is the third time that Jesus has predicted his passion.  It is the most detailed of the predictions.  Our Lord says that he will be delivered over the Gentile who will mock and treat him shamefully.  He describes how he will be flogged with a whip and then killed.  Once again, he adds that on the third day he will rise.

          What is significant and new is that he describes how through these actions everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be fulfilled.  Jesus’ suffering and death accomplishes what God has set forth in the Scriptures.  It is something that is necessary because God has revealed that it will happen in this way.  It is God’s saving plan and purpose that is being worked out in Jesus Christ.

          In very clear and specific terms, Jesus has set forth what is going to happen in his passion.  However Luke tells us: “But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.”  We learn that the meaning of Jesus’ words was hidden from them and they did not understand it.

          This is not the first time the disciples have been obtuse as Jesus predicts his passion.  On the previous occasion Jesus had said, “Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.” Then we learn: “But they did not understand this saying, and it was concealed from them, so that they might not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about this saying.”

          The meaning of Jesus’ statement has been hidden from them and they don’t understand.  The disciples are unwilling to ask Jesus what it means.  It has been hidden from then and they don’t understand because our Lord’s passion is the opposite of everything that they expect.  In the next chapter we learn that as they approached Jerusalem they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.

          The disciples don’t understand that God’s saving work will occur in the way of the cross.  It will occur in the midst of suffering and death.  It will be the opposite of what they expect, for they think that God’s Messiah will act in might, power, and victory.

          Like the disciples we often don’t understand that God works in the way of the cross.  We want the Christian life to be one of might, power, and victory.  However, as we learned last Sunday, the Gospel is something that people can reject.  It is even something that people can believe for a time but then fall away from it.

          Our lives as Christians are lived under the cross.  This is true as we face the world’s pressure not to confess Christ.  We face the pressure to live in the way of the world and not that of Jesus.  We are surrounded constantly by our culture’s multimedia assault which seeks to indoctrinate us in the way of the world.

          The disciples didn’t understand. But as they approached Jericho there was a blind man who saw clearly.  He believed that Jesus was the answer and trusted in him.

We learn that there was a blind man sitting by the roadside begging.  A blind man in the first century world had no options. He could only rely on the compassion of others who would give him alms. So there he was begging.

When the man heard a crowed going by he asked what this meant.  He was told, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.”  At this word, the man began to cry out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”  We do not know how the man had learned about Jesus. But he expressed a very clear faith. First, he addressed Jesus as “Son of David.” This was language that identified Jesus as the Messiah descended from David.  And then he cried out “have mercy on me.”  This was a plea for Jesus to help him.

Those in front rebuked the man and told him to be silent.  But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”  The man would not allow his faith to be silenced.  Instead, he cried out all the more as he asked Jesus to help him.

Our Lord listened to his cry.  Jesus stopped and commanded him 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 recover my sight.”  So Jesus said to him, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.”

          The man immediately recovered his sight.  He had called upon the Lord in faith, and Jesus had healed him.  Now his faith continued to be active as he had sight.  We learn that the man followed Jesus glorifying God.

In our text we see Jesus heal a blind man.  This action helps us to understand what Jesus is doing in his ministry.  At the start of his work, Jesus went to Nazareth on the Sabbath.  The scroll of Isaiah was given to him and he read this passage: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.’”  Then Jesus said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus declared that after being anointed with the Spirit at his baptism he was now bringing God’s reign.  The Spirit of the Lord was upon him as he proclaimed good news and liberty to the captives.  He was giving recovery of sight to the blind and was setting free those who were oppressed.

Jesus gave recovery of sight to the blind man because he was the presence of God’s reign bringing freedom and release.  He was bringing God’s salvation to the world.  He had come to overcome all that Satan and sin had caused. In our translation Jesus tells the man “your faith has made you well.”  This is an accurate translation.  However, the verb used here is literally “saved you.”  This leads us to recognize that the healing of the blind man is part of something even bigger.

Our text begins with Jesus saying, “‘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.”

Our Lord’s work to bring God’s saving reign culminated in his suffering and death.  Jesus had come to be bring release and liberty from sin.  He was numbered with the transgressors as he took our sin upon himself at his baptism.  Then on Good Friday he died as the sacrifice for our sin. Through his suffering and death he has won forgiveness for us.

Jesus had said this would happen.  But he also predicted that this would not be the end.  He declared that on the third day he would rise.  On Easter God raised Jesus from the dead.  The resurrection of Christ was the vindication of Jesus.  His death on the cross was not God rejecting Christ.  Instead it was God working through the cross in order to give us forgiveness.  As the risen Lord said to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”

Risen and ascended, Christ has entered into his glory.  He has poured forth his Spirit who has called us to faith.  In baptism he has washed away our sins and made us the children of God.

We now walk by faith like the blind man in our text.  He cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”  We call upon Jesus the Messiah who has fulfilled God’s Word by his death and resurrection. When we stumble in sin we cry in repentance, “Have mercy on me!”  We return to our baptism in faith knowing that baptized into Jesus’ death we have forgiveness.

As we face the cross in the world we cry out to the Lord, “Have mercy on me!” We turn to him for help trusting that through his Spirit he will strengthen us in faith.  We believe that God will sustain us in the midst of challenges, and that according to his will he does provide help, deliverance, and escape. 

The blind man called out in faith because he had heard the word about Jesus.  In order for us to continue to speak in faith, we need to hear this same word.  We need our Lord’s Means of Grace by which he comes to us with his life giving Word. Our cry, “Have mercy on me!” is always spoken in response to the word that comes from Christ.  His word – both the read and preached Word, and the visible word of the Sacraments – calls forth faith.  It enables us to call upon Christ in faith each day.

When the Lord ascended, the angels said to the disciples, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”  These words assure us that the way of faith and the way of the cross will come to an end.  We walk by faith now, but our risen Lord will return.  No longer will we say in faith “Have mercy on me!”  But instead by sight we will say “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”