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Date: Lent 3a Text: John 6:1-45 Theme: What We Need To Know About God

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

At age 10 Queen Elizabeth was at Glamis Castle and received a visit by a pastor. When he was leaving, he promised to send the young princess a book. The future queen replied, "Oh thank you so much. But please let it be not about God. I already know everything about Him."

Just like Queen Elizabeth, EVERYBODY in today's gospel lesson believed that they knew EVERYTHING about God. The disciples thought that they knew everything about God. The religious leaders thought that they knew everything about God. Even the man born blind thought that he knew everything about God. And before our lesson is over, he, indeed, knew a lot more about God than when he started.

The disciples, after traveling with Jesus, hearing him teach and preach, thought that knew a lot about God. But, the truth is, the disciples carried with them a lot of the cultural baggage of their day. Their personal beliefs reflected those of the larger culture around them. It was the popular opinion and belief among the Jews of Jesus' day that personal calamities were the result of sin. The people liked to believe that God was in heaven, lightening bolt in hand, waiting to clobber them, and clobber them good, for the slightest little misstep they did.

Now, the case of the man born blind perplexed the disciples. They couldn't figure out if this curse was his fault or his parents' fault. According to their thinking and beliefs, it had to be someone's fault that this thing happened to this man. They asked Jesus who was at fault, the man or his parents, because the disciples knew that this man's situation was the result of sin in his life--someone's sin, either the man's sin or his parents' sins--someone's sin. They asked who was at fault because they thought that they knew everything about God.

The disciples merely reflected the popular opinions and teachings of their day. From the rabbinical writings of the time, we know that many of the Jewish teachers believed in some form of reincarnation; the popular piety and teaching of the day held that a person's soul, as a result of sin, could be compelled to pass into other bodies, and be punished there for the bad sins they committed. Popular Jewish piety and opinion also believed that an infant could sin before it was born. The disciples believed that this man's blindness may have come upon him as a result of just some such prenatal sin. It was also a popular belief that the sin of the parent would cause deformity in the child. It's no wonder that the disciples are curious and want to know who caused this man's predicament; the man himself or his parents?

Jesus responded that "neither this man nor his parents sinned but this thing happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life." Do you see the comfort in Jesus' words? We should find comfort for there will be a time, there will be TIMES, when calamity and catastrophe will strike every believer's life. When those days come upon us; when those disastrous days overtake and overwhelm us, we will be tempted to ask, we will be tempted to question, we will be tempted to wonder, "Why God? What have I done to deserve this? What sin have I committed to have you punish me in this way?" We will wonder; we will question, "Has God, indeed, turned his back upon me? Is he now punishing me? Is he paying me back for some sin I committed?"

When I was on vicarage our church was ministering to a woman who was suffering from a terminal illness. The family knew she was terminal but her doctor didn't want them to tell her of the situation. He convinced them to have her go through another surgery that would do her absolutely no good. And she lay on her hospital bed for the last six weeks of her life, barely conscious, barely able to talk, in constant pain. One day her husband walked with me into the hospital hallway, broke down sobbing and asked, "Vicar, is God punishing me for my sins? I used to be an alcoholic and I did some pretty bad things in those days but I've been sober for more than forty years. Is God punishing me now for that?"

As my first wife lay dying in the hospital, her sister asked, "What did we do to make Debbie die?" I asked what she meant and she responded that God must be punishing one of us to take Debbie away so soon.

When the stress and hurt and anxiety of calamity press in upon us, we want an answer; we believe that God must be punishing us. That is why Jesus' words, AND HIS ACTIONS, are so important for us. That is why Jesus' teaching today is so important. Jesus point is clear; there is no mistaking it. God is not punishing us for our sins; God has not turned his back upon us. God is not getting even.

The Christians in Rome were confronted with the reality of this problem. They came to faith in Jesus and they faced the reality of persecution and rejection by their pagan neighbors. Had God turned his back upon them? They wondered; they questioned; that is why Paul, looking to the cross, asked them the rhetorical question, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" Paul then continued, "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?..What shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?...No, in all these things we are MORE THAN CONQUERORS through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor demons, nor the present nor the future, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in ALL OF creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

God is not punishing us for our sins. He has already punished his Son for them in our place. And he loves us will never, ever stop loving us.

It goes against the popular beliefs of Jesus' day; it goes against the popular beliefs of our own day--and I'm glad it does for I know the love of God apart from external circumstance. I know the love of God in the cross and in his Son whom he offered up on that cross.

When I was in Seminary, Professor Harry Wendt preached at my field work church; he started his sermon by reading his text and saying, "I could speak for an hour on this text" and he did. I could preach for an hour on this text but I won't. I'll speed up and only preach for forty-five minutes. Just joking. But we do want to look at the man born blind and see what he knows about God.

I can't help but believe, even though our text never says it, that this man also believed that God was punishing him for some sin either he or his parents committed. But God's gracious love reached into this man's life and touched him and he was never the same again. God's light shone in this man's world and changed this man and his ideas of God.

This man was a blind beggar, sitting in the street, perhaps with a sign in his hand, begging for alms, begging for the small coins people tossed to the down and out. But Jesus came to this man, spat on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, put it on the man's eyes and told him to "go and wash in the Pool of Siloam.". And do you know what's remarkable? The man did it. Maybe he just wanted to get the yucky mud out of his eyes but the miracle occurred. John simply tells us that the man came home seeing.

Now his neighbors had a hard time believing this. They debated among themselves whether or not he really was the man born blind. Some were sure that he was and others were skeptical, to say the least. He admitted to being the man born blind. But many of them remained skeptical. They wanted to know what happened to him. He told them; he told them that "the MAN called Jesus made some mud put it on my eyes and told me to go and wash." Do you see this man's conception of God. Jesus heals him and he proclaims that Jesus is a man, a human being no different than any other human being in Jerusalem that day.

But this man's conviction about Jesus grows. His neighbors still can't figure out whether or not he's really the man born blind so they do what all good religious people do; they said, "Let's ask Pastor." They brought the man to the Pharisees. The Pharisees tried to get the man to renounce Jesus and the miracle he did. But the man would not back down; as a matter of fact, as the fur started to fly, the man became more strident in his confession concerning Jesus. By time the Pharisees were finished with him, this man confessed that Jesus was a prophet.

Jesus' work, his miracle, had time to seep into this man's very bones and he was no longer content in confessing that Jesus is just a man. He now confesses that Jesus is a prophet, a special person set aside by God to proclaim God's message to sinful humanity. The Pharisees can't stand this man and his confession of faith so they cast him out of the synagogue; they excommunicate him. But he still maintains his confession that Jesus is a prophet; he will not go back on that confession.

When Jesus hears of his predicament, Jesus seeks him out. Jesus approached the man and asked if he believed in the Son of Man. The man wanted to know who the Son of Man was. And Jesus responded that he was the Son of Man, the long-promised Messiah, the Savior of Israel, the Savior of the world. The man could not contain himself. He fell at Jesus' feet and confessed, "Lord, I believe." And, John tells us, that he worshiped Jesus. This man now comes to a full confession of faith in Jesus. He worships him. God alone is worthy and deserving of our worship, adoration and praise. This man born blind now sees his God in human flesh and bows in humble worship of him.

In our time of trial, in our time of need, our Lord also seeks us out; he comes to us in Word and Sacrament to strengthen us for the trials and tribulations we face in this life. He comes to us and assures us that we are not alone but that he is with us and won't abandon us. Our God opens our eyes so that we see him as he comes to us and comforts us and strengthens us and goes with us through the afflictions that rise up against us.

We don't walk alone. Our God is with us. Our God goes with us. And for that we give him our worship and thanks and praise. We join that man born blind but now healed as we bow down and worship and adore our Lord, our Savior, our Healer, our Friend, our God in human flesh who loves and offered himself as the payment price for our sins so that we need never doubt God's overwhelming and unshakable love for us. Amen.

And may the peace of God which passes all human understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

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