Sermon Synopsis for March 2, 2008

“Into New Sight” John 9:1-41

Maybe you’ve heard …
Jesus shows up in the darndest places. One day he was in a local coffee shop.

The waiter was washing mugs, when an elderly Dominican man came in and hoisted his bad leg on the chair beside him, pulled himself up painfully, and asked for some espresso. The Dominican looked across the room and said, "Is that Jesus down there?" The waiter nodded and the Dominican told him to give Jesus an espresso too.

The next patron was an ailing Italian with a hunched back and slowness of movement. He shuffled up to the counter and asked for a mocha latte. He also looked down the counter and asked if that was Jesus sitting down there. The waiter nodded and the Italian said to give him a mocha latte.

The third patron, an American, limped in dragging his leg on the floor and hollered, "Waiter, gimme a black coffee. Hey, is that Jesus down there?" The waiter nodded, and the American told him he wanted to buy Jesus a coffee too.

As Jesus got up to leave, he walked over to the Dominican, touched him and said, "For your kindness, you are healed!" The Dominican felt the strength come back to his leg, and he got up and danced to the door.

Jesus touched the Italian and said, "For your kindness you are healed!" The Italian felt his back straighten, and he raised his hands above his head and did a flip out the door.

As Jesus walked toward the American, the American jumped back and exclaimed, "Don't touch me, I'm drawin' disability!"

It’s just a story, but we know that people get comfortable in their condition …
… they work things out and they get comfortable in their disability.

JESUS HAD A HABIT OF GETTING INTO TROUBLE

In today’s scripture passage we see a man who was blind from birth; his encounter with Jesus enabled him to see. He was looking for a donation, but he received sight. Jesus wants us to see … to see what is right and good and pleasing to God.

It’s difficult to imagine, that healing a blind man can get you into trouble, but that’s just what happened to Jesus.

You see, the ones who are truly blind, who truly need to be healed by Jesus, don’t always want to be healed. They’d rather stay on spiritual disability.

Here’s the story in a nutshell: (I thank Cathy, Wanda, Jonna and the Junior Youth for enacting the story in John 9 for us)
One Sabbath Jesus came across a man who had been blind since birth (he had accepted the condition and learned to live with it). The disciples asked him – who is the sinner, this man or his parents? To prove a point (that sin is a human condition and not always a specific sin), Jesus healed the man. He healed him in an odd sort of way – mixing dirt with spit and putting it over his eye and telling him to wash it in the central pool. If someone put mud in my eye, you wouldn’t have to tell me to wash it off.

The children in church liked the idea of playing with mud. We found that Jesus can use ordinary things (like even us) to do amazing things for God.

There are other amazing parts of this scripture story: The reaction of the Jewish leaders.
They were the law enforcers. The Pharisee leaders were more interested in the fact that Jesus did this on a Sabbath, than that the man was healed.

It seems that obedience – or disobedience - to the law was more important than being made well. The Pharisee leaders had a dilemma.

I understand their difficulty, their struggle:
I was recently at a banquet at Weaver Market (Adamstown). Scratched on the stall wall in the men’s room was: “God Loves You.” What do I think? Am I glad that someone wants others to know that God loves them or am I upset that an apparent Christian defaced the wall in the restroom?
I’m not sure how to feel. I’m sure the Pharisee leaders of Jesus time were in a similar quandary.

How do you decide? God gave laws (Sabbath) / God heals.
God makes the rules about what is sin / God cleanses us from sin.

The Pharisee leaders should have rejoiced because of the healing (what God was doing in the life of the blind man), but they chose to focus on the law. Because (they thought) that obedience to the law is what makes you right with God.

The blind man found out that Jesus’ touch and God’s forgiveness made him right with God.

In the face of such an event …
Why would you opt for following the rules when you can have true healing?
Let me put it this way: Why would you stay on disability when you can be healthy?

The disability thing is a good excuse, it’s comfortable, and it’s gladly accepted. But if Jesus brings something better, why not take it?

We sometimes get into a quandary similar to that of the Pharisees.
What about our X-treme Worship:
It has loud rock music; It doesn’t seem respectful and reverent; they don’t use our traditional hymns.
On the other hand, young people are using their gifts for God and are coming to Christ.
How does leadership decide?

Apostle Paul tells us (Phil 2:12) to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling.”
Our faith is a struggle when it meets real life situations.

THINGS HAPPEN WHEN JESUS IS AROUND

Because of this encounter with Jesus, the man saw differently; his life was changed. Jesus made him right with God. He would never be the same.

You see – this man was struggling with the same issue as Jesus’ disciples.
Because of his blindness (his flaw) he felt that there must be some sin in his life, or in his family, that caused it.

The traditional teaching of the day was that blindness (and any illness) comes because of sin. It was the way of explaining away the problems in their lives.

What about the Problem of Sin?
Much of the discussion in the Scripture passage in John 9 centered on sin. Sin is a problem!
v. 2. Who sinned? The man blind from birth, or his parents?
v. 16. Is Jesus a sinner? Can a sinner perform miracles in God’s name?
vv. 24-25. Is Jesus a sinner? The Pharisee leadership says he is; the healed man is confused about the problem of sin, but he is certain about his healing. The sign of his sin is gone.
v. 31. God doesn’t listen to sinners. If Jesus weren’t from God (sinless) he couldn’t perform miracles.
v. 34. The formerly blind man was “steeped in sin a birth.”

What is Sin? It’s that barrier that keeps us from getting close to God.

You see, the blind man was considered a sinner.
He couldn’t go to the Temple.
He couldn’t offer sacrifices.
He listened to the praise and worship from a distance.
That was a tough situation.

He couldn’t go to God, so God sent Jesus to him.

Jesus doesn’t want his followers on “Spiritual Disability.” He wants to make us right with God. Things happen when Jesus is around.

Pharisee leadership needed to know a few things:
1. For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God (Romans 3:23). Sickness and illness are part of a fallen world.
2. God wants to forgive us our sins. We need to confess our sins (1 John 1:9)
3. God sent Jesus to heal us from our spiritual disability, to forgive us of our sins.

Isaiah 53:4-5 tells us, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed.”

John Newton’s mother taught him to pray, but she died when he was 7 and his heart hardened against God. He became a wild, young man who mocked Christianity and drowned himself in drink.

At 23, while a crewman on a slave ship, Newton was jolted awake by a violent storm—so terrifying that he cried out to the Lord. The John Newton who arrived safely in England was a repentant man. For the rest of his life he would refer to March 10, 1748, as the day of his conversion.

Unfortunately, Newton's conversion did not change his views of slavery for many years. He became the captain of his own slave ship. In time, under the influence of famed abolitionist William Wilberforce and Anglican priests John Wesley and George Whitefield, he had another spiritual awakening. In 1760 he became an ordained minister and a powerful foe of slavery.

He eventually became pastor of a church in Olney. While there he wrote a hymn that he had been carrying with him for some time. On Jan. 1, 1773, his congregation sang a new hymn entitled "Faith's Review and Expectation." We know it by a different name.

John Newton wrote, “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost but now I'm found, was blind but now I see." Eventually John Newton's eyes failed and he was totally blind when he died—but he had seen clearly the wonder of God's grace.

God helped John Newton see things differently. His spiritual disability had been cured.

JESUS HELPS US TO SEE THINGS DIFFERENTLY

This Lenten Season is a good time to ask, How is your relationship with God? Jesus wants to make you whole, to heal you. Jesus wants to help you see the world differently.

Who needed to see?
Obviously it’s that the man born blind needed to see. Jesus changed his life in many ways.
It becomes obvious that the Pharisee leadership is blind on a deeper level – to God’s presence and power in this world.

We all need to see God at work in the lives of others around us, and in our own lives.

Why did Jesus come?
… to enforce the law, or to set people free?

Dove Award winner Paul Baloche, was in a prayer meeting at his church, Community Christian Fellowship in Lindale, TX. The Pastor prayed, “Open the eyes of our hearts so that we can understand your world.” The phrase stuck in his mind.

One morning, Baloche was playing music on his guitar during an altar call at a revival meeting. The phrase came back to him, “Open the eyes of our hearts, Lord. We want to see You.” The story goes, that others started to sing with him, and the song was born.

Good things (unexpected things) happen when we are in a right relationship with God. …

How is your relationship with God? Maybe you need to sing along?

Open the eyes of my heart, Lord;
Open the eyes of my heart.
I want to see You!
I want to see You!