clinging to Jesus

Main idea: Jesus heals a blind man starting him on a journey of discovery that will last for eternity. The Pharisees show themselves to be the blind ones, as they were well-versed in their scriptures and their laws but they were far from knowing the God of creation whose heart is full of love and light. As Christ followers we must cling to Jesus rather than become like the Pharisees who valued knowing about God more than walking with God.

Prayer: “Father, open our eyes to your infinite love and goodness. Help us to see you as you really are. Amen.”

Scripture: John 9:1-41, John 3:17, Matthew 7:4

(All scripture is taken from the NIV unless otherwise noted)

Introduction

Welcome back church! I’m so excited to be on this Lenten journey with you. I think we can all agree that we’re all on a journey of discovery when it comes to knowing God and his core nature of self-giving love which is revealed in Christ. On a scale of “1 to Infinity,” I am probably a solid seven! I have a long way to go. But that’s okay, because God is never in a hurry. He meets us right where we are and walks with us one step at a time. I don’t know where you are in your journey, whether you’re at ZERO or at 100, but I want you to know that the best is yet to come for you.

Paul wrote to the Colossians about this journey of discovery. On a scale of 1 to Infinity, I wonder where Paul would say he is? I’m guessing he’d say he’s back here with us in the single digits! Not because he didn’t know much but because he knew how INFINITELY GOOD GOD’S NATURE IS compared to our limited understanding. “In Christ are hidden all treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). That’s a lot of wisdom and knowledge! And it’s all found in Jesus Christ.

Coming to Christ is actually just the beginning point of our faith, not the ending. It’s the starting line not the finish line!

Pastor: Talk about how your life crossed the starting line when you came to faith in Christ. What one or two things can you share that demonstrate increasing understanding (and possibly adventure) in your walk with Christ?

Main Teaching

We have a fantastic story today and I’m excited because it’s going to show us some incredible truths about God’s eternal nature.

Read John 9:1-41

The blind man is healed by the kindness of Christ. Notice the man didn’t ask for it. He probably woke up that morning assuming the greatest thing that could happen that day was receiving money to buy a small piece of bread. Instead, he received something much better. God loves to surprise us with good things because God is good.

The man started his own journey of discovery that day. We see a progression of understanding about Jesus. When the blind man’s neighbors asked who healed him, he said, “The man they call Jesus…” (9:11). Later, when he was brought in front of the Pharisees, his understanding changed to, “He is a prophet…” (9:17). Even later, pressed again by the Pharisees, the man understood that Jesus was surely “from God…” (9:33). Finally, he came to see Jesus as “the Son of Man…” (9:35, 38) and worshiped him.

His journey began! He crossed the starting line! One a scale of 1 to Infinity, he’s probably a seven, right there with me. There are a few themes in this story that can help all of us move forward on our journey. If you’re at ZERO maybe this will help you take the next step. If you’re a 100, maybe after listening and reflecting on what God’s word teaches, you’ll move from 100 to 101. Let’s see!

Two Important Themes

1. Hold tightly to Jesus and loosely to doctrine

The doctrine of the Pharisees believed that, if you sin, God will inflict punishment on you. Sickness and diseases like blindness or leprosy were understood to be consequences of someone’s sin. If not your sin, then someone's close to you. This was their doctrine. By doctrine, I mean their beliefs and teachings. This is why the disciples asked Jesus about the blind man, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (9:2). Even the disciples held to this doctrine.

Jesus made it clear that, “neither this man nor his parents sinned” (9:3), but that didn’t stop the Pharisees from clinging to this doctrine.

You and I need to be people who hold tightly to Jesus and loosely to doctrine. When I say “hold tightly to Jesus,” I mean our top priority must be to listen to Jesus’ teachings and do what he says. We need to do our best to put his teachings into practice. He is our Lord. And to be “Lord” means absolute authority.

If we hold tightly to Jesus, we will love God, love our neighbor, and love our enemies. If we hold tightly to Jesus, we will walk with a beautiful mix of humility and power in the Holy Spirit to overcome sin and be bright lights in this world. Holding tightly to Jesus means staying connected to him in prayer and worship because he is the source and energy of our lives. It means walking in abiding fellowship with him, because He is risen and he is present and relevant in our world. The longer we hold tightly to Jesus the more we become transformed into his likeness of courage and self-giving love. Holding tightly to Jesus is the narrow road (Matthew 7:4).

When I say we need to “hold loosely to doctrine,” don’t misunderstand me. We need to hold sound, Biblical doctrine. We need to hold it, but hold it loosely, because this story shows how doctrine will change over time as we encounter and grow in our understanding of God revealed through Jesus Christ. The doctrine presented in this story (again, by doctrine I mean their beliefs and teachings), was that anyone who was disabled or sick was incurring punishment from God. The disciples took this doctrine to Jesus and Jesus refuted it. He said it was untrue. And Jesus demonstrated how untrue it was by simply healing the man and giving him sight. From that point forward the doctrine was invalid. The disciples were learning to hold loosely to their doctrine, but tightly to Jesus.

Now, what was the problem with the Pharisees? They had it backwards. The Pharisees held tightly to doctrine and loosely to Jesus. They lacked the humility to consider some of their teachings and beliefs might be misguided. They were convinced that this man was blind because of some sin committed in his life, and that he was a sinner (9:34). And, even though the Son of God refused this idea and actually healed the man, which proved God didn’t cause this blindness as punishment for sin, they held tightly to their preconceived ideas with a clenched fist.

It’s really shocking when you think about it: they didn’t rejoice that this man could see with his eyes for the first time in his life. They didn’t respond in wonder and worship to the God who gives sight to the blind. They didn’t joyfully share this story with their friends and families. And they didn’t stop to think, “Hmm, maybe this Jesus guy is who he says he is! He heals the blind! That’s something the Messiah would do!”

No, they doubled-down on their misguided doctrine and their selfish agenda, because religious people are infected with pride and cannot see when they might be wrong. Church, we must be careful this doesn’t happen to us.

A problem in our world today is that too many Christians hold tightly to doctrine and loosely to Jesus. We put beliefs about God ahead of walking with God. We are full of ideas about him, but do we truly know Him and walk daily with Him? It’s possible to have a relationship with the Bible and not have a relationship with the God of the Bible. This was the Pharisees. They knew their scriptures and their law very well, inside and out, but they were far from knowing the actual God of creation whose heart is full of love and light.

Gandhi once said, “I like your Christ, but I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ.” What did he mean by this? He meant that he was drawn to the person of Jesus, to his life, ministry, teachings, and willingness to suffer unto death. He was drawn to that. He respected that. He loved that. And Gandhi even learned from that. Jesus was one of Gandhi’s teachers through the sermon on the mount. In fact, Gandhi took Jesus’ teachings very seriously.

But, when Gandhi looked at the lives of most Christians, their lives were so unlike the life of Jesus. They didn’t take Jesus nor his teachings seriously. They did not walk with Jesus in a way that made them look like Jesus and have an impact like Jesus. He found Christians to be high on information and doctrine, but low on self-giving love and concern for justice. He would say that Christians held tightly to doctrine and loosely to Jesus.

Church, are we like the Pharisees, who knew their scriptures and doctrines really well but at the end of the day were far from the actual God of creation whose heart is full of love and light? Are our hearts full of love and light? If not, they can be! Do we love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and our neighbor as ourself? If we don’t, it’s possible! Do we love our enemies? If not, we can!

God loves his enemies. He sends his rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. God loves his neighbor. The Trinity exists in perfect communion of self-giving love with one another. And God loves us with all of His heart, mind, soul, and strength. He proved that on the cross and in the resurrection. Isn’t this beautiful?

That’s the kind of love and life God has for us. He wants His life — eternal life — to be the living water that flows into us and gushes out of us. The way forward is to hold tightly to Jesus, receive his love and goodness, and put his teachings into practice. His teachings are the absolute best way to live. They lead us into an abundant life.

2. God’s love is restorative

I want to look at one of the hard sayings of Jesus in this passage. Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind” (9:39).

Jesus came into the world “for judgment.” What does that mean? Does it mean he came into the world to pronounce guilt and innocence, like a trial judge who hears cases, listens to witnesses, and applies the penalties of the law as a disconnected, impartial person of power? That’s certainly one way to look at it, and it’s the belief and teaching of many of our brothers and sisters.

But what if we took that idea to Jesus the way the disciples took their doctrine to Jesus? There might be another way to see and understand.

Jesus taught us and demonstrated that God is always, first and foremost, a loving Father. God always relates to us like a Loving Abba, not a disconnected, impartial person of power like a trial judge. And this Father judges us like a doctor would judge someone who is sick: a doctor wants to find out what’s harming us in order to ultimately make us well. A doctor knows a patient can’t be punished out of leprosy or blindness, but should be treated until healed, whatever that treatment might be.

Jesus said for judgment he came into the world “so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind” (9:39). On the surface that sounds like a mixture of restorative justice (“the blind will see”) and punitive justice (“those who see will become blind”), but in reality both are restorative. Because God’s core nature is self-giving love (1 John 4:8) everything He does is initiated out of love. Even making those who see “become blind!" God’s justice is always restorative, so if Jesus came to make those who see become blind, there’s a loving, restorative purpose behind it. Remember, “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him” (John 3:17).

Paul is a perfect example. Paul was a Pharisee who held tightly to doctrine and loosely to Jesus. He knew his scriptures well and was an expert in the law, but he didn’t know the God of creation whose heart is full of love and light. That is, until one day he met the Risen Christ on the way to Damascus. And what happened to Paul? He literally went blind. Why? Was God punishing Paul? Was God taking out his wrath on Paul and intending to inflict pain and suffering as a way to vent His anger? No. Not even close. God was getting Paul’s attention. God’s purpose was to restore Paul not to punish Paul.

Obviously Paul’s story is unusual and Jesus doesn’t make us all literally blind. But Paul’s story does illustrate God’s core nature of self-giving, restorative love. God’s approach to our sinfulness and brokenness is one like a Great Physician. Sometimes surgery and physical therapy are painful, but the pain is temporary until we are fully well.

God always has restoration in mind. In this story, we see him restore the sight of a blind man. As for the Pharisees, who were blind and didn’t know it, Jesus loved them too. His purpose is to restore all things back to their original design. Some people receive grace like the blind man, others receive justice like the Pharisees, but both grace and justice are two sides of the same coin that have the same purpose: restoration to God’s original design and purpose.

Conclusion

We’re all on a journey of discovery! On a scale of 1-to-Infinity, some of us are at step zero and others of us are at 7, 25, or 100. The way forward is to hold tightly to Jesus.

1.Are you holding tightly to your doctrine and loosely to Jesus? Do you need to take the teachings of Jesus more seriously and put them into practice?

2. A great way to start holding tightly to Jesus is to read Matthew 5, 6, and 7 which are the chapters comprising Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. These are Jesus’ core teachings, and they are what Gandhi read, learned, and implemented.

3. Could you gather regularly with a few others who want to commit to holding tightly to Jesus and putting into practice his teachings? You could commit to reading the Sermon on the Mount each week and put into practice one thing from his teachings. Share your struggles, share your success, share how God “shows up” in the midst of your journey!

We’re all on a journey. We’re all at different stages in the process of sanctification.

Lent is a time for us to assess ourselves and make adjustments. It’s a time for us to recalibrate to God’s way of living and loving.

Let’s pray together.