Quinquagesima - February 14, 2021

There are many times throughout our travels within the Scriptures that the disciples seem to get a bad rap. They seem to be the ones who, on many occasions, don’t “see” what is actually going on. One would think that with the proximity to the Lord, and with all the time spent under His tutelage, that they would see quite clearly. But, as we once again witness this morning, that is not the case. In fact, God’s Word tells us “This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.” (Luke 18:34)

So, to what are the disciples blind? Well, as we look to our reading from the Gospel of Luke, we find that their blindness hides much. Jesus says, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.” (Luke 18:31) Interestingly enough, as Jesus begins this dialogue, he grabs the disciples’ attention with the command “see.” What he has to say to them and what they are soon to witness is foundational to all they will stand upon within the church. This is not some little trip into Jerusalem simply to celebrate the Passover Feast. No, the days that lay ahead are the pinnacle of Jesus’ work upon this earth. What the disciples will soon witness will be the very heart of what they are charged to preach, teach, and confess to the infant Christian Church.

But, as we well know from our reading, their “seeing” is quite nearsighted as the magnitude of the salvific purpose of Christ is blurred. Again, the disciples grasp not what Jesus has said to them. The focus of Jesus since the ninth chapter of Luke has been one direction - Jerusalem. His face turned toward the mount of salvation and His aim is none other than accomplishing that for which He has been sent. Jesus and His twelve are on their way to invade the walls of the Holy City only to make all things new. Jesus “was going to put to death, in Himself, the old Temple, under the old covenant and old law, tailored to an old people in an old city. From that death He was going to bring to life all things new, a new people under a new testament, going to a new temple in Jerusalem.” (Burfeind, A Year Crowned with Goodness - 43)

So why is it so hard for these pupils of the Lord to understand? Why don’t these disciples see? Why is this saying hidden from them? It’s not as if Jesus was speaking in code. His words are very clear: “For He [I, Jesus] 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.” (Luke 18:32-33) What is so confusing about that?

“From the beginning, God had baked the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ into the plan. Why? Does it matter? In God’s unfathomable love and wisdom the perfection of His creation required the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus. He ‘will’ rise again. The course of history is set. Jesus speaks as if it were a done deal, because it was.” (Burfeind, 44) This was all made known within the very pennings and oral sharings of the Word of God to this point. So, what hides Jesus’ words from the disciples’ ears? What keeps their eyes blind to the Truth that walks before them?

Preconception. Preconception blurs the truth as the mind filters what one sees and hears through a filtration of what one wants to or believes to be true. And if the two don’t compute - the seeing and hearing - don’t align with the preconceptions that have been stacked, well, then it must not be all that true. Simple yet very important teachings tend to escape the preconceived landscape of the mind. In the end what ends up happening is God’s Word - His very truth - is corrupted by what the mind thinks is right. In that convoluted reality, the words of Jesus don’t do their work.

This is a matter of pride. How? Well, think about it in this way. Perhaps the disciples had a different idea in mind of how the Savior was going to come and handle things. Again, God’s Word gives them the very truth. But, for whatever reason, a different idea, a preconception of what this Savior was going to do and be was developed in the mind. And pride then hangs on to that because it’s personal. It’s a work of the self. And nobody wants to be told that their idea or belief is wrong or misguided. This passion even drives Peter to try and stop Jesus from moving closer to the cross - to which we know such an utterance, as Jesus admonishes, is the work of Satan. “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” (Matthew 16:23)

As the prideful reality of preconceptions guide the heart, soul, and mind, when the truth is eventually placed before us, it becomes difficult for us to “see,” difficult for us to understand - the very truth becomes hidden from us. But the difficulty of our seeing through the preconceived notions is not what’s intended by the difficulty of God’s Word. “The very difficulty of Christ’s word - as it is given in all its clarity - is its power, the power to drive the sinner to his knees, the power to lift the humble one up with His grace and forgiveness. Our formulas and systems always are acts of self-justification. They conjure up ‘grey areas’ to cloud our vision of Christ’s will, grey areas where we fancy we can shine.” (Burfeind, 46) It’s the original, total corruption of man. As sinners, we want to be like, if not above God. We want to be our own god. And so, we tend to be ones who cling to the preconceptions of our desires rather than the truth of God’s salvific plan.

Each and every one of us here today is guilty of this very sin - is guilty of allowing our preconceptions to rule the roost when it comes to what we, at times, teach, preach, and confess. Repent. Repent of the selfish pride of thinking you know better. That’s not the humility of a Christian. That’s the pride of a sinner. Instead, repent and know that in the forgiveness poured upon you in your salvific Baptism and through the continued nurturing of Word and Sacrament, you are pointed to, fed, freely given the truth that surpasses all understanding. It’s ok to not completely grasp how God can love us so much that we have Jesus. It’s not about understanding, it’s about faith. This reality simply requires that you open your ears and listen. He that has ears to hear, let him hear!

The very faith of which we all do well to cling is on display as Jesus draws near Jericho and crosses paths with a blind man. This man was suffering from a wage of sin, the death of his eyes. We’re constantly reminded of the very fact that death has become the human race. It was warned against - “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:17) Sin ravages our bodies as death returns parts of our bodies back from what it came - dust and ashes. Eventually, barring Christ’s return before that time, our entire bodies will sleep - will return to dust and ashes. “From dust you have come, to dust you shall return.”

But, thankfully, what we know, minus our preconceptions of a fake reality, is that Jesus is the very reason, the very being that brings life to that which is dead - brings seeing to that which cannot see. “Jesus is the Light of light and creator of light. He brings all the life He made into our perception of reality, so we can discern all creation in its glorious specificity…We can see the truth of who we are (beggars) and what we need (God).” (Burfeind, 48) When our eyes are fixed on the truth - the Light - we see life in this world not by way of our preconceptions, rather, by way of who we are in Christ. This is what the candle given at Baptism symbolizes. The light of our seeing is Christ.

And this the blind man knows - in this truth is what he has faith. He cries out the Kyrie - the prayer of our liturgy that seeks mercy. And notice, too, the blind man doesn’t give up. He doesn’t demand. But He doesn’t give up. He seeks mercy from the very source. Oh, and isn’t it ironic that the ones who could see are the ones who didn’t get it? Isn’t it ironic that the one who can’t see is the one from whom we have the great example of faith?

“So, faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17) “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) The cry of the Kyrie is a cry of faith. He has indeed seen the Christ in faith through the very Word of God and has clung to the truth therein. It’s this faith, then, that allows him to live each day with patient endurance - with an eternal view of His circumstance. And when he hears of the very Word in flesh being near, he hesitates not and cries out.

The church learns such a great lesson from this blind beggar. For we, too, are beggars. But not disheartened and disgruntled beggars. For we know that our pilgrimage through life is but a part of the greater eternal reality we await. In the meantime, we long for the foretaste of that eternity. We cry out to the Lord through our blindness of heart, soul, and mind, “Lord, have mercy.”

We partake of the liturgy of the church as we confess as one body - as the body of Christ, longing for the nourishment of faith. “The liturgy is very much like the four friends carrying the lame man to Jesus. Jesus saw ‘their’ faith and healed him. The liturgy is all of us carrying each other to Jesus, so that again Jesus might see ‘our’ faith and heal us. It’s a communal thing.” (Burfeind, 51) In this communal reality, we know that Jesus is present, we acknowledge who we are as sinners, we cry out for mercy, we are healed, we give glory to God, and we are in joyful communion with Jesus.

Dear Christians, we, indeed will go about our days struggling to make sense of it all. We will certainly have days that we are blind and cannot see that which the Lord has poured into our lives. We will struggle with wanting to be the god of our lives - wanting to be in control of all things. We will also have days where we recognize we are blind beggars in need of God’s grace and mercy. That is the life of a Christian amidst the valley of the shadow of death.

But what we are taught this morning by the truth that is God’s Word is that we do well to lay aside the preconceptions we have about what this life ought to be and who we think God should be. For the faith of a Christian bows down in humble submission to the truth therein and arise anew with the blessing of God’s grace. He has removed the scales of your blindness so that you may know the truth that sets you free - you are forgiven of all your sin. Amen.