Sunday Service

In our Scripture reading from John’s gospel, we read, “We have seen his glory.” (Jn 1:14) These words have the power to change your life, forever.

For fifty-one years, Bob Edens was blind. Bob could not see anything. His world was a black hole. However, Bob did not let this stop him; he graduated from Furman University. He got married and had a daughter. He even coached little league baseball! Through it all, though, Bob Edens was blind. For five decades, he lived in total darkness; and then, he could see! Bob Edens could see! A surgeon repaired a detached retina and performed a corneal transplant. For the first time in his life, Bob Edens could actually see! He found it overwhelming. “I never would have dreamed that yellow is so yellow. I can see the shape of the moon. I like nothing better than seeing a jet plane flying across the sky leaving a vapor trail; and of course, sunrises and sunsets. Those are my favorite colors—orange and red.”

The Bible begins with the world in darkness, “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep.” (Gen 1:2) The Jewish day does not begin at sunrise, but sunset; each new day begins in darkness! John begins his gospel speaking of darkness, “The light shines in the darkness” (Jn 1:5). All of this is no accident; God planned it all. He is trying to show us that until we see Christ’s glory, we dwell in darkness and are spiritually blind.

We see evidence of our blindness every day, in both large and small ways. For example, we see the glories of God’s creation all around us, but we fail to see its beauty. We are also blessed by God’s provision and mercy, but we fail to give Him thanks. God gives us spouses, children, even our pets, yet we take all of them for granted. We are blind!

Of course, these are but symptoms of a greater blindness. We are blind to Christ’s glory. We attend church, we sing Christmas carols, we hear the Gospel preached, we celebrate the sacraments, and we never see the glory of Jesus! Consequently, we do not receive Him as our King.

This morning is the morning after Christmas, and through our Scripture readings, God is inviting us to see Jesus. To really see, Jesus!

John saw Him. He writes in his prologue, “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.” The blindness of sin is removed when we see Jesus in a new light—the bright light of the Gospel.

Have you ever seen the movie Field of Dreams? Kevin Costner plays Ray Kinsella, who turns an Iowa cornfield into a baseball field. “If you build it they will come!” Long-dead major league baseball players actually come—including Shoeless Joe Jackson of the Chicago White Sox. Ray’s problem, though, is that the baseball players are invisible to almost everyone else and he is going bankrupt because he has used so much farmland to build his field of dreams.

Ray’s brother-in-law, Mark, is beside himself. Mark yells at Ray. “Ray, you’re going to lose your farm. You build a baseball field, and you just sit here and stare at nothing.” Suddenly, Mark does a 180. He sees the players. Mark says, “Ray! Don’t sell the farm! Whatever you do, Ray, don’t sell this farm!” Mark had been blind, but now Mark can see!

That’s what John wants for us—to see, to see Jesus and to receive him into our lives. One of John’s themes is seeing Jesus:

In John 1:29, “See, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

In John 1:46, Philip invites Nathanael to Jesus with these words, “Come and see.”

The Samaritan woman says in John 4:29, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did.”

On Palm Sunday, John 12:15 says, “See, your King comes to you.”

On that same day, some Greeks come to Philip and say, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”

On Easter morning, in John 20:18, Mary is beside herself with joy, when she says, “I have seen the Lord!”

The blind man in John 9:25 says it best. And what did he say? “I was blind, but now I see.”

Now on this morning after Christmas Day, we have the opportunity to see—to really see—Jesus, born as a little baby, born in a manger, laid in straw and swaddled in bands of cloth. He is a sight for sore eyes. For we have been waiting a long time to see him. He comes to us in a fashion we may not have expected—a divine being in bodily form.

Jesus was like no other! All the splendor of God was revealed in his human body. The doors to the throne room were opened and God came near. Jesus descended from heaven to be with us.

Today we ready ourselves to receive him. Don’t be distressed by looking within. Don’t be defeated by looking back. Don’t be distracted by looking at the world around you. Look to Jesus! Fix your eyes on Jesus! He alone gives you new life! That is what we celebrate this Christmas Season.

And what is it we see when we see Jesus? John says, “We have seen his glory.” Just what is Christ’s glory? When we hear the word “glory,” most often we think of beauty and power and majesty and might. We think of Jesus walking on water. Jesus feeding the 5,000. Jesus raising Lazarus. Jesus healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, and making crippled people whole.

That is part of it, but Christ’s supreme and ultimate glory is his suffering and death. How so? On Palm Sunday, with his face set like flint towards the cross, Jesus says in John 12:23, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” In the Upper Room, right after Judas Iscariot leaves to betray him for 30 pieces of silver, Jesus says in John 13:31, “Now is the Son of Man glorified.” Just before his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus says in John 17:1, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son.” Do you see it? Christ’s glory in John’s Gospel is his bitter suffering and God-forsaken death.

Though our sights are now on the cute and cuddly infant Jesus on Christmas, the reality is that there will be a whip that beats his back. There will be a crown of thorns on his head. There will be clenched fists deforming his face, and there will be nails in his hands and feet on the cross.

The events that are to come for the Baby Jesus are almost too much for us to envision here. Romans famously called it “the utterly vile death of the cross.” Words fail us before the sheer atrocity of it all. Melito of Sardis, who lived in the second century AD, famously writes, “He who hung the earth in its place hangs there. He who fixed the heavens is fixed there, upon a tree. The Master has been insulted. God has been murdered.”

As ugly as the cross is, that is why Jesus came. That is why Jesus was born. Because we could not change our future of sin and death otherwise. Being honest and moral doesn’t help me see Jesus. Being religious and devout doesn’t help me see Jesus; and trying harder and being more sincere doesn’t help me see Jesus. It’s only when I understand that the cradle points to the cross that I see Jesus. It’s only when I understand that the cradle points to his death on the cross for me that I see Jesus.

A child wrote to Santa: “Dear Santa, you didn’t bring me anything good last year. You didn’t bring me anything good the year before that. This is your last chance. Signed, Alfred.”

Another child wrote: “Dear Santa, three little boys live at our house. There’s Jeffrey; he’s two. There’s David; he’s four. And there’s Norman; he’s seven. Jeffrey is never good. David is sometimes good. Norman is always good. Santa, this is Norman.”

I’m not Norman. You’re not Norman. None of us is Norman. We’re messed up. We have ugliness and sin in our hearts. We know about failure—deep and lasting failure. That’s why it’s imperative that we see Jesus and receive him as our King of Glory.

Walt Disney was one of the most visionary people in American history, making groundbreaking movies, taking cartoon animation to new levels, and, of course, creating Disneyland in California, and Disney World, outside of Orlando, Florida. When Disney World first opened, Mrs. Walt Disney, Lillian, was asked to speak at the grand opening, since Walt had just died. She was introduced by a man who said, “Mrs. Disney, I just wish Walt could have seen this.”

Her speech? She’d just heard a man say, “I wish Walt could have seen this.” Lillian Disney stood up and said, “He did.” That’s it! Two words and her speech was over. “He did! He did!” Walt Disney saw it. Walt Disney saw it all!

How about you? Do we see it all? Do we see God’s glorious plan of salvation in Jesus?

In our Scripture reading from Paul’s letter to the Galatians, we read, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of women, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” (Gal 4:4)

What are you waiting for; “the fullness of time” has come! See the glory of Jesus, not only in the Manger, but upon the cross. Especially, upon the cross! By faith, receive Jesus as your Savior and King! You no longer have to be blind!