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Sermon: The Fourth Sunday in Lent (A) - 3rd April 2011
St Aidan's Anglican Church West Epping 8:30 am
Readings: 1 Sam 16:1-13; Ephesians 5:8-14 John 9:1-41;
One of my favourite films is “Monty Python’s – Life of Brian.” But it makes one serious mistake. It assumes people of the ancient world, were foolish, credulous, and easily duped. So anyone who turned up claiming to be able to do miracles would be believed by a large section of the crowd.
But our reading from John 9 puts an end to that myth. Its quite unique. There is no miracle in the Bible apart from Jesus’ resurrection that receives so much scrutiny. The pattern we expect is that the miracle is performed and then there is a reaction to the miracle – usually some belief.
But its not like that here. The people go over it and over it attempting to tease out all its implications and working out what it all means. Also, we see like no where else such an articulate man who was healed. Even before the Pharisees he didn’t hesitate to speak his own mind and to point out the weaknesses of their own argument.
And here we find one of the great understatements of the Bible. His parents were called in and questioned by the Pharisees. But they responded with “Ask him, he is of age; he will speak for himself.” They knew him very well. And that’s exactly what he did. He talked and talked and talked!!
It might help us to remember that the miracles in John’s gospel are different to those in the other three gospels. The emphasis in the other gospels is often the sheer volume of people who were being healed.
But in John’s gospel the emphasis is upon the seriousness of the condition which Jesus then cures. Its to emphasize that something truly miraculous has occurred. It’s so we don’t miss the point that the passage is aiming to tell usthis is truly a miracle story.
So, for example, in John 5, Jesus came upon a man at the Sheel Gate Pool who had been an invalid for thirty eight years. That was probably his whole life time. It could be, he was born an invalid, he had never walked. All his muscles would have wasted away. But Jesus told him to walk and he was healed at once. Immediately he stood, picked up his mat, and walked. No natural healing ever looks like that. John is intentionally telling us a miracle story.
Or in John 9, the story is about the man blind from birth. His blindness is not from a disease or the ravages of time. Rather, he was born like this. Who knows what defects were involved. But the story of his healing is simplicity itself. The story of the healing is told and re-told four times in the chapter. The man born blind even threatens the Pharisees with telling it a fifth time.
He said to them “I have already told you, and you did not listen. Why - do you want to hear it again?”
But Jesus simply made some mud, placed it on his eyes, he washed it off and he could see. How easy was that – well, for Jesus anyway. In a moment he had gone from total blindness to perfect vision.
One other example of a serious condition comes in John 11. But this time it’s the death of Lazarus. But not only is Lazarus dead, rather he had been dead and buried for four days. We know today you can be dead technically for a few moments and be revived successfully. But after four days you’re number would be up. And again the moment of healing was so simple. Jesus opened the tomb and called “Lazarus”. And the dead man came out. He walked out of his own tomb.
The point that Jesus is making with each of these miracles is that he is behaving like God himself. In chapter nine the Pharisees hated Jesus because he was calling God his father, and thus making himself equal with God. But with these miracles, he was demonstrating in his behaviour that he was equal with God. When he healed the blind man he took some dust on purpose and mixed it with his saliva to make the mud, recalling the story of God creating Adam from the dust of the earth.
Jesus calling Lazarus out of the tomb can be compared to Adam, having been created, was then given the breath of life by God as God called him to life. Jesus presents himself as the creator, he behaves like God himself. By his actions he is making himself equal with God. In the other gospels the reaction of the people to the miracles is varied. But the usual reaction was admiration. Jesus became popular because so many were healed.
However, the main reaction recorded in John’s gospel was hostility. Jesus persisted in healing on the Sabbath and the Pharisees resented the miracles and they resented Jesus healing on their special day.
In John 5, after the healing at the Sheep Gate pool the Pharisees were already plotting to kill him. In John 9 they condemn Jesus as a sinner and declared he could not be from God. In John 11, the conspiracy becomes more focussed as they considered how they could kill him.
The tension between Jesus and the Pharisees looks so much like a battle between good and evil. Who is the evil person? Who is the good person? These categories become confused in John 9.
John introduces this theme at the beginning of the chapter. The disciples saw the man born blind and they probably noticed how bad his blindness was. He is described as being blind from birth. This man would have no hope of ever seeing. And then they asked this important question. “Who sinned, this man, or his parents that he was born blind?”
What is the cause of our suffering? Is it due to human frailty? Could it have been avoided? Was there something he or his parents should have done, but failed to do? Where do we place the blame for this sad state of affairs? “Sin”, or “sinner” is mentioned eight times in this passage. And the passage shows how easily it is misunderstood, how it is incorrectly applied, and how people use the term to distract us from what God is doing with us.
Jesus gives us a clue in the introduction. This story is not about who we can blame here. This story is really about what God is doing in our world. Its like night and day. Daylight reveals everything. Jesus’ ministry is about revealing what God is doing in our world. We have the stark contrast between the seriousness of the condition and the ease of the healing. By washing off the mud, the man could see for the first time. His neighbours couldn’t believe he could see now. No doubt they knew the seriousness of his condition. It was inconceivable that he would ever see.
We also have a contrast between his neighbours and the Pharisees. The neighbours reaction was to wonder that such a thing could happen. Such a miracle was completely unheard of. In fact it is astounding that the Pharisees can ignore the fact and focus on the only issue that concerned them. Jesus had healed on the Sabbath. Therefore he cannot be from God.
I love the crowd in this chapter. They ask some great questions. They ask “How can a sinner do such miracles?” In fact, it makes no sense at all. Probably the Pharisees realise this and that’s why they go to such lengths to sort it out. They dragged in the parents but they didn’t want an argument so the Pharisees questioned the man again. And again his answer was brilliant, focussing on the one fact the Pharisees kept stumbling over.
“I don’t know if he is a sinner or not. But I know this, once I was blind and now I can see.”
The Pharisees reacted by saying they would trust Moses, but they couldn’t say who had sent Jesus. Again, the man answered their accusations. “No one has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If he were not from God, he could do nothing .” It’s the conclusion that Jesus always forces us into. His acts are so great, the conclusion is inescapable.
The disciples, when they saw the tomb was empty, realised there was only one conclusion – death was defeated, and Jesus was victorious. And since then, how many lives have been changed, because Jesus has brought new life? How many people have experienced what the blind man experienced. I was blind, but now I see, I was lost, but now I’m found, I was dead but now I am alive.
The miracles don’t stop coming. Having risen from death Jesus is still working in our world. Its why we keep reading the Bible, its why we keep meeting. Its why we keep preaching and sharing the good news. Because the new life we have been given will also be given to others. And it continues on from generation to generation.
I remember discussing with my grandmother her faith in Christ. And now I see the work of God in my own children. It will go on and on well after I am in the grave. Because the power of God has been released into our world, bringing new life, new hope and a new future as we recognise that truly, this Jesus is the Son of God.