Brad
Sullivan
4th
Sunday of Lent, Year A
Sunday,
March 30, 2014
St. Mark’s,
Bay City, TX
1 Samuel
16:1-13
Psalm 23
Ephesians
5:8-14
John 9:1-41
God’s
plans for Israel were seemingly in ruins when Saul turned out to be such a
terrible king. When the people of Israel
first demanded a king, God told them that they wouldn’t like it, but he went
along with it, and God chose the man who would be king of Israel, God anointed
him as king, and not too terribly long afterwards, Saul ended up doing a
terrible job, breaking covenant faithfulness with God, placing his trust in
improper ritual observance, rather than placing his trust in God. By doing so, Saul was leading the people into
not trusting God.
God’s
plans to form Israel as his people who would love and serve him and spread his
light to the ends of the earth seemed to be falling apart with the debacle of
Saul’s monarchy, and yet when the prophet Samuel was bothered by Saul’s demise,
God simply said, "How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over
Israel. Fill your horn with oil and set
out; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself
a king among his sons." (1 Samuel 16:1-2)
God’s
plans for Israel were going up in smoke, and God just said, “ok, moving on,
let’s try this.” While God certainly cares
when we sin, and God certainly desires for us to live well, God is also utterly
undaunted by out sin. The more we sin,
the more God just keeps shining light in our darkness.
In
Jesus’ time, people felt that God was constantly seeking vengeance upon sinners,
and you could tell the severity of someone’s sin by how badly off they
were. They thought they were sinners in
the hands of an angry God, an idea which has unfortunately persisted even to
this day. Even reading Paul’s words, I
often mistakenly hear the idea of God’s vengeance. As Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians,
“Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose
them [so that Jesus can unleash his
mighty and terrible vengeance upon them].” Paul didn’t actually say
that last part, but I often hear tones of vengeance there. I think a more accurate hearing of that
passage would be, “Take no part in the
unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them [so that Jesus can shine his light upon them and help dispel the darkness
in people’s lives].”
Jesus
doesn’t seek vengeance on us whenever we mess up. This may seem obvious to us, but it certainly
wasn’t obvious to the people in Jesus’ time, believing God was constantly
seeking vengeance on anyone who messed up.
Imagine being the blind man whom Jesus healed, and imagine hearing the
incredibly good news that you aren’t being horribly punished by an angry God
for every little sin. Imagine the joy of
finding out that the problems you have or infirmities you suffer aren’t because
God is angry with you, but simply because life happens.
Jesus
doesn’t get all freaked out when we sin and mess up. He just grabs a flashlight.
Jesus
shines a light on our darkness, to help heal us and bring us to the light. As Paul wrote, “Once you were in darkness,
but now in the Lord you are light.” (Ephesians 5:8) “Live as children of light – for the fruit of
the light is found in all that is good and right and true. Try to find out what is pleasing to the
Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful
works of darkness, but instead expose them.”
We expose the unfruitful works of darkness not to bring shame or
ridicule, but to bring healing with the light of Christ.
We
talk a lot about sin in the church, and we even have this season of the church
year seemingly devoted to focusing on our sins, although the real purpose is to
shine the light of Jesus on our sins, not just to harp on them over and over.
Jesus
isn’t interested in branding people as sinners.
Jesus is interested in healing, restoration, and reconciliation. The Pharisees, on the other hand, were very
interested in branding the blind man as a sinner; even Jesus’ disciples wanted
to brand him as such, but Jesus wasn’t buying in their brand. The Pharisees were trying so hard to be
righteous, they were so full of vim and vigor that they ended up pouring bowls
of contempt on those around them.
Jesus,
however, came not full of vim and vigor, but full of grace and truth. Jesus came full of forgiveness, declaring us
innocent and reconciled. Jesus came revealing to us who we truly are. We are not sinners in the hands of an angry
God as the Pharisees would have had people believe. We are not continually punished by God over
and over for our mistakes. We are
beloved children of God whom God forgives, justifies, declares innocent, and
reconciles to himself. We are beloved
children of God who often do walk in darkness, but when we do, God is undaunted
by it, simply finding some new way to shine light into our darkness.
Jesus
exposed the works of darkness in his encounter with the blind man, not because
of anything the blind man had done, but rather because of what the people were
doing to him. People expected that since
he was blind, the man must have done something deserving of God’s wrath, and
since he had been blind since birth, either he had done something really
terrible in-utero, or his parents had done something terrible and God’s
vengeance had passed on to their son.
Jesus
pointed out how ridiculous that was.
Neither the man nor his parents sinned (to cause the blindness). He was born blind. Period.
A crummy thing happened, and it wasn’t God’s vengeance. The works of darkness Jesus was exposing were
not the blind man’s works of darkness, but the peoples’.
Do
not put a stumbling block before the blind, scripture teaches, (Leviticus
19:14) and people were indeed putting a
stumbling block before the blind man, declaring him guilty for being blind, rather
than showing him compassion and mercy for being blind. Jesus shined light into their darkness,
giving sight to the blind man, and giving the light of God’s grace and love to
the people who had been walking in the darkness of God’s assumed vengeance and
wrath.
Unfortunately,
many of the people remained there, in the self-imposed darkness of God’s
vengeance and wrath. The healed blind
man told them their story, while they knew he could see, they just couldn’t or
wouldn’t see God’s grace and love in the healing. The grace and truth of Jesus ran counter to
what they believed about God. They were
daunted by the thought that God could be undaunted by our sin. They just kept telling the blind man he was a
sinner so they could be safe in their beliefs and certainties. Certainly the blind man had sinned, but God
was undaunted by it, and God certainly didn’t seek vengeance on him for
it.
We
are disciples of Jesus. We are God’s
people formed to be a beacon to bring the light of Jesus to Bay City and to the
ends of the earth. As God’s people, we
mess up and sin all the time, and God is absolutely undaunted by it. We are not sinners in the hands of an angry
God as the Pharisees would have had people believe. We are not continually punished by God over
and over for our mistakes. We are
beloved children of God whom God forgives, justifies, declares innocent, and
reconciles to himself. We are beloved
children of God who often do walk in darkness, but when we do, God is undaunted
by it, simply finding some new way to shine light into our darkness. Amen.
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