MCMC Sermon Series Lent #4 The Jesus I never knew “Blinded by the Light”3/22/20 Pastor Paul Johnson
It’s the fourth week of Lent today! Welcome and thanks for joining the journey. We’re thinking about the hidden Christ in these 40 days before Easter. The Jesus we’ve forgotten in the 2000 years since he walked among us. The one who heals-the one we’ve lost in these times of Crisis. Don’t feel bad about misunderstanding Christ. Even his best friends never really got it. Our culture doesn’t teach us either. Author Phillip Yancy challenges us-dig deeper into Scripture to discover “the Jesus we never knew.” Here’s what it says. First, Jesus was a radical in his time. He believed in social justice, not social distancing. Today in John 9:1-41 we meet the Jesus who fought for human rights-healing a disabled blind man on the Sabbath that the culture threw away. He embraces a begger called “sinner” because of his handicap. Second, Jesus teaches compassion isn’t radical in times of trouble.
This month, as we travel through quarantines and fear-I hope we think about the difference between the American Jesus and the Jewish Jesus of the Mideast. Yancy’s book “The Jesus I never Knew” says these two different pictures make Christ unrecognizable today. Our American Jesus is mostly hanging on a cross-next to the stars and stripes. The American gospel forced into his mouth is about bootstraps and bravado. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps and use power to defend yourselves! We Americans have always had mixed feelings about Jesus, haven’t we? Some think He’s a wimp for letting himself get caught and killed. Others laugh at his stories of healing bodies and souls. Still others think he’s a bleeding-heart liberal for commanding us to love enemies-to forgive each other-have compassion in times of trouble. Besides, nobody from the Mideast can be trusted, right?
So who’s the real Jesus of Nazareth-the humble carpenter living in the desert and serving as a Rabbi teacher? Or the weaponized Christ we pray to as we ask him to bless our country? He’s a puzzle-not who you’d think. For sure he wasn’t a coward or a country bumpkin. He read scripture since he could talk. He memorized the entire Old Testament Bible-read it and implemented it daily. He was respected different cultures-speaking Aramaic, Hebrew,Latin- as well as passable Greek. He took a vow of poverty-lived homeless for three years-no roof over his head. And he healed those untouchables. Jesus dined in tax collector’s mansions and drank the best wine with ruling elites. Christ kept the practices of orthodox Jews-praying three times daily, observing high holidays and Shabbot-then mocking the religious elite as two-faced oppressors of the poor.
The Jesus I never knew in Sunday school was a fierce advocate for those in poverty-the dispossessed women in the streets and the beggars in the dust. He healed and loved them. He even said they’re blessed-they’d be the first in heaven. That brings us to John 9 today. Walking along, he gets a trick question from his 12 disciples. The Jesus I never knew understood cultural injustice-especially to the disadvantaged. Religious temple priests taught that poverty and disability came from sin. Jesus didn’t believe it. Here’s their trick question-This blind man in the dust has been begging all his life. Who committed his sin, Jesus-his parents or the blindman? You can see the hackles on Jesus rise. He contradicts. “No one has sinned by being born different.” In fact, this blind man is blessed-“Born so Gods works can be revealed through him!” Then, the only place in the Gospel-Jesus makes a medicine to cure blindness. The ancients called it a poultice-mud mixed with his saliva and a blessing. Have faith Christ says, “Go to the spring underneath Jerusalem called Sent and wash my medicine from your eyes. For you are sent to be a light to those blinded by power and wealth-those who oppressed you since birth.”
That’s not the end of the story. There’s really two stories here-the blind man who sees the light and the blinded people around him thinking they truly see. The blind man who sees is ridiculed for being healed-mocked as a disciple of Christ by his neighbors and the religious scholars who witnessed the miracle. “How were your eyes opened?” they shout at him. Only Jesus receives him as the one sent from God. Here’s both a parable and a warning for blind humanity. Listen as Jesus turns to speak to the crowd. “Work the works of the one who sent us while it is still light. For night is coming where no one can work.” Jesus adds “As long as I’m in the world, I am the light of the world. Later, you must be salt and light in the world.”
Let’s close with healing. We all need medicine in this crisis. We need healing for our blindness. Why was Jesus so concerned with humanities blindness? What does it mean to be blind? The dictionary says it’s something hindering sight or keeping out light, causing a lack of discernment or consciousness. Does this sound familiar right now? Jesus went on about blindness-the second part of this story. He said “I came into this world for judgement so that those who do not see may see and those who do see may become blind.” Have you ever been blinded by the light? Jesus uses the word judgement here-I don’t like to be judged. Only mean people judge- right? Wrong. We all do it. We blind ourselves by judging our circumstances. We blind ourselves by watching a world in crisis-but forgetting to watch for God. He calls for humility-admitting our blindness so we can truly see. It’s time to see the light. Jesus demands we look beyond the obvious-see people and events in a new way-with compassion. He says, look again. You may realize the world is blind-but with God, all things are possible. May it be so for you this week. Be well, be healed. Allelujah and Amen.