Our Redeemer Lutheran Church
Quincy, IL
Rev. Larry D. Troxel


The Fourth Sunday in Lent
Saturday, March 1, 2008 at 7:00 p.m.
Sunday, March 2, 2008 at 8:00 & 10:15 a.m.


“I Once Was Blind But Now I See”
(John 9:5, 25b, 39)

In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Have you ever said or thought that you could not and would not dare to talk to another person about Jesus and what you believe? If you have, and at one time or another most of us have thought or said such a thing, then the man born blind to whom Jesus gave sight is your hero, your great encouragement. This man, who had been an uneducated beggar for years, was the object of intense, hostile grilling by the opponents of Jesus. And by repeatedly speaking the truth in a simple way, he left them completely defeated. He spoke a simple confession of Jesus that grew more profound every time he spoke. Always the heart of what he said was the undeniable truth: “I once was blind but now I see.”¹

The miracle Jesus performed was extraordinary. “Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind.”² The only instance of which we know is this miracle which Jesus performed. In our own day, the removal of cataracts and their replacement with intra ocular artificial lenses has become commonplace. We thank God that He has allowed us to develop the equipment and techniques which permit the restoration of clear vision. In our day, laser-based treatments are used to repair damaged retinas. Drugs are used to counteract the effect of glaucoma, some forms of macular degeneration, and other impairments of the eyes and of vision. But I am not aware of any other instance of a person who was born blind being given his or her sight. The miracle which Jesus performed truly is extraordinary.

It is a demonstration of divine grace. There is no evidence that the man asked Jesus for such a miracle. In an act of divine grace Jesus took the initiative. He said, “We must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”³

Doing the work of God the Father who sent Jesus involved more than giving sight to the man who had been born blind. The work that God the Father had given Jesus to do in this blind man’s life reached its culmination when Jesus later found the man after the Pharisees had excommunicated him. Jesus completed His mission in the man’s life by asking him: “Do you believe in the Son of Man,”4 and then declaring, “You have seen Him, and it is He who is speaking to you.”⁵ In pure grace, Jesus removed the man’s physical blindness and also removed his spiritual blindness, replacing it with saving faith.

The miracle gives us a very clear understanding of what Christ Jesus has done for us. Holy Scripture testifies that every person is born spiritually blind. Scripture says, “The god of this world,” that’s Satan, “has blinded he minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”⁶ We are born spiritually blind, spiritually dead,⁷ and enemies of God.⁸ And in His pure grace, God the Holy Spirit works in us just as Jesus did with the man born blind. He comes to us without our asking. He comes to us through His Word and in Holy Baptism. He opens our eyes spiritually, gives us the new birth of water and the Spirit, gives us life that is new and eternal, and makes us children of God. Holy Scripture says, “God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’⁹ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”¹⁰ By God’s grace we are able to join with the man to whom Jesus gave sight and say, “I once was blind but now I see.”

Of course, there always are those who oppose the work of God, who deny any need for the gracious working of God in their lives. You and I meet people who closely resemble those Pharisees who attempted to deny the miracle that Jesus had done. There are those who are satisfied with their own wisdom and who maintain that they are the truly enlightened people of our world. There are those who want to avoid any kind of personal responsibility for themselves and their actions. Rejecting any need for God, they claim to be truly free, free to do whatever is pleasing to them. One of the great driving forces behind the religion of evolution is the desire to escape any sense of accountability before a just and holy God.

These people reject our confession of faith. They reject our personal witness that we once were blind but now, by the grace of God for us in Christ Jesus, we see. It is not merely in the realm of politics that Christ-centered Scriptural Christianity is maligned and Christians are regarded as a real danger to freedom. We work among people who have such an attitude. We live in neighborhoods among people who have such an attitude.

The really sad fact is that just as spiritually dead people do not realize that they are dead, so also spiritually blind people don’t realize that they are blind. Jesus spoke of that in His concluding remarks to the Pharisees. “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” Jesus brought the light of salvation into our lives through His Word and Sacraments. But those who refuse His gracious working, those who claim that they have their own spirituality apart from Jesus and His redeeming life, death, and resurrection, remain spiritually blind.

It goes back to what the man said to whom Jesus gave sight. “I once was blind but now I see.” He admitted his original condition and he confessed the results of Jesus’ redeeming work in him. That remains our admission and our confession. It is no wonder, then, that so many of us love the hymn “Amazing Grace.”

What Jesus said remains His mission and the mission He has given us still today. “We must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.” We do that work by faithfully teaching His Word and administering His Sacraments. We do that work by our own personal witness, which can be as simple as the words “I once was blind but now I see.” Our witness is what we teach our children and grandchildren in our homes. Our witness is >the invitation we speak for others to join us in worship and in Bible study. And just as that once-blind man became more bold and confident as he repeated his witness to the Pharisees, so God the Holy Spirit will work such boldness and confidence in us.

We must be doing the work Jesus have given us to do while we still have the opportunity to do it. For Jesus has told us that the time will come when we will not be able to do it. He will draw our lives to their close. Or the opportunity we now have may not continue to be available to us. So speak your word of witness and invitation to the people you know. Continue to pray every day at Noon about the matters related to our calling of an additional pastor. As you speak to others, you can count on two great promises that Jesus has made. Jesus promises, “The one who hears you hears Me.”¹¹ And He promises, “Do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.”¹²

“I once was blind but now I see.” Rejoice in what the grace of God has accomplished in you. And rejoice in the opportunities that God gives you to share your witness with others. Amen.

1. John 9:25b
2. John 9:32
3. John 9:4–5
4. John 9:35
5. John 9:37
6. 2 Corinthians 4:4; see also 1 Corinthians 2:14
7. Ephesians 2:1, 5
8. Romans 8:7
9. Genesis 1:3
10. 2 Corinthians 4:6
11. Luke10:16
12. Matthew 10:19–20

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