Introduction to the Sermon on the Mount

We’ve just been through a series of sermons on glimpses of Jesus, mostly focusing on events in Jesus’ life, giving us the opportunity to see the way Jesus operates -- healing the sick, raising the dead, going out of his way to help the needy, comforting the shaken, and shaking up the comfortable. And we hope that these glimpses of Jesus have made him attractive to you, and made you curious about he might have to say! So this morning, we’re kicking off another series of sermons, this one focusing on Jesus’ teaching. In particular, we are going to do a high-level walk-through of what is called the Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew chapters 5-7. This morning, we will have an introduction and consider the first part of Matthew chapter 5.

But before we get there, let’s set the stage a bit. Here, in the fifth chapter of Matthew, we have some of the first public words of Jesus presented to us in the New Testament. But not exactly the first public words. Those are found in verse 17 of chapter 4, where we read: “From that time on Jesus began to preach [with these words], ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.’ or, perhaps better, ‘Change your way of thinking, for the kingdom of heaven is near.’”

Now to help us understand what Jesus is trying to say, let’s consider the historical context of his words. As you likely know, the land of Israel has been a very strategic one throughout history. On a narrow strip of land between the Mediterranean Sea and the desert, the people of Israel found themselves again and again the victims of powerful conquering armies. Early on, there were the Assyrians; then came the Babylonians; then the Persians; then the Greeks. Now at that point in history, the Jewish people recovered their pride for almost a hundred years. But then along came the Roman armies; and nobody could hold out against the Romans. So for as long as anyone could remember, the land was being overrun by foreign kingdoms roughly once every hundred years or so. And if that pattern was going to continue, the land was just about due for another conquest… just when Jesus arrived on the scene, saying, “Change your way of thinking, for [a new Kingdom is coming! T]he Kingdom of Heaven is near.”

When a massive army comes and overruns your homeland, you know that your plans are going to get disrupted. Don’t count on any of your investments. Dividends? Forget about them. The currency you’ve been using? Worthless. When any new kingdom took over, the people would need to do some “repenting” -- that is, some serious life-rearrangement. And this, of course, is what Jesus is telling us. This is what John the Baptist was telling us. This is the message that Jesus gave his seventy-two disciples when he sent them out to heal and preach. The Kingdom of Heaven -- the Kingdom of God -- is coming. And we better get ready for it. It is going to radically change your life whether you like it or not!

Now you might say, “all that ancient history is interesting and all, but what has this to do with me?” But you see, the kingdoms of this world aren’t just the political kingdoms -- they also include the personal kingdoms. Our domains of control, our spheres of influence, our possessions, our investments, our families, our careers, our hobbies, our recreation, or even our wardrobe -- these often represent personal kingdoms, which could very well be in competition -- and perhaps even in conflict! -- with the Kingdom of Heaven!

Unfortunately, churches and Christians throughout history have been altogether too quick to imagine that they have “made it”: that they are entirely in the center of God’s will, and doing precisely what God wants them to do. But when Paul tells us to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling”, he does so knowing that there are continual risks and challenges in the process. And when the Son of Man in Revelation tells the church in Ephesus to repent, and the church in Pergamum to repent, and the ones in Thyatira and Sardis and Laodicea all to repent, it should be a clue to us that this business of repentance -- this business of “thinking differently” -- should become a habit, something as natural to a healthy Christian life as breathing.

If we ever imagine ourselves to be beyond repentance, then we find ourselves in particular need of... repentance! And if we think that having a full-time job, getting married, raising 2.5 kids, and attending church regularly represents participation in the Kingdom of God, Jesus may well be telling us to think differently this morning.

Change your way of thinking, for the kingdom of heaven is near.

At the end of this amazing book, in the book of Revelation, we see the progress of the Kingdom of Heaven reaching its inevitable conclusion (Rev 11:15):

The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said:

“The kingdom[s] of this world [have now] become

  the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah,

  and he will reign for ever and ever.”

God has plans for the world, and His plan will always succeed. The Kingdoms of this world (including all of our personal concerns!) are on their way out! God’s Kingdom -- that is, the activity of God in the world and the working out of His plans -- is the only one that will last. And this is the Kingdom that is front and center when we come to Chapter 5, where we read:

Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. He said:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Now before we go any further, I’m afraid that we need to deal with a linguistic problem. What is this word “blessed”, anyway? It really isn’t a word we ever encounter outside of church -- and that’s the problem.

This word translated “blessed” is the Greek word μακάριος (makarios). And perhaps the closest that we can come to translating makarios today is using the word “happy”. But “happy” is such a shallow, diluted, weak-sauce kind of word. It really doesn’t come close to capturing what Jesus is really expressing. We have all experienced “happy”. And we all know that it can come and go. Sometimes, it can go as fast as it comes. But that isn’t the kind of “happy” that Jesus is talking about here. Instead, Jesus wants to do w-a-y more for us than just make us “happy”. This “blessedness” that Jesus is talking about involves fulfillment, serenity, and wholeness. He’d like to give us that living water, that will well up inside of each of us to eternal life. Yeah: eternal happiness. As Peter read for us last week, His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. (Daniel 7:14)

But to better understand what Jesus is saying, I’d like to briefly return to the historical context... I’ve already told you that the people listening to Jesus were all-too-familiar with being overrun by foreign armies. And they were also familiar with the behavior of conquering kings. After a victorious campaign, a typical earthly king would gather the representatives of his newly-subjugated people, and with his armies standing behind him he would address those representatives with words such as these:

Blessed are the rich, for they will partner with us to rebuild your country.

Blessed are the well-connected, for they will be given the opportunity to govern.

Blessed are the influential, for they will be given positions of responsibility.

And by doing so, this earthly king would be telling his new subjects about himself: what he values, his priorities, and how it is that others can become part of his inner circle. And smart people would pay close attention. But what about those who weren’t rich, or well-connected, or influential? Well, they wouldn’t panic. They would simply try to establish friendships with those who were, ministering to them, and in so doing, they contributing to the king’s plans and purposes. Obviously, when a conquering Kingdom has established itself, you want to find yourself on the right side of power. And understanding the priorities of the new King is the best way to do that. Now, the people listening to Jesus had heard all this type of thing before. And it is in the context of these kinds of addresses that Jesus utters these game-changing words:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven!

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

How different from the typical earthly King! Obviously, the values expressed by this King are the polar opposite of those of earthly kings. But just as important, this coming Heavenly King is giving us clues as to how to align ourselves with the coming Power ahead of time -- that is, before the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Messiah has eliminated the Kingdoms of this world. What a gift to us! How very gracious of him! To be given the opportunity to pay attention to change our way of thinking, to change course, redirecting our energies and resources in service to the coming King, before it is too late!

And remember: Jesus is telling us about the coming King. The King’s priorities. What kind of people are the King’s kind of people. And this King seems to be concerned for all those whom the rest of the world has overlooked, doesn’t he? That certainly describes the “meek”, anyway. Now if you don’t immediately recognize yourself on Jesus list of those close to the heart of the King of Heaven -- don’t panic! Instead, set aside some time to minister to the mourning, the poor, or the hungry. And in so doing you will be an agent of the Kingdom of Heaven.

You might also have noticed that the King of Heaven does not seem to be at all concerned about anything political. After all, the poor, the meek, the hungry, and the persecuted are simply those who are on the margins of political life, aren’t they? Now while it might be tempting to say that there isn’t anything particularly religious here, either, that could only be true if we consider religion the way the Pharisees did -- as a movement, as a deep social identity, or as a means of control. Instead, those that Jesus singles out as being close to the heart of the King of Heaven are entirely in alignment with the definition of religion that we find in James:

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (James 1:27)

After all, the orphans and widows -- those are the poor and the meek. And the merciful and the peacemakers are those who look after them. The pure in heart and those who prioritize righteousness are simply doing their best to avoid being polluted by the world. It is very much like James has taken the time to gather the common elements in Jesus’ beatitudes to help him arrive at his definition of “pure religion”.

So what have we got? On the one hand, we have a firm personal moral agenda. That’s what it is to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. That’s what it is to be pure in heart. That’s what it is to hunger and thirst after righteousness -- even to the point of being willing to suffer for it. But on the other hand, we have a gracious and generous position toward the rest of the world. That’s what it is to be a peacemaker. That’s what it is to be merciful. That’s what it is to be meek. That’s what would motivate us to look after orphans and widows.

A firm personal morality, and a grace toward the world. These are the characteristics of the citizens of the coming Kingdom. But that isn’t a very popular message in some churches these days. After all, it feels that the world is pushing us to keep our beliefs to ourselves, to drive us to the margins of public life, and that isn’t very comfortable at all. In fact, it sometimes feels quite a bit like persecution.

But it is almost as if Jesus anticipates this objection, doesn’t he? In verses 12 and 13, he repeats the last beatitude for clarity and emphasis:

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Sure, the nations can (and will) rage in vain, continually seeking to disqualify and discredit and marginalize and even persecute God’s people. But they don’t understand that Heaven operates on fundamentally different principles than they do, and that God has decreed victory not only in spite of -- but perhaps even because of -- that very persecution. Remember those haunting words of Jesus, found in all four of the gospels as many as six times:

[W]hoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.

And as Paul writes:

[W]e declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (1 Cor 2:7,8)

You see, Jesus didn’t just give us this mind-blowing teaching and then leave us to fend for ourselves. He demonstrated the principles himself. He showed in his life and death and resurrection that a poor carpenter on the margins of “civilization”, condemned by the authorities, rejected by the religious establishment, executed in the most degrading way possible, leaving only a ragtag band of outcasts for followers, could change the course of history for the good and establish an eternal Kingdom of righteousness and justice. Yes: even bringing justice for the poor, and the hungry and the persecuted, and the disenfranchised.

And by conquering death once and for all, Jesus demonstrates that the things that consume us and the things that concern us are trivial matters from a heavenly perspective. Let’s change our way of thinking this morning, and begin again to be more serious about our commitment to the coming kingdom and its heavenly King. In closing, please listen, once again, to Paul’s reminder of what that looks like (Philippians 2:5-11):

...have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

His Kingdom is coming. It will not fail. Let’s align ourselves with the coming King of Heaven this morning. Change your way of thinking! The Kingdom of Heaven is near.

Distracted by the Law

Distracted by the Law -- October 30, 2016

On the face of it, it seems like a simple story -- another healing in Jesus’ catalog of healings. But there is so much here beneath the surface. You’ve heard of the three R’s in school (Reading, wRiting, and ’Rithmetic), well, there are three R’s in this story, too. And I hope to convince you that these three R’s represent the three stages of the Christian life. Do you want to take your Christian experience to the next level this morning? Perhaps this story will give you the clues you need to do exactly that.

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As our story begins, Jesus encounters ten people suffering greatly from what was likely the most frightening disease in recorded history, but by the end of the story, they have been made entirely well. And so the first of this morning’s R’s -- is the Remedy.

As you likely know, up until very recently, leprosy was incurable, deadly, insidious, and mysteriously contagious. You didn’t know that you had it until it was too late, and its discovery was a death sentence. And that death wasn’t going to be a “short sharp shock”, either. It was a long and lingering suffering. And that suffering wasn’t just a physical one. It was also a social one. Lepers were invariably cast out from society, and left to fend for themselves.

The primary effect of leprosy is nerve damage. The first sign of the problem is the inability to feel pain. Now at first this might not seem to be a bad thing. But when you don’t know that your finger is cut open, and you don’t know that that cut has become infected, the end result is often the loss of that finger, with a disgusting putrid smell to go along with it. A leper’s experience often involved a great deal of disfigurement to hands, and feet and face. How much better to be sensitive to pain!

And so it is no surprise that leprosy has often been compared to sin, as its effects are so similar. Sin’s infection in our lives might also starts small -- perhaps even barely noticeable. But sin also desensitizes us, making it easier and easier to not notice its effects. Sin, too, represents a long and lingering suffering causing irreparable damage to our souls and to our relationships. Sin, too, distorts our very image. Finally, sin is also a sentence of death. As Paul writes in Romans 7: Oh wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from this body of death? But isn’t it marvelous that he is also able to write the very next verse: Thanks be to God [who delivers me] through Jesus Christ our Lord! Yes: it is only through Jesus that we can find the Remedy; only through Jesus can we find God’s wholeness.

And Jesus would like to provide the Remedy for us this morning, too! Just like these lepers, he wants to set us free from our sins, forgiving us and cleansing us, and starting us on the path to become the person we were meant to be. If we would like Jesus to provide the Remedy for us, we could hardly do better than using the words that the lepers used: “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” I’m convinced that these words, uttered sincerely, will never be ignored! At the same time, Jesus doesn’t usually answer in the way we expect, does he? And there may be a bit of a surprise in his healing of the ten lepers, too.

After all, what does Jesus do in order to heal these men? Does Jesus touch them…? Well, no.. Does he pray for them…? Well, no he doesn’t do that either. So what does he do? He just tells them to go show themselves to the priests. Now while this might be a bit of a “what’s up with that?” thing for us, this was a really big deal in the context of the first century. You see, Jesus is sending the lepers to the priests in keeping with Leviticus 14. And what a fascinating passage that is! It starts with these words:

Leviticus 14:1 - Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing.”

Sure enough. In the book of Leviticus, Moses had been given laws for all manner of life situations. Chapters of instruction about sacrifices, chapters on dietary restrictions. There are chapters on the habits of the priests, and chapters on lawful sexual relations. Chapters on festivals, and chapters on commerce. But here, right in the middle of the book (chapter 14 out of 27 chapters -- it really is the central chapter of the book!), there are thirty-two verses of detailed instruction concerning what a person is to do if they are healed from leprosy. That’s almost four percent of the entire text of Leviticus! So it must be important, right? Only one problem: since the days that these instructions were written down to the days of Jesus, there had never been an opportunity to put them into practice!

So when the nine former lepers arrived at the priest, he very likely had to look the matter up in Leviticus. It certainly wasn’t something that he had any experience with. The ceremony involved finding two birds, killing one of them, and letting its blood spill into an earthenware bowl of water. Then the other bird, along with a length of scarlet yarn, a branch of hyssop, and a stick of cedarwood would be dipped in the water and the blood, and sprinkled seven times on the man who had been healed. And then the living bird was to be released to fly away. Then the healed leper was to wash all his clothes and shave his head and have sacrifices made on his behalf. It was quite an involved procedure.

But in all of recorded history, and in all of oral tradition, there simply had never been a post-law Israelite leper having been healed. Sure, there was Miriam, Moses sister. But she was healed of her leprosy before the law was given. And then there was also Naaman, but he wasn’t an Israelite. So what do we make of this remarkable fact that Moses provided the ‘law of the leper’ right in the heart of the book of Leviticus, but that that law was “dormant” -- it was simply never used for around 1500 years?

Well, regardless of what we make of it, I can tell you what the Rabbis made of it. The Jewish teachers who took David’s words to heart, and meditated on God’s law day and night -- when they looked at this ‘law of the leper’ in the context of the rest of the Hebrew scriptures, they concluded that this law was finally going to be used when the Messiah came! That’s right: long before Jesus’ arrival on the scene, the Rabbis were convinced that one of the signs of the Messiah’s arrival would be that this law -- ‘the law of the leper’ -- would finally be used. And every educated Jew would have known that.

So any Jewish person hearing this gospel for the first time in those early centuries would get a serious case of goosebumps at the point where Jesus says “go, show yourself to the priests.” It would be a moment of “w-o-a-h”. But it would have been an even bigger deal for the former lepers, of course. Can you picture the conversation that they would have had? Clearly, these men came to Jesus with intent: “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” they cried. They had an inkling of what Jesus could do for them. And then can you imagine the excitement when Jesus tells them to go show themselves to the priests? This would have been a validation for them: they had thought that he could help, but now Jesus is telling them that he is, indeed, the Messiah.

But, oh! What about the discovery that they had been healed. Can you put yourselves in their shoes and feel the elation. But then… then one of them realizes that they have been put in a bit of a bind -- they are now in a conflict situation: as you recall, the text told us that Jesus was “on his way”. And the priests were likely “out of the way” (that is, perhaps in a nearby town). That would mean that by the time they made it to the priests, and participated in the requirements of the law (which, as we just saw, were anything but trivial), that Jesus would have been long gone by the time they were done. They were walking away from the Messiah!

And so there would have been a bit of a discussion about this. I don’t know what you might have done if you were in their shoes, but I know what I would have done. If I was a leper, and someone gave me instructions, and in the process of obeying those instructions I became healed from my leprosy, wild horses couldn’t keep me from following through on those instructions to the very end. I would have certainly gone all the way to the priests with nine of those men.

But the twist in this story; the surprise -- the shock, even -- is that the majority, those who (like me) were inclined to dutifully follow the law -- indeed: those that obeyed the words of Jesus by going to the priests -- they don’t seem to receive Jesus approval. It is outsider, the outcast, the marginalized who wins Jesus approval. “Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” he asks. Let’s attempt to make sense of this remarkable situation this morning.

And the best way to explain this is by way of showing the contrast between our two remaining R words. On the one hand, nine out of ten of these lepers knew that going to the priest was the right thing to do. After all, in verse twenty of Leviticus chapter fourteen, it says, “and the priest shall make atonement for him and he shall be clean.” and, of course, back in that culture to be clean was to be good. You see, as much as we might be inclined to make a distinction between the moral law and the ceremonial law today, the Bible makes no such distinction at all. Jesus makes no such distinction. Paul makes no such distinction. As far as they are all concerned, the law is the law is the law. Or, using a word that begins with R -- the law is a Ritual.

Now for some of us, the word “ritual” isn’t a nice one. But for first century Jews (and many Jews and Christians since), Ritual was morality. After all, law-keeping just is Ritual. And Ritual was a means to stability; it represented the established order of things. To follow the law’s prescribed rituals was to find oneself to be a full participant in society. And these ten lepers knew that by this means, they, too could regain their place in the Jewish community, having been excluded for so long.

But I said “ten” didn’t I? Perhaps only nine. Because one of those healed lepers was an outcast for two separate reasons. First, he was a leper like the rest of them, but second, he was also a Samaritan. And as a Samaritan -- someone who, through no fault of his own, had Gentile blood in his veins --  he could never be welcomed back into the community of Israel, because he was never welcomed there in the first place.

And somehow, perhaps even because of the fact that he was an outcast, this Samaritan was able to see the situation more clearly than the other nine. Our first R this morning is Remedy -- many people find help and even wholeness in following Jesus’ teaching. Our second R is Ritual. Everyone who has ever encountered Jesus correctly recognizes that there are moral implications in Jesus’ redemption, and that usually translates into being more careful about behaving according to God’s instructions. But in our text this morning, it would seem that the majority can be so distracted by those moral implications, that they miss out on the third and final R, namely, Relationship.

You see, the dynamic that we see in our text this morning is a lot like the dynamic that exists in so many churches throughout the world. Too often, we are tempted to imagine that the point of the Remedy is the Ritual. We imagine that the purpose of being cleansed is to be clean. We imagine that “the straight and narrow” isn’t actually leading anywhere, but that just being on that path is good enough.

Here’s the thing: the law -- that is, ritual and morality -- helps communities function. Ritual has value in bringing us together and making a strong community. That’s as it should be. That’s a good thing. And for many people, church just is society. And the established means to enter and function in church societies is one of Ritual, one of morality -- being a law-abiding member. But if we get distracted by our place in that community, when we begin to consider our status in society -- even a church society -- as the goal, then we can totally miss out on the reality of a relationship with Jesus.

We know that Ritual can clash with Relationship. Let’s face it: one of our shared rituals is to attend church on Sunday mornings. Some of us add to that ritual, and make sure to attend church… on time. Some even add to that, and make sure to tidy up and wear good clothes to church. But anyone who has ever been the parent of small children knows that ritual can sometimes clash with even the most important relationships. Or, to consider another example, imagine attempting to make a change to some aspect of the church service. Relationships would almost certainly suffer for it.

For the majority of those cleansed by Jesus -- nine out of ten in the present case -- ritual took priority over relationship, and society took priority over salvation. They just didn’t seem to get it. Like the church in Colosse, they needed someone to remind them:

Colossians 2:16,17  Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day [i.e., a ritual!]. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

And Jesus says to these people:

John 5:39,40 - “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”

So Jesus uses the Samaritan as an object lesson for us, to shake us up a bit, and to take us (if we are willing) to the next level -- to take us from clean (having experienced the Remedy) to whole (experiencing Relationship). And aren’t Jesus words interesting in this context? “Were not all ten made clean?” he asks. You see: it really wasn’t following the thirty-two verses of ritual that made those lepers clean. It was their encounter with Jesus.  

And our text leaves us with the very distinct impression that this Samaritan, by putting his relationship with Jesus before the legal requirements of the law had chosen the “better portion” (just like Mary did last week). Indeed, that was also the lesson for us in the story of Mary and Martha, wasn’t it? Martha was caught up in the Ritual (with its elements of power and status in the household), while Mary was focused on the Relationship.

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So how do we go about developing a relationship with Jesus. Pretty basic question. And so important. But the Biblical answer might surprise you. After all, if we want to know what it is to have a relationship with Jesus, it makes sense that the first thing that we should do is to listen to what Jesus says about having a relationship with him. Please listen carefully to Jesus words:

Matthew 25:31 ...when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; 33 and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.

34 “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’

These are the marks of a real relationship, aren’t they: caring about someone enough to think of their hunger, to think of their cold and their discomfort and their loneliness. And Jesus makes it clear that “all nations” will be judged on this basis. Do I indeed have this kind of relationship with him? I don’t know about you, but this teaching makes me really insecure. But Jesus continues:

Matthew 25:37 Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38 And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’

Oh my! I wasn’t the only insecure one. It certainly seems like these, the righteous, the blessed of the Father, the inheritors of the kingdom, they are also insecure of their relationship with the King -- even though it is clear that it is this very relationship that establishes their standing in the Kingdom! But now Jesus gives us the punchline:

Matthew 25:40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

Here, then, is Jesus own prescription for having a relationship with him: care about his brothers and sisters. And not just the fun ones, or the bright ones, or the popular ones, or even the good ones, either. Care about the needs of the “least” -- the outcasts, those on the margins. And by developing a relationship with them, Jesus assures us, we are developing a relationship with Jesus himself.

But there is such a strong tendency for Christians to become stuck at Ritual, without ever making it to Relationship. This is quite natural, of course! After all, following Ritual is naturally status-conferring. It makes us look good. But the need to look good often keeps us from engaging in relationship, doesn’t it? It particularly keeps us from engaging in relationship with the least of Jesus’ brothers and sisters, which can often feel like it takes more humility than we have at the moment. So are we willing to be humble enough to develop those relationship this morning? It isn’t easy. And it isn’t comfortable. But please listen to Jesus words one more time: “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Jim Dixon writes: “Instead of reaching out to the people Jesus wants us to care for, we isolate and protect ourselves from them, building barriers that prevent us from having any contact.” No doubt we have good reasons to behave that way. It is “safer” for our children; it takes vastly less energy; and it is far more comfortable to use the resources that we have to cater to ourselves -- or at a minimum engage them on our own terms. But whether we like it or not, we can’t escape the fact that our lives will be judged on our ability to extend ourselves beyond that comfort zone.

I believe that most people here have experienced at least a little of Jesus’ Remedy in your lives. If you haven’t, you don’t know what you are missing! Freedom from sin is true freedom. But the point of the Remedy is not the Ritual. The point of the Remedy is Relationship with Jesus. In fact, the Ritual is intended to reveal the Relationship -- not to replace it. Let’s take our spiritual lives to the next level this morning, and meet with Jesus in the way that he himself has recommended. May we, too, be greeted into the Kingdom with those wonderful words: “Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you.”

An Awkward Walk Down the Street

The Bible says:

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” James 1:22

Now in the time that Jesus lived, the Rabbis had come to the conclusion that when the Messiah came, he would be known by performing certain miracles. One of those was the healing of a Jewish leper. After all, the law records detailed instructions for what someone was to do if they had been healed of leprosy -- but since the law was recorded, not a single Jewish leper had had the opportunity to make use of those special laws. So the Rabbis had concluded that the Messiah would change all that -- that he would be able to heal a leper. And, sure enough, Jesus heals a leper in Luke chapter 5.

But another of the miracles expected of the Messiah was to heal a man born blind. This was partly based on an understanding of Isaiah 35:5 “then will the eyes of the blind be opened.” Over the years, blind people had recovered their sight occasionally, and the Rabbis were convinced that Isaiah’s prophecy was uniquely Messianic, so they reached the conclusion that while anyone empowered by God could heal someone who had gone blind, only the Messiah could heal a man born blind. We see this reflected in the discussion that takes place after the fact (verse 32): “Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind.” A bit later, we’ll come back to the implications of this.

Today, we are going to have another glimpse of Jesus -- this one from the book of John. And it starts one day when Jesus and his disciples were visiting the temple in Jerusalem. At the end of chapter eight, we discover that Jesus had caused great offence among some of the religious people of the day, and they were intent on punishing him as a blasphemer. And the Bible says that he slipped away from the temple grounds. But on his way out (and this is where chapter nine begins) Jesus and his disciples walked past a beggar. Asking for money, there, just outside the temple, was a blind man. Now the Bible doesn’t explain how they knew, but the disciples seemed to know that this man was born blind. Maybe he had a sign: “born blind – please help.” Perhaps he made his history known in the hopes of receiving more charity. We don’t know.

Now when we’re exposed to suffering, it is only human to ask “why?” Have you ever asked God “why me?” When one’s life falls apart, it is the most natural question to ask! We want to know, don’t we? But here the disciples are asking the similar, compassionate question: instead of “why me?” they are asking “why him?” Why was this man born blind? This will be the first of a number of questions that we will ask this morning. Why was this man born blind?

Like most people that ask good questions, the disciples started searching for what the answer to their question might be. One of them wondered out loud, “Is he blind because he sinned?” Now it would seem a little strange if the man was being punished in such a severe manner for sins committed before he was even born! But imagine for a moment how the blind man feels as the disciples are offering up these ideas in front of him. After all, he’s blind, not deaf!  He’s been poor, and blind, and suffering for many years. And these strangers add insult to injury by suggesting that his suffering is his own fault! He likely knows that he isn’t perfect, but he also senses that their answer just isn’t right.

Another one of the disciples, perhaps sensing the difficulty in this position, had an alternative idea: perhaps the man was born blind because of the sins of his parents. Of course, this idea also has some difficulties. It seems strange to be punished for someone else’s sin!

But we should be grateful that the Bible doesn’t just leave us with the disciples’ ideas about why this man was born blind. Even those closest to Jesus can have crazy ideas sometimes. Even those who walk with him daily can interpret life in mixed up ways -- particularly when it comes to interpreting the events in other people’s lives! But I’m glad that the Bible records Jesus’ response to the question “why?” in order to set his disciples straight. And this is it (this is so great!): “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” What an awesome answer to a difficult question: “… so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”

This morning, I’d like to suggest to you that this is the reason for whatever difficulties that you might be going through, too. I’ll grant that I don’t know the details; I haven’t walked in your shoes; I can’t and I won’t claim to understand how difficult life might be for you. But I am still going to be so bold as to claim that the reason for any difficulties you might be going through or even any difficulties you might go through in the future is precisely “so that the work of God might be displayed in your life!” God is the master of bringing victory out of tragedy. God wants to work in your life too.

Now that doesn’t mean that we will achieve victory in all matters. Sure, the blind man in our story is eventually healed (should I have given a spoiler warning?), but by the end of the chapter he has also been kicked out of the synagogue and even his parents don’t want to talk to him. The form that God wants His work to be displayed in our lives might very well surprise us. But just knowing that God wants to work in our lives can be incredibly empowering!

In 1946, the psychiatrist Victor Frankl published a book called Man’s Search for Meaning. He had been an inmate in German concentration camps, including Auschwitz, during the war. And while he was there, he observed weak and sickly men survive years of punishing hardship, but he also observed strong, healthy men enter the camp, only to shrivel up and die in a very short time. And the book he wrote was his answer to the fascinating question: what gives human beings the inner strength to struggle on even in the face of the worst life has to offer? His answer (it is in the title)? Meaning. After talking to many of the survivors, he concluded that those who believed that there was purpose in their experience were not only able to survive, but to enjoy life’s blessings (little though they may be) along the way.

“This happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” Here, almost two thousand years ahead of his time, Jesus is giving meaning to all we will ever go through.

And these aren’t just empty words, either -- they aren’t just to make us feel better as life’s tragedies overwhelm us -- Jesus proves his words in his actions. What did he do? He spat on the dusty trail. He bent down, and made some mud out of the dust there on the ground, and put the mud on the blind man’s eyes. Then, he told the blind man to get up and to go down the street, past the market, beyond the synagogue, and then wash the mud off in the pool of Siloam. And in our text, we read these remarkable words, almost hidden near the end of verse seven: “So the man went and washed and came home seeing.”

Talk about understatement! If Hollywood were to produce this story, that half-verse would be done in slow motion accompanied by spectacular music. Here was a man who had never seen light. He had never seen color. He had never seen clouds, or birds flying overhead. He had never seen what it was that he was touching. He had never seen a smile! And now… now a whole new world was open to him! But the light that suddenly flooded into this man’s eyes, amazing as it was, is just a symbol of the Light of the World that needs to come and illuminate every aspect of our lives.

For now, we have a man born blind obeying Jesus and being healed of blindness. But let’s back up a bit and consider the process. How did the blind man get to the pool in the first place? Or to put it another way, “Why did this man do what he was told?” After all, there was no promise of healing in our story; Jesus doesn’t say “go wash and you will be healed.” He just says “go wash.”

It reminds us of the story of the great catch of fish, doesn’t it? The disciples had been fishing all night, and they had caught nothing. Jesus arrives and tells them “throw your nets on the other side of the boat”. Jesus doesn’t tell them what the result will be. He doesn’t promise them any reward. He doesn’t assure them of the future. He just says “throw”, and they can either ignore his words, be content with the life that they are living -- as shallow and unfulfilling as it is -- or they can follow him into a whole new world of amazing.

Same with the blind man in our story. He can sit where he is, unable to see for himself, satisfied with eking out an existence by the charity of others, or he can listen to Jesus, and have his eyes open to a life that he never imagined. Same with us. God has his ways of whispering to each one here this morning. Are we satisfied with the status quo? Are we willing to struggle against the inertia of gravity? Are we willing to exert ourselves in obedience?

In our case, we might like to have it all explained to us in detail. That’s how we’ve been brought up, after all. We want to know what it all means and how it all works. We want to have the future laid out for us. But the blind man wasn’t given that, was he? He was simply told “get up and go”. And he got up and went. And that’s after Jesus’ disciples made him feel uncomfortable. Do Jesus’ followers ever make you feel uncomfortable? He got up and went. And that’s after Jesus makes him look really odd by applying mud made of spit -- ew! -- to his eyes. Do you ever worry that obeying Jesus will make you look odd? He got up and went. And I’m sure that he was ever grateful that he did.

You know, one of the biggest gifts that we as a church could ever give to our young people would be to connect them with people who’ve come to the end of their long obedience to Jesus. I’ve talked to enough of them to tell you what they’d say. If you asked them, “Was it sometimes difficult?” They’d likely tell you, “yes!” If you asked them, “Was it sometimes uncomfortable?” They’d usually tell you, “yes!”. But if you asked them, “Was it worth it?” They would certainly tell you, “absolutely!”. That’s what life is like when God displays his work in people’s lives. He doesn’t take all the challenges away. But when you get to know him, the road of life is just so much more enjoyable.

But we’re not finished asking questions about our story this morning. I’ve got a couple more in store. What do you think: Did Jesus need the mud to heal the blind man? Of course not. Did Jesus need the pool of Siloam to effect the healing of this man’s eyes? Of course not! So why?! Why on earth would Jesus submit this poor handicapped man to such indignity? First, why the mud? Second, why the long walk?

In 2004, archaeologists found the ruins of the pool of Siloam in Jerusalem. It was about six hundred meters away from the temple. That’s five minutes of walking very quickly. When you can see to navigate through the crowds. And the route to take seems to be the major thoroughfare in Jerusalem. Think Leicester Square in London or Times Square in New York. It would have been teeming with people throughout the day. And it is through this crowd that Jesus asks this blind man to walk.

Now back in those days, the man would not have had a white stick to warn people that he was blind. Very likely, he would have been escorted to his begging spot by a family member in the morning, and escorted home at night. It might very well be the case that he has never walked any distance on his own -- particularly not through a hot and largely unsympathetic crowd. After all, people can often tell that a man is blind by looking at his eyes. But how do you imagine they respond to someone walking around with mud on their eyes? That’s just weird.

And six hundred meters is about the distance across Lake Wallace at Frontier Lodge. There, every summer, dozens of campers take up the challenge to swim across that lake for the prestige of wearing the coveted white gimp. It isn’t easy. Not everyone makes it. It can take a young swimmer almost twenty-five minutes of really pushing themselves to make it that far. I suspect that this blind man was considering giving up along the way almost as many times as some of those campers.

So again, “why?!” Well, I strongly suspect that Jesus didn’t ask the blind man to go through this obstacle course for him at all. I think that Jesus did this for us! That’s right: the blind man didn’t need the mud or the hike to the pool to be healed.  But we need to see them, we need to meditate on them, and to understand them.  Jesus was giving us a “living parable” – he was creating an illustration for us.

You see: everyone who has ever heard the words of Jesus -- including you, because you’ve heard his words this morning -- are like the blind man in the story. And every one of us are trying to work out just how much we need to be paying attention.

Some might decide not to bother -- you know, to ignore those words -- even though we know that when God displays his work in our lives, it will change us forever and for the better. Those people would be like a blind man who says “just give me money and leave me alone”. And for sure: some seem set on self-destruction, or at very least seem totally allergic to self-improvement. Perhaps the majority of humanity is like that. What a shame! God only wants the best for you. And while he knows that the path there might be uncomfortable, what’s waiting at the end of that long obedience is always worth it.

Others would be more aware of their need to be whole, and would get up and head down the hill to the pool. But on the way, they’d have to navigate their way through the market, where they would heard people making fun of them (and who likes to be made fun of?) they might feel -- just like the blind man -- that walking around on a hot day with mud covering your eyes and dripping off your face was crazy to begin with. And, embarrassed, they might take cover, clean themselves off, and decide to call it a day. The next day, of course, they would find themselves right back where they were today: begging for money at the temple, in spite of the fact that they had encountered the source of life and health himself. What a mistake. What a tragedy.

Others would get farther, they might make it as far as the bridge before the pool. But at that point, being blind and all, they might stumble and fall, or perhaps even worse, stub their toe. There is nothing like physical pain to make one re-think where one is going. And if they were anything like me, pain would make them really angry -- and that doesn’t help one think clearly, either. But at that stage, they’d be sorely tempted to decide that the whole thing really wasn’t worth the effort. Hey -- they can always go back to begging, right? They might be blind, but at least they are alive, right?

Finally, some -- perhaps not very many -- would make it as far as the pool. And not knowing at all what to expect -- after all, a man born blind has no idea what it is to see -- he might wash in the pool and… have a whole new world open up before him.

That’s what Jesus wants for you. Perhaps not today, perhaps not this week, perhaps not this year. But he is in the business of having God display His work in people’s lives. But here’s the thing. That’s only going to happen at the end of an obedience -- and for some people perhaps a long one.

But there is more to this story, isn’t there? Sure, the gospel writer gives us, “So the man went and washed and came home seeing.” But that was only in verse seven, and the story continues through to verse 41. If the expression is any indication, this big dramatic healing was no big deal. For the rest of the chapter, we see this man, formerly blind, now able to see, attempt to explain to the religious authorities how it must have been God who had done this miracle in his life. On their part, they’re skeptical. After all, Jesus didn’t operate in a manner that they approve of. He rarely does, actually. The displays of God’s work in the world are as often a surprise to the most religious as they are to the least.

But check out verse 35: ‘Jesus heard that they had thrown [the man who had been blind] out [of the synagogue], and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 “Who is he, sir?” the man asked.’ “who is he?” That means that this man didn’t even recognize Jesus. He certainly didn’t know him very well. But that becomes the climax of the story, doesn’t it? In verse 38, we read: “Then the man said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshiped him.” But as part of this living parable, Jesus wants us to appreciate that so much of God’s work can happen in our lives long before we get to know Jesus personally. But it is in that moment, when we come to recognize Jesus as our Lord and as our Savior, that we find the greatest fulfillment possible.

Now you might not feel that you know Jesus very well this morning. No matter. You might not feel like you’ve heard his words of instructions very clearly. Well, in that case, let me remind you of his words of instruction to the disciples -- words that he’d like you to consider for yourself: he simply says, “follow me.” That’s it: “follow me.” Now you might not know how seriously to take them. But I’ve got to tell you: nobody who has gone the distance has ever been disappointed. You might not know now what is at the end of that journey. But if you are brave enough, and smart enough, and diligent enough to follow him right to the end, then, and only then, will you discover the work of God displayed in your life. And like the blind man, it will open up a whole new world for you, too.