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S. Lent 4.26 John 9

‘He said, Lord, I believe…’

We were talking last week about my hypothesis that everyone knows who Jesus is!—the One, True God come in our flesh to save us from ourselves, from our sins. I’ve always thought Jesus is recognized instantly by everyone he encounters and that the Samaritan woman at the well, though she argues with Jesus, recognizes him right away, too…

So why doesn’t she believe? Seems to me it’s pride, her inability to admit she’s gotten the whole God-thing wrong (being brainwashed by that Samaritan BS religion) that gets her arguing with instead of worshiping Jesus 😉

Today we get the best supporting actor in John’s Gospel, the man born blind. He has a double-great trait in common with the Samaritan woman which I value highly: a smart mouth, employing sarcasm to demonstrate the folly of the church leaders who also know Jesus is God but won’t confess it, preferring to persecute those who tell the truth…

So what is different about the man born blind (besides his smart mouth and a sense of humor? 😉 Why does he believe when everyone else doesn’t?

You know the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes, right? A very vain Emperor who spends lavishly on his wardrobe is deceived by a two conmen who promise to weave the Emperor a magnificent set of new clothes that are invisible to the ignorant and stupid. The “new clothes” are completely imaginary. The charlatans have the Emperor strip and describe in detail the beautiful silk of the robes and the trousers, the magnificent golden crown they pretend to put on him. And the Emperor is embarrassed to admit he can’t see anything there—because he doesn’t want to appear stupid! But his ministers and court (also embarrassed) join in praising the splendid new clothes…

So, the Emperor goes out and parades through the city and all his subjects, puzzled at first, get in line with the company line on the magnificence of the new clothes (today, I think you could substitute AI for “new clothes” and the parable would still work pretty good, but I digress). And everything is going pretty good, everyone is very pleased until a small boy says “But, he’s naked!” Those around him tell him to shut up. But he does not shut up. He says louder, “But there are no clothes! The Emperor is naked!”

Slowly, others in the crowd start to proclaim the Emperor is naked. But the Emperor just marches on, refusing to admit he’s been had. Hans Christian Anderson leaves it there. But I would guess the state police were sent out to round up the little boy and other truth-telling miscreants and send them to the gulag for re-education, till, pretty soon, everyone is walking around naked… 😉

I would say the man born blind is the boy from the Emperor’s New Clothes. But what makes the boy different? Well, to quote St. Exupery (another favorite of mine 😉 it’s because they both, like the Little Prince, have learned from the fox that “Only with the heart can one see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.”

When our hearts are right with God, they process the sense information correctly. But when our hearts are wrong—swayed by unbelief, lust, greed, pride—especially!, we do not see what is essential! We don’t even see the basic truths right in front of our faces but go along with one stupid shcheme after another so as not to appear stupid or out of step with the state-approved BS.

Sure glad that never happens in the church, today! [that’s uh, sarcasm, BTW! It happens all the time, especially when we insist that we need to help God with his work, whether it’s being carbon neutral to keep the earth from melting, or doing good works of penance to supplement Jesus’ inadequate work on the cross, or proselytizing to help the poor, feeble Holy Spirit call, gather, enlighten and sanctify the whole Christian church on earth—to mention just three examples].

So my Gospel takeaway today is that such disastrous failures to worship the One, True Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to let him ‘run all the verbs’ and to be happy being kites in his mighty Wind, blown about wherever and however he wishes is what causes all the stupidity and folly and evil in our sad world. Anyone who will not be a child-like subject of Jesus Christ, the One True God, is a stupid, evil slave of the devil who can do nothing good—small or great…

Since the world is even more rapidly than usual turning against the orthodox faith in Jesus Christ, that’s why things get exponentially worse with each passing year—with each exponentially more stupid scheme to run the world according to our mad delusions of grandeur.

Jesus says it is little children who get him. Because their hearts are open to see what is right in front of their face. But the persecution by church and state of the truth closes eyes—as we see comically with the Sanhedrin persecuting the man born blind—how they REFUSE to see what (ironically!) a blind man sees perfectly well: that the only one who can make eyes from mud is the One who first formed Adam from the dust and breathed the Spirit of Life into him!

It’s hearing the Word of Jesus that cleanses our hearts from sin and allows our hearts to see rightly what is essential, and to worship Jesus aright (in which worship is our eternal joy and peace). It takes some heart to stand up in front of the Sanhedrin and confess Jesus is LORD as the man born blind (or as Luther before the Diet of Worms, or as a parish pastor saying “No!” to the BS of the Synodocracy… 😉

And such heart is not in us by nature!

Nothing in us can produce such courageous faith, or such a smart mouth. But; God the Holy Spirit will put such a mouth on you, such a heart in you, to see God as he is, to make you like the Little Prince, like the boy in the Emperor’s New Clothes, like the man born blind, like Luther: seeing what is essential, holding that fast, no matter what the cost (just like you met interesting people in detention, so the Dostoyevskis and Solzhenitsyns and Luthers are typically found in the adjacent cell in the gulag 😉

“Purity of heart is to will one thing”—as another child-like Christian, Soren Kierkegaard once said. It is to will only what God wills, captivated by his love, his magnificent defeat on the cross in which is our life and joy. With such a heart, even our sufferings, for Christ’s sake! become joys; and nothing, truly nothing can harm or frighten us… 😉

You get that new heart that sees rightly, sees what is essential, loves God purely, as the man born blind does—by the word of Jesus going in your ear, which puts the light of the world in your heart. And instead of mud in your eye, he puts his body and blood in your mouth, so that peace, surpassing all understanding, guards your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Amen.