Sermon for 3/15/26: Fourth Sunday in Lent (A)

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Now I See
John 9 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

 

It is vital understand that blindness and sight in this passage are analogies for faith and unbelief. So it might sound contrary to reason, but it is not blindness that requires the greater measure of courage. Unbelief is easy; it is easy to doubt, to question, to ignore what is as plain as day. But faith takes some guts. Although unbelief may encounter various “dangers, toils, and snares,” faith is an on-going life of valor. Life in the Light of Christ is not a place for the fainthearted. But thanks be to God that He strengthens your feeble arms and weak knees. Thanks be to God that the very faith that demands your courage also supplies to you the courage it demands, so that you will never be overcome.

Perhaps there was a time when the man in this Gospel might have argued. Having been born blind, this fellow never knew anything but darkness. There were no modern conveniences to make his life more comfortable; he was just a man with a stick. So maybe he would have argued that blindness is the harder part.

But then Jesus comes along and heals the man. Making mud of His own spittle and dabbing it onto the man’s eyes, Jesus tells him to wash in the Pool of Siloam. “So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.” Yet as this man steps out from the darkness and into the Light of Christ, he learns that this bright, sighted place in the light is not the place for the fainthearted.

Unlike the woman at the well from last week, there is no indication that this newly healed man told anyone about Jesus. In fact, John gives the impression that the man simply began living as a child of the light. Yet his neighbors could not help but notice his life-changing transformation: “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” And they demanded of him, “How were your eyes opened?” And soon the trouble begins, because the man’s friends and neighbors dragged him off to the Pharisees for their judgment. Life here in the light certainly is not a place for the fainthearted.

So now that this man has his sight, he can see dangers that never touched him in the dark. The man sees that the Pharisees are ready to hate him for no other reason than because God-in-flesh had intervened in this man’s life. He sees that human ideas and opinions about religion are more important to most people than an eyewitness testimony to God’s Word. The man had simply confessed, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and now I see.” And the Pharisees responded, “This Jesus cannot possibly be from God!” The blind man now sees that others suddenly consider him a lowlife, an unworthy member of their community simply because He would dare to tell them about the promised Christ. And then, to make matters worse, this man had to watch his own parents disown him because of their fainthearted fear of the Jews.

But maybe you don’t need this man to tell you that life in the Light is no place for the faint of heart. Maybe you have already seen the dangers of having the blindness of sin washed away in Baptism. Maybe you have come to see the great courage that faith requires. It takes courage in the face of rejection to speak the Gospel to people who hate God, who would rather rely on their own self-made religious opinions than upon God’s life-giving Word. But anything less than a full, clear testimony to Christ is sin! It takes courage for you to have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness. But anything less is sin!

Unbelief is easy; sin is easy. But faith takes some guts. Although unbelief may daily encounter various dangers, toils and snares, your God-given faith amounts to an on-going life of valor. Life in the Light of Christ is not a place for the fainthearted.

But this Gospel also demonstrates to you the source of your courage and strength. After the newly healed man had been thrown out of the synagogue, Jesus came to him. The man does not go in search of Jesus; Jesus found him. But the Lord does not merely encourage him; He does not warn him to be ready for tough times; Jesus does not tell this man that he will need to find courage to face his life in the Light. No. His Lord strengthens him in this new sight and faith he has been given. Life in Christ may be no place for the faint of heart. But He gives you the courage you need.

Beloved in Christ, there is nowhere the Children of Light can go that their Lord Jesus, the Light of the world, has not already gone. The man in today’s Gospel may have watched his loved ones turn their backs on Him, but this suffering is also shared by Jesus, whose dearest followers all fled during His time of greatest need. The Light of the world may have seemed to be momentarily extinguished in the darkness of the cross, but the darkness could not overcome the Light that is Christ. Christ’s resurrection light now shines upon you. Life in the Light of Christ is no place for the fainthearted, but by His own suffering, resurrection, and abiding presence, your Lord faithfully strengthens your feeble arms and weak knees. He makes the fainthearted stalwart; He gives the fearful courage; He makes the blind to see. “You have now seen Him,” says Jesus. And how else shall we respond, except with the courageous confession, “Lord, I believe!” In the name of the Father and of the Son (†) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.