"Cherishing Our Sight"
Text: John 9:1-41
3-19-2023
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Do you cherish your eyesight? Even if you wear glasses or contact lenses the tendency is to take for granted the ability to see. But if you've ever been threatened with the loss of sight in one or both eyes, then you know how protective you are of this indispensable gift from God. Personally, when I dwell on the precious gift of sight I am overwhelmed with thankfulness. That's because my extended family experienced several tragedies with their eyesight over the years.
For my father his eyesight was a gift that he truly cherished. Here’s why. My Dad was a telephone repairman. One day at work he was using a hand drill when the bit broke off and flew up at his face. It shattered his glasses and punctured his eyeball. He was rushed to the hospital and as he lay there, he wondered if he'd ever see through that eye again. All the while, he prayed to the Lord that he wouldn't lose his eyesight. Well, God was gracious. His eye healed and he was able to see once again. As you can imagine, he didn't take his eyesight for granted after that. Like many of you, later in life my father had cataracts removed. And he even had a cornea transplant at one point. It was delicate surgery, but once again he had reason to be thankful for, and to cherish, his sight.
Because of all this, he would regularly remind people to guard their eyes from injury. I distinctly remember how he gently chastised me once when we still lived on the farm back in Nebraska. He saw a bunch of old baling wire hanging on a nail in the barn with all those sharp points sticking out. He insisted on standing there with pliers, bending each tip so there wouldn't be any chance of somebody accidentally getting poked in the eye. Protecting the precious gift of sight was just that important to him!
Well, you can imagine the horror that my whole family felt when my next oldest brother experienced a devastating eye injury. He and a friend got mugged one night in Detroit. In the process, my brother was struck in the eye. Like my father, he too found himself in the hospital, wondering if he'd ever see again out of that eye. Unfortunately, it was too badly damaged and it had to be replaced with an artificial one. From that moment forward, the doctor made my brother wear glasses even though he didn't need it to help his vision. Rather it was to protect the precious gift of sight that remained.
Maybe you can see now why I feel so thankful for the gift of sight. Even so, I can't fully grasp what it must have been like for the man that Jesus healed in our Gospel Lesson. St. John tells us he was born blind. I guess if I had the choice, I would rather have the chance to see for a while before losing my eyesight. At least then I could imagine in my mind all the beautiful colors and scenery that people described to me. And I could treasure the memory of all the things I had once seen. But to be born blind, never having that opportunity—well it's hard to imagine what it would be like.
Like many blind people, the man in our text surely had a routine that he followed in order to compensate for his lack of sight. He would memorize the number of steps to locations he frequently walked to. And as is often the case, his blindness made his other senses become even sharper. His hearing was more acute, his sense of smell was heightened, and his touch became so sensitive that he could almost see your face simply by feeling it. All of these various tactics helped that blind man survive from day to day. Survive, yes, but the fact still remained that he could not see. The gift of sight had never been his to possess and cherish. That is, until he met Jesus!
You know, as we ponder this miraculous healing, I hope it's obvious that there's a spiritual parallel that Jesus is highlighting here. We actually share something in common with that blind man. Not only was he born physically blind but he was also spiritually blind at birth. And each of us was born with that spiritual disability. It all started back in the Garden of Eden. Isn't it ironic that when Satan tempted Eve he used an expanded spiritual sight as his bait? In Genesis 3:5 he promised her, "your eyes will be opened…” Technically, Satan was right. After Adam and Eve had eaten the forbidden fruit, their eyes were indeed opened. And suddenly they could see the nakedness of their bodies, which was symbolic of their sinful souls being exposed. Up until this point they had perfect spiritual sight. They were able to see God clearly with their sinless eyes. But now, their souls were darkened by sin and spiritually blind. All mankind has inherited that same damning blindness.
It's a pitiful condition and we are helpless to change it. But like the blind man in our text, Jesus has come with His healing balm. Verse 6 of our text says that Christ spit on the ground and applied this muddy paste to the man's eyes. Sounds kind of disgusting, doesn't it? But I ask you, is the healing balm that He offers for our souls any more appealing? We look to the cross and what do we see? A badly beaten man, bleeding and dying for our sins. It's a horrible sight to behold. And yet, that is what Jesus offers in order for our spiritual sight to be restored through the forgiveness He won for us there. He wants that healing balm to be applied to each of us. And so, like that blind beggar, Jesus sends us to be washed. He sends us to the waters of Holy Baptism. There, the precious gift of spiritual sight is given to us.
Do you suppose that the blind man in our text ever took his eyesight for granted after this great miracle? I'd venture a guess that he regularly thought back to those dark moments before he received his sight. And I imagine he was very thankful and protective of this precious gift. Are we just as fiercely protective of our spiritual sight? Quite often we are not. We carelessly play around with evil things that threaten to blind us in sin again. We expose our physical and spiritual eyes to all kinds of sinfully dangerous things on TV, in movies, and on the Internet. Ah, but some of you might honestly be thinking, "Well, Pastor, that's not me. I stay away from those things." Good! But before your pride gets the best of you, remember that it isn't just things that your eyes see that can threaten your spiritual sight. All the sins we toy with and engage in can blind our souls. Martin Luther gave us a brief but penetrating checklist in the Catechism under the section on Confession. He asks: "Have you been disobedient, unfaithful, or lazy? Have you been hot-tempered, rude or quarrelsome? Have you hurt someone by your words or deeds? Have you stolen, been negligent, wasted anything, or done any harm?" None of us can honestly say that we haven't done one or all of those things within the past week, the past day, or even the past hour. And they all threaten our gift of spiritual sight.
So, how do we protect ourselves from these blinding dangers? First, there's God's Word. It's our shield against the dangerous evil that Satan throws at us. Scripture fills the vision of our souls with God’s goodness. It protects our spiritual sight the same way a pair of safety glasses protects our eyes. But you can't expect safety glasses to help you if you don't wear them! And it's no different with God's Word. Leaving your Bible sit on the coffee table collecting dust is just as useless. That shield of God's Word must be employed daily in order for it to be effective. Next, there's confession. It can be compared to the tears, which constantly bathe our eyes and carry away harmful particles. When we confess our sins and receive God's forgiveness it washes away all the sins that threaten our sight and restores its clarity.
Can you imagine what it was like for the blind beggar in our text to be able to see for the first time in his life? Everything was suddenly beautiful and full of color. Life seemed to have new meaning. He was overjoyed with his new sight and that must have changed the very look on his face. John tells us that his neighbors couldn't believe it was the same man. All those years with nothing to smile about, and now he was smiling from ear to ear! No wonder they had a hard time believing it was the same guy. Unfortunately, not everybody was as happy about his newfound sight. The Pharisees called him in and wanted an explanation for the miracle. He did the best he could, but their hatred of Jesus blinded them to the truth. The ironic thing is that each time he retold the story the clearer his spiritual sight became, while the blindness of the Pharisees got worse and worse. Through the work of the Holy Spirit the eyes of this man's soul were finally wide open and he was able to see Jesus as His Savior. By faith he believed and worshiped the Lord.
Now that Jesus has cured our spiritual blindness, we too have that indescribable joy of sight for our souls. With this precious gift we can acknowledge Christ as our Savior and worship Him. By the power of the Holy Spirit, I urge you to protect that gift and rejoice in it. Since God has opened the eyes of our souls with His saving grace, may we who now can see use that sight to lead other blind sinners to the healing balm of the glorious Giver of spiritual sight, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!