April 15, 2025 • 45 mins
Pastor Ian Graham merges the themes of Palm Sunday with the sixth sign in John's gospel, inviting us to consider if we our eyes growing clearer or dimmer.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning friends.
My name is Ian.
It's really good to be with youtoday.
Today marks the beginning ofPalm Sunday, which marks the
beginning of Holy Week, and eachyear, as Christians, we gather
to tell the story of what Jesushas done.
And today sets off a sequenceof events in the last week of
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the life of Jesus, and we try totell the story well, obviously,
when we're gathered.
Savannah mentioned gatherings onGood Friday and Sunday, but
there are events that transpirethroughout the course of this
week that the gospel writersMatthew, mark, luke and John
account for, and there aremoments, specifically in John,
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that Jesus accounts for in thelast week of his life.
And so my exhortation to you,if you're a follower of Jesus
and you're here today there's somuch that happens in our
culture that we just live inthis deluge of information, of
kind of schizophrenia, of justkind of looking everywhere, and
one of the things that is agreat gift to us is to actually
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just slow down and tocontemplate the life of Jesus.
And so, simply, this week, Iimplore you, pick a gospel,
matthew, mark, luke and John,turn to the end of that gospel,
the last chapter, and thenscroll back about three pages
and you're probably in theneighborhood of the last week of
Jesus's life that begins whenhe triumphantly enters in
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Jerusalem, a text that we willlook at today and just allow the
day to be guided by what Jesusdid on that day.
In John's gospel, you have himintimately sharing with his
dearest friends about what is tocome about, what he's done for
them.
In Matthew's gospel, you havehim pronouncing woe and blessing
in all of these very mysteriousways, and then Jesus going
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through all of these differentevents of Holy Week.
But I encourage you, don't justlet this week happen without
participating in it.
Immerse yourself in the story,because we are people of the
story that declares that God ismaking all things new, and
there's something about goingthrough the valley of what Jesus
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has done, especially on this,what we call the Passion Week.
That makes Resurrection Sundayeven more sweet, and so we are
anticipating that.
But we don't bypass the eventsof Maundy Thursday, of Good
Friday, of Holy Saturday, as wemake our way towards the empty
tomb.
All right, so find a gospel,immerse yourself in the story.
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Today is Palm Sunday, and I'mnot from a tradition that
celebrated Palm Sunday, so thisis kind of new for me, but as a
church, we have been a peoplewho have gotten the palms, and I
remember a couple years back wehad a student from California
and she was asking me she's likewhere did you get the palms?
And I said I ordered themonline.
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And she was like that'sridiculous.
I was like, yeah, we're not inCalifornia.
This is not a tropical paradisethat we live in here.
We have to import these kindsof things.
And so, yes, these aredelivered from the equivalent of
some Amazon service thatspecializes in palms, but Lauren
has graciously formed a lot ofthem into crosses that remind us
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of the juxtaposition of PalmSunday.
And that's where we want tostart today.
John, chapter 12, beginning inverse 12.
The next day, the great crowdthat had come to the festival
heard that Jesus was coming toJerusalem, so they took branches
of palm trees and went out tomeet him, shouting Hosanna
Blessed is the one who comes inthe name of the Lord, the King
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of Israel.
Jesus found a young donkey andsat on it and, as it is written
do not be afraid, daughter ofZion, look, your king is coming
sitting on a donkey's colt.
His disciples did notunderstand these things at first
, but when Jesus was glorified,then they remembered that these
things had been written of himand had been done to him.
So the crowd that had been withhim when he called Lazarus out
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of the tomb and raised him fromthe dead continued to testify.
It was also because they heardthat he had performed the sign
that the crowd went to meet him.
The Pharisees then said to oneanother you see, you can do
nothing.
Look, the whole world has goneafter him.
We've been in this teachingseries on the signs that Jesus
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performs in John's gospel, ofwhich there are seven, and here
we see, in John chapter 12,we've already been given a
little bit of a preview of whatwill be the seventh sign, the
raising of Lazarus from the dead.
But today, on this Palm Sunday,we're going to go back to the
sixth sign, where Jesus willheal a man who has been born
blind.
But we see, as we encounterJesus in John chapter 12, we
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find Jesus on that first PalmSunday, and the juxtaposition
between the crowds on PalmSunday and Good Friday could
hardly be more jarring.
How can the crowds welcomeJesus with such elation and
fanfare as he rides intoJerusalem on a donkey one day
and, a mere five days later, bejeering him with bitter cursing
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and contempt.
The same crowds that areyelling Hosanna, save us.
And but a few days are yellingcrucify him.
We have no king but Caesar.
Of course, this is a complexquestion with layered answers.
Anytime we're talking about ahistoric group of people really
anytime you're talking about awhole group of people at large,
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you are oversimplifying, vastlyright.
So we're talking about themindset of first century people
that were outside of Jerusalem,hailing Jesus as king.
But one strand that we canfollow is that the people wanted
Jesus to be a certain type ofMessiah.
They were gathered in Jerusalemto read the Passover story,
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which, as we talked about, is astory of God liberating slaves
from an imperial, oppressivepower, and they read that story
and they're like that sounds alot like our current reality.
These people were not under thethumb of the Egyptians like
their ancestors, but were underthe thumb of the Egyptians like
their ancestors, but were underthe thumb of the Romans, and
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they wanted God to do thePassover thing again.
And so, when Jesus has beenworking all these miracles, in
some way they're saying maybethis is the new Moses, maybe
this is the prophet like him,and they're also associating him
with people like David, david,the most famous king in the line
of Israel's kings, a conqueror,a military leader, one who
established Israel as one of theforemost nations during his
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time.
And so they see Jesus in allthe things that he's doing.
They realize that God must bewith him in some way to enable
him to do these miraculousthings that he's doing, and they
say yes, that is our king,please save us.
And throughout John's gospel,there's a key friction point of
the signs is that, as peoplebring their own assumptions
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about who Jesus is and what heshould do and Jesus constantly
disappoints them with what he'sactually up to, and what we find
is, as we kind of transposethis Palm Sunday story, this
John 12 story, onto our broadertext for today, which is in John
9, there's a key question thatthis text raised for the people
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that encountered Jesus on thatday and that will raise for us
today Is the power and the loveof God causing our hearts to
grow softer to what God is up toin the world, causing our eyes
to be opened, or is the conversehappening?
Is encountering Jesus actuallycausing our hearts to harden and
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our eyes to grow dim?
Elizabeth Brunig writes of thetension of a burgeoning
expression of Christian faith inSilicon Valley.
She's a writer for the Atlantic.
Under the direction of peoplelike Gary Tan and Peter Thiel,
there's been kind of this recentnascent movement of Christians
in Silicon Valley andhistorically this was not the
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case.
As recently as the 2010s.
It was sort of stereotypical tosay that Christianity was
illegal in Silicon Valley.
And yet, beginning in the lastseveral years, there have been
venture capitalists meeting totalk about the Christian faith.
And I love what Brunig doeshere because she's not cynical,
and I really appreciate this,because anytime there's sort of
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a new movement of Christians,it's easy for more seasoned
Christians to start dismissingit as immature or as not really
real, and we do that to our owndiscredit, right?
This is what Jesus talks aboutand he's like don't judge.
So she's cautious, but I thinkshe's cautious in some good ways
and she's looking at theexpression of faith in Silicon
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Valley.
There's a piece in Vanity Fairby a woman named Zoe Barnett
that you can read.
You can also read ElizabethBruning's piece, but she
summarizes some of what she'sexperienced there, as these
people, who historically may nothave been people that express
faith in Jesus, are at leastgathering in Jesus's name.
She says this.
She says, in that sense,silicon Valley Christians
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perhaps see Christianity as akind of technology, which is to
say a product used to accomplishhuman purposes.
But Christianity at its core isnot a religion that can
reliably deliver sociallydesirable outcomes, nor is it
intended to be.
That's why you'll never hear usat Ecclesia saying like Jesus
is going to make your lifebetter.
You will, but you might do thatby making your life
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considerably worse.
But Christianity at its core isnot a religion that can
reliably deliver sociallydesirable outcomes, nor is it
intended to be.
Christianity disrupts life as weknow it, rather than
reinforcing a self-servingstatus quo.
It venerates generations ofChristian martyrs, whose
examples are prized preciselybecause they placed obedience to
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God before more advantageousbeliefs or activities.
The formation of their faithwas not contingent or it was
contingent, excuse me, not ontemporal success, but rather on
another principle altogetherthat Christianity is worth
following, not because it hasthe potential to improve one's
life though it can but ratherbecause it is true.
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This is key because ifChristianity is true, if we
really were created to love Godand one another and were then
rescued from our sins by thesacrificial intervention of
Christ, then everything else onebelieves must flow downstream
of that essential reality.
Believers' personalphilosophies, practices and
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politics are all answerable tothe Christian religion.
There is no domain of lifeoutside of God's interest, and
he requires that all things bebrought in accordance with his
will.
And so the dynamic that we'rebeginning to sort of crack the
seal on here today is seeingJesus not as an instrument to
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the life that we think we want,not as utility to get that which
we've always thought we desired, but to see Jesus and to allow
him to inform both the outcomeand our desires.
And we encounter this dynamichere in John, chapter 9.
If you have a Bible, a paperBible, those relics from Vigon
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Age, you can open it up.
I will be reading from the NRSVand the words will be behind me
on the screen, but you canfollow along on your phone or on
a paper Bible, let's read inverse 1 of John, chapter 9.
Your phone, or on a paper Bible, let's read in verse 1 of John,
chapter 9.
As he, being Jesus, walkedalong, he saw a man blind from
birth.
His disciples asked him Rabbi,who sinned this man or his
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parents, that he was born blind?
Now the disciples see a manborn blind and they ask one of
the most poignant and enduringquestions about human life why
is this man suffering?
Their assumption is that rootof this man's condition is some
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sin, either his own sin or hisparents' sin.
Now look at the text and whatit tells us.
The text tells us that the manwas blind from birth, in verse 1
, which, to my mind, demands thequestion how would it be that
this man, when he was in thewomb, would have sinned in such
a way that his life would be sowretchedly determined?
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Jesus' disciples are echoing thetheological assumptions that
are latent in their culture.
We see this specifically in thebook of Job Job's friends who
see their friend in desolationIf you know about Job or you've
read that book, job famouslyendures a catastrophic loss of
everything dear to him and inthe wake of that loss, his
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friends come to him and for awhile they do the exact right
thing, often the best thing thatwe can do for people who are
mired in deep grief.
They come to Job, they put onsackcloth and ashes and they sit
silently with him for sevendays Perfect, no notes, and they
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don't say anything.
They don't say everythinghappens for a reason.
They don't suggest that maybethis is your fault, job, not yet
.
Seven days.
The Jewish practice of sittingShavuot calls to mind what Job's
friends did.
But then, but then they speak.
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And as they speak they start tonot so subtly suggest that, job
, perhaps everything thathappened to you is not just
random chance, but perhaps it isthe effect of your own life, of
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your own life.
You see, this was prominent inthe imagination and the
framework of both Jewish peopleat the time of Job and Jewish
people in the first century thatwere following Jesus is that
there was a cause and effect atplay in the world, and if you do
good things, you get goodthings, and if you do bad things
, you get bad things.
And this was the root of theassumption behind the question.
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As they encounter this man bornblind and they're walking with
Jesus and they've seen Jesus dosome miraculous things they turn
to Jesus and say what's thecause of all this?
Now we'll see.
Jesus answers their question,but it's interesting how karmic
their assumptions sound.
And again, as I've saidrecently, karma tells us that we
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get what we deserve.
And the good news of Jesustells us exactly the opposite is
that God takes what we deserveand we get what God deserves,
and that's good news.
The problem of suffering, decay,human sin, in a world that has
God as its creator has beenrolled into a broader category
called theodicy.
At the base of any theodicy,that theological category, is
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the mystery of God's will.
Different streams of Christianshave tried to account for life
in different ways.
There are those who aredeterminists that everything
that happens is in fact anexpression of God's will.
And if it could have beenstopped by God's sovereignty and
wasn't, then of course it wasGod's will.
It would seem that Jesus may besuggesting this answer here in
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verse 3.
Let's look as we trace along inthe story in John, chapter 9,
verse 3.
So the disciples ask himteacher, rabbi, why was this man
born blind?
Was it his sin or his parents?
And look at what Jesus says,verse 3.
Jesus answered neither this mannor his parents sinned.
He was born blind so that God'sworks might be revealed in him.
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We must work the works of him.
Who sent me?
While it is day, night iscoming when no one can work, and
as long as I am in the world, Iam the light of the world.
So there we have it right.
Jesus says this man was bornblind and has suffered this
truly awful existence for hisentire life, from birth, so that
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at some point he wouldencounter Jesus later on and
that God's works might berevealed in him.
I understand why some peoplefind comfort in these
explanations.
I do, and I in no way wouldlike to diminish the level of
faithfulness and trust that thisrequires in God's careful hands
, but for me this also raisessome questions.
Does it raise questions for you?
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Huh?
So this man has been sufferinghis entire life just so at some
point in his adult life, god canencounter him and heal him?
Are we just puppets in thehands of God, where he's pulling
the strings as he pleases inservice of his glory?
How would we respond to aparent who had manipulated their
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child's circumstances so theywould suffer for years on end?
Now, what I am always trying todo is to allow the text to
determine how I see God.
Now, that's not infallible, aswe know here, but what I'm
trying to say is, is the answerto the question somehow wrapped
up in the text itself?
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And I really try not to do this, because there's an important
caveat that's provided to us bythe Greek text.
And I try not to do thisbecause we are in Princeton.
There are scholars of alldifferent sorts, there are some
biblical scholars amongst us,but most of us are not biblical
scholars, and so if I starttalking about the Greek text,
what we have here is me sayingoh, in the Greek it says this,
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and most of you will be like Idon't know, don't read biblical
Greek.
And so for us, how do we allowthe possibility of an
alternative interpretation tomeet us here today?
So in the Greek the phrase so,that is the conjunction hina,
all right.
This word is used 11 times inJohn's Gospel and it often
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introduces what biblicalscholars label purpose clauses.
You can see that so that thesethings would happen, right?
So the phrase in four of thoseinstances where he not appears
in John 11 clearly precedes themain sentence, and so it's
placed.
Greek grammar is not like ours,where sentence order determines
how the sentence is spoken.
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It's a case grammar, and so youhave to determine what's the
case of this particular word andhow is it working with other
words around it.
So if in our text that's a lotof semantics John 9 follows the
same pattern, then the sentencewould read something like this
and let's see if this is alittle different.
He says Neither this man norhis parents sinned, said Jesus.
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But so that the work of Godmight be displayed in his life,
we must do the work of him whosent me while it is day.
You see, there's a shift.
Now that shift is notunequivocally endorsed by every
biblical scholar.
This is what happens whenreading the Bible.
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When you're talking abouttranslating a work that was
written in a separate culture,in a different language, into
our own language, with our ownassumptions, you're talking
about doing the work ofinterpretation of theology.
It would be incredibly nice ifevery idiom, every instance of
language mapped perfectly ontoour language.
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But that's not how languageworks, is it?
How many of you speak otherlanguages?
And when you're speaking inEnglish and you're trying to say
it's kind of like this right,so we have that tension here.
I just want to alwaysilluminate that tension.
It doesn't mean we can't knowanything.
It doesn't create endlessambiguity, but it does mean that
we have to be willing to sayokay, what are the possibilities
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here?
So I'm presenting to youanother possibility that Jesus
is saying something quitedifferent.
Not that this man was bornblind so that at some point he
can encounter Jesus and receivehealing and be a part of the
divine story forever.
No, but so that Jesus couldstep into his life and display
the works of God.
While it is day, new Testamentscholar Gary Burge, who taught
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at Wheaton until recently, saysthis he says the purpose clause,
or the clause introduced byEnoch, now explains that Jesus
must work so that God's work maybe displayed in this man's life
.
God had not made the man blindin order to show his glory.
Rather, god has sent Jesus todo the works of healing in order
to show his glory.
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Now, I know we've been on adetour here, but I read these
things and sometimes I'm like Ihave a question and sometimes
those questions that I have canbe a gift to you.
Other times you're like okay.
Verse six when he had said this,he spat on the ground and made
mud with saliva and spread themud on the man's eyes, saying to
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him go wash in the pool ofSiloam, which means scent.
Then he went and washed andcame back, able to see.
The neighbors and those who hadseen him before as a beggar
began to ask is this not the manwho used to sit and beg?
Some were saying it it is he.
Others were saying no, but itis someone like him.
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He kept saying I am he.
But they kept asking him thenhow were your eyes opened?
He answered the man calledJesus made mud, spread it on my
eyes and said to me go to Siloamand wash.
Then I went and washed andreceived my sight.
They said to him where is he?
He said I don't know.
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So Jesus encounters this manand moves past the disciples'
questions, walks up, approachesthis man I assume Hawks, a big
loogie.
I mean, how else are you goingto drum up a lot of spit, like
just, you know I not going tomake that noise, but he just
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spits in the mud.
Now I don't know.
Some of us have read the otherparts of the biblical story.
Are there parts in the storywhere Jesus just says be healed,
like, take up your mat and walk.
Why does this guy get thisparticular diagnosis and healing
?
Why does Jesus do this?
It's interesting, right?
Why doesn't Jesus say eyes beopened?
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No, he makes mud and then hewipes it on our dear friend's
eyes Again, just really, justrubbing it in, right, just
really going for it.
And then, as if that's notenough, he's like hey, make your
way over to this pool, whichJohn tells us that the title of
this pool is Scent Siloam, whichin John's gospel that's just a
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little nudge.
Jesus is the sent one, and so,as Jesus sends this blind man to
be healed in the pool calledScent, john is just trying to
say, hey, all of this comes fromJesus, all of it is at the gift
of his hands.
But Jesus undertakes a lot ofvery interesting activities here
.
Now, there were traditionsassociated with both Jewish
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folklore at the time and thecult of Asclepius, which was a
Greek healing cult that thoughtthat the spit of holy and wise
men had healing power.
Jesus then directs the man to goto the pool called Siloam, the
pool called Sint, and then theman's neighbors see him walking
about and they see him and likeis that who?
I think it is.
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They start to ask, like aren'tyou the guy?
And they start talking likeabout the guy, not to him, like
isn't he the one?
And he's like I am he.
And they're like yeah, yeah,yeah, but like isn't that the
guy?
Now, I don't know if you hadthis experience.
I had this experiencespecifically during COVID but if
you ever watched superheromovies Batman, superman
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especially have you everwondered how the people that are
dearest to our superheroescan't actually figure out who
they are, especially Superman?
I mean, let's get real, theguy's alter ego disguise is a
set of thick-rimmed glasses andmaybe his hair is not nicely
done.
All of a sudden, superman showsup and he's you know, he's
quaffed.
And they're like oh, we had noidea that was Clark Kent.
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Now, during COVID, I actuallyhad a little more sympathy for
this experience, because whenpeople had masks on, sometimes I
was like is that, is that?
Like I think you know obviously, people that are good friends I
could figure out, but sometimesI was like I think this is who
I think it is, but I'm not sosure.
And I think John is trying totell us a couple things.
How often do we really noticethose who are outcast in society
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?
You know this man's beenpresent at their gates.
The community has collectivelybeen caring for this man at some
level.
Right, that was part of theircollective responsibility.
But had they really seen him?
Was he just machinery sceneryto them?
But also, the man keepsprotesting.
I am he.
And they ask him how were youmade?
Well, verse 13,.
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The interrogation goes on.
They're like okay, we can'tquite figure out who this guy is
.
So they bring in the religiousleaders, the Pharisees Verse 13,
they brought to the Phariseesthe man who had been formerly
been blind.
Now it was a Sabbath day.
Ah, why was Jesus making mudout of spit?
Well, one of the things thatthe oral law prohibits on the
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Sabbath is kneading of bread.
And so Jesus just subtlyundertakes that which be
qualified as work on the Sabbath.
And we've seen this before InJohn 5, jesus heals on the
Sabbath, and it's the exact sametension point.
Why is Jesus doing this on theSabbath?
Then the Pharisees also beganto ask him how he'd received his
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sight.
He said to them he put mud onmy eyes, then I washed.
Now I see it's interesting howsparse this man's answers are to
the Pharisees.
In contrast, if you just readthis alongside the healing story
in John chapter 5, in Johnchapter, it becomes very clear
this man, who's received healing, who can now walk very much,
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wants to get out of thecrosshairs of the religious
leaders and is very willing tothrow Jesus under the bus to do
so.
But this man is not willing todo that.
He's very, very short with hisanswers to the Pharisees because
he doesn't want to get Jesus introuble.
Verse 16,.
Some of the Pharisees said thisman is not from God, for he does
not observe the Sabbath.
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Others said how can a man whois a sinner perform such signs?
And they were divided.
So they said again to the blindman what do you say about him?
It was your eyes.
He opened.
He said he is a prophet.
Okay, so the neighbors havebrought the Pharisees to
investigate.
We see that it's a Sabbath dayand the Pharisees are incredibly
passionate about the Sabbathday.
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Again, this isn't becausethey're passionate about rules.
It's because they are trying to, by their faithfulness, invoke
God's action.
They read in places likeDeuteronomy, where it says that
God will keep his covenant if weare faithful to him.
And so they're trying to say wehave Roman oppressors, we are
in exile, we want God to act.
So we have to be very, verymeticulous in our observing of
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things like the Sabbath.
And so we've talked about thatin the past.
And the man is interrogated bythese Pharisees.
He leaves out all the bitsabout being commanded to go to
the pool.
He says this is what happened.
And they turned to the managain.
They said okay, you tell us.
Who do you think he is and hesays he's a prophet.
Let's go on to verse 18.
The Jews did not believe that hehad been blind and received his
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sight until they called theparents of the man who had
received his sight and asked himis this your son, who you say
was born blind?
How, then, does he now see?
His parents answered we knowthat this is our son and that he
was born blind, but we do notknow how it is that he now sees.
Nor do we know who opened hiseyes.
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And again, in a very similarmove, they're like we would like
to be out of this interactionnow.
Ask him, he is of age.
He will speak for himself.
His parents said this becausethey were afraid of the Jewish
leaders, the religious leaders,for the religious leaders had
already agreed that anyone whoconfessed Jesus to be the
Messiah would be put out of thesynagogue.
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Therefore, his parents said heis of age.
Ask him so, religious leaders,in order to confirm that this
was in fact, the man who wasborn blind from birth.
Bring in the man's parents andthey say is this your son?
They say yes, was he born blind?
And they say yes, and that isthe end of what the parents want
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to participate in, because theyare scared of being put out,
exiled from the religious lifeof the community.
So they say ask him, he'splenty old.
And so they do.
Now these religious leaders goback to the man for the second
time, verse 24.
For the second time they calledthe man who had been blind and
they said to him give glory toGod.
We know this man is a sinnerand if you're in a court of law
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you hear objection leading.
They're giving him the answerright, verse 24, go on.
So they bring the man back andthey ask him a leading question.
It's interesting that theirquestions start with the
instruction, the leadingquestion give God glory.
The whole episode started withJesus declaring that Jesus is
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working so that the glory, thework of God might be displayed
in this man's life.
The work of God is surely thesign of the healing this blind
man can now see.
But, as we've discussedthroughout this series, the
signs are not ends untothemselves.
They're leading us to a pointof decision, to a question will
we believe, will we becomeJesus's disciples?
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And we see throughout John'sgospel that people that witness
miraculous things answer thatquestion.
No, they don't become Jesus'disciples.
The man who is instructed towalk doesn't become Jesus'
disciples.
The people, the thousands, whoeat at the miraculous hand of
God slowly trickle away as theyrealize that Jesus will
(29:35):
disappoint them in theirexpectation that he will keep
doing the bread thing over andover again.
The signs are a means to an end, and that end is to point us to
Jesus and to follow him.
The Pharisees try to tell himto give God glory by telling a
lie, and that is impossible.
But the man born blind nowsheds light on the truth.
(29:57):
Verse 25,.
He answered I do not knowwhether this man, jesus, is a
sinner.
One thing I do know that thoughI was blind, now I see that's
good theology there.
They said to him what did he doto you?
How did he open your eyes?
He answered them I've told youalready and you would not listen
(30:19):
.
Why Do you want to hear itagain?
Do you also want to become hisdisciples?
Then they reviled him, sayingyou are his disciple, but we are
disciples of Moses.
We know that God has spoken toMoses, but as for this man, we
do not even know where he comesfrom.
The man answered here's anastonishing thing you do not
(30:39):
know where he comes from, yet heopened my eyes.
We know that God does notlisten to sinners, but he does
listen to one who worships himand obeys his will.
Never since the world began hasit been heard that anyone
opened the eyes of a person bornblind.
If this man were not from God,he could do nothing.
Notice the Pharisee'sconclusion you were born
(31:06):
entirely in sin.
Teacher, who sinned this man orhis parents?
That he'd be born blind?
They've completely come to thewrong conclusion and they drive
him out Now.
This is a hilarious interactionand this blind man is one of my
favorite characters in thescriptures, and I think there's
a couple of things going on here.
You know how creative peopletend to have endured some sense
(31:29):
of like social ostracism, orthey see the world a little
differently.
I mean, think about this guy'slife and think about what kind
of observer of people heprobably is.
And so they bring him beforethese Pharisees and he is just
giving the business right backto the Pharisees, right?
He says why do you want to hearthe story again?
(31:52):
Are you interested in becominghis disciples?
They're like oh, we followMoses here, right, but he's very
much, just very, attuned towhat's going on here, and the
scene ends with the man beingdriven out of the synagogue,
which is a form of disciplineand exile.
But then, as this man has beencast out yet again, jesus finds
(32:12):
him in verse 35.
Jesus heard that they haddriven him out and when he had
found him, said do you believein the Son of man?
This is the question that allof the signs are demanding that
we answer.
And he answered who is he, sir?
Tell me so that I may believein him.
Jesus said to him you have seenhim and the one speaking with
(32:38):
you is he.
Notice what he says.
Lord, I believe, and heworshiped him Throughout Jesus's
earthly life.
There are only a few instanceswhere people see Jesus for who
he is and they worship him.
And for a first century Jewishman, to worship another man
(32:59):
means that he has been givensome insight, some revelation
into the fact that this is not amere mortal, this is God, and
he bows down and he worships him.
Jesus says I came into thisworld for judgment, so that
those who do not see may see,and those who do see may become
(33:21):
blind.
Now the Pharisees areoverhearing Jesus.
Some of the Pharisees who werewith him heard this and said
surely we are not blind, are we?
Again, you do not want to askJesus leading questions.
Jesus said to them if you wereblind, you would not have sin.
But now that you say we see,your sin remains the question
(33:44):
that Palm Sunday, the questionthat this sixth sign are leading
us to entertain, to wrestlewith, is the question that we
see so emblematic in thereligious leaders.
The religious leaders, inencountering this wonder of
Jesus, this man who was bornblind can now see, find hardness
(34:05):
of heart, and eventually it isthey who are blind spiritually.
And, conversely, this man whostarted the day in darkness now
sees Jesus revealed for who hereally is and responds
appropriately with worship.
John is trying to put us all inthe position of this blind man
(34:31):
and to say that we all startwith blindness.
Absent the revelation of God,absent his revealing himself to
us, absent his gift of healing.
We do not see.
Now, none of us want to assumethe position of somebody who
doesn't see clearly, who doesn'tsee rightly right.
(34:51):
We all think like, even thoughwe would acknowledge, hey, I
could be wrong.
We think we're right, don't we?
And so we all think that we'repeople who see, and whether that
be theologically or politicallyor socially, we think that we
are those who see clearly, thateverybody else are just sheep.
But what John is trying to sayto us is that all of us carry a
(35:14):
measure of blindness.
We start out in darkness, butwithin that assessment, god is
not saying oh, you're all blind,you're all stupid, you're all
dumb.
God is saying but there islight.
Jesus in John 8, I am the lightof the world.
You can see, not because youcan somehow construct the
ability to see on your own, butbecause I am the light of the
(35:36):
world and I have given youinvitation to see.
1.
John says it this way later onthis is the message we have
heard from him and proclaim toyou that God is light and in him
there is no darkness at all.
If we say we have fellowshipwith him while we are walking in
darkness, we lie and do not dowhat is true.
But if we walk in the light, ashe himself is in the light, we
(36:00):
have fellowship with one anotherand the blood of Jesus, his son
, cleanses us from all sin.
If we say that we have no sin,we deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he, whois faithful and just will
forgive us our sins and cleanseus from all unrighteousness.
(36:21):
If we say we have not sinned,we make him a liar and his word
is not in us.
Now, I know it's easy to sort oflike distance ourselves from
religious type folks and to saythat's the people that God is
talking about here, people thatare very religious.
But that's not the kind ofblindness that's at issue here.
The blindness is anything thatobstructs our view of Jesus.
(36:46):
For these religious leaders,yes, it was their hope that God
would work on their behalfbecause of their faithfulness.
But for us it can be so manyother things.
It can be so many things thatwe place in obstruction to the
reality, the revelation of God.
And so, even if you're notoverly given to religion, you
(37:07):
are overly given to something.
And how are you allowing Jesusto take that, to remove the
obstruction, the veil, and toshow us himself?
Bonhoeffer says this.
He says Judging others makes usblind, whereas love is
illuminating.
By judging others, we blindourselves to our own evil and to
the grace which others are justas entitled to as we are.
(37:29):
If, when we judged others, ourreal motive was to destroy evil,
we should look for evil whereit is certain to be found, and
that is in our own hearts.
We start in darkness, but Godis light.
(37:50):
Second thing I want you to seetoday we see Christ revealed,
not in a greater accumulation ofknowledge, as we conceive of it
, as in knowledge about God, butin obedience.
For so many of us, we have thisideal, this threshold we're
trying to hit, where, once weknow enough about God, then
we'll start living a life withhim and for him.
And it's an illusion, becausewe don't come to know Jesus by
(38:15):
merely assenting to a set ofpropositions and beliefs.
We come to know Jesus first ofall in blindness, as he lifts
the blindness from our eyes, andthen by following him.
And we see this in the man bornblind.
We see this progressionthroughout the story.
The man born blind, as heslowly walks the path of
(38:37):
faithfulness, sees Jesus moreclearly Verse 17,.
They ask him who do you say thisman is?
He says he's at least a prophet.
Right, but by the end of thissection he is bowing down and
worshiping him because he knowsthat he's more than a prophet.
Nobody worshiped Moses, butthey're bowing down before the
God of the universe and this manas he's encountered by the
(39:00):
religious leaders has everyoff-ramp to say you know what?
I don't want to be in thecrosshairs of these guys, I
don't want to be put out of thereligious life of my local
community.
Talk to him, talk to Jesus.
But he just bears witness, hetells the truth, he tells the
story as he knows it and heendures their persecution,
endures their shame and he keepswalking the path with Jesus.
(39:24):
And it's in obedience that wecome to know Jesus.
And for many of us, we'retrying to accumulate knowledge.
We're doing podcasts, we'relistening, and there's nothing
wrong with head knowledge.
There's nothing wrong with that.
But the Christian faith isexperiential.
It is a life with Jesus.
It is a life that is lived onthe road with Jesus.
(39:46):
In saying God, if you don'tshow up in this interaction with
this person, if you don't move,then I am going to miss all
that you have for me and so manyof us.
We kind of we design thesesterile spaces where we can
learn and converse, and I'm allfor that.
But sometimes we have to seethat God is inviting us to the
(40:07):
road of obedience.
Jesus goes and he finds the manand he reveals himself to us.
Let me invite our worship teamforward.
Palm Sunday, as we gather hereon this day, is a crossroads of
seeing God.
And if we insist upon seeingGod through our own preconceived
(40:28):
categories, we will grow blindand our hearts will grow
hardened.
But if we commit ourselves toseeing Jesus, to receiving him,
to obeying him, to worshipinghim, we will see Jesus exalted
and we will truly see.
The Gospel of John is divided upby scholars into two sections.
(40:49):
The first 12 chapters arecalled the Book of Signs, and
that's where we've been focusing, and the last half is called
the Book of Glory.
And at the conclusion of theBook of Signs Jesus says in John
, chapter 12,.
He says whoever sees me seeshim.
(41:13):
Who sent me.
I have come as light into theworld so that everyone who
believes in me should not remainin the darkness.
I do not judge anyone who hearsmy words and does not keep them
, for I came not to judge theworld, but to save the darkness.
I do not judge anyone who hearsmy words and does not keep them
, for I came not to judge theworld, but to save the world.
The one who rejects me and doesnot receive my words has a
judge On the last day the wordthat I have spoken will serve as
(41:34):
judge, for I have not spoken onmy own, but the Father who sent
me has himself given me acommandment about what to say
and what to speak, and I knowthat his commandment is eternal
life.
What I speak, therefore, Ispeak just as the Father has
told me.
And as we embark upon this holyweek, ecclesia, we have this
(41:56):
tension between that which wehave perceived God to be and who
God actually is, the kind ofthrone that we would design for
him, hailed upon our ambitions,our adulations.
Yes, god, do this exact thingthat we want you to do, when,
all along, jesus is doingsomething quite different and
far better, and we allow God toshow us himself, to remove the
(42:22):
veil of blindness, to revealhimself to us and see the life
that he has prepared for us.
And all of us start inblindness, ecclesiastes, and as
we see in the story, that is avery safe place to be, because
Jesus is not standing at arm'slength.
(42:43):
He is walking up, approachingus, healing us, guiding us,
revealing himself to us.
Let us pray, god.
We remember your cross, lordJesus, the cross where you
answered our cry to save us, butnot in the way that we would
(43:06):
have designed the cross whereyour blood covers all sin, god,
where true healing begins toflow.
God, yes, we have our physicalailments, lord, and they are not
small in your sight.
Yes, we have our physicalailments, lord, and they are not
small in your sight, lord, butyou're constantly showing us,
(43:27):
through the signs in John'sgospel, through the signs in the
gospels, lord, that there is adeeper healing, lord, the
healing of our knowledge, thehealing of the fractures between
us and God, between us and ourneighbor, lord, between us and
creation.
Lord, are you undertaking allof it, lord?
(43:50):
Lord, you are not settled forour small ambitions and
platforms, god.
But, lord, you'd be raised upto draw all people to yourself.
But, lord, you'd be raised upto draw all people to yourself.
So, god, draw us now.
I want to invite you, ecclesia,just to think about the story
that we read in John 9.
And just to position yourselfsomewhere within it.
(44:15):
Are you the disciples askingJesus a question?
He has an answer for you.
Are you the blind manencountering Jesus?
Has he told you ways to go andreceive healing?
The healing is sure.
Sometimes the obedience is theway that we receive it.
(44:37):
It doesn't mean we make ithappen.
It's a gift from God.
It's a wonder, but if the blindman had never gone to the pool,
what would it become?
Are we in the position of thereligious leaders?
There are wonders at work.
God is doing miraculous thingsand we're concerned that it's a
(44:58):
Sabbath day.
God, would you heal us, healour sight, lord, that we may see
you, that we may know you.
God, show us the judgment thatyou have.
It's not a judgment thatcondemns us, god, but a judgment
that condemns the darkness,that the light shines in the
darkness and the darkness cannotovercome it.
(45:19):
Jesus, we pray for your HolySpirit to come to minister to
your dear people here.
Lord, we pray these things inyour name.
In the name of the Father andthe Son and the Holy Spirit, we
pray Amen.
I'm going to invite you to atime of response.
Good morning friends.
My name is Ian.
It's really good to be with youtoday.
Today marks the beginning ofPalm Sunday, which marks the
beginning of Holy Week, and eachyear, as Christians, we gather
to tell the story of what Jesushas done.
And today sets off a sequenceof events in the last week of
(00:23):
the life of Jesus, and we try totell the story well, obviously,
when we're gathered.
Savannah mentioned gatherings onGood Friday and Sunday, but
there are events that transpirethroughout the course of this
week that the gospel writersMatthew, mark, luke and John
account for, and there aremoments, specifically in John,
(00:43):
that Jesus accounts for in thelast week of his life.
And so my exhortation to you,if you're a follower of Jesus
and you're here today there's somuch that happens in our
culture that we just live inthis deluge of information, of
kind of schizophrenia, of justkind of looking everywhere, and
one of the things that is agreat gift to us is to actually
(01:05):
just slow down and tocontemplate the life of Jesus.
And so, simply, this week, Iimplore you, pick a gospel,
matthew, mark, luke and John,turn to the end of that gospel,
the last chapter, and thenscroll back about three pages
and you're probably in theneighborhood of the last week of
Jesus's life that begins whenhe triumphantly enters in
(01:28):
Jerusalem, a text that we willlook at today and just allow the
day to be guided by what Jesusdid on that day.
In John's gospel, you have himintimately sharing with his
dearest friends about what is tocome about, what he's done for
them.
In Matthew's gospel, you havehim pronouncing woe and blessing
in all of these very mysteriousways, and then Jesus going
(01:51):
through all of these differentevents of Holy Week.
But I encourage you, don't justlet this week happen without
participating in it.
Immerse yourself in the story,because we are people of the
story that declares that God ismaking all things new, and
there's something about goingthrough the valley of what Jesus
(02:12):
has done, especially on this,what we call the Passion Week.
That makes Resurrection Sundayeven more sweet, and so we are
anticipating that.
But we don't bypass the eventsof Maundy Thursday, of Good
Friday, of Holy Saturday, as wemake our way towards the empty
tomb.
All right, so find a gospel,immerse yourself in the story.
(02:32):
Today is Palm Sunday, and I'mnot from a tradition that
celebrated Palm Sunday, so thisis kind of new for me, but as a
church, we have been a peoplewho have gotten the palms, and I
remember a couple years back wehad a student from California
and she was asking me she's likewhere did you get the palms?
And I said I ordered themonline.
(02:52):
And she was like that'sridiculous.
I was like, yeah, we're not inCalifornia.
This is not a tropical paradisethat we live in here.
We have to import these kindsof things.
And so, yes, these aredelivered from the equivalent of
some Amazon service thatspecializes in palms, but Lauren
has graciously formed a lot ofthem into crosses that remind us
(03:13):
of the juxtaposition of PalmSunday.
And that's where we want tostart today.
John, chapter 12, beginning inverse 12.
The next day, the great crowdthat had come to the festival
heard that Jesus was coming toJerusalem, so they took branches
of palm trees and went out tomeet him, shouting Hosanna
Blessed is the one who comes inthe name of the Lord, the King
(03:35):
of Israel.
Jesus found a young donkey andsat on it and, as it is written
do not be afraid, daughter ofZion, look, your king is coming
sitting on a donkey's colt.
His disciples did notunderstand these things at first
, but when Jesus was glorified,then they remembered that these
things had been written of himand had been done to him.
So the crowd that had been withhim when he called Lazarus out
(03:57):
of the tomb and raised him fromthe dead continued to testify.
It was also because they heardthat he had performed the sign
that the crowd went to meet him.
The Pharisees then said to oneanother you see, you can do
nothing.
Look, the whole world has goneafter him.
We've been in this teachingseries on the signs that Jesus
(04:17):
performs in John's gospel, ofwhich there are seven, and here
we see, in John chapter 12,we've already been given a
little bit of a preview of whatwill be the seventh sign, the
raising of Lazarus from the dead.
But today, on this Palm Sunday,we're going to go back to the
sixth sign, where Jesus willheal a man who has been born
blind.
But we see, as we encounterJesus in John chapter 12, we
(04:42):
find Jesus on that first PalmSunday, and the juxtaposition
between the crowds on PalmSunday and Good Friday could
hardly be more jarring.
How can the crowds welcomeJesus with such elation and
fanfare as he rides intoJerusalem on a donkey one day
and, a mere five days later, bejeering him with bitter cursing
(05:04):
and contempt.
The same crowds that areyelling Hosanna, save us.
And but a few days are yellingcrucify him.
We have no king but Caesar.
Of course, this is a complexquestion with layered answers.
Anytime we're talking about ahistoric group of people really
anytime you're talking about awhole group of people at large,
(05:26):
you are oversimplifying, vastlyright.
So we're talking about themindset of first century people
that were outside of Jerusalem,hailing Jesus as king.
But one strand that we canfollow is that the people wanted
Jesus to be a certain type ofMessiah.
They were gathered in Jerusalemto read the Passover story,
(05:46):
which, as we talked about, is astory of God liberating slaves
from an imperial, oppressivepower, and they read that story
and they're like that sounds alot like our current reality.
These people were not under thethumb of the Egyptians like
their ancestors, but were underthe thumb of the Egyptians like
their ancestors, but were underthe thumb of the Romans, and
(06:11):
they wanted God to do thePassover thing again.
And so, when Jesus has beenworking all these miracles, in
some way they're saying maybethis is the new Moses, maybe
this is the prophet like him,and they're also associating him
with people like David, david,the most famous king in the line
of Israel's kings, a conqueror,a military leader, one who
established Israel as one of theforemost nations during his
(06:32):
time.
And so they see Jesus in allthe things that he's doing.
They realize that God must bewith him in some way to enable
him to do these miraculousthings that he's doing, and they
say yes, that is our king,please save us.
And throughout John's gospel,there's a key friction point of
the signs is that, as peoplebring their own assumptions
(06:56):
about who Jesus is and what heshould do and Jesus constantly
disappoints them with what he'sactually up to, and what we find
is, as we kind of transposethis Palm Sunday story, this
John 12 story, onto our broadertext for today, which is in John
9, there's a key question thatthis text raised for the people
(07:16):
that encountered Jesus on thatday and that will raise for us
today Is the power and the loveof God causing our hearts to
grow softer to what God is up toin the world, causing our eyes
to be opened, or is the conversehappening?
Is encountering Jesus actuallycausing our hearts to harden and
(07:39):
our eyes to grow dim?
Elizabeth Brunig writes of thetension of a burgeoning
expression of Christian faith inSilicon Valley.
She's a writer for the Atlantic.
Under the direction of peoplelike Gary Tan and Peter Thiel,
there's been kind of this recentnascent movement of Christians
in Silicon Valley andhistorically this was not the
(08:00):
case.
As recently as the 2010s.
It was sort of stereotypical tosay that Christianity was
illegal in Silicon Valley.
And yet, beginning in the lastseveral years, there have been
venture capitalists meeting totalk about the Christian faith.
And I love what Brunig doeshere because she's not cynical,
and I really appreciate this,because anytime there's sort of
(08:21):
a new movement of Christians,it's easy for more seasoned
Christians to start dismissingit as immature or as not really
real, and we do that to our owndiscredit, right?
This is what Jesus talks aboutand he's like don't judge.
So she's cautious, but I thinkshe's cautious in some good ways
and she's looking at theexpression of faith in Silicon
(08:43):
Valley.
There's a piece in Vanity Fairby a woman named Zoe Barnett
that you can read.
You can also read ElizabethBruning's piece, but she
summarizes some of what she'sexperienced there, as these
people, who historically may nothave been people that express
faith in Jesus, are at leastgathering in Jesus's name.
She says this.
She says, in that sense,silicon Valley Christians
(09:04):
perhaps see Christianity as akind of technology, which is to
say a product used to accomplishhuman purposes.
But Christianity at its core isnot a religion that can
reliably deliver sociallydesirable outcomes, nor is it
intended to be.
That's why you'll never hear usat Ecclesia saying like Jesus
is going to make your lifebetter.
You will, but you might do thatby making your life
(09:30):
considerably worse.
But Christianity at its core isnot a religion that can
reliably deliver sociallydesirable outcomes, nor is it
intended to be.
Christianity disrupts life as weknow it, rather than
reinforcing a self-servingstatus quo.
It venerates generations ofChristian martyrs, whose
examples are prized preciselybecause they placed obedience to
(09:51):
God before more advantageousbeliefs or activities.
The formation of their faithwas not contingent or it was
contingent, excuse me, not ontemporal success, but rather on
another principle altogetherthat Christianity is worth
following, not because it hasthe potential to improve one's
life though it can but ratherbecause it is true.
(10:11):
This is key because ifChristianity is true, if we
really were created to love Godand one another and were then
rescued from our sins by thesacrificial intervention of
Christ, then everything else onebelieves must flow downstream
of that essential reality.
Believers' personalphilosophies, practices and
(10:32):
politics are all answerable tothe Christian religion.
There is no domain of lifeoutside of God's interest, and
he requires that all things bebrought in accordance with his
will.
And so the dynamic that we'rebeginning to sort of crack the
seal on here today is seeingJesus not as an instrument to
(10:52):
the life that we think we want,not as utility to get that which
we've always thought we desired, but to see Jesus and to allow
him to inform both the outcomeand our desires.
And we encounter this dynamichere in John, chapter 9.
If you have a Bible, a paperBible, those relics from Vigon
(11:12):
Age, you can open it up.
I will be reading from the NRSVand the words will be behind me
on the screen, but you canfollow along on your phone or on
a paper Bible, let's read inverse 1 of John, chapter 9.
Your phone, or on a paper Bible, let's read in verse 1 of John,
chapter 9.
As he, being Jesus, walkedalong, he saw a man blind from
birth.
His disciples asked him Rabbi,who sinned this man or his
(11:35):
parents, that he was born blind?
Now the disciples see a manborn blind and they ask one of
the most poignant and enduringquestions about human life why
is this man suffering?
Their assumption is that rootof this man's condition is some
(11:56):
sin, either his own sin or hisparents' sin.
Now look at the text and whatit tells us.
The text tells us that the manwas blind from birth, in verse 1
, which, to my mind, demands thequestion how would it be that
this man, when he was in thewomb, would have sinned in such
a way that his life would be sowretchedly determined?
(12:20):
Jesus' disciples are echoing thetheological assumptions that
are latent in their culture.
We see this specifically in thebook of Job Job's friends who
see their friend in desolationIf you know about Job or you've
read that book, job famouslyendures a catastrophic loss of
everything dear to him and inthe wake of that loss, his
(12:43):
friends come to him and for awhile they do the exact right
thing, often the best thing thatwe can do for people who are
mired in deep grief.
They come to Job, they put onsackcloth and ashes and they sit
silently with him for sevendays Perfect, no notes, and they
(13:05):
don't say anything.
They don't say everythinghappens for a reason.
They don't suggest that maybethis is your fault, job, not yet
.
Seven days.
The Jewish practice of sittingShavuot calls to mind what Job's
friends did.
But then, but then they speak.
(13:25):
And as they speak they start tonot so subtly suggest that, job
, perhaps everything thathappened to you is not just
random chance, but perhaps it isthe effect of your own life, of
(13:48):
your own life.
You see, this was prominent inthe imagination and the
framework of both Jewish peopleat the time of Job and Jewish
people in the first century thatwere following Jesus is that
there was a cause and effect atplay in the world, and if you do
good things, you get goodthings, and if you do bad things
, you get bad things.
And this was the root of theassumption behind the question.
(14:11):
As they encounter this man bornblind and they're walking with
Jesus and they've seen Jesus dosome miraculous things they turn
to Jesus and say what's thecause of all this?
Now we'll see.
Jesus answers their question,but it's interesting how karmic
their assumptions sound.
And again, as I've saidrecently, karma tells us that we
(14:33):
get what we deserve.
And the good news of Jesustells us exactly the opposite is
that God takes what we deserveand we get what God deserves,
and that's good news.
The problem of suffering, decay,human sin, in a world that has
God as its creator has beenrolled into a broader category
called theodicy.
At the base of any theodicy,that theological category, is
(14:55):
the mystery of God's will.
Different streams of Christianshave tried to account for life
in different ways.
There are those who aredeterminists that everything
that happens is in fact anexpression of God's will.
And if it could have beenstopped by God's sovereignty and
wasn't, then of course it wasGod's will.
It would seem that Jesus may besuggesting this answer here in
(15:18):
verse 3.
Let's look as we trace along inthe story in John, chapter 9,
verse 3.
So the disciples ask himteacher, rabbi, why was this man
born blind?
Was it his sin or his parents?
And look at what Jesus says,verse 3.
Jesus answered neither this mannor his parents sinned.
He was born blind so that God'sworks might be revealed in him.
(15:40):
We must work the works of him.
Who sent me?
While it is day, night iscoming when no one can work, and
as long as I am in the world, Iam the light of the world.
So there we have it right.
Jesus says this man was bornblind and has suffered this
truly awful existence for hisentire life, from birth, so that
(16:02):
at some point he wouldencounter Jesus later on and
that God's works might berevealed in him.
I understand why some peoplefind comfort in these
explanations.
I do, and I in no way wouldlike to diminish the level of
faithfulness and trust that thisrequires in God's careful hands
, but for me this also raisessome questions.
Does it raise questions for you?
(16:22):
Huh?
So this man has been sufferinghis entire life just so at some
point in his adult life, god canencounter him and heal him?
Are we just puppets in thehands of God, where he's pulling
the strings as he pleases inservice of his glory?
How would we respond to aparent who had manipulated their
(16:44):
child's circumstances so theywould suffer for years on end?
Now, what I am always trying todo is to allow the text to
determine how I see God.
Now, that's not infallible, aswe know here, but what I'm
trying to say is, is the answerto the question somehow wrapped
up in the text itself?
(17:04):
And I really try not to do this, because there's an important
caveat that's provided to us bythe Greek text.
And I try not to do thisbecause we are in Princeton.
There are scholars of alldifferent sorts, there are some
biblical scholars amongst us,but most of us are not biblical
scholars, and so if I starttalking about the Greek text,
what we have here is me sayingoh, in the Greek it says this,
(17:25):
and most of you will be like Idon't know, don't read biblical
Greek.
And so for us, how do we allowthe possibility of an
alternative interpretation tomeet us here today?
So in the Greek the phrase so,that is the conjunction hina,
all right.
This word is used 11 times inJohn's Gospel and it often
(17:47):
introduces what biblicalscholars label purpose clauses.
You can see that so that thesethings would happen, right?
So the phrase in four of thoseinstances where he not appears
in John 11 clearly precedes themain sentence, and so it's
placed.
Greek grammar is not like ours,where sentence order determines
how the sentence is spoken.
(18:09):
It's a case grammar, and so youhave to determine what's the
case of this particular word andhow is it working with other
words around it.
So if in our text that's a lotof semantics John 9 follows the
same pattern, then the sentencewould read something like this
and let's see if this is alittle different.
He says Neither this man norhis parents sinned, said Jesus.
(18:30):
But so that the work of Godmight be displayed in his life,
we must do the work of him whosent me while it is day.
You see, there's a shift.
Now that shift is notunequivocally endorsed by every
biblical scholar.
This is what happens whenreading the Bible.
(18:51):
When you're talking abouttranslating a work that was
written in a separate culture,in a different language, into
our own language, with our ownassumptions, you're talking
about doing the work ofinterpretation of theology.
It would be incredibly nice ifevery idiom, every instance of
language mapped perfectly ontoour language.
(19:12):
But that's not how languageworks, is it?
How many of you speak otherlanguages?
And when you're speaking inEnglish and you're trying to say
it's kind of like this right,so we have that tension here.
I just want to alwaysilluminate that tension.
It doesn't mean we can't knowanything.
It doesn't create endlessambiguity, but it does mean that
we have to be willing to sayokay, what are the possibilities
(19:33):
here?
So I'm presenting to youanother possibility that Jesus
is saying something quitedifferent.
Not that this man was bornblind so that at some point he
can encounter Jesus and receivehealing and be a part of the
divine story forever.
No, but so that Jesus couldstep into his life and display
the works of God.
While it is day, new Testamentscholar Gary Burge, who taught
(19:56):
at Wheaton until recently, saysthis he says the purpose clause,
or the clause introduced byEnoch, now explains that Jesus
must work so that God's work maybe displayed in this man's life
.
God had not made the man blindin order to show his glory.
Rather, god has sent Jesus todo the works of healing in order
to show his glory.
(20:16):
Now, I know we've been on adetour here, but I read these
things and sometimes I'm like Ihave a question and sometimes
those questions that I have canbe a gift to you.
Other times you're like okay.
Verse six when he had said this,he spat on the ground and made
mud with saliva and spread themud on the man's eyes, saying to
(20:36):
him go wash in the pool ofSiloam, which means scent.
Then he went and washed andcame back, able to see.
The neighbors and those who hadseen him before as a beggar
began to ask is this not the manwho used to sit and beg?
Some were saying it it is he.
Others were saying no, but itis someone like him.
(20:57):
He kept saying I am he.
But they kept asking him thenhow were your eyes opened?
He answered the man calledJesus made mud, spread it on my
eyes and said to me go to Siloamand wash.
Then I went and washed andreceived my sight.
They said to him where is he?
He said I don't know.
(21:19):
So Jesus encounters this manand moves past the disciples'
questions, walks up, approachesthis man I assume Hawks, a big
loogie.
I mean, how else are you goingto drum up a lot of spit, like
just, you know I not going tomake that noise, but he just
(21:39):
spits in the mud.
Now I don't know.
Some of us have read the otherparts of the biblical story.
Are there parts in the storywhere Jesus just says be healed,
like, take up your mat and walk.
Why does this guy get thisparticular diagnosis and healing
?
Why does Jesus do this?
It's interesting, right?
Why doesn't Jesus say eyes beopened?
(22:01):
No, he makes mud and then hewipes it on our dear friend's
eyes Again, just really, justrubbing it in, right, just
really going for it.
And then, as if that's notenough, he's like hey, make your
way over to this pool, whichJohn tells us that the title of
this pool is Scent Siloam, whichin John's gospel that's just a
(22:24):
little nudge.
Jesus is the sent one, and so,as Jesus sends this blind man to
be healed in the pool calledScent, john is just trying to
say, hey, all of this comes fromJesus, all of it is at the gift
of his hands.
But Jesus undertakes a lot ofvery interesting activities here
.
Now, there were traditionsassociated with both Jewish
(22:45):
folklore at the time and thecult of Asclepius, which was a
Greek healing cult that thoughtthat the spit of holy and wise
men had healing power.
Jesus then directs the man to goto the pool called Siloam, the
pool called Sint, and then theman's neighbors see him walking
about and they see him and likeis that who?
I think it is.
(23:05):
They start to ask, like aren'tyou the guy?
And they start talking likeabout the guy, not to him, like
isn't he the one?
And he's like I am he.
And they're like yeah, yeah,yeah, but like isn't that the
guy?
Now, I don't know if you hadthis experience.
I had this experiencespecifically during COVID but if
you ever watched superheromovies Batman, superman
(23:27):
especially have you everwondered how the people that are
dearest to our superheroescan't actually figure out who
they are, especially Superman?
I mean, let's get real, theguy's alter ego disguise is a
set of thick-rimmed glasses andmaybe his hair is not nicely
done.
All of a sudden, superman showsup and he's you know, he's
quaffed.
And they're like oh, we had noidea that was Clark Kent.
(23:49):
Now, during COVID, I actuallyhad a little more sympathy for
this experience, because whenpeople had masks on, sometimes I
was like is that, is that?
Like I think you know obviously, people that are good friends I
could figure out, but sometimesI was like I think this is who
I think it is, but I'm not sosure.
And I think John is trying totell us a couple things.
How often do we really noticethose who are outcast in society
(24:13):
?
You know this man's beenpresent at their gates.
The community has collectivelybeen caring for this man at some
level.
Right, that was part of theircollective responsibility.
But had they really seen him?
Was he just machinery sceneryto them?
But also, the man keepsprotesting.
I am he.
And they ask him how were youmade?
Well, verse 13,.
(24:35):
The interrogation goes on.
They're like okay, we can'tquite figure out who this guy is
.
So they bring in the religiousleaders, the Pharisees Verse 13,
they brought to the Phariseesthe man who had been formerly
been blind.
Now it was a Sabbath day.
Ah, why was Jesus making mudout of spit?
Well, one of the things thatthe oral law prohibits on the
(24:56):
Sabbath is kneading of bread.
And so Jesus just subtlyundertakes that which be
qualified as work on the Sabbath.
And we've seen this before InJohn 5, jesus heals on the
Sabbath, and it's the exact sametension point.
Why is Jesus doing this on theSabbath?
Then the Pharisees also beganto ask him how he'd received his
(25:18):
sight.
He said to them he put mud onmy eyes, then I washed.
Now I see it's interesting howsparse this man's answers are to
the Pharisees.
In contrast, if you just readthis alongside the healing story
in John chapter 5, in Johnchapter, it becomes very clear
this man, who's received healing, who can now walk very much,
(25:38):
wants to get out of thecrosshairs of the religious
leaders and is very willing tothrow Jesus under the bus to do
so.
But this man is not willing todo that.
He's very, very short with hisanswers to the Pharisees because
he doesn't want to get Jesus introuble.
Verse 16,.
Some of the Pharisees said thisman is not from God, for he does
not observe the Sabbath.
(25:59):
Others said how can a man whois a sinner perform such signs?
And they were divided.
So they said again to the blindman what do you say about him?
It was your eyes.
He opened.
He said he is a prophet.
Okay, so the neighbors havebrought the Pharisees to
investigate.
We see that it's a Sabbath dayand the Pharisees are incredibly
passionate about the Sabbathday.
(26:20):
Again, this isn't becausethey're passionate about rules.
It's because they are trying to, by their faithfulness, invoke
God's action.
They read in places likeDeuteronomy, where it says that
God will keep his covenant if weare faithful to him.
And so they're trying to say wehave Roman oppressors, we are
in exile, we want God to act.
So we have to be very, verymeticulous in our observing of
(26:44):
things like the Sabbath.
And so we've talked about thatin the past.
And the man is interrogated bythese Pharisees.
He leaves out all the bitsabout being commanded to go to
the pool.
He says this is what happened.
And they turned to the managain.
They said okay, you tell us.
Who do you think he is and hesays he's a prophet.
Let's go on to verse 18.
The Jews did not believe that hehad been blind and received his
(27:05):
sight until they called theparents of the man who had
received his sight and asked himis this your son, who you say
was born blind?
How, then, does he now see?
His parents answered we knowthat this is our son and that he
was born blind, but we do notknow how it is that he now sees.
Nor do we know who opened hiseyes.
(27:25):
And again, in a very similarmove, they're like we would like
to be out of this interactionnow.
Ask him, he is of age.
He will speak for himself.
His parents said this becausethey were afraid of the Jewish
leaders, the religious leaders,for the religious leaders had
already agreed that anyone whoconfessed Jesus to be the
Messiah would be put out of thesynagogue.
(27:47):
Therefore, his parents said heis of age.
Ask him so, religious leaders,in order to confirm that this
was in fact, the man who wasborn blind from birth.
Bring in the man's parents andthey say is this your son?
They say yes, was he born blind?
And they say yes, and that isthe end of what the parents want
(28:07):
to participate in, because theyare scared of being put out,
exiled from the religious lifeof the community.
So they say ask him, he'splenty old.
And so they do.
Now these religious leaders goback to the man for the second
time, verse 24.
For the second time they calledthe man who had been blind and
they said to him give glory toGod.
We know this man is a sinnerand if you're in a court of law
(28:30):
you hear objection leading.
They're giving him the answerright, verse 24, go on.
So they bring the man back andthey ask him a leading question.
It's interesting that theirquestions start with the
instruction, the leadingquestion give God glory.
The whole episode started withJesus declaring that Jesus is
(28:51):
working so that the glory, thework of God might be displayed
in this man's life.
The work of God is surely thesign of the healing this blind
man can now see.
But, as we've discussedthroughout this series, the
signs are not ends untothemselves.
They're leading us to a pointof decision, to a question will
we believe, will we becomeJesus's disciples?
(29:14):
And we see throughout John'sgospel that people that witness
miraculous things answer thatquestion.
No, they don't become Jesus'disciples.
The man who is instructed towalk doesn't become Jesus'
disciples.
The people, the thousands, whoeat at the miraculous hand of
God slowly trickle away as theyrealize that Jesus will
(29:35):
disappoint them in theirexpectation that he will keep
doing the bread thing over andover again.
The signs are a means to an end, and that end is to point us to
Jesus and to follow him.
The Pharisees try to tell himto give God glory by telling a
lie, and that is impossible.
But the man born blind nowsheds light on the truth.
(29:57):
Verse 25,.
He answered I do not knowwhether this man, jesus, is a
sinner.
One thing I do know that thoughI was blind, now I see that's
good theology there.
They said to him what did he doto you?
How did he open your eyes?
He answered them I've told youalready and you would not listen
(30:19):
.
Why Do you want to hear itagain?
Do you also want to become hisdisciples?
Then they reviled him, sayingyou are his disciple, but we are
disciples of Moses.
We know that God has spoken toMoses, but as for this man, we
do not even know where he comesfrom.
The man answered here's anastonishing thing you do not
(30:39):
know where he comes from, yet heopened my eyes.
We know that God does notlisten to sinners, but he does
listen to one who worships himand obeys his will.
Never since the world began hasit been heard that anyone
opened the eyes of a person bornblind.
If this man were not from God,he could do nothing.
Notice the Pharisee'sconclusion you were born
(31:06):
entirely in sin.
Teacher, who sinned this man orhis parents?
That he'd be born blind?
They've completely come to thewrong conclusion and they drive
him out Now.
This is a hilarious interactionand this blind man is one of my
favorite characters in thescriptures, and I think there's
a couple of things going on here.
You know how creative peopletend to have endured some sense
(31:29):
of like social ostracism, orthey see the world a little
differently.
I mean, think about this guy'slife and think about what kind
of observer of people heprobably is.
And so they bring him beforethese Pharisees and he is just
giving the business right backto the Pharisees, right?
He says why do you want to hearthe story again?
(31:52):
Are you interested in becominghis disciples?
They're like oh, we followMoses here, right, but he's very
much, just very, attuned towhat's going on here, and the
scene ends with the man beingdriven out of the synagogue,
which is a form of disciplineand exile.
But then, as this man has beencast out yet again, jesus finds
(32:12):
him in verse 35.
Jesus heard that they haddriven him out and when he had
found him, said do you believein the Son of man?
This is the question that allof the signs are demanding that
we answer.
And he answered who is he, sir?
Tell me so that I may believein him.
Jesus said to him you have seenhim and the one speaking with
(32:38):
you is he.
Notice what he says.
Lord, I believe, and heworshiped him Throughout Jesus's
earthly life.
There are only a few instanceswhere people see Jesus for who
he is and they worship him.
And for a first century Jewishman, to worship another man
(32:59):
means that he has been givensome insight, some revelation
into the fact that this is not amere mortal, this is God, and
he bows down and he worships him.
Jesus says I came into thisworld for judgment, so that
those who do not see may see,and those who do see may become
(33:21):
blind.
Now the Pharisees areoverhearing Jesus.
Some of the Pharisees who werewith him heard this and said
surely we are not blind, are we?
Again, you do not want to askJesus leading questions.
Jesus said to them if you wereblind, you would not have sin.
But now that you say we see,your sin remains the question
(33:44):
that Palm Sunday, the questionthat this sixth sign are leading
us to entertain, to wrestlewith, is the question that we
see so emblematic in thereligious leaders.
The religious leaders, inencountering this wonder of
Jesus, this man who was bornblind can now see, find hardness
(34:05):
of heart, and eventually it isthey who are blind spiritually.
And, conversely, this man whostarted the day in darkness now
sees Jesus revealed for who hereally is and responds
appropriately with worship.
John is trying to put us all inthe position of this blind man
(34:31):
and to say that we all startwith blindness.
Absent the revelation of God,absent his revealing himself to
us, absent his gift of healing.
We do not see.
Now, none of us want to assumethe position of somebody who
doesn't see clearly, who doesn'tsee rightly right.
(34:51):
We all think like, even thoughwe would acknowledge, hey, I
could be wrong.
We think we're right, don't we?
And so we all think that we'repeople who see, and whether that
be theologically or politicallyor socially, we think that we
are those who see clearly, thateverybody else are just sheep.
But what John is trying to sayto us is that all of us carry a
(35:14):
measure of blindness.
We start out in darkness, butwithin that assessment, god is
not saying oh, you're all blind,you're all stupid, you're all
dumb.
God is saying but there islight.
Jesus in John 8, I am the lightof the world.
You can see, not because youcan somehow construct the
ability to see on your own, butbecause I am the light of the
(35:36):
world and I have given youinvitation to see.
1.
John says it this way later onthis is the message we have
heard from him and proclaim toyou that God is light and in him
there is no darkness at all.
If we say we have fellowshipwith him while we are walking in
darkness, we lie and do not dowhat is true.
But if we walk in the light, ashe himself is in the light, we
(36:00):
have fellowship with one anotherand the blood of Jesus, his son
, cleanses us from all sin.
If we say that we have no sin,we deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he, whois faithful and just will
forgive us our sins and cleanseus from all unrighteousness.
(36:21):
If we say we have not sinned,we make him a liar and his word
is not in us.
Now, I know it's easy to sort oflike distance ourselves from
religious type folks and to saythat's the people that God is
talking about here, people thatare very religious.
But that's not the kind ofblindness that's at issue here.
The blindness is anything thatobstructs our view of Jesus.
(36:46):
For these religious leaders,yes, it was their hope that God
would work on their behalfbecause of their faithfulness.
But for us it can be so manyother things.
It can be so many things thatwe place in obstruction to the
reality, the revelation of God.
And so, even if you're notoverly given to religion, you
(37:07):
are overly given to something.
And how are you allowing Jesusto take that, to remove the
obstruction, the veil, and toshow us himself?
Bonhoeffer says this.
He says Judging others makes usblind, whereas love is
illuminating.
By judging others, we blindourselves to our own evil and to
the grace which others are justas entitled to as we are.
(37:29):
If, when we judged others, ourreal motive was to destroy evil,
we should look for evil whereit is certain to be found, and
that is in our own hearts.
We start in darkness, but Godis light.
(37:50):
Second thing I want you to seetoday we see Christ revealed,
not in a greater accumulation ofknowledge, as we conceive of it
, as in knowledge about God, butin obedience.
For so many of us, we have thisideal, this threshold we're
trying to hit, where, once weknow enough about God, then
we'll start living a life withhim and for him.
And it's an illusion, becausewe don't come to know Jesus by
(38:15):
merely assenting to a set ofpropositions and beliefs.
We come to know Jesus first ofall in blindness, as he lifts
the blindness from our eyes, andthen by following him.
And we see this in the man bornblind.
We see this progressionthroughout the story.
The man born blind, as heslowly walks the path of
(38:37):
faithfulness, sees Jesus moreclearly Verse 17,.
They ask him who do you say thisman is?
He says he's at least a prophet.
Right, but by the end of thissection he is bowing down and
worshiping him because he knowsthat he's more than a prophet.
Nobody worshiped Moses, butthey're bowing down before the
God of the universe and this manas he's encountered by the
(39:00):
religious leaders has everyoff-ramp to say you know what?
I don't want to be in thecrosshairs of these guys, I
don't want to be put out of thereligious life of my local
community.
Talk to him, talk to Jesus.
But he just bears witness, hetells the truth, he tells the
story as he knows it and heendures their persecution,
endures their shame and he keepswalking the path with Jesus.
(39:24):
And it's in obedience that wecome to know Jesus.
And for many of us, we'retrying to accumulate knowledge.
We're doing podcasts, we'relistening, and there's nothing
wrong with head knowledge.
There's nothing wrong with that.
But the Christian faith isexperiential.
It is a life with Jesus.
It is a life that is lived onthe road with Jesus.
(39:46):
In saying God, if you don'tshow up in this interaction with
this person, if you don't move,then I am going to miss all
that you have for me and so manyof us.
We kind of we design thesesterile spaces where we can
learn and converse, and I'm allfor that.
But sometimes we have to seethat God is inviting us to the
(40:07):
road of obedience.
Jesus goes and he finds the manand he reveals himself to us.
Let me invite our worship teamforward.
Palm Sunday, as we gather hereon this day, is a crossroads of
seeing God.
And if we insist upon seeingGod through our own preconceived
(40:28):
categories, we will grow blindand our hearts will grow
hardened.
But if we commit ourselves toseeing Jesus, to receiving him,
to obeying him, to worshipinghim, we will see Jesus exalted
and we will truly see.
The Gospel of John is divided upby scholars into two sections.
(40:49):
The first 12 chapters arecalled the Book of Signs, and
that's where we've been focusing, and the last half is called
the Book of Glory.
And at the conclusion of theBook of Signs Jesus says in John
, chapter 12,.
He says whoever sees me seeshim.
(41:13):
Who sent me.
I have come as light into theworld so that everyone who
believes in me should not remainin the darkness.
I do not judge anyone who hearsmy words and does not keep them
, for I came not to judge theworld, but to save the darkness.
I do not judge anyone who hearsmy words and does not keep them
, for I came not to judge theworld, but to save the world.
The one who rejects me and doesnot receive my words has a
judge On the last day the wordthat I have spoken will serve as
(41:34):
judge, for I have not spoken onmy own, but the Father who sent
me has himself given me acommandment about what to say
and what to speak, and I knowthat his commandment is eternal
life.
What I speak, therefore, Ispeak just as the Father has
told me.
And as we embark upon this holyweek, ecclesia, we have this
(41:56):
tension between that which wehave perceived God to be and who
God actually is, the kind ofthrone that we would design for
him, hailed upon our ambitions,our adulations.
Yes, god, do this exact thingthat we want you to do, when,
all along, jesus is doingsomething quite different and
far better, and we allow God toshow us himself, to remove the
(42:22):
veil of blindness, to revealhimself to us and see the life
that he has prepared for us.
And all of us start inblindness, ecclesiastes, and as
we see in the story, that is avery safe place to be, because
Jesus is not standing at arm'slength.
(42:43):
He is walking up, approachingus, healing us, guiding us,
revealing himself to us.
Let us pray, god.
We remember your cross, lordJesus, the cross where you
answered our cry to save us, butnot in the way that we would
(43:06):
have designed the cross whereyour blood covers all sin, god,
where true healing begins toflow.
God, yes, we have our physicalailments, lord, and they are not
small in your sight.
Yes, we have our physicalailments, lord, and they are not
small in your sight, lord, butyou're constantly showing us,
(43:27):
through the signs in John'sgospel, through the signs in the
gospels, lord, that there is adeeper healing, lord, the
healing of our knowledge, thehealing of the fractures between
us and God, between us and ourneighbor, lord, between us and
creation.
Lord, are you undertaking allof it, lord?
(43:50):
Lord, you are not settled forour small ambitions and
platforms, god.
But, lord, you'd be raised upto draw all people to yourself.
But, lord, you'd be raised upto draw all people to yourself.
So, god, draw us now.
I want to invite you, ecclesia,just to think about the story
that we read in John 9.
And just to position yourselfsomewhere within it.
(44:15):
Are you the disciples askingJesus a question?
He has an answer for you.
Are you the blind manencountering Jesus?
Has he told you ways to go andreceive healing?
The healing is sure.
Sometimes the obedience is theway that we receive it.
(44:37):
It doesn't mean we make ithappen.
It's a gift from God.
It's a wonder, but if the blindman had never gone to the pool,
what would it become?
Are we in the position of thereligious leaders?
There are wonders at work.
God is doing miraculous thingsand we're concerned that it's a
(44:58):
Sabbath day.
God, would you heal us, healour sight, lord, that we may see
you, that we may know you.
God, show us the judgment thatyou have.
It's not a judgment thatcondemns us, god, but a judgment
that condemns the darkness,that the light shines in the
darkness and the darkness cannotovercome it.
(45:19):
Jesus, we pray for your HolySpirit to come to minister to
your dear people here.
Lord, we pray these things inyour name.
In the name of the Father andthe Son and the Holy Spirit, we
pray Amen.
I'm going to invite you to atime of response.
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