right-click to save, or push Play
Sermon for Quinquagesima
Isaiah 35:3-7 + 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 + Luke 18:31-43
Today’s Gospel is about faith—what it is, what its object is, where it comes from, how it behaves. It also teaches us a good measure about love—the love of Jesus and the love that results when a person believes in Jesus.
What is faith—specifically, what is saving faith? Faith can be described with various analogies. It’s a grasping, a laying hold of something; it’s a clinging to something; it’s embracing something; it’s leaning with all your weight on something, relying on something. Or in the case of saving faith, it’s someone. To have faith is to grasp Jesus, to lay hold of Him, to cling to Him, to embrace Him, to lean on Him. To have faith is to know and rely on the mercy and love of Jesus. So really love comes before faith—not our love, but the love of Jesus for us. The mercy and love of Jesus are the object of our faith. It’s what we rely on; it’s what we trust in—that Jesus is a merciful Savior…
…of sinners. To rely on Jesus as a merciful Savior, you have to first recognize and admit and confess that you need a Savior—that you’re a sinner and you can’t save yourself, but deserve to be rejected by God here on earth and condemned in hell afterwards. After His resurrection, Jesus sent His disciples to go and preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins in His name. But you have so many churches out there proclaiming a false gospel, a gospel that doesn’t recognize sin, a gospel without repentance, a gospel not about the forgiveness of sins but a Gospel about the toleration of sins. God does not tolerate sins or wink at them or call them OK. God does one of two things with sins: He either punishes them or He forgives them.
And it’s the punishing part that Jesus refers to in the first part of today’s Gospel. Only pay attention to who it is who is punished, who suffers—not the ones who deserve it, but the only One who doesn’t. He took the twelve aside and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished. For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.”
And there you have the very words that create faith. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. It’s this Word of Jesus that draws us to Him as He tells His disciples ahead of time just how much He would suffer, not for His own sins, but for the sins of the world. The disciples, it says, didn’t even understand what Jesus was talking about, although He spelled it out for them in graphic detail. But later, after it was all over, they would remember, and they would gasp—He knew! He knew everything that He would suffer, and He chose it. He suffered it all gladly and willingly, for us.
That’s love—the very love, the perfect love Paul described in 1 Corinthians 13. And so it is the love of Jesus, His suffering and death and resurrection that count before God. Jesus’ love conquers our lovelessness. Sin is swallowed up in Jesus’ suffering and death. His love for His Father, His love for us, His obedience unto death, even death on a cross, is the only righteousness that has value before God. And so faith in Jesus is counted as righteousness before God, not because it is so beautiful or does such noble things, but only because it wraps its arms around Christ and only Christ. Wherever Christ is, there sin has no power to condemn, because Jesus has already been condemned by our sin. Wherever Christ is not found, wherever He is not embraced by faith, there sinners have to account for their own sins and answer for their own lovelessness.
The world and our sinful flesh rage against this faith. The idea that the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus is all that counts before God, and that the faith that embraces Him is the only way for sinners to be justified before God—that’s repulsive to the world. My works should count for something! My suffering, especially if I suffer greatly, should count for something! God should be merciful to me because He sees how much I have loved, how much I have suffered, because He sees something worthy in me, some quality, some goodness, some merit. But God slams the door on all of that and says, No! Only Jesus’ suffering earns My approval. Only Jesus’ obedience has merit in My sight. And that’s why faith justifies, because to have faith is to rely on nothing and no one but Jesus only.
Where that faith is, there Jesus is, and where Jesus is, there love also will be—love for God that shows itself in love for our neighbor, and most especially love for our brothers and sisters in Christ. The undying selfless love of Jesus that made Him walk willingly into the horror of Holy Week is the very thing that kindles our faith in Him and that enables us to walk in love like Him.
Now, in the second part of our Gospel today, we see an example of a man who had faith in Jesus and so the Holy Spirit teaches us how faith behaves and what it receives.
It was that blind beggar sitting near the gates of Jericho who saw Jesus for who He really was. Remember, Jesus had spelled out for His disciples how He would suffer and die and rise again, and they, and even though their eyesight was just fine, they couldn’t see what He was talking about. But the blind beggar by the gate heard the commotion as Jesus and His company were coming his way on the way up to Jerusalem. He asked, what’s all the commotion about? And they told Him, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.
And even though that blind man couldn’t see, his ears were working just fine. He must have heard about this Jesus before, and faith came by hearing, because he doesn’t hesitate. He believes that the word he has heard about Jesus is true, that Jesus is the “Son of David,” the promised Messiah, the Christ.
Of course, even the devils believed that. Faith is more than believing that Jesus is the Messiah. Faith is more than knowing the facts about Jesus. Faith is a reliance on Jesus for mercy, and that’s what the blind man displayed. He cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
People who don’t understand faith are often worried that talking about faith will make people doubt their faith, or will make people focus on themselves. That’s foolishness. You want to know if you have faith or not? Answer this question: Is the cry of the blind man your cry? Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! Friends, that is faith. That is the faith that the devils don’t have, the faith that the Pharisees didn’t have, the faith that Muslims and atheists and false Christians don’t have. But if the Word of Christ has awakened that cry to Jesus for mercy in your heart, then you have faith, like the blind man did.
And when you have faith like the blind man did, then the people around you can try to silence you, as they did with the blind man. The people around you can tell you to be quiet, don’t bother Jesus. But you know He is not bothered by your cry. You cry out all the louder, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And He will.
Jesus called the blind over to Him and asked Him, “What do you want Me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, that I may receive my sight.” And Jesus granted his request. Receive your sight; your faith has made you well.
Again, what was it that faith did? Did the blind man have healing power in his faith to take away his blindness? Did he tap into some hidden healing gene in his brain? No. Did faith offer Jesus payment or merit or anything at all? No. Did his faith in Jesus create the grace of God or inspire Jesus to have mercy on him? No. How, then, did his faith make him well? How did his faith “save” him? His faith was like an instrument in the hands of a skilled surgeon. It was the means by which Jesus, the Healer, brought about His healing. Faith looked to Jesus, who had the power and the will to heal.
So, what made the blind man well? Was it the grace of God that moved Him to send His Son into this dark world? Yes. Was it Jesus Himself with His power and mercy? Yes. Was it the Word of God that brought this blind man to trust in Jesus? Yes. And was it the faith in which the blind man called out for mercy? Yes. Each of these things, in its own way, together with the others, brought about the healing of the blind man. Without the grace of God, without Jesus, without the Word and without faith, there would have been no healing.
So it is with faith. Faith saves. Faith justifies. But not without the grace of God, the merit of Christ and the Word of Christ. Each of these things, in its own way, together with the others, brings about the healing of sinners. Without the grace of God, without the merit of Jesus, without the Word and without faith, sinners remain in darkness.
God, in His grace, determined to give His Son into death for your sins. He has also determined to send out this Gospel, this Word of Christ to you so that you may hear about the love and mercy of Jesus, His obedience, suffering, death and resurrection. He sends you His Gospel in word and Sacrament to teach you, in your blindness, to rely on Jesus alone, to call out to Him for mercy. And through that faith alone in Christ alone, the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation are yours. Amen.
