Making Disciples for Christ Jesus the healing power of God
Grace, peace and mercy from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray. Merciful Father protect the land and all people especially at this moment the world is facing the Coronavirus pandemic. Please, Lord, according to your will, bring healing and peace and stability in Jesus’ name, as we listen to Your Word. Amen.
Text: John 9:1-7
As Jesus went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” When he had said these things, he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And he said to the man, Go wash in the pool of Shiloam (SENT) so he went and washed, and came back seeing.
John’s Gospel often pictures people in situations of physical need that are met by Jesus. At a wedding in Cana, Jesus changed water into wine (2:1-11.) Jesus healed a royal official’s son who was dying. Also, a man who could not walk for 38 years was healed by the pool in Jerusalem, along with other blind, lame, and paralyzed (5:2-5) people. Jesus the healing power of God also fed 5000 hungry people with a few loaves of bread and fish (6:1-15). Today we are focusing on the healing of the beggar who was born blind (John 9:1-7).
We must not diminish the importance of the wonderful events in which Jesus provided healing to miserable people. We must also not focus too narrowly on the physical healing. To do so fails to see the true significance of these and other miracles. They bear witness, more vividly than Jesus’ own words, to the fact that, in the cross of Christ, God has eliminated all sickness and disease and has made us whole in his sight. While he has not promised to give each of us physical healing of our infirmities, he has given us healing in the most important way: in his eyes. All believers in Christ are healed or saved before God.
Blindness is a disease which persists across the globe even in our day. It is recorded that every 15 minutes a person loses eyesight. Every year nearly 200,000 people go blind. A survey made to find the most difficult physical ailment showed that blindness is the worst. For now, we may say the coronavirus.
When Jesus’ disciples saw the blind man sitting along the street in Jerusalem, they asked Jesus, “Rabbi (teacher), who sinned. This man or his parents, so that he was born blind?” (9:2). The assumption of the disciples was that physical suffering must be a form of divine punishment. There was a biblical warrant for assuming that a person could suffer because of the sins of his parent. God warned that He would visit “the iniquities of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations” (Exod 20:5). Other passages insisted that God would not make a child suffer for the sins of the parents, but would punish each one for his or her own sin (Ezek. 18:20).
The disciples want to know what caused the man’s condition. But Jesus says that none of their perspectives fits the situation, and he refuses to offer an alternative explanation. To be clear, Jesus is not saying that the beggar and his parents are sinless people. No, no, not at all! The point is that the man is not being punished with blindness because of some specific transgression or sin. However, Jesus the healing power of God; does not categorically reject the idea that God might punish someone for sin. For example, at the pool in Bethesda, Jesus the healing power of God; healed a man who had apparently been sick due to his own sin for 38 years (5:14).
After healing him, Jesus found him later in the temple and told him, “See you have been made well, Sin no more.” But not in this man’s case. God allowed the blindness so that works of God might shine forth in the man. All this while, the blind beggar sits in silence as Jesus’ disciples ponder theoretical questions about the cause of his blindness. But Jesus alters the situation when he puts mud on the man’s eyes and says, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.” By the way, Siloam means SENT. It reminds us that Jesus is sent by the Father and the blind man was sent by Jesus. The man goes to the pool as Jesus tells him to do, By faith he washes and gets healed. You remember the story of the Syrian army officer Naaman who was healed of leprosy by washing in the Jordan River.
This is another interesting story. Naaman had done all he could to get healed, but failed. But when the prophet Elisha asked him to dip himself into the Jordan river, and he finally did he got healed completely.
And given this poor beggar’s blindness, whatever its cause, Jesus looks ahead to what he might do about it. Jesus says, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but in order that the works of God might be revealed in him we must work the works of him who sent me while it is day” (9:3-4a). Note that Jesus does not explain the cause of the blindness. He simply accepts it as a given and declares that he will deal with it in order to do God’s work of healing.
The works of God might be displayed. Not merely restoration of physical sight, but deliverance from spiritual darkness (v.38). Christ’s victory over the powers of darkness is given fuller expression in Col 2:15 than any part of the NT. Christ having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. Jesus frees us from the oppression of sin, death, and the power of the devil.
He shines in the darkness of this world and shows us the Godly way which starts with the grace of God to sinners. Christ’s light also shines upon our darkness, even those things which we would rather forget. He will not leave any dark corners or spots in our life which he will not wash away. The light of Christ shines on our path. But the God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, like the Pharisees, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Jesus Christ as the healing power of God.
In this special case, for instance, the work of God, his power and might, should become manifest. Hence, his followers are under obligation to work, to carry out the works of him who sent Christ into the world. There is no false understanding as to the nature and scope of the work and office which he must perform in the world. Now is the time of grace; now he must be about his Father’s business (Missio Dei- Mission of God).
The mission of God is to save souls and reconcile humankind to himself. Through His church, God sends people to participate in the service of God’s mission of saving and reconciling the world to himself in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 5:19). The Church, therefore, corporately or individually, is sent (Siloam) into the world to call people and nations to repentance. To announce the forgiveness of sin (Luke 24:47), and a new beginning in a relationship with God and other people through Jesus Christ the healing power of God. The overall aim of sending (Siloam) is winning of all people to the status of being true Christians.
Like the blind beggar, we are healed, we are saved to make disciples for Christ (Matthew 28:19): Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The purpose of Baptism is that it works forgiveness of sins. Delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this. Baptism is a treasure and medicine that swallows up death and keeps all people alive. The gifts of baptism are so immense that, if our timid self thinks about them, it may doubt whether they can all be true. In short, baptism saves because it joins us to the death of Jesus (Romans 6: 3-11) (Mark 16:15ff).
In today’s religious circles it is not unusual to find that Jesus’ goal of saving souls is transformed to become the means to obtain earthly prosperity. To such preachers no longer is Jesus the Savior who calls us from darkness into God’s marvellous light. He is the one who will offer temporal gifts to that person who makes a big pledge, or orders some sacred water from the Jordan, or sacred soil brought from Jerusalem, or sacred incense from the Holy Land, or who possesses a special blessed holy handkerchief.
These new gospels, these different gospels are only devilish gospels which are designed to steal the Savior’s identity. Any gospel which does not point unerringly and accurately to Jesus being our Savior is leading its followers on a path which will lead to hell and not to heaven.
So my dearly beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, every bit of time, every ounce of strength should be thrown into this most important work of making disciples for Jesus.
On the cross, our Lord and Savior suffered in complete weakness to take away our spiritual blindness. Our spiritual blindness is SIN. Indeed, at your baptism, he washed your spiritual eyes and cleansed your soul. Through his suffering, he gives healing and all the blessings of heaven. Though now you may live in physical blindness or weakness, as did Job and the apostle Paul, the power of almighty God rests upon you and works through you. Jesus frees us from the notion that all physical conditions, sicknesses, or sufferings come as punishment from God. He however introduces us to the great truth that God works his will and good purpose through our suffering and loss. His “grace is sufficient for you.”
Making disciples for Christ: Each of us has a limited number of opportunities to do the work at a limited time. When night closes out our day on this earth and we enter Jesus’ eternal light, we will no longer be able to work here or reach those we neglected in our lifetime. Likewise, if unbelievers are taken into eternal darkness, we have lost any opportunity of showing them the light of Jesus. Jesus is the true light that removes all darkness/sin and gives light to everyone who believes. Yes, you are healed, you are saved to make disciples for Jesus.
The peace of God that passes all understanding keep you focused on the One who saved you so that you also bring others to be saved. Amen.
Prayer
Blessed Lord, You give sight to the blind, You open the ears of the deaf, and You make the lame to walk. Hear the prayers of Your people on behalf of all people as they have need.
In the darkness of sin and its death, we cry to You, O Lord. Open our ears by Your Word, our minds by Your Spirit, and our hearts by Your grace, that we may know and be thankful for all the blessings You have given to us in Christ, our Lord, especially the gifts of forgiveness, life and salvation. Strengthen us in faith, that we may serve You with all our body, mind, soul and strength. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.
Knowing Your gifts of healing, we pray You, O Lord, to spare us from all calamity by pestilence, scarcity and fear of the coronavirus pandemic. Remember the sick in their afflictions, calm those troubled in mind and keep steadfast the dying.
Show us Your gracious will, O Lord, and sustain those who are afflicted in body or mind. Keep and bestow upon us new bodies fit for the eternal life, You have prepared for us in Christ. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.
All these things, O Lord, we pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Asking You to grant our prayers not for our sake but for the sake of Him alone. Teach our hearts to be content with Your will and to trust that You will answer us with what is best for us and at the right time for our need. So do we pray, giving testimony of our confidence in Your gracious favour in Christ by answering with one voice. Amen.
Reference
Credit for this sermon goes to Craig R. Koester, author of THE WORD OF LIFE: A theology of John’s Gospel; Gary P. Baumler, author of People’s Commentary Bible- John; Jacob A. O. Preus, author of Just Words: Understanding the fullness of the Gospel; and David Bosch, author of Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission.
The Lord bless your day.