Second Sunday in Lent - Reminiscere

St. Matthew 15:21–28

Baptisms of Jamyson & Chloe Atkinson

Catechesis brings you low in order to lift you up

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus casts out a demon from the woman’s daughter. We actually saw this very thing take place this morning. In their Baptisms, Jesus cast out the devil from Jamysn and Chloe. The Word of God teaches that we are all conceived and born sinful and are under the power of the devil until Christ claims us as His own. We would be lost forever unless delivered from sin, death, and everlasting condemnation. But Baptism rescues us by forgiving our sins and silencing the devil. Depart you unclean spirit and make room for the Holy Spirit. Do you renounce the devil and all his works and all his ways? Yes, I renounce him (Baptism Liturgy, LSB p.268–70). The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit claimed Jamysn and Chloe, covering them in the righteousness of Christ, bringing them into God’s Kingdom, and so they will be forever protected from the forces of evil so long as they remain living in their Baptisms, trusting in the promises God made to them today.

Baptism heals you and rescues you from the devil, just like Jesus did for that little girl. But Baptism also tears you yourself down. Through this saving flood all sin in them, which has been inherited from Adam and which they themselves have committed since, is drowned and dies (Flood Prayer, LSB p.269). See, we are not innocent victims, and neither are Jamysn and Chloe. We are sinners, active participants in the rebellion against God. And that means, not only must we be rescued from the devil’s power, but we must also be killed. Or more accurately, Baptism drowns the Old Adam in us. Our sinful hearts and minds, our sinful flesh, that must be put to death. All so that a New Man can arise and live in righteousness. The children sang it today: Let us daily die to sin, Let us daily rise with Him (LSB 605:3). Baptism brings you low in order to lift you up. The Old Adam in us is put to death with Christ, so that the New Man in us can rise and live with Christ.

This dying and rising, this brining low and lifting up, happens in Baptism, but it doesn’t stop with the drops of water. This dying and rising, this bringing low and lifting up goes on throughout life as we continue to live in our Baptisms. And that’s why we have catechesis, hearing and learning the faith. Like Baptism, catechesis brings you low in order to lift you up. Catechesis continues the work of Baptism in your daily life going forward. Or to put it a better way, Baptism keeps doing its work daily through catechesis.

This is seen most clearly with the Canaanite mother in our Gospel reading. It is shocking to us how Jesus responds to her cries for help. First, He ignores her: He did not answer her a word. Next, He refuses her: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (meaning, “I’m not going to help this Gentile sinner”). And then, He outright insults her: “It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” Catechesis brings you low and Jesus absolutely brings this woman low. You might even naturally think, “How can Jesus seem so cruel?” But catechesis brings you low in order to lift you up, and that’s what Jesus does for this woman. With every harsh reply He brings her lower—less explanations about her difficulties, less reasons why He should help, and more clinging only to Him, only trusting that He will answer. Jesus takes her to the point where she is truly able to receive mercy. He brings her low so that she can only receive mercy. She has no other leg to stand on, nothing to be proud of, no way that she can earn or deserve anything good from Him. He brings her low. Spiritually speaking, He kills her.

And yet, she does not despair. The lower Jesus takes her, the more she trusts in Him. The lower He brings her, the more she acknowledges her lowliness, and all the more she claims His goodness. She calls on God’s promises. Ultimately, she uses His own Word and she gets what she asks for: “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table.”

That is how a Christian is to die. And I don’t just mean physical death. That’s how a Christian dies to self. That’s how you drown the old Adam, deny yourself, and are crucified with Christ. And then, you can be raised up again and live with Christ. All the while, through all the harsh words, Jesus has that woman’s salvation in mind. He brings her low in order to lift her up. If she had turned away earlier, offended, thinking that she didn’t have to stand for this kind of harsh treatment, if she had denied her sin, her lowliness, and denied Him, then she would go without His help. You can’t get a crumb from the Master’s table if you think you can insist on your rights or earn a spot by who you know or what you’ve done. Only when you admit that you are indeed a sinner deserving God’s anger, no better than a dog, only then can you rely on the Master’s generosity. You can’t hope to rise again if you aren’t willing to first die. You can’t hope to be forgiven if you don’t first admit your sin and your desperate need. As we sang earlier:

            Baptized into Your name most holy,

            O Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,

            I claim a place, though weak and lowly,

            Among Your saints, Your chosen host.

            Buried with Christ and dead to sin,

            Your Spirit now shall live within. (LSB 590:1)

Baptism humbles you, it brings you low, it kills you. That’s the same goal in catechesis. The work of Baptism continues as often as that Old Adam rears his head in protest. We don’t have much trouble saying we believe this when it comes to Baptism itself. But we don’t like it so much when it happens later in life. When  our sin is confronted by God’s Word then we get angry, we object, we refuse to listen. When we’re told that we need to listen and learn God’s Word we shrug it off, because we don’t think we’re so bad. 

But that is precisely why you need catechesis, you need to be taught that you are wrong, and your Old Adam needs to be killed. A big part of both Baptism and catechesis is getting rebuked. A big part of being a Christian is getting corrected, even getting a harsh treatment from Jesus like the Canaanite woman. You are a sinner and you need God’s Word to silence your excuses, kill you, bring you low, so that your sinful pride doesn’t get in the way of your salvation. That means you have to leave your sin. In simple terms, it means you have to learn what your sin is and work at not doing it anymore. You need to trust the Lord’s teaching on what is good and conform yourself to what He says. And that does mean getting rebuked once in a while. It means dying to self and admitting you’re wrong. It means saying, “Yes, Lord. You are right. Yet, I will cling to Your mercy.” It is painful to be brought low and confess your sin. But only then will you be lifted up with the Word of forgiveness and life.

Baptism raises you and gives you new life and new power. It creates a New Man in Christ—someone who only loves God and what is good. And catechesis not only continues giving life to this New Man, but it teaches you how to live as the New Man. You are new in Christ but you still need to learn how to live this new life: how to bring your Old Adam low and kill him by the Word of God’s Law and by confessing your sins and resisting temptation; and how to lift up your New Man, how to strengthen him by trusting God’s forgiveness and taking advantage of everything He gives in the Word and the sacraments.

Living this new life means that you learn God’s Word so that you grow to love it more and more. Catechesis can be a humbling thing: the more you learn, the more you find out that you have more to learn. I imagine this is why so many people stay away from things like Bible study. They don’t want to be reminded of how little they know. But the Canaanite woman wasn’t ashamed to be a dog eating the crumbs from her Master’s table. That’s how much she loved her Lord. So, you don’t be ashamed to sit at your Master’s table and learn from Him. This is true for all of us, myself included. Maybe learning something new is humbling, but there is so much joy in learning something from God’s Word. There should be no embarrassment when Christians gather to learn God’s Word together, because God is bringing us all low so that He can lift us all up.

What’s more, catechesis trains you in being brought low, so that you learn how to suffer and receive some harsh treatment. This is so that suffering doesn’t turn you away from Christ, but brings you closer to Him. This was Paul’s point in our Epistle: Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ—we are baptized, so we can be confident that we are God’s children. Through Christ (and through Baptism) we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Romans 5:1–5).

Baptism brings you low in order to lift you up.Catechesis brings you low in order to lift you up. These two works of God train you to persist and endure and suffer, so that you do not give up, so that you do not turn away from Him when things get bad. Baptism and catechesis bring you low in order to lift you up so that you also might be like that faithful Canaanite woman, and have your cries for mercy answered by the Lord who gave Himself for you. The almighty God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has given you the new birth of water and of the Spirit and has forgiven you all your sins, strengthen you with His grace to life everlasting (Baptism Blessing, LSB p.271).

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.

First Sunday in Lent - Invocavit

St. Matthew 4:1–11

Catechesis gives you Words for the fight

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Catechesis means hearing or learning God’s Word. Last Sunday with the blind man, we heard that catechesis gives sight and it is the Way on which our Teacher leads you. On Ash Wednesday with Jesus and His Christian disciplines of fasting, almsgiving, and prayer, we heard that catechesis lays up treasure for you in heaven. Today with Jesus enduring the devil’s temptations in the wilderness, we will hear how catechesis gives you Words for the fight.

Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith (1 Peter 5:8–9). The devil wants to devour you because he envies you. He is the hater and envier of all that is good. He rejected and forfeited goodness when he rebelled against God who is the Giver of all good. And the devil sees that you have it—the goodness of God’s creation and the goodness of faith in Christ. And it’s not even that he wants it for himself, because he can’t even appreciate what’s good anymore. He just can’t stand that you have anything good. That is envy. He just wants to smash everything so no one can have anything good. This is why he attacked Jesus, tempting Him to stop being the Christ. The devil wanted to stop salvation from happening. If he could get Jesus to turn away from God, to doubt God, to side–step God’s plan, if the devil could get Jesus to not suffer and die as the perfect sinless sacrifice for the sins of the world, then the devil would’ve won and there would be nothing good.

But the devil failed in devouring Christ, so the only thing he can do now is turn his attention on Christians. Remember, he is an envier. Even if he can’t destroy the goodness of salvation completely, he doesn’t want you to get any of it. So, the devil attacks us to stop us from receiving that salvation. He tries to devour us by tempting us away from the goodness of God our Savior. He twists all the good things that our Father gives us in this world, even twists the good things He gives us in the Church, so that we misuse God’s good gifts or take them for granted. If he can get us to deny God’s goodness and rely on our own version of goodness (which is just sin), then he wins, he devours us, so that God can’t have us and so that we can’t have God or anything else good either.

But fear not, the Lord of hosts, the Creator of the Universe, the Almighty, He is in your flesh and blood. He is on your side. Jesus, your Christ and Savior, is here for you so that you might endure the devil’s temptations and resist him, firm in your faith. This is why Jesus went through His temptations. He did it vicariously for us, in our place. In every respect, Jesus has been tempted as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). He won the victory for us. He did not give in, He did not sin, so when you believe in Christ that victory is counted as yours. His resisting temptation counts and covers over all the times you have succumbed and given into temptation. Your sins are forgiven because they are canceled out by Jesus’ perfection. Your baptism and faith in Christ mean you are victorious.

However, there is still real danger from the devil, from this evil world, and from our own sinful flesh. Jesus won the battle, but it’s not completely over yet. As long as we remain this flesh, with this sinful mind and heart, as long as we remain in this life with the devil and all other enemies of God surrounding us, we will always be in danger. We are still weak when it comes to our own ability to resist temptation. And the devil is still seeking someone to devour. And if we don’t resist him, we can still be lost.

This is why we need catechesis. We still need training in God’s Word because as long as the fight rages on, as long as we are still in the sinful flesh, still in the sinful world, and still attacked by the devil, well then, we’re not yet perfect are we? Not until the resurrection. So, if we are not yet perfect, then we must still train, we must still hear and learn God’s Word. God knows we need this, which is why He commands it.

Did you know that all three of Jesus’ replies to the devil come from Deuteronomy? I don’t think this is an accident. Deuteronomy is a book particularly devoted to teaching God’s Word. It’s the second giving of God’s Law to Israel before they enter the promised land. You might say it was Moses’ last catechism lesson for them. And over and over again, he tells the people to remember and keep all the words that the Lord has given them. Listen to this from Moses in Deuteronomy, chapter 6 (right where Jesus is pulling His quotes): “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:4–9). This is what catechesis is all about: getting God’s Word in our hearts and keeping it there. Teaching it, talking about it, having it with us everywhere, in our minds, in front of our eyes, and in our hands. God commands that we continue to hear and learn His Word. Because only in this way will we be able to endure and resist the devil’s attacks.

Jesus used His written Word to defeat Satan. He resisted the devil by quoting Scripture. That means we can also defeat the devil by using the written Word of God. When we have the Word in our hearts and minds and use it to gain knowledge and direction and strength, then we wield the power of the victorious Christ. When we speak God’s Word to ourselves and to others in order to resist the devil’s attacks, then the crucified and living Christ speaks through us. And the devil cannot stand against that.

You need this Word, because you are daily in the devil’s kingdom. He ceases neither day nor night to sneak up on you and to kindle in your heart unbelief and wicked thoughts. That’s why you must always have God’s Word in your heart, upon your lips, and in your ears… And that Word is so effective that… it always awakens new understanding, pleasure, and devoutness and produces a pure heart and pure thoughts. For these Words of Godare not lazy or dead, but are creative and living Words. In this way, the devil is put to flight and driven away (Large Catechism I:100–2).

So, how do we do that? Paying attention to sermons and talking about them. Reading the Bible and talking about it at home. Remember from Deuteronomy, teaching and talking about God’s Word at home is commanded by God. And He promises to bless it. Beyond reading or hearing, we need to be memorizing it, rehearsing the truth of God as often as we can. Adam and Eve neglected their memory work, their commandments and creed and prayer, and they were led astray. The point of memorizing and re-memorizing God’s Word is so you have it with you when temptation comes, so you can spot the commandment you’re being tempted to break, so you can confess the creed against the devil’s lies, so you can pray to our Father and ask that He lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

What’s more, your catechesis in the Word helps you make use of God’s gifts in the sacraments, which will also support you in your fight against the devil. All the things I’ve mentioned are ways to make use of your Baptism, because only a baptized believer can do these things. And if we are using God’s Word as His baptized children then we will also want to make use of the power we have in confession and absolution. The devil loves it when we don’t confess our sins and we keep them to ourselves, thinking they’ll just go away. He also loves it when we don’t use the absolution, the authority to actually forgive sins in our homes when members of the family sin against each other, and then also use it in private confession with our pastor. Finally, you can grasp the Word and impress it upon your heart and mind in the Lord’s Supper. His Word gives you what it says: His body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins. Trust that Word as you eat and drink, and the devil won’t be able to tear you away from the Lord who fills you with His own life and power.

But how easily we forget and how quickly we get tired. We let the devil twist our minds and talk us out of what God calls good. So, we must never cease to practice and train ourselves in the Lord’s Word. Catechesis gives you the Words you need for the fight, and it gives you the promise that the Lord Himself is with you.

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Ash Wednesday

2 Peter 1:2–11

St. Matthew 6:1–6, 16–21

Catechesis lays up treasure for you in heaven

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

This past Sunday we heard about Jesus healing the blind man, which is an analogy for catechesis. And catechesis just means learning God’s Word, it’s instruction. Also, remember from Sunday that believing is the true seeing. So, once you’ve been given sight, once you have faith, you are able to follow your teacher on the Way. That’s what the blind man does. Jesus heals him to show that he really does see, he does believe, his faith makes him well. And then the blind man follows Jesus down the road, glorifying God, as they go up to Jerusalem.

So, the analogy is that catechesis is not only opening the eyes of the mind by faith, but catechesis is also the Way that Jesus leads us to the Truth. That road for Jesus went up to His suffering, death and resurrection. So also, catechesis is the Way that leads us to the cross of our Savior, to the cross of our own death (dying to sin, dying to this world), and ultimately that Way leads us on to our own resurrection as well. That means catechesis, this Way of learning, doesn’t lead us to earthly goods but to heavenly treasure. Jesus said: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven… For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Catechesis shows us the Way to lasting treasure. It points us in the right direction to the eternal things, the things that last. Catechesis puts our hearts where they need to be.

The Apostle Peter also gives us some direction on this Way, in His Epistle. He says, God has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Christ provides everything we need for a godly life and an eternal life. He provides that for us through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence—that is, through the knowledge of our Savior, through the Word of God. The Lord teaches us, catechizes us, and that gives us everything that we need for godly life here on earth and godly life forever in heaven. 

Peter goes on: he says that God has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature. That is an amazing statement: you take part in, you commune with the divine nature, God Himself. That’s what God’s Word does for us. His knowledge makes us partakers of the divine nature—there is real treasure in heaven! You actually commune with God. Your learning the Word of God, your catechesis in the Word of God makes you one with God.

But not completely yet. You are one with God by faith in His Word, and yet not by sight or feeling or any physical signs. In fact, what we often see in our own hearts and lives and in the world around us, are not signs of the divine nature, but signs of sin and death. So, for now, our faith, our walking on the Way, requires training. Catechesis is that training. It guides you and pushes you, disciplines and directs you. When you get side-tracked by the earthly things off on the side roads, it directs you back to the good things, the heavenly treasures, which will eventually take you to heaven. Catechesis directs you to how your faith should be bearing fruit.

So then, Peter gives us this list of good fruits that come from faith, from learning God’s Word. He says, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue—so, good works. By faith alone we are saved, and yet faith is never alone. Faith always does good works. If we believe in God we also show that we love Him and our neighbors. So, we supplement our faith with virtue, and then virtue with knowledge. Your initial knowledge in the Word gave you faith, and that faith should also make us want to learn more, and come to know our God better and better (who He is and His will for us). Then, to knowledge we add self-control. We must not constantly give into every single impulse that comes into our minds. We need moderation in our life. That self-control will help us toward steadfastness, which is the next fruit. Temptation comes and we want to give into that impulse, but because we’ve learned to exercise self­–control we can resist and remain steadfast. Then, to steadfastness is added godliness—a life that is pleasing to God, a life that is governed by His Law. And with godliness we add brotherly affection. In the New Testament, the brothers are always your fellow Christians, your siblings in the family of God. So, we love one another as Christ loved us and brought us into His family. And with brotherly affection we add love. So that as God loved the world in Christ, we also love the world—not just the people we like, not just the people in our church, but we love our enemies, we love the people who disagree with us, the people who hate us, the people who hold grudges against us. Love sums up and covers the entire life.

The point of learning God’s Word is to pursue this great list Peter gives us, these fruits of faith. He urges us to be increasing in them. Progress. Keep going. Keep adding, one fruit on top of the other. Build on your faith. This way you can confirm your faith. Not to God. He knows you have faith in Christ. He knows you’re saved and He tells you so in His Word, in the absolution. But to confirm it to yourself.  To say, “I can see my faith growing, my faith being active by how I train and seek after these heavenly treasures.”

These are the things you are storing up, that you can actually take with you to heaven. They’re good now but they will also remain forever. You’ve all heard the saying about earthly goods: “You can’t take it with you.” And it’s true—all the earthly things we love so much in this world, you can’t take it with you when you die. But there are some things you can take with you. Your faith, for one, that will come with you. Your virtues, your good works, your knowledge of God, your self–control, your steadfastness, your godliness, your love for others, that will all come with you. That will be shown in the resurrection, in a way that it isn’t now. You will be dressed in those gleaming robes of white with crowns full of jewels showing the glory that God has worked in you in your life. These good heavenly things are the things we should be pursuing with faith according to God’s Word. Then we will enter into the kingdom with all these treasures. Peter says, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities (all those good virtues we went through before), if you practice these, you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Okay, getting all those spiritual virtues sounds great, but how do we actually start doing that? If you need somewhere simple to start, that’s what Ash Wednesday and Lent are for. Jesus gives us three simple Christian disciplines. We should be doing them all the time, but we especially practice them during Lent (it’s our rehearsal for the Christian life). Jesus tells us about Fasting, Almsgiving, and Prayer. What’s so great about those? How will those get me the great spiritual fruits that Peter said I need? Well, I don’t think I really need to give a big defense or explanation for them right now. I just want to tell you, start doing them and see. Start doing the things Jesus says and I bet you’ll be surprised. Maybe not in the next day, but in the next few weeks, months, years. You’ll turn around one day and see: "Wow, God really has been at work in my life. I have grown in my faith, in my knowledge, in my good works." But it all starts somewhere. And usually it starts by us just doing it, setting to work at what God has given us to do. Then all those spiritual fruits will follow.

But how to do it? Well, God’s Word teaches you how to do this. It teaches you the real goal in these disciplines is to take your mind off the earthly things, so that you can be focused on those spiritual goods, that heavenly treasure. So, Fasting: the obvious meaning is to refrain from eating for some point in time. But the deeper point of fasting is to stop indulging every single whim. Say, “I don’t need to do that right now, I can do something better.” Put your body under the control of our mind, and even more important, put all of your flesh under the control of the Spirit of God. If you’ve ever done any kind of diet, you know your body rebels against that. Your body has cravings. Don’t let your body be your master. Your body has a head. The body should be subject to your mind. And your mind needs to be subject to the Spirit of God. Next, giving to the poor: again, pretty simple. It means just that. But in a broader sense it means actually loving others, doing good works for other people. Instead of the popular phrase, “Our thoughts go out to the victims,” how about we actually do something for them. And pray. Don’t just say, “I’ll pray for you.” Actually pray to God for yourself and for other people. Ask Him for stuff, that’s what your Father wants you to do. That’s why He gave you an actual prayer to use, the Lord’s Prayer.  Meditate on that and you will never finish praying in this life. This is how you begin to devote yourself to the heavenly treasure. Catechesis and following these disciplines shows you where you need to put your heart. God’s Word teaches you what things really last and get you to heaven.

That’s the whole point of continuing to learn God’s Word. Catechesis puts your heart with the greatest treasure of heaven: Jesus Himself. Learning and doing God’s Word puts your heart with Him and with His suffering, bleeding, and dying, and with His resurrection from the dead and His ascension into heaven. Your heart is with Christ when you listen and learn and trust God’s Word. You are seated in the heavenly places, already becoming a partaker of the divine nature.

So, if you practice these qualities, if you set your mind to obtain these heavenly treasures, if you walk on the Way, follow your Teacher, learn His Word and grow in His knowledge, then you will see your faith bear fruit in good works. You will see a life of virtue develop. And you will never fall, Peter says. Another way to say it would be, Jesus won’t let you fall. His catechesis, His guidance is what’s going to keep you from falling. Of course, when you take your eyes and ears off of God’s Word, then you will fall. Only if we persist in chasing after the heavenly treasure, we won’t fall. The problem is we don’t persist. We often go astray and fall.

But do not fear, the Lord will pick you up again. He called us to His own glory and excellence, Peter says. That means the Lord wants to give us His own glory and virtue. God doesn’t just expect you to create your own virtues, He actually gives you His own. His own righteousness becomes our righteousness by faith in Him. He makes us partakers of His divine nature. And that’s what picks you up again when you fall. We see this especially in the Lord’s Supper, where we are literally partakers, communers, with God, receiving Jesus’ divine body and blood. That is the food that will keep our steps going on that road, and will keep our faith growing and bearing fruit in this life.

And some day this life will end. But thanks be to God, our Lord has made an entrance for us into His Kingdom. May we be ready to enter it, having learned and grown according to His teaching now. May our hearts already be there. May we have heavenly, eternal treasure stored up for us there, so that we may now and forever be with the Lord.

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Quinquagesima - About 50 Days until Easter

St. Luke 18:31–43
Catechesis gives sight and is the Way on which the Teacher leads you.

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

There is a terrific irony in our Gospel reading this morning: the twelve disciples who can physically see are really blind and the man who is physically blind can really see. Jesus directs His disciples to the Scriptures: everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. And He spells out in great detail what will be accomplished: He will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging Him, they will kill Him, and on the third day He will rise. But they understood none of these things. Jesus almost highlights their lack of understanding by beginning with that great attention–getting word: See! Behold! Pay attention to this! But they don’t understand. They don’t really see. These twelve disciples have watched Jesus for the past three years, they’ve seen His miracles and listened to His teaching. But seeing is not believing.

The blind man has not seen Jesus, but he has heard the Scriptures and he has heard reports about Jesus. When people in the crowd tell the blind man, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by,” he knows who that is. He has heard about this Man who claims to be the Lord, who teaches with authority, and who heals the sick and raises the dead. So, he starts crying out to this One he’s heard so much about: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And that means he also knows the Scriptures. He knows of the promised Savior, the Son who would sit on David’s throne forever and reign with righteousness and salvation, mercy and peace. This blind man has what the disciples have: they both have the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament. Jesus had just directed His disciples to the writings of the prophets. And the blind man really has less than the disciples because they got to see and know Jesus, and all he has been able to do is hear about Him. But this blind man believes. He sees for real. He understands and trusts. Seeing is not believing, but believing is seeing. Physically seeing something doesn’t mean you believe. But believing means you really see, you perceive the truth of things. Believing opens up the eyes of your mind and heart. And so, Jesus’ miracle reflects that. By first believing, the blind man comes to see Jesus. Or as Jesus said it Himself, "Your faith has made you well."

But even though the disciples don’t see or understand at this point, we should notice that their blindness is cured after Jesus’ resurrection. This really comes out with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. On that first Easter afternoon, the risen Jesus comes up to two disciples walking out to a village, but they don’t recognize Him. And so just as He said before, He explained that everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets was accomplished. He said to those two, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself (Luke 24:25–27). He had a Bible study with them, as they walked on the way. And only later, after coming to the house where they would stay for the night, having heard the Scriptures and having come to grasp their meaning, then when He was at table with them, He took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him (Luke 24:30–31). Believing made them see. 

And Jesus did the same thing for the rest of the disciples that same Easter evening in the upper room: He said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations… You are witnesses of these things” (Luke 24:44–48). They came to really see Him by first hearing and believing the Scriptures, and hearing and believing what happened to the Christ, His suffering, death, and resurrection. Then, believing, they see Him as He is and they become His eye–witnesses.

That’s all farther down the road for those disciples. For today, we’re on the road leading up to Jerusalem and to the cross. But in either case, what we have here is an analogy for catechesis—that is teaching the faith. It’s no accident these catechism classes happen on a road. Jesus is the Way. Christianity is the Way. Learning means following a certain teacher on a certain way. Disciples are followers, walking with their teacher along the way. And the teacher wants to take his students somewhere, and not just anywhere. The purpose of teaching is to lead the student to the truth, to guide him on the way he should go. So, the disciples follow Jesus. The blind man meets Jesus on the road and follows Him. Jesus does His epic Bible study with those two disciples on the road to Emmaus. And the prophet Isaiah proclaimed this Way that would be made known when the Savior came. Not only would He heal the blind and deaf, but a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it—which means, it’s not a way you can go if you are going to persist in your sin. It shall belong to those who walk on the way;—those who actually want to follow Jesus—The redeemed shall walk there. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing (Isaiah 35:8–10).

Following Jesus, walking in this Way—this is the Biblical language of learning the faith. Like the disciples, like the blind man, we hear from the Holy Scriptures. And we hear the report about Jesus, we hear about what He did in His suffering, death, and resurrection. We get that report in our Creeds and in our Catechism. All these words, from Scripture, Creed, and Catechism, teach us and lead us on the right Way, the road that leads us to the truth. So, we read and hear these words, we memorize them, we confess them and sing them, we internalize these words so that they become more and more a part of us. They get sunk into our hearts and minds. And gradually our minds are opened. These words open our minds so that we can be shown how all the Scriptures speak of Jesus. These words lead us on the Way to knowing Him as He really is.

Like the blind man, like the disciples, by learning the Words we come to see and understand and believe. Believing is the real seeing. And this means that when we close our eyes (so to speak), when we tear them away from Jesus and we look elsewhere, we are not believing. When we stop listening to these words, when we forget them, our belief will get weaker, our sight will get dimmer. The Apostle says, Faith comes by hearing the Word of Christ (Romans 10:17), and that means if we’re not hearing the Word of Christ, then we’re not having faith. Faith is like eating. You can’t just eat once and call it good. You have to keep eating to go on living, and you have to keep getting food from outside of yourself. Faith is like breathing. You can’t just breathe once and then be done. You have to keep breathing, keep bringing in air from the outside, in order to go on. Faith comes by hearing the Word of Christ. Not just one and done, but all the time, feeding on it, breathing it in. Faith means always receiving, always hearing the Word.

The blind man was the one who could really see. He was the wisest of all the disciples and he had the sense to call out, “Lord, have mercy! I am blind. I need You!” He received exactly what he needed and wanted from Jesus, but he didn’t call that enough and go home. He carried on with Jesus, following Him on the road, even though that road would lead to suffering and death. He wanted further understanding, better sight, and so He followed that Way that His Teacher was leading him, and he learned that eventually that road leads to the resurrection.

In a sense, our spiritual blindness is not fully healed yet. We obviously don’t see Him with our physical eyes, and even spiritually speaking, we do not see Him completely. We stumble on the way and our sight grows dim with sin and doubt. This is why we have Lent. Lent is a time for repentance, for correction, for turning around if we’re going the wrong way. Lent is a time for catechesis, for learning and following Jesus on the way that leads to a holy death and an everlasting life. Lent is a time for more hearing and seeing, more hearing and memorizing those words, more confessing them and singing them, more engraving them into our hearts and minds by having them in front of our eyes and on our lips. Lent is time to be like the blind mind who was healed. He recovered his sight and followed Jesus, glorifying God.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame (Hebrews 12:2). Out of great love for His Father and for sinners Jesus went the way of His cross. So, we walk that way with Him, paying attention to His Words as we follow. See! We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets is accomplished. For He was delivered over to the Gentiles and mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging Him, they killed Him, and on the third day He rose. Lent is a time to follow on the Lord’s highway, the Way of Holiness. It’s the road that Jesus walked for our redemption. It goes up to Mount Calvary and to the cross, but it goes on to the empty tomb and to Mount Zion, the eternal city. The redeemed shall walk there. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Artwork Copyright (c) 2010 Edward Riojas. Used by permission.