February 27, 2005

Lent 3 (Series: "I Can't, but He Can")

            Hey!  You just heard what happened to me, didn’t you?  In fact, you saw it!  Guess what?  I saw it too!  I couldn’t have seen it yesterday.  But today’s a whole different story!  I was blind, but now I see!  Pretty amazing, isn’t it?  This morning, I was a blind man.

But then, Jesus came along, smeared mud on my face, told me to wash, and voila! I could see!  How many of you have been blind?  If you have never been blind, you can’t even imagine what it was like to finally see!  That started the fun!  I became quite popular, too popular I guess.  I was dragged to the Pharisees so they could rain on my little parade with their accusations. 

I answered their questions, with my parents as witnesses, but all I cared about was that I was blind but now I could see!  I could see them and their silly hats! They didn’t like the answers I gave them because they obviously didn’t like Jesus.  They lost the argument, so they kicked me out!  Ha! I didn’t care!  I could see!!  Or so I thought.  Do you know what?  I was still blind…

I was still blind because I didn’t see what had really happened.  I had missed out on WHO this guy really was!  But thank the Lord, He found me as I was walking out.  He walked up to me and asked, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”  Boy, I sure wanted to!  Tell me more about Him!  And He said: “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.” 

Wow.  This was a bigger moment than the one earlier!  Jesus was helping me “see” that He was here for a greater reason than giving me sight.  He was here to give me spiritual sight.  To save my soul!  Friends, I BELIEVE IN HIM!  He is telling the truth!  It makes sense: no one else could do what He did today.  No one can act like Him or speak like Him.  He must be who He says He is:  the Son of God.  The Savior!  I believe!  I was blind, but now I see!

I see now that I was suffering from a worse handicap than blindness.  Sin.  That’s right, the disciples of Jesus and the Pharisees weren’t wrong when they claimed I have been sinful from birth.  Because I have!  I have been selfish, greedy, unthankful, complaining, angry with my parents, and angry with God.  I had distanced myself from God.  And only now do I realize how awful that would have been if nothing changed!  I would have been apart from Him forever!  I thought the world of darkness I had been living in was bad. If I went through the rest of my life not caring about God, I would have been resigned to a place of eternal blindness! 

But Jesus came to take away my handicap of sin.  He took away my handicap of unbelief!  He gave me faith!  He opened my eyes. He gave me spiritual sight!  I was blind, but now I SEE!  Really!  Friends, if you are questioning who Jesus is, listen to his words!  If you don’t think you need Him, go back and read God’s law.  Remind yourself what He expects of you!  Realize that you would be living in a world of darkness without Him!  And open your eyes to what Jesus has done for you!  He gave his life for you!  God has accepted you because of Jesus!  You’re forgiven! You’re his child! Believe that!  Let Him open your eyes!  He opened mine.

I was blind, but now I see.  REALLY see!  I see that Jesus is my Savior.  And seeing that He is my Savior has also helped me “see” a number of things!  Let me share them with you…

First of all, now that I can SEE, I can see that Suffering is an opportunity to glorify God!  When I was blind, I thought everyone was right about me.  I thought I was being punished for my sins.  I thought my blindness was caused by something I had done.  It made me feel guilty.  I thought God hated me.  I mean, why would He let anyone suffer with something like blindness?  How was I supposed to work?  Have a family?  Support a family?  Support myself?  I hated the fact that I was a blind man.

But now that I can really see, I can see what a blessing my blindness was!  God used it to bring me to faith, and to glorify Him in front of others!  I would never trade away my spiritual sight for physical sight!  Even if I remained blind in this life, it would only have lasted until the day God took me to heaven.  Spiritual sight, on the other hand, will last forever!  I would be blind again in a second if God needed to do that for my spiritual health.  I would be blind again in a second if it would help someone else believe in God!

What about YOU?  Do you ever think when you are suffering a hardship, that God is getting you for something you have done?  Do you feel God is punishing you when a major hurdle has been put into your life?  That your pains and heartaches caused by your sins?  Well, sometimes we do get ourselves into binds, but God doesn’t normally work that way. 

He isn’t punishing you with blindness or deafness or cancer or leukemia or a stroke or heart attack.  He isn’t getting back at you by taking away a job or a spouse or a child or a friend.  You know what He’s doing?  He might be protecting you from a temptation!  Who knows what kind of lust and greed He could have been protecting me from with my blindness!  Who knows what kind of pride He might be protecting you from by humbling you with a handicap. 

Our hardships also provide an opportunity for God to be glorified!  He is glorified when He helps you recover from them.  And He is glorified when He works through your life in spite of your handicaps!  Look what He has done in the lives of so many who our society considers “handicapped.”  That glory is God’s!  And look at my story!  If you’re hearing about it, I imagine it will be told for some time!

God also makes us stronger with hardships!  Not in health, but in faith!  He draws us closer to Him! When we are reminded of how weak we are, we lean less on ourselves and more on Him!  In my blindness, I couldn’t see that.  Now I do.  We won’t always know right away what God is accomplishing with our pain.  But we will on the day we see Jesus face to face!

Secondly, now that I can see, I know that Physical comfort is not the most important thing in life!  When I was blind, all I could dwell on was that I couldn’t see.  All I dreamed about was being able to see.  When I was healed, I thought I had it all.  I didn’t think much about thanking the One who gave me the gift.  I hadn’t even really checked out who or where he was! 

Have you ever been guilty of that?  Being so obsessed about your physical health?  Your comfort?  The things you have in life?  The things that will only last until you die?  Does it seem to you that we spend a lot of time trying to improve all of these things?  And so little time trying to improve the thing that will last forever: our relationship with Jesus?

Well, once I could SEE, now I see how relatively unimportant physical health, earthly comfort, and material wealth are!  Look at the Pharisees and all the stuff they have!  Silly hats and fancy chains.  Expensive robes.  Important places in society.  But look at how miserable they are!  They are the ones who are blind!  People who don’t believe in Jesus are the blind ones!  If He has led you to see Him as your Savior, then you have more than anyone else on earth!

Third, I also learned that God sometimes gives weird directions!  I let Him put mud on my face today!  And then when He told me to go to a certain pool to wash it off, I did!  Not that I had anything else to do, but I still thought I was wasting my time.  Well, I wasn’t wasting my time, was I?  Now that I can see, I would do ANYTHING for God!  I would lie on my side for a year like He had Ezekiel do, if He asked me to.  I would move to a different country, like Abraham.  I would carry a yoke on my back, march around a city 7 times, be fed by birds, or bathe seven times in the Jordan.  I would even eat locusts and wild honey.  If He asked me to.

How about you?  Have you found that God sometimes gives weird directions?  Like if someone hits you, turn the other cheek?  Put others first?  Give to the poor, even if you aren’t rich?  Love your enemies?  Forgive those who have wronged you?  Eat and drink bread and wine that is also his body and blood to remember what He did for you and be forgiven?  Be great by being a servant?  Strange directions!  Will you do those things if He asks you?  Friends, TRUST HIM!  You will be happy you did!  He can see more than we can.  I can see this now!

Here’s another thing I can see now:  Sometimes the simplest of believers can see what the wise scholars can’t!  In my blindness, I thought religion was for others: church people, priests, wise, righteous folk.  Ones who have the Bible memorized.  What about you?  Have you ever felt that way?  That people who go to church seem a little holier and wiser than thou?  Now I see that religion, or a relationship with God, is for everyone!  Spiritual sight isn’t completely connected to knowledge.  Christianity isn’t just for the “elite.”  I even heard Jesus say that we should see Him like children see Him!  Oooo, I can’t imagine the Pharisees liking that comment!

Finally, now that I have been given sight, here is what I am sure of:  Only God could have done this!  I Can’t, But He Can!  In my blindness, I thought the one who helped me was a prophet, but nothing more.  Can you relate?  Have you ever felt that reading the right book could give you just as much help as God could?  Or going to a counselor?  Or starting a self-help program?  That basically, with a push in the right direction, you could straighten out your life?

Guess what?  Nothing compares!  Those things CAN’T do what HE can!  You and I CAN’T do what HE can!  Now that I can SEE, I can see this:  I Can’t, But He Can!  I can’t Be perfect.  Take away my sins.  Put faith in my heart.  Life a life that perfectly thanks Him.  BUT JESUS CAN!  You and I Can’t!  But He Can!

I was a blind man this morning.  How many of you have ever been blind?  Raise your hands.  Wrong!  All of you were blind at one time!  Finally, we are all blind until Jesus gives us sight!  WE were blind!  But now we see!   Amen.

 

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