1 Samuel 16:1-13
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
St. Luke 18:31-43
February 19, 2023
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Over the last several weeks through Septuagesima and Sexagesima, we have been preparing for the season of Lent. The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard and the Parable of the Soils helped us consider different things that we could give up or take up for Lent. Discipline is good. Practicing your faith is good. In Lent, it’s good to refocus yourself on how you are living out your faith in Jesus Christ.
Today’s Gospel reading from Luke 18 is different from the last two weeks. We don’t have another parable. Instead, Jesus predicts His betrayal, His suffering, and His excruciating death. Right after this, He draws near to Jericho and heals a blind man. After healing the blind man, Jesus turns to him and says, “Your faith has made you well” (Lk. 18:42). What does Jesus mean?
There are two ways to talk to talk about faith. For the last few weeks, we’ve been talking about the first one: the active, individual, and personal faith in Jesus Christ your Savior. It’s the faith that actively believes in something and you can see that played out in a life.
Defining faith simply by what you see can be good or bad. Just think for a moment about how many people believe how many different things. There are too many world religions to count each and every one of them. Yet, every religion has people who actively and faithfully believe. Christians live out their faith, Muslims live out their faith, Jews live out their faith, and on down the line. We could expand this to other things that people believe in with religious devotion, whether that’s the Chiefs, politics, abortion rights, or LGBTQIA+ ideology. What makes your faith, a Christian’s faith different from a Muslim’s or a Jew’s or a social warrior’s? Defining faith by what you see can be good or bad. It’s good when it’s a clear testament to the one and only Truth of Jesus Christ, but it’s bad if that Christian faith is seen as true only by how faithful Christians are compared to others.
Looks can be deceiving, can’t they. St. Paul knew this. “If I have faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing” (1 Cor. 13:2). He’s talking about the faith you see, the active, individual, and personal faith. To be sure, moving mountains would be an impressive show. People would follow “Paul the mountain-mover” with religious devotion. People would drive for hours to see him lower the Rockies, fill in the valleys, and make the rough places plain. T-shirts would be made, hats would be sold, and songs would be written. There would be quite the revival centered on St. Paul and his actions of faith.
But what good does that do St. Paul? What good is his faith if he has not love? Nothing, he says.
Here we must pause at the word “love.” Paul is not thinking like a modern-day American who thinks love can be redefined and repurposed for political gain or sexual pleasure. For Paul, “love” is not a thing, but a person. To be specific, Paul is thinking of Jesus. “If I have faith so as to move mountains, but have not Love Incarnate, then I am nothing.” “Jesus is patient and kind; Jesus does not envy or boast; Jesus is not arrogant or rude… Jesus never ends.” What Paul is saying here is that you can really believe something strongly, you can live out a fantastic life of “faith,” you can be the best-looking Christian, or Jew, or Muslim, but if you are the final measure of faith, then you are just a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
That is the good and the bad of defining faith by the active life that you see. Sure, its visible, but looks can be deceiving.
There is a second way to talk about faith. This second way is not so much the active faith of the individual, but the faith of several people that binds them together. In this way, we can talk about the Christian faith summarized in the Three Creeds. We could talk about the Muslim faith drawn from the Koran. We could talk about the Jewish faith from the Talmud, and so on. This is the doctrinal faith or substance that people believe in.
Is there good and bad to this as well? Of course. Defining faith only by what is contained in a book – whether that’s the Bible, Koran, Talmud, or a history book – defining faith only that way misses an essential part: the people. You can study a book until you know it backwards and forwards, inside and out. But if you refuse to let that teaching have any daily or lasting impact on your life, then your religion can put away on your shelf. That’s dead religion.
We can summarize all this in two statements: Faith without substance is meaningless and nothing (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3). Faith without works is dead (cf. James 2:14-26).
Both substance and works are needed for saving faith. In our Gospel reading today, the blind man had saving faith. As Jesus passed through Jericho, the blind man heard a crowd coming. He inquired what it meant. Someone told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by” (Lk. 18:37). The blind man had heard of Jesus. He had heard of the miracles Jesus had done, he’d learned about who Jesus is, and he knew what Jesus could do. This blind man had all the substance of faith. He had all the pieces. But his religion wasn’t dead intellect. It drove him to action and confession. “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Lk. 18:38). When the crowds tried to silence him, the blind man cried out even louder, more guttural, more desperate, and less polite, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Lk. 18:39). There is this blind man’s life of faith, his action, his personal confession. I’m sure a few people in the crowd grew embarrassed and convicted by his faith.
“Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ He said, ‘Lord, let me recover my sight.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Recover your sigh; your faith has made you well.’ And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God” (Luke 18:40-43).
The translation is a bit funny here: “Your faith has made you well.” A better translation would be “Your faith has saved you.”
What does this mean? Is Jesus talking about this man’s active faith: the embarrassing display and desperate cries for mercy? Or is Jesus talking about this man’s intellectual faith: how much he knew? Neither.
Jesus is not saying that this blind man somehow saved himself by his intellect or his actions. Instead, Jesus is pointing back at himself. Jesus, face to face with the blind man, being the first face beheld by restored sight, told the blind man, “Your faith has saved you.”
That blind man and all the crowds followed Jesus, glorifying and praising God. What did their eyes see? They watched as Jesus walked the 15 miles from Jericho to Jerusalem. Their eyes saw Palm Sunday when He entered to cheers and music. But they also watched in terror as he was betrayed, mocked, shamefully treated, spit upon, flogged, and ultimately killed upon the cross. As this happened, the crowds slowly turned their eyes, one by one. They were embarrassed and convicted by his display of mercy. They didn’t understand how He knew what would happen. Finally, only one disciple stood at the foot of the cross as Jesus gave up His spirit and closed His eyes in the blindness of death.
Your personal and intellectual faith have not saved you. Jesus alone has saved you. Jesus has had mercy on you. Jesus has given you eyes to His love incarnate. So today, let us follow after this blind man and after the crowds to see Jesus hanging on the cross. Let us follow through Lent to see Jesus give His body and blood for the forgiveness of all your sins. Let us follow through Lent to watch Jesus die on the cross. And let us finally follow through Lent to Easter where Jesus will rise from the grave. Ultimately, this is our faith. Not a thing, but a person. Jesus Christ, the Founder and Perfector of Faith.
Now may the peace that passes all understanding guard and keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.
Amen.
Pastor Schultz
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
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