Quinquagesima – March 2nd, 2025
Trinity Ev. Lutheran Church, Block, Kansas
Rev. Joshua Woelmer
Text: Luke 18:31–43
“Saved by Faith Alone”
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Sometimes those who are blind can see better than those of us who are clear-sighted. I remember watching a video a while ago about a blind young man who learned to develop echolocation. He would click and listen carefully to the returning sound. Now, it wasn’t as accurate as a bat. Our human ears weren’t designed by God to do echolocation. However, he could use it to avoid objects in his path. So if he were walking on the sidewalk, he could identify the light poles on either side so he wouldn’t wander off the sidewalk into the grass.
Those who are blind also have some of their other senses heightened. Studies have shown that blind people can process human speech faster. Their brains actually rewire the part that normally processes vision to use it for processing sounds and speech that they hear. Some of the most famous musicians like Stevie Wonder or Ray Charles have been totally or partially blind.
On the other hand, those of us with sight can be someone blind to things going on around us. When Brianna asks me to find something around the kitchen, my eyes almost always fail me, and it’s not because I’m not looking. I’m just not looking hard enough, I suppose. But sometimes, our eyes fail us in other ways.
Sometimes we can see a family that is doing well financially. They are buying furniture or remodeling or getting nice new things. However, what you see may be deceiving you. Their marriage may not be doing well. Their children may be entirely uncontrollable. Any number of things could be happening. Our sinful nature is good at putting on a good face for problems that are developing underneath. We try to deceive those around us by making everything seem like it’s good.
It often works. We like to assume the best of those around us. We often take people at their word until there’s something that makes us change our mind. Sometimes we don’t want to imagine the worst things that could be happening in the houses of our neighbors or in life in general.
Perhaps this is what the disciples were thinking when they heard what Jesus said. Three times he predicted his suffering and death, and this was the last time right before he heads into Jerusalem: “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For 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” (31b–33). The disciples did not understand what Jesus was saying. Their imaginations were closed to any of this happening to Jesus. After all, if Jesus could heal people of their diseases and restore sight to the blind and raise people from the dead, then surely he could get out of any tight situations with the Jews and Gentiles seeking his life. After all, even those from Nazareth tried to throw him off a cliff, but he escaped by passing right through them. Or, maybe we can save him. Let’s bring swords with us to the Garden of Gethsemane and be ready for anything.
There’s another sense in which the disciples were blind. They hadn’t yet connected all of the prophecies of the Old Testament to Jesus. Jesus had cited Isaiah’s Suffering Servant passages as referring to him, but they didn’t believe that the most important one about the servant being despised and rejected by men, stricken, smitten by God and afflicted, as applying to Jesus.
Our text says that “this saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said” (34). The Holy Spirit did not open their minds yet to the necessity of what Jesus must do. That enlightenment would happen later, after the fact.
But the Holy Spirit does open the eyes of faith for someone else, someone who cannot see with their physical eyes. A blind man has no doubt heard of Jesus of Nazareth, and as the crowd was going by, he shouted out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (38).
Now, honestly, this took some guts to do. We even see the crowd around Jesus trying to rebuke the man. Why did it take guts? Jesus is about to go into Jerusalem. It’s a powder keg. The Passover is coming up, there’s a lot of Jews in the town. The last thing anyone wants to hear is that this man is the rightful heir of David to sit on the throne of Israel. What if he causes a rebellion? What if he angers the Romans? What will happen?
Well, this guy has no shame. He redoubles his efforts and gets Jesus’s attention. What now? Jesus asks him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The answer seems obvious to us, and perhaps it is. “Lord, let me recover my sight” (41). Sometimes you wonder what he could have asked for after he called Jesus something that.
But the request for sight is a good one, and Jesus recognizes that: “Recover your sight; your faith has saved you” (42). The man reacts with joy, thanking Jesus and telling everyone around him what Jesus had done. Everyone gives praise to God (43).
“Your faith has saved you.” Not only has this man’s faith believed in Jesus and received his gift of healing, but there is a spiritual element to this as well. This man followed Jesus. He received here and now eternal salvation by his faith in Christ.
It’s interesting to consider that his eyes would soon behold something far different. Jesus, as we can see, is headed to Jerusalem. It’s only a week or two until he would be crucified. This man, it seems, followed Jesus.
What did those eyes see that were previously blind? In some ways, he saw with his eyes what he had already seen with the eyes of faith: Jesus is the son of David, the King, the Savior of the world. I don’t think even he would have comprehended what Jesus told the disciples, that he must suffer and die and rise again. But, he gives us an example of the eyes of faith that we must have in this world.
First, the eyes of faith look for Jesus in the Old Testament and in the whole Scriptures. This is what the blind man did. He knew who Jesus was because he knew the Old Testament and connected it to Jesus. Our New Testament tells us who Jesus is, what he did, and the significance of his life, death, and resurrection. The Bible is written that our eyes of faith would be opened and that we would see Jesus even clearer.
Second, we must remove from our eyes anything that would obscure us from Christ’s work in our lives. Our eyes of faith must look inward at our sin, but also at the gifts that God has given us with which we can serve our neighbor. If God has given you the gift of teaching, that is needed. If God has given you the gift of encouragement, then use it. Whatever God has given you, it is for your good and that of those around you.
Third, we must look at the world with eyes of faith as well. The world is not God’s kingdom. The church is. There will be evil deeds and wars breaking out. There may not be much peace. We pray that God would preserve the innocent. We should also be wary of those who would want to replace our religion with trust in the government or any other person.
Finally, eyes of faith help us look to the end times. We cannot see what tomorrow will bring, or even when the last day of our life will be. Nonetheless, we know that Jesus will come again for us, that He is good, and that we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. That is enough for our eyes of faith.
One of my favorite lines by Martin Luther is what he wrote on a piece of paper before his death, “We are all beggars, this is true.” So it is. Here we sit, like that blind beggar singing the Kyrie. And it is to us that Jesus says, “Receive your sight; your faith has made you well.” Amen.
Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
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