See Jesus, the Light of the World!

3rd Sunday in Lent, 3/19/17
John 9:1-7, 13-17, 34-39


See Jesus, the Light of the World!
I. He pierces our spiritual darkness.
II. He changes hearts with spiritual light.


Hypertension, a.k.a. high blood pressure. It’s been called the “Silent Killer.” By one estimate it affects 30% of Americans and causes 60,000 deaths per year. It’s called the “Silent Killer” because it often damages the heart and arteries without any symptoms. There’s no meter on your chest indicating you’re afflicted with it. It doesn’t cause any visible changes to your body. You don’t feel any inner pain, until it’s too late. And then the heart attack or stroke occurs. If you’re lucky, you survive. Many don’t.

That’s why it’s important to know if you have hypertension and, if you do, to seek treatment from a medical expert. I encourage every one of you to have your blood pressure read at least annually. It’s painless, and it could save your life.

But there’s a far deadlier silent killer than hypertension. Left untreated, it will kill 100% of its victims eternally. I’m speaking about spiritual darkness. We come into this world with hearts that are filled to the brim only with sin and unbelief, under the shroud of spiritual darkness. There isn’t so much as a momentary glimmer of spiritual light in us. We’re spiritually blind, dead and hostile to God. And just like hypertension, we’re completely oblivious to it. We’d be completely fine and content living in spiritual darkness until it was too late. At that point, we’d be confined to the eternal darkness of hell.

But by the grace of God, we’ve seen the light of our salvation. Our gracious God has used his word and sacraments to shine the light of salvation into our hearts and lives. We’re living in his saving light and that light emanates from one source—our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

We see and hear Jesus shining that light into the life of a young man on this day described for us by John in his Gospel. Unlike the sun in the sky, you can never expose yourself to too much of the light of God’s Son. So let’s bask in it! See Jesus, the Light of the World! May your hearts and minds be warmed and enlightened by Jesus, your saving Light!

Part I.

While I was preparing this sermon, I was made aware of a terrible tragedy just blocks from here in white collar, middle class, warm and cheerful Centerville. A young girl called 911 about 8:00 AM Thursday because her parents were unresponsive. She told the dispatcher they were dead. Both were victims of what appears to be a drug overdose. They left behind 4 children. How could they do such thing! To choose a deadly high over your living, loving children! How terrible! How tragic!

The depravity of the human race is, at times, depressingly stunning. How low can we go? It doesn’t appear as if we’ve reached bottom yet. And I’ll spare you more examples. These words of Jesus are so true, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil” (Jn. 3:19).

During his ministry, Jesus repeatedly confronted spiritual darkness. Our text opens with the words, “As he went along.” Where had Jesus been? Stepping out of a dismally dark situation. Jesus had just been confronted by a group of Jewish men who opposed him. In fact, they lobbed some fairly vicious accusations at him. They stated, “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?” (John 9:48). That’s about as ugly as you can get when it comes to insulting Jesus. But that’s the modus operandi of spiritual darkness. It’s not content to remain neutral regarding Jesus; it must seek to destroy him. And that’s what had just happened. These Jews then picked up stones to stone him to death, but Jesus slipped away.

As Jesus walked away from that stone-throwing dark scene our text informs us, “He saw a man blind from birth.” It’s been said that everything happens for a reason, and I’m certain that was the case with this encounter. The Light of the World not only saw this blind man, he was going to enlighten him that day in more ways than one. He would shatter the darkness.

Jesus had just been dealing with the blatant effects of sin—his fellow Jews blaspheming the Son of God—when his disciples bring up that very topic. “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” The theology of the day attributed such physical deformities to a specific sin. So they wanted to know whose fault the blindness was.

But Jesus had the bigger picture in mind. He wanted his disciples to realize first and foremost the spiritual effects of sin. That’s what he was talking about when he stated, “Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Jesus had just dealt with blatant spiritual darkness and he was about to deal with it again in those who opposed him. How tragic that sinful humans by nature can’t recognize their Creator and Savior! He has work to do! He needs to reveal himself to them.

So, it was Jesus’ set plan and purpose on this day to help sinful people see him for who he really is. He does that in a special way with this blind man. We may get a little squeamish with the way he does it, but this wasn’t unusual at all in Bible times. Why didn’t Jesus simply command the man to receive sight? Why did he use mud involving his saliva? Because, as with a few other healings, he wanted this man to begin putting trust in his word. It sounds crazy—go wash the mud off and I’ll have my sight, but because Jesus said so, I’ll do it. “So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.”

Amazing! But he hasn’t “seen” anything yet. Later in the day, Jesus found him and said to him, “’Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ ‘Who is he, sir?’ the man asked. ‘Tell me so that I may believe in him.’ Jesus said, ‘You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.’ Then the man said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshiped him.” And spiritual light filled his heart. That’s what Jesus does! That’s what Jesus is all about!

See Jesus, the Light of the World. He pierces our spiritual darkness.

Jesus has pierced your spiritual darkness. He did that when he brought you to faith in him as your only Savior from sin. But remember his words, “Men loved darkness.” Spiritual darkness is our default mode. We’ll struggle with that natural bent toward darkness until our Lord calls us home to heaven. That means when we flirt with temptation, when we think we can indulge ourselves and not get spiritually burned, when we conclude we’re OK with this because it’s only a small sin, when we think no one else knows what we think or do so we can get away with it, we’re flirting with our dark side. Jesus exposes our sins for what they are and he calls us to repent of them. And when we flee to him for our forgiveness, he always does what comes naturally for him—he washes us clean. He reminds us that’s what his death on the cross was all about. He suffered the darkness of hell for us and, by his resurrection from the dead, he pierces hell’s eternal night. Would you like to be certain of it? See Jesus, the Light of the World!

Part II.

What a day in this man’s life! He was born blind. His eyes had never seen a single thing. But on this day, his eyes not only behold the beauty of God’s creation, they would also behold the beauty of the Creator himself. And he’s changed. Deeply so.

This man becomes spiritually fearless. In between the verses of our text, the Pharisees approach him and challenge his reception of sight from Jesus. They question Jesus’ ability to perform such a miracle. They regard Jesus as an imposter and a Sabbath-breaker because he supposedly healed this man on the Sabbath. In reply, the formerly blind man effectively charges them with stupidity. He’s not intimidated by these powerful men in the least. He’s been changed.

But that change is most apparent by the last activity he undertakes in this text. He states confidently, “Lord, I do believe,” and then notice what John tells us next. “And he worshiped him.” By the grace of God this man had come full circle. He began his encounter with Jesus in spiritual blindness. Perhaps he had heard of Jesus and his miracles, but from what he states soon after he received his sight, he’s not sure what to make of Jesus. So, Jesus supplied what he was missing. In his love and grace Jesus seeks the man out and proclaims himself as the man’s Savior from sin. No doubt this man had been waiting for the Messiah to arrive. He now believes that Jesus is the Messiah. And then he does what comes naturally to any Christian—he worships Jesus. Now that’s a change more stunning than receiving sight!

But that’s what Jesus does. See Jesus, the Light of the World. He changes hearts with spiritual light.

Jesus has changed our hearts, too. He’s flooded them with his spiritual light. But we struggle, don’t we? As I just mentioned, the natural response of faith in Jesus is to worship him. But we struggle with that. Even when we are in worship. Have you ever fell into sinfully judging someone who was in worship with you? We not only struggle to be in worship, we struggle to stay in true worship. And it happens every day of our lives. Our lives as God’s people are to be an unending hymn of praise to Jesus. On a scale of 1-10, how accurately does that describe your Christian life? I know how that is. That’s why we need the spiritual Light of the World. We need the light of his word to expose whatever sins are hidden in us, to drive us to despair of ourselves, and then to flee to Jesus. His light is our forgiving light. His light is our saving light. His light leads us into his eternal kingdom where one day we’ll enjoy living in the presence of the Light of our Salvation. What a change his light has made in us!

By faith you’ve seen Jesus, the Light of the World. Worship him with your life! Amen.