Why?

Please note: The following sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.

Before all of the construction started around us here, at the end of Mulberry Street there was an amazing collection of signs.

Turn left for East; turn right for north, south, and west.

Various times over the years when I've been walking around the building there have been cars pull into the lot very slowly, and I walk over and give them the directions they need to navigate around this part of town.

Signs are crucial; signs have to be accurate; and signs need to be observed.

If one ignores the octagonal red sign with the word STOP on it, there may be disastrous consequences.

If one goes south from here, the driver will not end up in Cogan Station.

If one needs to leave the building in an emergency, one needs to heed the EXIT signs.

Enough! I'm sure we get the idea, and it gives us a way to step into the Gospel reading today, a reading which carries one of the signs in John's Gospel.

Last week the sign was about water; today it is about light; and next week it is life itself.

These three basic elements are the center of our growing understanding in this Lenten season.

The healing of the man born blind, the giving of sight, is related to us in only a verse or two, but it is a major sign that points to the intersection of Jesus' life and ours.

It urges us most strongly that we should come to a full stop here and marvel at the Lord who cares about us so much that he will die for us on a cross.

Those who do not stop at this intersection, who refuse to heed the sign, will not understand where they are going or why.

They will become more and more confused, lost in the darkness.

It is against the background of very human failure, suffering, and anguish that we hear our Gospel lesson this day.

By being born blind, a man has been condemned to a life of begging.

Unasked, Jesus reaches out and sends him on his way to be healed.

You would think that everyone would be overjoyed that such a wonderful thing has happened. Not so!

There follows a rigorous questioning by the religious authorities.

He is at length thrown out of the synagogue.

Yet, despite all of thee problems, his darkness is gradually fading.

More and more he comes into the light.

He stumbles along to the Pool of Siloam to wash as directed, and is thereafter able to see with his eyes.

Even more than that, though, he is gradually able to see with the eyes of faith.

He is questioned three times.

Each time in the heat of discussion, the man is forced to make a reaction to the person and work of Jesus,

three sign-guided lane-changes, as it were.

Each of his answers show an increasing awareness of what is happening and who this Jesus is.

In the first set of questions, the man talks about “this man Jesus.”

That is a place to start.

We are not talking about a ghost, but a real person, flesh and blood.

In the second set of questions, he is again asked “Who is this Jesus?”

He replies, “He is a prophet.”

This is an even better answer, for a prophet is a real live person who is a truth-teller set from God with a message to proclaim.

Jesus himself asks the third set of questions, to which the man replies

“I believe that you are the Son of Man.”

This is the ancient title given to the one who was to come from God to announce the fulfillment of God's promise and rule.

This is an answer better still,

and one which brings us to a full-stop.

Is this all that can be said about Jesus?

Certainly not!

But it is a most significant start.

There is much more for this man to see and hear and ponder,

much more that he, like the disciples, understand only fitfully,

but he has reached a major intersection in his life.

Jesus has reached out to him and is changing his life.

Jesus has sign-directed him in a different direction with eye-sight and faith-sight.

Early in the morning when the sun is just beginning to rise,

long before it reaches me directly, it is already beginning to affect me.

It is warming the air, it is stirring up the birds and trees higher up on the mountain.

I can see by its reflected glow.

That is the way things went with the man formerly born blind.

Once Jesus began to work with him, the intended outcome is already announced to him.

Just as the sun beginning to rise will eventually throw its light directly on me,

so will God's Word of promise fully enlighten us in God's good time.

This Gospel lesson has been read on this Sunday in the church year for as far back as we have any records in the early years of the church, because this lesson mirrors our experience as immature followers of Jesus.

We share an experience of washing in a pool of water at the command of the Lord, but we also don't know too much about it all.

At this and in many subsequent times, questions are put to us,

sometimes by very hostile folks who ask

“what is with this Jesus business?”

We encounter various signposts, and we are required to respond in some way.

We trust that, over the years, our understanding and our answers may improve, until that day when the Son of God bursts upon us fully in the completed kingdom of God.

Of course we have been talking about Holy Baptism, and a life lived in remembrance of that Baptism.

As a person is in the process of preparation for Baptism, there are times of questioning

Smaller signposts are pointing us toward the Goal of our travels.

Do I move ahead, or do I turn aside?

Anciently these questions are called the “scrutinies.”

In recognition of the decision to move ahead, today our affirmers are upheld in prayer and then given a copy of the benediction, literally a “good word” to them from God.

Here we are, and then we keep moving.

The affirmers will be back next week to recognize another signpost, and be blessed again on their way.

The question that the world throws at us about this sign as well as all of the other signs along the path of Christ is:

Why?

Why bother with any of this?

Why bother heeding this or any other sign?

Why not just go our own way, make of life whatever we can, and then be done with it?

Because these signs from Jesus change things for us.

How we regard the past is changed.

How we think about the future is changed.

How we live in the present is changed.

Why?

St. Mark's Lutheran Church