The Power of Light

 

Text: John 9:1-11, 35-41

Focus: Light vs Darkness

Function: to help people discern spiritually

9:¹As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. ²His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” ³Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. ⁴We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. ⁵As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” ⁶When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, ⁷saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. ⁸The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” ⁹Some were saying, “It is he.” Others were saying, “No, but it is someone like him.” He kept saying, “I am he.” ¹⁰But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” ¹¹He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ Then I went and washed and received my sight.”

(And then there is an interesting exchange between the man, his parents and the leaders resulting in the healed man’s excommunication from the church.)

³⁵Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” ³⁶He answered, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.” ³⁷Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” ³⁸He said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped him. ³⁹Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see may see and those who do see may become blind.” ⁴⁰Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?” ⁴¹Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.

Brother Johns speaks of the Light of the world coming in Jesus. He gives to us an interesting perspective on some of the ancient Jewish spiritual beliefs and practices. The Jewish people held special meaning to light. John starts out his gospel declaring for the first time, and is reiterated here in this passage that Jesus Christ is the Light of the World.

So, let is talk about, “The Light.”

The seven days of creation are interesting. They are not scientific, but symbolic. Because, on the first day we see that God creates light and darkness and separates the two entities. On the third day, God created the Sun. So, when the Jewish people are talking about light, they are talking about spiritual light, or goodness as opposed to spiritual darkness, or evil.

So, here is Jesus, the good, incarnated as Jesus the Nazarene, an historical figure who walked planet earth and showed us how to live. He reinterpreted the Old Testament law of judgment and punishment to a law of love and forgiveness given to us by God and expected of us, by God again, to be given toward other people as well.

So today, during Lent, we are going to turn our hearts to spiritual matters and try to discern what is meant by Jesus being the light of the world, the goodness that is come into the world.

You see printed in the bulletin the question for pondering: What does Jesus mean to you?

Let us take a moment to try to answer that question.

Let me start: Jesus, to me, means that I can love everyone, even my enemies.

I read this meme on Facebook. The real test of your faith is whether or not you can love Judas.

(hear answers to the question)

For me, when I forgive someone, that is a plea for their salvation. Salvation is complete, by the way. When Jesus saves us, I am not talking about delivering us from the destiny of hell and changing our destiny to heaven, but I am talking about healing us and restoring us to God and to others.

Salvation is entire, when the light of the world creeps into the darkness that might have crept into our souls, it heals, redeems and restores us to a right relationship with God and others.

Remember that I told you last week that there is a condition on answered prayer, that when we pray, we stand forgiving everyone who has harmed us.

When I think about that, I realize that this calls us to have faith in both a better resurrection and a more complete life here on earth.

Forgiveness sets us free. It releases us from bondage to what the other person has done to us.

Jesus was willing to forgive and Jesus tells us to follow His example and die to ourselves. Then we can experience the freedom that forgiveness offers.

Forgiveness does not have to excuse the other person’s behavior. It just tells God that on your account, you do not want God to judge them for their sins against you. Or, for that matter, their sins against others.

That does not mean that we have to let them back into our lives if they have not repented from their actions, or if the pain they caused was so traumatic that it poses other stress related difficulties. Jesus doesn’t command us to re-traumatize ourselves again and again.

However, my theology professor said that a restored relationship was not possible without a change of behavior.

But I don’t believe the men who murdered Jesus repented of the indifference to human life exhibited by gambling over his clothes while He was suffering right above their heads.

Their cruelty was wicked and evil and very, very traumatic. And Jesus forgave them. He even excused them because of their ignorance. And perhaps a legitimate excuse for another person’s behavior toward us will go a long way to healing and perhaps reconciliation.

And that brings my back to the topic of today’s sermon. Jesus is the light of the world that dispels our darkness. It is a miraculous thing that His love and forgiveness brings inside of us and through us. His power can heal the deepest hurts because the light dispels the darkness.

Now I broke the passage down into two parts with a parenthetical explanation in the middle.

The first, with the explanation, is the story of the man’s healing and the ludicrous way that the religious leaders tried to explain away a tremendous miracle. They are embarrassed by the simple answer of the man when he asked them how they, the spiritual leaders, couldn’t admit that a miracle just happened.

And after all that, Jesus has a personal encounter with the man who was healed and Jesus asks the man to believe in Him.

The word, to believe, Pistis in the Greek, always takes the preposition “into” behind it. And the word is probably best translated as trust.

Jesus asked him to place his trust in Jesus.

Trust Jesus.

In a few months we will be marrying Sam and Chris and in the wedding vows is the phrase, “And thereunto I place my trust, or faith.” It seems to change every time I use it because it means the same thing.

I like the idea of trust for wedding vows. I Trust in You is the promise that is made. It is beautiful.

So, Jesus is the light of the world. The light dispels darkness.

And Jesus asked the man, like He asks us. To place our trust in Him. If we do, it will become easier for us to be light in the midst of the darkness around us.