"Lord, Let Me See!" Luke 18:31-43

Series: Pre-Lenten Sermons

February 19, 2023
Rev. Nathan J. Rusert

Blindness! We cannot see. 1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. We need to pray to our Lord Jesus to have mercy on us and open our eyes by God the Holy Spirit through the Father's Word. Sermon text: Luke 18:31-43. Sermon Theme: Lord, Let Me See! Preached for Quinquagesima, 19-February-2023, at Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Tell City, Indiana by Rev. Nathan J. Rusert

Episode Notes

Quinquagesima                                                           19-February-2023
Sermon Text: Luke 18:31-43
Sermon Theme: “Lord, Let Me See!” by Rev. Nathan J. Rusert

I.N.R.I. Blind. Have you ever tried to see in total darkness? If you’ve toured a cave, usually the guide will turn off all the lights, you stand in the dark. There is no light. Sight is gone. Your eyes actively search but cannot see. Your brain imagines lights that aren’t there. If you trusted what you think you saw you’d stumble and fall. If the lights never came on again you’d be lost in the dark. Experiments on living in total darkness exhaust the subjects, without light they can’t sleep, their bodies no longer produce melatonin. Blind. Lost in the dark, stumbling, falling, never able to rest.
    God’s children had become blind, the nation of Judah could no longer see. The prophet Isaiah preached, Isa 59:10 We grope for the wall like the blind, And we grope as if we had no eyes; We stumble at noonday as at twilight; We are as dead men in desolate places.” They had refused to listen to God’s Word preached by Moses and the prophets. His Word written to enlighten their eyes. Seven centuries earlier Moses warned the congregation of Israel the consequences of turning a deaf ear to God’s Law and Promise preaching, “Deu 28:28-29 The LORD will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart. (29) And you shall grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; you shall not prosper in your ways; you shall be only oppressed and plundered continually, and no one shall save you.” Isaiah echos, God’s Word calling Judah to repent of their blindness. Isa 59:13 In transgressing and lying against the LORD, And departing from our God, Speaking oppression and revolt, Conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.” We study the Scriptures and wonder how could God’s children, Israel, Judah be so blind. Why couldn’t the disciples see? We imagine that no one is enlightened as we are....but are you blind? Are you willing to honestly look into the mirror of God’s Law to see your sin? Or are my eyes too filled with the world’s darkness to see? Jesus preaches, Luk 11:34-36 The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light. But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness. (35) Therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness. (36) If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, the whole body will be full of light, as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light."”
      Repent! Confess your blindness! Pray to Jesus! “Lord, Let Me See!”
The day of complete darkness draws near. It will cover all the earth from midday to mid-afternoon on the sixth day - Friday. Now for the third time Jesus speaks to open our eyes. (Vs.31) “Behold!” Look by listening. See through your ears. Listen to what the prophets wrote and preached from the day Satan blinded mankind in sin’s darkness. Satan promised sin would open our first parent’s eyes. Instead it blinded them, their eyes turned inward. In the darkness of the Lie they only saw their own nakedness, and shame. Far from becoming like God, they were chained to Satan stumbling towards self-destruction and death.
    The Light of the World came seeking our lost parents in the cool of that day. He preached, “Repent!”“Where are you?” “What have you done?” Open your ears, your eyes - He is preaching the same to you. Can you see, your sin? Or have you cleverly camouflaged it with the fig leaves of excuses? Blaming others, even God, rather than confessing that you are a “poor miserable sinner” “ a beggar and nothing more.”
      “Behold!” stop looking to save yourself, to make things right yourself, to settle things with God by your own reason or strength. “Look!” through His Word - He preaches the Promise - The Sinless Male Seed, born of a Virgin Mother, will crush Satan’s head to free you from your sin. He will take your poison into Himself, suffer, die, and rise that you might see Salvation. The last prophet standing in baptismal waters preached, “Joh 1:29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
        Lord, Let Me See Your Saving Love! Jesus preaches, (Vs.32-33) He is the Love that never fails of which the Holy Spirit wrote of through St. Paul. We hear news of spiritual revivals. The congregation at Corinth had corrupted the gifts of the Holy Spirit into a competition sport. St. Paul calls them to repent - the Holy Spirit doesn’t gift peeps and muttering, but clear Gospel preaching. God the Holy Spirit doesn’t gift disorder and self-glorifying jingles - but builds the Church up as one Body in Christ Jesus. God the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 13 teaches us of the greatest gifts of God the Holy Spirit - faith, hope, and love. Faith flowing from the Words of the Prophets and Apostles - rooted only in Christ Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection - the Cross. Hope - for Jesus Lives! He rose! He rules! He is coming again! Love - God’s Love for us, not our love for God - Love that humbled Himself to bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure all things for us sinners in His passion - to save us! Where God the Holy Spirit is at work, the message is only about the foolishness of the cross - of Jesus crucified, risen, and coming again for sinners who look only to Him.
      St. Luke records, (vs.34) The disciples, the twelve, those who followed Jesus didn’t understand. They couldn’t see it. It was hidden. It made no sense apart from His passion, death, and resurrection. They would see Him betrayed, beaten, crucified - darkness would swallow up the earth as He hung on the cross - forsaken by God - Jesus would pay our debt in full - and lay down His life for you. He would be buried in your grave and three days later He would burst the bonds of death, marching triumphantly through Hell preaching His victory, and they burst the bars of the grave to live. Still the disciples couldn’t see it. Two of them will walk blindly in sorrow on the road to Emmaus. He will come alongside of them opening up the Scriptures to show that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer, die, and rise again the third day for our salvation - still they couldn’t see - until He sat at table with them- gave thanks, broke bread - they saw the Risen Lord Jesus in His Supper. Eyes opened on Pentecost by the Holy Spirit they preached only Jesus crucified for sinners, raised to bring us back to the Father by baptizing infants and adults with water and His Word by which God the Holy Spirit revives us and opens our eyes to see only Jesus! Beware of false revivals - We confess: “In a word, enthusiasm inheres in Adam and his children from the beginning [from the first fall] to the end of the world, [its poison] having been implanted and infused into them by the old dragon, and is the origin, power [life], and strength of all heresy, especially of that of the Papacy and Mahomet. 10 Therefore we ought and must constantly maintain this point, that God does not wish to deal with us otherwise than through the spoken Word and the Sacraments. 11 It is the devil himself whatsoever is extolled as Spirit without the Word and Sacraments. “(S.A. Pt. 3/Art.8)
  Lord, Let me see! (Vs.35-37) A blind man sits by the road. He was a poor miserable beggar - that is the only way for him to survive. St. Mark informs us that his name is Bartimaeus.   He hears the crowd of pilgrims heading towards Jerusalem. He asks, “What does this mean?” Learn from Bartimaeus to ask the question, ‘What does this mean?” These baptismal words we hear beginning and ending our days. The words, ‘I forgive you all your sins’ spoken by the Pastor as Christ’s ambassador to you. The words, ‘I believe...” The Word read from the lectern, preached from the pulpit. The Words prayed, “Our Father...” The Words...”Take eat...Take drink...” The Words...”depart in peace...” Learn to ask...”What does this mean?” It means that Jesus is passing by...He is here among us sinners. The God-Man is present - Emmanuel - God with us!
    Lord, let me see! You are here - present in Word, baptism, Lord’s Supper! (Vs.38-39) Jesus is near! Bartimaeus cries out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” He confesses Jesus to be the Messiah King. He begs for His mercy. The crowds try to shush him, but he cries out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Today is the day of salvation. Jesus may not pass that way again. He doesn’t want to miss his Savior!
    Do you see? Today Jesus is here! Do you cry out, “Have mercy on me?” or do you barely sing it because it is part of the liturgy - and you think it means nothing? Don’t you see your blindness? He is here - today - now for you sinner - how can you barely mutter - “Lord, have mercy upon us?”
    Jesus listens! (Vs.40a) He calls sinners to Himself. The disciples bring the blind man to Jesus. Here is your calling too dear Christian. Jesus is calling for the blind poor miserable sinners to come to Him. Bring them with you to Church. Invite your friends, family, neighbors, even your enemies to come and see!
      Bartimaeus hears the voice of His Savior! (Vs. 40b - 41) He confesses Jesus is the Lord - God in our flesh - He has come as our Brother to have mercy - to open our eyes - to restore creation by His sacrificed flesh and blood. (Vs.42-43) Jesus speaks. The blind man sees! The Faith looking only to Jesus crucified and risen has made him well. Now he will take up his own cross and follow Jesus to Jerusalem, to the cross, resurrection, and into His Church. Bartimaeus will gospel his family. There eyes will be opened and they too will follow Jesus.
      ‘We are beggars, that is true” do you see this truth? These were the last words written by Dr. Martin Luther. On February 18th, 1546 he suffered a heart attack and died in Eisleben, Germany - his eyes fixed on Jesus crucified for his sins, and raised again to declare him forgiven - a child of God the Father given the Holy Spirit in infant baptism. A few days before his death Luther wrote, “Let nobody suppose that he has tasted the Holy Scriptures sufficiently unless he has ruled over the churches with the prophets for a hundred years. Therefore there is something wonderful, first, about John the Baptist; second, about Christ; third, about the apostles. ‘Lay not your hand on this divine Aeneid, but bow before it, adore its every trace.’ .... “We are beggars. That is true.”
Lord, let me see - I am a beggar - you are my gracious loving King and Savior! You are mercy! Fix my eyes on your crucified and risen flesh and blood that I too may die in peace. Amen.


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