Quinquagesima – Luke 18 – February 14th and 15th, 2026
In the Name of the Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +
The crowd had gathered. They had heard that Jesus was coming, and they wanted to see what was going on. Some even wanted to maybe be a part of this whole Jesus thing – lots of cool stuff with this Jesus fellow. They'd already heard all sorts of things. So Jesus is coming, and the crowd is gathering to see Him. But there's one guy who is there, but not because he was following Jesus or chasing after him. A blind guy is there. The gathering crowd has come upon his typical spot to beg – because that's what he does. He can't see, can't work, and so he gets to beg. He gets to spend his day hoping that passer-bys show him charity, hoping that they don't take advantage of him. It would be easy to fleece him – there's a reason why “steal him blind” is a phrase, even today.
But this blind fellow can hear, and he can tell by the sound that his street is far more busy than it ought to be, and he asks what's going on. Oh, Jesus is coming by. So the blind beggar does what a beggar does. He begs. Loudly. He calls out to Jesus – Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! And then we hear in our Gospel lesson one of the most chilling lines in all of the Scriptures. And those in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. And those in front, those leading this Jesus parade crowd... what do they do? They rebuke him. Do you hear the resentment at work? Listen bud, we're the ones up front, we're the ones leading this parade, this is our shindig to serve the Lord and you are ruining it. Don't you know who we are, how we've served Jesus, and you're just some beggar. And do you hear the control? Now, we're telling you to be silent, to be quiet. Just shut up. You don't get to call upon Jesus like that. We are not amused; we do not approve – in fact, we forbid.
Do you see why I say that this is chilling? These aren't the “bad guys” in a parable. These aren't even Pharisees or Scribes or the typical “villains” of the stories we get. No, these are the people right up front in the Jesus crowd. And yet, what they do here is just so blatantly wrong and cold and callous and cruel. The layers, the separations that we put up between us and the “bad guys” are thrown down. That crowd is us – I'd be up front in that crowd. And so we are driven to ponder – what are the casually cruel things that I just coldly go about doing with nary a thought – indeed, that I do while thinking that I'm a good little boy for doing them? And sometimes, when we see such things in our own lives, realize such things, the guilt, the shame, the shock of it all drives in hard upon us.
And here we should pause, and we should remember who Jesus is and what Jesus is doing. There is Jesus, True God and True Man, who has come down from heaven, and why? For us men and for our salvation. Jesus didn't come down from heaven to deal with piddly little things – angelic armies don't sing loudly because Jesus was dealing with a triffle of trouble. No, Jesus coming down from heaven was big, and it was to deal with big, heavy things. Big heavy sins, spurred on by Satan, with the crushing weight and burden of death. And just before He got to Jericho, did you hear what Jesus said to His disciples? “See, we are going up to Jerusalem....” See, understand. We are going up to Jerusalem. That's a fascinating phrase. It was the common way of describing going to worship in the Old Testament. In the book of Psalms there are several “Psalms of Ascent” - these were the Psalms you would sing as you went up to Jerusalem – you always went up to Jerusalem because it was up high on the hills, the temple built on Mount Zion. We're going to Zion, we're going to worship, to the sacrifice, to the Passover. But this time, it's not going to be like all those past worships and sacrifices – or it is, but more full, more profound, more permanent than those. Because this time “everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.” Will be finished – will be “it is finished”. Jesus is going to the Cross. He is going to be the true Passover Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, His blood upon the Cross so that death may not only passed-over but be defeated and His people be delivered from sin unto the true and eternal promised land of life everlasting. And the accomplishment of this, the finishing off of Satan's kingdom and the destruction of death – it wouldn't be pretty. It will be hard to see. “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 all the weight of sin will come crashing down upon the Messiah – and He will die. “And on the third day He will rise.” But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said. Even after all His teaching, even after seeing all His miracles and authority, the disciples still didn't understand. They couldn't compute it. It didn't make sense.
But still Jesus heads to Jerusalem. The disciples' lack of understanding had never stopped Jesus before, and it won't stop Him now. And Jesus comes upon this commotion, where the crowd is shouting down this beggar angrily, and the beggar is shouting all the more. And Jesus pauses – He stands still. And what does Jesus see when He sees this scene? He sees His people trapped in sin. He sees the devastating impact of sin upon our bodies – those eyes are basically dead before the rest of that guy's body is dead. Jesus even sees this beggar being shamefully treated, condemned to silence, blindness, just crawl over there and die because this crowd is done with you... a little mini version of what's going to happen to Jesus come Good Friday – when the crowd will cry “Crucify Him, Crucify Him.”
No. That will not be the story of this blind guy. Bring him to Me, because that's what the folks in the Jesus crowd are supposed to be doing, bring people to Jesus, bringing people into the vineyard, sowing the seed no matter what you think the soil looks like, because that's how the Kingdom of God works. And Jesus asks the blind man a vitally important question – What do you want Me to do for you? Lord, that I would see again, that my dead eyes would live again. And Jesus does it, the One whom this man had faith in saves his blind eyes, and the man follows Jesus.
Jesus comes across sin and its impacts, and He will not let them run the day. This is the hinge of the Christian faith – that Jesus will defeat sin, death, and the Devil – that He will not mollycoddle sin or blow it off – no, He will crucify it and kill it as He bares it upon the Cross. And He will establish His church wherein His death and resurrection for the forgiveness and remission of sin will be proclaimed. Sin and death and the Devil will be fought now in the Church – Jesus will fight the sin that still clings to you, He will drive it into remission and forgive it. And if you want to see this, to understand this, you've got to get the order right.
Jesus asked the Blind man a very important question. What do you want Me, Jesus, to do for you? There's the direction of the Church – Jesus for this blind man, Jesus for you. The Church is where Jesus does things for you, to save you, to forgive you, to redeem you. Too often we want things to be focused primarily on what we do for Jesus – cause that's what sin does to us. We can resent being in need; we can want to be in charge. Did you note something profound in the text? The crowd that shouted down this blind man – they were in front. They thought they were leading. They thought they were in charge – see how we are clearing this road for you Jesus? And they dropped the ball horridly. Contrast this with the healed blind man. And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. Following. Behind. Letting Jesus lead. Christian piety, the faithful Christian life is one where we follow Jesus, where we echo Jesus and repeat His words of forgiveness and life to others, where we give to others precisely what He has given to us. Oh, we will talk so much in America about being leaders, and Church leadership will pop up again and again as a hot topic talking point... but we're called to follow Jesus. We follow, and we simply encourage others to follow, to hear, to receive God's gifts. Resentment and control give way to wonder that comes with being led by Jesus.
But that's hard. It is a call away from your own wants and desires, what you think would be best for you. Even Jesus will pray “Thy will be done, not Mine” in the Garden. And following Jesus will mean taking up a cross, it will mean confronting the crowds of resentment demanding control and domination, and it will mean forgiving and loving, and maybe even being rejected and crucified. Don't worry – Jesus knows – and that's why Jesus goes to Jerusalem, why Jesus goes to Good Friday. He does it so that come Easter He will stride forth from the tomb, He does it so that when He comes again in glory you will rise and stride forth from your tomb and every funeral I and every pastor have ever done will be undone.
Lent is coming. And Lent is the season where we focus on Jesus's journey to the Cross, where we will be a bit more quiet, a bit more reserved, and we will watch and follow along. And we will see Jesus tangle with Satan, with Temptation, with Sin and disdain in all its forms. And all of it, for you. Truly for you, not to get something out of you, not to make you pay Him back or anything like that. No, all of it, simply because Jesus made you to live, not to be trapped in sin and death – and He will have you brought to be with Him for eternity, to see Him forever, to delight in all that He does for you ever more and more. The Light of the World will make you to see more and more, even until the Last Day and we all see Him fully face to face. Come quickly, Lord Jesus! In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +
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