What Only Blind Beggars Know
Luke 18:31-43
Quinquagesima Sunday, February 14, 2010
Rev. Carl D. Roth, Grace Lutheran Church, Elgin, Texas
© 2010 Rev. Carl D. Roth and Grace Lutheran Church, Elgin, Texas

Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God, our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Our text is the Holy Gospel reading from Luke chapter 18 which has already been read.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we are accustomed to thinking of being blind as a handicap, and being able to see as a good thing. And it is true that physical sight is a great blessing. Likewise, we can all agree that being financially self-supporting is far better than being a beggar, and again, that is true in day to day life. But when it comes to life in the Kingdom of God, today we learn that spiritually speaking, blindness is sight, and to beg is to possess everything. So let us learn what only blind beggars know.

Ash Wednesday comes this week, and the Gospel reading for today is perfect for preparing us for our Lenten journey through Good Friday, all the way to Easter. Our reading fixes our eyes on Jesus and what He came for—His journey up to Jerusalem to suffer and die for the sins of the world. He said to the twelve apostles, "See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. 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 on the third day he will rise." And then St. Luke tells us that the apostles just didn't get what He was saying. He writes, "They understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said." Though these men could see Jesus with their eyes, they did not perceive what He was teaching; they were not living by blind faith in His Word. And although they could have asked Jesus what His Passion prediction meant, they did not ask, they refused to beg for insight.

And this is a pretty consistent pattern with Jesus' apostles during His ministry. In fact, the second time Jesus predicted His Passion Luke tells us that they did not understand what He was talking about, "And they were afraid to ask Him about this saying." What kept them from begging for an answer? Perhaps pride, not wanting to look silly or ignorant in front of a favorite teacher or in front of fellow students. You have probably heard, "There's no such thing as a stupid question." Or "The only bad question is one that is not asked." In general those offer good advice. When we are ignorant, we should not deceive ourselves into thinking that we can see, but instead confess our blindness; and in our blindness, we should not be too proud to beg for knowledge.

The opposite of blindness is sight; the opposite of begging is offering. When Jesus had first predicted His Passion, Peter thought He could see how mistaken Jesus was about suffering, so instead of begging for faith, Peter offered advice to "the Christ, the Son of the living God." St. Matthew tells us that Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, "Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you." But Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man." If we are like Peter and think we see clearly that suffering and the cross isn't the way to go for Jesus or for us, then we are speaking for the devil. What St. Peter and the rest of the apostles needed was to become blind, not relying on their own sight or perception, but instead on the Word of Jesus alone. They needed to beg of Jesus rather than to offer advice to Him. They needed to learn what only blind beggars know, to discover what the blind beggar on the side of the road near Jericho knew about Jesus that they didn't.

Today with technological advances, there are few things that blind people cannot do on their own, but in the ancient world there wasn't much a blind person could do besides beg. The blind man knew that he was completely dependent on the generosity of others, and he needed to beg if he didn't want to starve. He had to swallow his pride if he wanted food to swallow. Begging was a pretty bleak existence, but it was an existence.

In our Gospel reading, the blind man heard a commotion and asked about it, and someone told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And evidently this man had heard about Jesus, that He had healed the sick, given sight to the blind, raised the dead, and preached a message of Good News to the poor, that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of David. Clearly the blind man believed the report that he heard about Jesus, and his faith in Jesus led him to cry out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" The man trusted that Jesus had come to show mercy, and so he was willing to beg Jesus for help. And that is what true faith does—out of our desperate, helpless blindness and sinful poverty, faith cries out to Jesus for mercy. Faith cannot remain silent or it will die, and the blind man's faith was bold and loud. Faith must pray (prayer is just another word for begging, by the way) because we poor, miserable sinners are in such a desperate state on our own, we cannot live today or forever without the grace and mercy of Jesus.

But then look at how Satan attempts to derail the blind man's faith and keep him away from Jesus. The people surrounding Jesus rebuked the man and told him to be silent. "Leave Jesus alone – He is too busy for a worthless beggar like you," they said. And that is how Satan would tempt us to give up praying for Christ's mercy – "You lousy sinner, you are not worthy of Jesus' attention." And he does have a point. We are not worthy of the things for which we pray, nor do we deserve them. But what blind beggars know is that Jesus came to show mercy, most of all by going up to Jerusalem to suffer, die, and rise to save us from our sins for eternal life. And if He has baptized us into His death and resurrection, then we know that we have the right to pray to Him for mercy. St. John wrote, "My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world". So if Satan tries to hinder your prayers for mercy, then you can say boldly, "I am baptized into Christ, and I know that He wants to show mercy to me."

The blind beggar in our Gospel believed in Jesus' mercy, and so in spite of the rebukes of Jesus' entourage, he cried out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" And Jesus had the blind man come to Him, and He asked, "What do you want me to do for you?" He said, "Lord, let me recover my sight." And Jesus said to him, "Recover your sight; your faith has saved you." And immediately he recovered his sight. The blind man that day received more than physical sight—he received assurance that his faith in Jesus was well placed, for Jesus promised the man eternal salvation in addition to sight. You see, the man in his blindness simply took Jesus at His Word, and in his humility he brought nothing to Jesus but a petition, begging for mercy. And see how Jesus treats blind beggars—by giving them exactly what He knows they need, now and forever.

And then what did the newly seeing beggar do right away? He did not use his sight to go off and do his own thing, but he followed Jesus, glorifying God for His mercy. That sums up what should happen after coming to faith. He knew that his life was not his own, but belonged to his Lord and Savior, so he became a disciple, hearing and believing Jesus' Words, taking up his cross daily and going after Jesus, blindly following wherever his Savior led, continuing to beg Him for mercy. And as he followed Jesus, the man glorified God, praising Him for His salvation and merciful deeds.

That is what the mercy of Jesus did to the blind beggar, but on that day Christ's disciples were not there yet. They were still stuck in the delusion that they could see the way Jesus should be Messiah; instead of becoming blind and following Jesus on the way of the cross, they remained prideful and tried to plan how things would work out more gloriously. Even on the night when Jesus was betrayed, after He had given into their mouths His true body and blood for the forgiveness of their sins, right after that, instead of thanking Jesus for His mercy and glorifying God, they got into an argument. St. Luke tells us, "A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest". They still didn't get it; they weren't yet ready to be blind beggars.

And so Jesus said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves". Jesus is the greatest at the table, He is the Lord God Himself, yet He came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for the masses. The blind beggar got that, and the apostles would too, a little while later, after the Resurrection, after they had been given the Holy Spirit.

In your Baptism, you have been given the Holy Spirit who has brought you to realize that you should follow your Savior blindly and that because you are sinners you must remain a beggar for mercy every day of your life. If we were not to be blind beggars, if we would come to Jesus and pretend that we can see the truths of the Kingdom of God by our own strength, or if we came to Jesus not empty handed but with our good deeds to offer, then we would be confessing to Him, "Jesus, I can see fine and do it all on my own, thank you very much." If that is the case for us, then we must repent, for only when we become blind and lose all our preconceptions about what the Kingdom of God is like can truly see Jesus and His mercy. Only when we cast aside the spiritual pride that thinks it can get right with God by our works, only when we become beggars can we truly possess "all things." All things—everything; that is what God promises to those who blindly follow His Son, and beg for His mercy, as St. Paul said, "If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with [Jesus] graciously give us all things?" All things in heaven and earth for us, forgiveness of sins, eternal life and salvation in Jesus Christ crucified and risen, all by His mercy: that is what only blind beggars know. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

And the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.