[AI translation] Last Sunday we talked about the fact that the salvation that Jesus Christ has won for us through His redemptive death and resurrection is not only something that is to come after we die, but is a reality that is here and now for those who turn to Jesus in faith. And, in practical terms, salvation consists in the visible, experiential change that takes place in the life of such a person. Salvation today is practically nothing other than a complete metamorphosis, a radical change in every area of life. And Jesus Christ, my Savior, came to save us in this way, that is, to make us a different person, a new person, to change us, to recreate us!Everywhere we see that such renewal of life comes as a result of a personal, living encounter with Christ. On the last occasion we saw this change of life in one of the most striking cases, that of Zacchaeus. I would now like to illustrate the reality of a life renewed by the power of Christ in another example, in the life of this man in the story, blind from birth. The unheard-of, radical change in every aspect of this man's experience of himself is expressed in these words of his own: "I know one thing, though I was blind, now I see!"
In this short testimony, everything has changed in his life, almost a whole world has changed for him. In any case, we read that even his neighbours who knew him before hardly recognise him now! Some claim that he is the one who used to beg blindly here, others think he looks like him. And if there can be such a big difference of opinion at this point, then there must have been a big change as well. It has. For this man has not only been healed of his physical blindness so that he no longer has to beg, he can start a new life - but he has also been healed of his spiritual blindness and become a man of living faith. Here, too, Jesus has taken hold of the whole man and drawn him into His redeeming work of salvation.
What a renewal this man must have undergone! Imagine what it must mean to have never seen anything! Born blind! Never knowing what birds and flowers look like, never having enjoyed the splendour of a summer sunset. At most, he has a vague idea of all these things from what others tell him. As if a new world opened up before him, he fell from one amazement to another. He could gaze in wonder at all the things we pass by every day with indifference. He could marvel at the clouds floating in the air, the play of light and shadow, the bugs, the swaying wheat fields, everything! Every day was filled with new and new wonders. Every moment brought him new surprises.
And so it is now and always, when a man is renewed in an encounter with Christ, in communion with Him, that is to say, when his vision is renewed. And here I do not want to gloss over this miracle, I do not mean our spiritual blindness, I do not mean the opening of our spiritual eyes. I know that we usually apply this Word in such a way that Jesus opens man's inner spiritual vision, so that he can see his own sins, the redeeming love of God, the Son of God in the person of Jesus... That is also true, but that is not what we are talking about here. It is that when a person's life comes under the redemptive power of Jesus, he is freed from the oppressive, grey, familiar, monotonous, boring or bitter cycle of his life.
Most people don't see how interesting life is, how full of miracles. One of the great miseries of modern man is that he has forgotten to wonder, or even to wonder at nothing. But sometimes he is amazed at the wonders of technology, or at a new world record in some sport, and he is amazed at what man can do! But not at what God can do! We are not amazed by the Gospel, by the fact that God speaks to us, we are not amazed at how it is possible that God declares a godless man to be righteous, how it is possible that the Lord Jesus is willing to sit at the same table with me! All these wonderful facts have become so familiar to us that no one is surprised anymore! In fact, we can become so bored with what God has to say that to hear it a second time on the same Sunday afternoon: we don't even think about it! It is enough to sit through it once!
Who can truly rejoice that his sins have been forgiven for the merits of Christ? Whose heart beats with great rejoicing when he hears the Word proclaiming the forgiveness of sins? To win a few thousand forints on the toto: that would get me more excited! That would be an unexpected joy! The curse of dull, uneventful, uninteresting familiarity weighs on us even here in church. Even the Church of Christ has become something of a drab, dull affair. Just like the Pharisees of old, who, when a happy woman once poured some very expensive nardus chenille from an alabaster box at the feet of the Lord Jesus, were offended by it and thought the adoring woman a little mad. Even the church can no longer wonder! To wonder at the power of God! The extraordinary goodness and wisdom of God! But we have all the more criticism of Him. We would do better to set the world right. We would criticize God's world-governing activity, and with the same mouth that He supplies and satisfies day by day. We make a fist with the same hand that He daily fills with His gift.
Well, Brothers and Sisters, is there not something fatally wrong with our eyes, with our sight? Jesus tells Nicodemus, "Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God!" The kingdom of God, the reign of God is full of wonders, the reign of God is breathtakingly exciting, vast, great, interesting, majestic, and anyone who can see it, who falls from one amazement to another, is full of wonder. Just as a little child stares into the world with wide, wondering eyes, because everything is interesting and new to him, so the child of God can never get enough of seeing the great things of God. The born again man, the renewed man, the man of God: a man of wonder! Children are often asked: why? Why is it this way, that way? Well: the great children of God also have many "whys" - but not like this: "Why has this trouble and suffering come upon me?", but this: "Why is God so unspeakably good to me? Why does he have such infinite patience with me? Why?!"
For that blind man in the story, a whole world had changed, but in fact the world remained as it was, only his attitude to the world had changed: what he had not seen before, he now saw. This is what happens today when Christ speaks to someone, touches someone, heals someone, saves someone, saves someone! He begins to see the kingdom of God: he begins to see the world under God's rule, to relate to the same things differently, to appreciate and perceive the same things differently. His life becomes full of beautiful, interesting, great things. For example, somebody once told me that he had a great pain in his life, a disappointment, during which he suffered, which slowly made him bitter, cynical and full of complaints. He dragged himself along as a broken, sad man, and that's how he once met Jesus. He heard His voice, he obeyed, he opened himself to Him, he received Jesus into his life, he received Him into his pain, he let Him have it: suddenly he found that the same pain that had been crushing him was now lifting him, that which had been loosening him was now comforting him - he no longer saw his pain as an enemy, but as an ally, a help towards a higher, fuller life! Hitherto he had always seen the sad remembrance from which, as from a fountain, his suffering had sprung, but now his eyes were opened, as it were, and he saw the result, the goal towards which God was leading him on this path. He has learned that it is not where his suffering comes from that is important, but where it leads! But in this way it became clear to him that everything is indeed for the good of those who love God. To see the kingdom of God, the reign of God even in suffering: it is great. The word of Christ, the touch of Christ, changes the vision of our eyes and we see the world, life, our family, our profession, international politics, everything! This differently means: under the rule of God!
Here again the same question arises as last Sunday: how does this change happen in man? A week ago today, I said that this is a mystery, a miracle, an inexpressible work of God the Redeemer. Well: here, in this story, we seem to learn more about the "how". For we read that Jesus made mud of his spittle and put it on his blind eyes and sent him to wash in the pool of Siloam. Well: I think that the important thing here is not the method in which Jesus heals this man, not the method, or at least the method could not be generalised - the Lord uses a different method for each person, the one that suits him best - but something else. It is that Jesus sees this man and Zacchaeus in a very different way, in a very different way from anybody else. Because look: Zacchaeus, for example, was considered by everyone to be despicable, the last, dishonest, someone not worth talking to, a traitor in the public eye, lost to the community. Only Jesus saw in this man that he was also the son of Abraham, the heir of the promise. For him there can still be salvation. Here too: a blind beggar is given. There can be little fantasy in such a life. A hopeless case. The only interesting thing that people see in it is that it is a good subject for philosophical discussion: who sinned, this or that's parents, in being born blind? Otherwise, the world resigns itself to the fact that it is already the case, the wretch was born blind, he cannot be helped. Jesus is the only one who sees the case differently here, who does not resign himself to the fact that this man is blind and beggarly, but sees a completely different possibility for him, a different life. This is the vision of Christ: a creative vision.
The vision of men, who saw in Zacchaeus, in this blind man, only evil, the irredeemable: it pushes him to death, it works death, because it fixes the poor man in the fact that there is no escape, no improvement, no hope. Jesus sees the good, the other, in man in such a way that it is revealed in him: Zacchaeus becomes a kind-hearted, selfless man who helps the poor, and a whole world opens up before the blind man that he had never seen before!
And so it is today, with you! Whatever you think of yourself or others think of you, Jesus sees in you the person you can become through His power! He sees in you the child of God, the eternal preciousness for whom He gave His blood on the cross. He sees your life against the background of His own bloody death and glorious resurrection: He sees Himself in you! And with this creative vision, new life appears in you!
If the son of a poor man thinks how good it would be if he could be the son of a king: that does not make him one. But if the king declares the same thing, that is different, then this declaration is authentic, by it the poor son is transformed into a king! So it is with us. If the King of kings declares, "I have redeemed you, I have called you by name, you are mine," then something has happened between you and God, something that will affect the rest of your life. Then you are truly a child of God! Let Jesus see new life in you so that it appears in you, so that He speaks His creative word to you so that it creates you anew.
This sermon is not a message from an angel, not even the word of a prophet or an apostle, but a testimony that God is here among us in Jesus Christ, in the Word. Even the blind man in the story did not know that the one he was talking to was none other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the Son of God. "Jesus heard him being cast out; and when he met him, he said to him, 'Do you believe in the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I should believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast seen him, and he it is that speaketh with thee. And he said, I believe, Lord. And he worshipped Him." (John 9:35-38)
If you have now felt that someone has opened your eyes, that a ray of light has flashed in your soul: it is He who is present, the Son of God! Follow the example of the blind man with sight, who "said, 'I believe, Lord! And he worshipped Him."
Amen
Date: 11 September 1955.