The other week was interesting to say the least. Our whole family was infected with “pink eye.” Joseph had it the worst. His eyes were irritated and red; watery, itchy, and oozy. Pink eye made it hard for him to see. The doctor examined him and put him on an antibiotic drop.
God examines our vision. He doesn’t deal with pink eye, stigmatisms, or myopias. God addresses our spiritual vision. The diagnosis: CHRISTIANS ARE BRIGHT-EYED. God has addressed our spiritual vision problems, so that we are able 1) to see clearly. The reason God wants us to have a keen spiritual vision is 2) to expose sin’s darkness.
1) To See Clearly
Jesus, again, proved himself as the ultimate physician. In the Gospel reading for today we find Jesus healing a man who was born blind. There was more to this miracle, however. Jesus didn’t heal this man so he could “one up” optical surgeons or Lens Crafters. By healing this man’s blindness, Jesus proved that he had the ability to heal an even greater sight problem – spiritual blindness. God long promised this. Isaiah foretold it. He admonished unfaithful Israel for their self-imposed spiritual blindness. He urged them to stop worshipping idols and to turn to God. He compared this spiritual ignorance to blindness. The Pharisees in Jesus’ day were inflicted with such blindness. They refused to see Jesus as the promised Savior. They trusted in themselves for salvation, and they blinded themselves.
We also suffer from this ailment. The fact is we’re born “in the dark” when it comes to faith in Jesus. All of us are born without any understanding of Jesus. We were just like the Ephesians to whom the apostle Paul had written: “For you were once darkness,” he said. They were directed by the darkening power of sin. They were totally ignorant of divine truth. Their spiritual ignorance led them to live ungodly lives, which were full of heartache and misery.
We’re no different. Spiritual darkness and ignorance leads us to grope around through life. This condition leads us to ignore right from wrong or good from bad. When you enter your home late at night, you grope around in search of a light switch. You don’t want to run into an unseen coffee table or trip over a hidden step. Spiritual ignorance is like that. Sin keeps us from seeing how God wants us to live our lives.
Sin keeps us in the dark, so we fumble through life. God wants us to honor his Word. Sin blinds us to see God’s commandments as foolish, outdated rules. Sin blinds us to God’s will. God wants us to love and honor one another. Sin forces us to blindly lash out at one another, to be jealous and suspicious.
To make matters worse, we accuse ourselves of sin and cause cataracts of guilt to film over our consciences. Guilt leads us to see ourselves in less than a good light. When we sin, we hate ourselves. We can’t believe that we did it again – “How could I fall into that same sin over and over?” We wish to simply hide in the darkness of guilt. Guilt is a powerful tool of Satan. He uses guilt to further add to our sad condition. He comes along with the spotlight of God’s Law and blasts its full wattage in our eyes. Satan wants to accuse and stun us, so we react like a deer in a car’s headlights. We freeze. We’re shocked. These accusations do stun us. The devil wants us to ultimately despair in God’s ability to help us, so he flicks on the flood light of the Law and lets us have it: “Who are you?” he asks, “why you’re nothing but a filthy sinner! You’ve spit in God’s face. You’ve walked all over his commands. You misused his name. You haven’t trusted God with all your heart. You were covetous, dissatisfied, when you were supposed to be content. You refused to listen to others. I was there. I tempted you. You call yourself a Christian?”
We stand stunned and embarrassed. Satan wants us to hate God and ourselves. But our Lord combats Satan and the Law and he shines Gospel shines upon us with a gentle glow. The good news of Jesus leads us to see that it’s not a matter of what Satan wants us to feel or see. He wants us to see ourselves as complete failures that God is incapable to save. Whether we look like we’re forgiven, or whether we feel forgiven, isn’t the point. It’s a matter of what God sees and what he has done for us.
So the gospel shines upon us, “You are light in the Lord.” Those three little words mean so much. You feel like a miserable sinner? You feel overwhelmed, helpless and blind? Remember whom you are plugged into. Remember who your spiritual outlet is – its your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You are bright-eyed. You are able to see clearly. You’re plugged into Christ. That means you are plugged into his forgiveness. Jesus’ love shines in us because we are plugged into his grace.
Faith in Jesus is what enables us to see this fact clearly. He has rescued us from spiritual blindness. God’s Son redeemed us by entering this sin-darkened world and revealing the way of salvation to us. Jesus leads us to see this truth for ourselves. Just consider the Gospel reading from John 9. Jesus could have healed that blind man with just a word, but he didn’t. Instead, he took time to care for him. He touched his face with his hands, gently applying that salve he had made by rubbing it on the man’s eyes. This was for his benefit. Jesus was letting this scared fellow know that he cared; he was gentle and loving.
Christ does the same for us. He doesn’t simply show us the light of salvation. He makes us to see it through faith. Christ cures us of our spiritual blindness by removing the cataracts of guilt. Now, Jesus doesn’t perform some sort of laser surgery or concoct a special mudpack for us. Instead, he gently applies the blood of his sacrifice to our eyes. Jesus leads us to see that he is the Savior we need. He paid for every one of our sins. He paid for our spiritual ignorance and blindness. Jesus leads us to survey his wondrous cross! Suddenly the cataracts, the filth and film, fall from our eyes. We believe! We see Christ as our source of spiritual light. The message of the Gospel sweeps over us with a warm glow and opens our eyes. We see clearly. That means we can expose the devil for the liar he truly is. He cannot accuse us. We have Christ on our side. The light of the gospel has shone upon us. We are forgiven children of God. The truth of that message blinds Satan and sends him crawling back to where he came from – back to the murky filth of hell.
2) To Expose Sin’s Darkness
Christ is our spiritual outlet and we’re plugged into his grace. God’s Word leads us to see that we have forgiveness. The Word also gives us the strength to live for God. Remember what Jesus said, “You are the salt and light of the world.” Our Lord calls us to give flavor and guidance to this distasteful, dizzying experience called, “life.” We are called to be witnesses to the truth, to shine like lights, to expose darkness.
One night, while living in Ohio, we were awoken a strange noise coming out from underneath our back porch. None of us seemed to know what it was. Immediately our imaginations took over. At first, we thought it was the dog, but she was in the house. “What in the world could be making all that ruckus?” we wondered. Finally, I grabbed a flashlight and went out on the back deck. At that moment something came lumbering out from underneath. I shone the flashlight, and there I saw the biggest, ugliest possum I had ever seen, and he scurried off into the night. The point is that if I wouldn’t have shone my flashlight, we would never have known what was making all the noise under the deck, and our imaginations would have conjured up all sorts of weird possibilities. The light exposed the noisemaker. We knew what we were dealing with. It wasn’t a wild alley cat, a dog, or a three-toed sloth. It was a big, fat possum.
As bright-eyed Christians, we are called to expose sin. Now that involves risk. There’s not much risk in shining a light on a possum, but when you’re called to expose sin there is risk. It means we step forward in faith, and trust that God’s love is more powerful and precious than anything else, and, so we’ll assume the risks necessary to carry out God’s will. It’s risky to confront a friend or relative about sin. A lot is on the line. There could be the potential that a relationship is destroyed, or you might become unpopular. It can even be embarrassing to expose sin. A lot of people don’t like to hear words like homosexuality, abortion, or pre-marital sex. This sinful world rather blind itself to the truth and use terms like alternate lifestyle, pro-choice, or meaningful relationship. Whether it’s inconvenient, embarrassing, or risky, it is necessary to speak out against the darkness of sin and call it by its right name. That’s what Jesus did. He said: “The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil.”
Too much is at stake for us to say nothing. The eternal destiny of a person’s soul is at risk! As bright-eyed people, we are to expose sin. We first do that with ourselves. And that’s risky. Nobody likes to admit he’s a sinner, but it is necessary. So, we must keep our eyes wide open and look to the cross of Christ Jesus. Understand how much your sins cost him. Our sins killed him! We must keep our eyes wide open to that truth. When we do, then we will see clearly. We will see that Jesus did this for us willingly; he loves us that much. The light of Christ’s grace makes us bright-eyed because it is reflected in us.
We need to be bright-eyed in that we are unafraid to approach people in the darkness of sin. Now, we may run the risk of being labeled mean-spirited, or self-righteous, but we take that risk because we reflect the love of our heavenly Father who desires all people to be saved. God wants us to flush out and expose those spiritual possums; we do that in our own lives first, and then, we shine for others.
When a person is crushed by the sense of his own guilt and doom, God wants us to be bright-eyed. He wants us to tell that person, “Look me straight in the eye. Jesus died for you. He loves you and gave his own life so that you might be saved!” Be a bright-eyed Christian. Speak the gospel with a smile on your face and with a sparkle in your eye. Trust that the Holy Spirit will use that good news to work faith, and, in that way, one more lost, blind sinner will become a child of light.
It is amazing grace. The Lord made us – sin-darkened creatures – into his children. Now, he entrusts to us the privilege and responsibility of leading others to see the light; to share his amazing grace. We are bright-eyed. The light of Christ’ love is shining in us and through us, as we share the light of salvation with others. So, keep on shining. Amen.
