“THE MEEK LAMB OF GOD IS YOUR MIGHTY SAMSON”
Saint Luke 6: 36-42
4th Sunday after Trinity: 5 July Anno Domini 2020
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
Who doesn’t love a good story…or any story for that matter? We are all people of stories, with stories, who love hearing stories. You’ve read to your own children and grandchildren: Peter Rabbit, The Hobbit, Narnia, and Aesop’s Fables. You’ve enjoyed reading biographies of Washington or Jefferson, mysteries by Agatha Christie, and classics like Treasure Island and the Iliad.
Good stories are good because they are either true and beautiful (in their truth), or because though imaginary, metaphorical, or symbolic, they nonetheless illustrate and show forth truth(s).
You love reading Saint Paul’s theology—Romans, Galatians, Ephesians—but who does not feel a bit more “connection,” excitement even, in reading of his incredible, brave, and Christ-filled exploits from the Book of Acts? Stories! We love doctrinal exposition in Scripture, but we seem resonate at our child’s core with the adventures of Gideon, Samson, King David, Abraham and the Patriarchs, Noah, Jonah, Moses & Aaron and the Exodus. And, of course, our Lord’s own visible and historical “biography” as recorded by Saints Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
In this morning’s Gospel text Jesus speaks a parable—a story. God loves telling stories. Jesus must have felt true delight in sharing all of His parables with His beloved Disciples—a father telling special stories to his children.
Can the blind lead the blind? If this question is only literal then the answer is yes. A blind man can lead a fellow blind man, and, as Christ shows, the results can turn instantly tragic. Straight into traffic and death by auto, away from the oasis and shade straight out into the desert to be lost, or, straight off a cliff, or, into a ditch. But the question Jesus poses in this, oh so brief parable, really more of a proverbial truism or fable with a moral, is rhetorical. The answer clearly is NO—a guide should not, must not be blind. Can the deaf give singing lessons to the deaf? Can those with no sense of touch teach Braille reading to those with no sense of touch? Can the dead give life to the dead? Can the lost find the lost?
A brick cannot pick itself up and be gathered even as you heard last week from Fr. Brockman that lost coins on the floor do not cooperate with being found.
Christ came to find the lost. Christ, The Good Physician, came for the sick, i.e. those repenting and realizing their own lost condition. Jesus said: “They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” [Mk. 2.17b].
The Pharisee is blind. The hypocrite who justifies himself is blind. Your “old Adam” is blind. Any of your self-chosen “guides,” be they governmental leaders, financial security, sensual pleasure, or any other form of mammon, and especially the little dictatorial “pope” of your own ego, will blindly lead you the blind sinner straight into the ditch. The ditch, below ground level, is both the grave but also hell—the big ditch.
One can only see when their eyeballs perceive light and the images that light reflects on to their retinas. Jesus is Light itself, “God of God, light of light.” King David calls Jesus “…a light unto my path” [Ps. 119.105b] Jesus became blind on the cross when He suffered for your sins, the world’s sins, blinded by His own burning salty sweat and by the blood pouring down His sacred head from the crown of thorns. Jesus became blind in the ditch of Joseph’s tomb so that your resting place in the ground one day would be only a safe temporary repose until His ever-nearing return in glory.
No, the “12” were not above their Master, The Christ. They too would suffer even as they taught “all things” which He had commanded them to teach, preach, and administer. They too would be martyred, giving the good witness To Messiah. The “12” were Christ (in His stead and by His command) to the flocks entrusted, temporarily, to their oversight.
Jesus’ stories reveal truth—they show forth Himself. Be merciful. The Law demands you show mercy and forgiveness. You don’t. You disobey your Father.
Christ is your Mercy. Given and Shed for you…for the forgiveness of sins. The Father is your Mercy. For God The Father so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…for the forgiveness of sins.
Do not condemn. Forgive. The Greek word that the Evangelist uses is luo which means to loose, to liberate, to redeem. You don’t. Jesus does. Jesus allowed Himself to be condemned. Jesus was bound. Jesus forgave His betrayer, captors, executioners, and blasphemous tormentors. That means Jesus forgave, forgives, and will forgive you.
You are to share, to give freely this forgiveness to your enemies and adversaries. You don’t. Jesus gives this mercy and absolution to them, on your behalf, and then to you, on your behalf.
We love stories. Stories like the make-believe cartoon story of the overflowing water well that overwhelms Mickey in Disney’s Fantasia. But more importantly we are sustained by the real stories of: the continuous overflowing of olive oil for Elisha and the Widow of Shunem; like Elias and the barrel of meal that did not seem to have a bottom for the Widow of Zarephath; and like the daily Manna in the desert for Moses and the Israelites. This food and drink for the bellies is a “type” of Christ’s food for the soul. The Mercy multiplies from Master Messiah and overflows from His head, hands, feet, and side (His heart) and drenches you and covers you with Peace; fills your lungs, hearts, minds, and stomachs with Peace.
The final story, parable, illustration, what have you: the speck and the beam. You know what it means. Before you hypocritically attack the “other” for sin, even real and open sin, be forgiven your own heinous trespasses. Repent before assisting others out of their own ditches. Sure, you know that. But every beam, every two-by-four, ever tree, every cross section in a modern window, and every Philistine column in a pagan temple, reminds us all of the beam that Christ allowed Himself to be nailed to.
Samson is on the cover of the worship folder. Samson’s exploits are some of the coolest stories in the Hebrew canon. God, Jesus, says all the Law and Prophets testify to Him. When you look at Samson you should see Jesus. Not Samson pre-blindness. Samson before his “run in” with Delilah is you: arrogant, pompous, full of himself, vain, boastful, and powerful in the ways of the world. He was supposed to Judge Israel, and he did—fairly well at times—but His self-righteousness did him in. He became blind in actuality to better show how he had really been blind all along without acknowledging it. Your old nature isn’t just Adamic, it is Samsonic.
But by the power of The Holy Spirit, The Word worked; it works. Samson repents. Samson knows he is blind and that he is fallen. Though he once ripped the gates off of a Philistine garrisoned city, he was now chained up like an animal. But in his last act of sacrificial love, he gives his own life to save the people that God had entrusted to him. In His mighty outstretched armed-action he shows forth Jesus on the Cross for all of us. A little child, a young lad, leads Samson to the supporting pillars so that his captive hands would bring justice. Jesus, becoming small, weak, blind, and condemned for all of you let His own sinless hands do all the work of forgiveness as they held him nailed to the beam. That is your God. That is your salvation. He is here now for you.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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