“FULL OF GRACE AND TRUTH”
Saint Luke 18: 31-43
Quinquagesima: 27 February Anno Domini 2022
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
“Then He takes unto Him the “12,” the re-created fullness of the New Israel, and says unto you, behold come up to My altar and kneel. At this Jerusalem, this place of Peace, all things that were written by The Prophets concerning Me, The Son of Man, are accomplished and delivered unto you.”
Old pagan and child-murdering Jericho was destroyed by God by the hand of Joshua, son of Nun.
New Testament era Jericho had a man, just like all of you, destroyed by sins and by sin—an “old Adam” sinful nature. He was blind. He could not see with his eyes the glory of God’s natural kingdom. He could not work and be productive among the “gardens” of the earth. He didn’t care about glory, power, status, fame, or imposing his will upon others. He desired mercy and forgiveness. Yes, he desired money—he was a beggar—because he wanted to eat.
Yes, his blindness was real; it was physical. But also, his blindness is a universal representation of all those who are lost in the darkness of self, of ego, of the things of man, rather than the heavenly things of The Son of Man! All are born blind. All are born dead in the dark trespasses of sin, and remain blind until they are given sight—sight which allows them to receive light.
It’s true, everything about Bartimaeus. But it’s even more true that this beautiful metaphor illustrates your own lives until that very time “came to pass, that as [Christ] was come nigh unto you with His Word, with His + Baptismal font, you sat by the wayside a blind beggar.
Luther himself made the Scripturally brilliant observation that “we are all beggars; all miserable” and that we need something, Some ONE from outside of us to have mercy upon us, to give what we cannot get on our own. Hence the perfect prayer of the Blind man “Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.” He calls the Rabbi Joshua, Jesus, The Savior, The Saving One! Bartimaeus recognizes, though, physically blind, that This Nazarene teacher is the ‘Son of David.’ This quite possible is indicative that he knew Hebrew prophecy, “all things written by The Prophets,” and knew that Jesus was The Christ. When he cried out “have mercy on me,” do you really think he was asking for money, a denarius or two? No.
He had heard, not seen—“faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God”—about the miracles. He wanted Mercy for his sinful condition and one of the results of a sinful condition. He had a hope that Jesus, well, that Jesus was God in the flesh. He wanted his flesh healed the way The Lord healed Miriam’s leprosy, Hezikiah’s deadly foot condition, and the dead children to whom God sent Elias and Elisha.
No, he wasn’t blind because he had committed one particular sin. He was blind because he was a sinner in a decaying and rotting world of sin.
So fellow beggars, be brought by The Holy Ghost to the only source of food and nourishment—The Word of God. You won’t be a beggar when The Lord feeds you on His Sacred Scriptures and His Saving Eucharist.
The other beautiful metaphorical verity, is that there was nothing the blind man could do to achieve sight on his own. There was nothing you could do to become a Christian on your own. No prayer; no intellectual grappling with Torah, or Isaiah, or The Psalms with reason and deduction; no acts or works of charity; and no “my faith,” could have given him back his sight, or you your salvation.
“Jesus came nigh.” GRACE.
Grace not as lithe and athletic movement or felicitous feelings and warm emotions; Grace as God’s good favor and sacrificial love in action; that Grace saves and gives sight. Sight to behold the Light.
The pure Gospel of this text, which has two parts, is not just when Christ speaks “receive thy sight,” but in the beginning discourse that Jesus shares with the “12.” “He said unto them…The Son of Man shall be delivered unto the Gentiles [for your sins, for Bartimaeus’ blindness], and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated and spitted on; [for your lying, cheating, lusting, coveting, murdering, and self-worshipping] and they shall scourge Him, and put Him to death [in place of you and all sinners].” That is How God loved the world—universal GRACE. Grace is the Crucifix. The Good News is The Crucifix. Receive this Good News and fruit of The Tree at this Holy Communion rail and be beggar no more, be blind never again.
Jesus says: “and the third day He shall rise again.”
He did. He has. No Joshua the death bringer to the heathenish Jericho, but Jesus the Light and Life of all those He has chosen in this new, not Jericho, but Jerusalem of His Church. You have received sight. You are + Baptized. You no longer have any of things hid from you; you understand all things because: “That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto his own, and His own received him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His Name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we [and Bartimeus] beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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