Bloghardt's Reflector

St. Luke 18:31-33 - Quinquagesima 2010
St. Mark Lutheran Church - February 14, 2010 
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In the name of Jesus. Amen.  Today Jesus speaks to you in His Word.  To you, each one of you.  He speaking to you.  Where you are, with all your problems, with all your sins, in all your troubles.

He knows how hard a time you are having.  He knows you are suffering.  He knows about your failures, your sins, your pain.  He knows about the emptiness you feel.  

He knows you fight against sin and lose.  Sometimes, you are terribly guilty for the things you have done.  Other times, you feel nothing and that really scares you.  Or it scares you that it doesn’t scare you.

The Lord Jesus knows that your vision is kinda skewed toward yourself.  Your perspective is self-centered.   It’s all about you most, if not, all the time.  It effects how you treat others and how you perceive the way they treat you.  

So, it always seems someone else’s fault and not yours.  Their problem, not your problem.  Their fault, not your fault.  It couldn’t be you.  No, if they just... Fill in the blank.. Then it’d be fine.

But, the Lord knows you - even things that you don’t know about you.  He knows the things that you will quickly admit about yourself and He knows the stuff that you only admit to yourself when you are alone at night in your bed.

So, He’s brought you to this point, right before Lent to save you. To take your eyes off you and to plant them squarely on upon Him.  

To speak to you, specifically to you and not the people who you think need to hear about Him.   You know, the people who bug you. No, you are the one that needs to hear Him.  

And so, today, He tells you that He is on His way to Jerusalem.  The Lenten Fast is about to begin for Him and for you too.

But, repentance and the forgiveness of sins are not Lenten things.  They are the very baptismal life of each Christian.  Every day, each day, your are given to repent of your sins, drown them in the waters of your Baptism, and to fix your eyes, the eyes of faith upon Jesus.  

So, there is nothing Pre-Lent about today’s Gospel.  It’s got all the Lenten suffering and death that Jesus will endure for you and for your salvation.

He will fulfill all that was promised about Him by the Prophets.  It will be done to Him - He’ll be delivered over to the Gentiles. There, He will be mocked, shamed, spit upon, and flogged.  He will be crucified but after three days, He will rise.

And so that nothing would stop His fulfilling of everything that was promised, so that nothing would get in the way of the Cross, it was hidden from the Apostles the meaning of the Gospel that you believe and confess every day.  They didn’t understand what Jesus was talking about in today’s Gospel.

They were more blind than the beggar who Jesus came up to on His way into Jericho.  You know, the one that the people tried to silence.  But, the more they tried to shut him, the more the man screamed for Jesus to have mercy.

True Faith cannot be silenced.  It calls out to the Lord for help and mercy.  Faith knows that Christ will save us - even from our blindness and self-centeredness.  

“Receive your sight.  Your faith has saved you.”  The man recovered His sight immediately.  For faith - saving faith flows from Jesus’ words.

The Twelve too!  Jesus’ words enlivened them after the resurrection to believe that He really did indeed fulfill the Law for them and suffer the death that they deserve.  What they don’t get today, they will get after Easter.  He will open their eyes to His Gospel.

So, when I say to you that He’s speaking to you today, I mean exactly that.  Jesus speaks to you today through His Word calling you to repent of your sins and self-centeredness.  Then, He enlivens you to believe that you are forgiven, truly forgiven, really forgiven, forever forgiven.

Repent.  Turn.  Give up blaming others.  Give up expecting them to do a little more to get along with you.  Give up expecting them to meet you half way.  Give all of that up for Lent and be the one that changes, that stops doing the things you do.  

But, don’t just stop with giving up your self-centeredness, have your eyes opened by Jesus today.  He’s going to Jerusalem to be handed over into the hands of sinners, to be mocked, spit upon, shamed, and led off to be crucified.

He has kept all that was required of Him for your sake.  You are saved by His holy life.  He has suffered all that was due you for your sins.  You are saved by His suffering and death.

So that’s His word for you today:  your sins are absolved, forgiven, remembered no more by God.  They are taken away by Jesus and His Cross.  Your blindness, self-centeredness, narcissism are all forgiven.   God remembers your sins no more.

How do you know?  The Cross.  The Cross shows that Jesus’ love for you is patient and kind;   The Cross shows that His love does not envy or boast; His love isn’t arrogant or rude.  The Cross shows that His love for you does not insist on its own way.  

The Cross shows that His love for you is not irritable or resentful; His love for you does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 

Calvary proclaims His love to you.  Your baptism washes his love down your forehead.   And at His Supper today, Jesus puts His love into your mouth as He gives you His body and His blood for the remission of all your sins.

That love that went trough death and hell to save you, is the love that you pass onto others.  Them first before you.  No envy, boasting, arrogance, or rudeness.  No insisting on your own way.  No taking things out on them or rejoicing in their wrong doings.  

No, that’s not the way of His love - His love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  His love for you never fails. 

The Lord has called you out today of all things that start and end in you, to put on love for others.  And you can even today, the day set aside for the St. Valentinus, who was an early church martyr.  Love - for those you love, for those in your family, for your brother and sisters in Christ, even for the people that you don’t care at all.

For today the Lord has spoken His Word to you.  He has showed your blindness and self-centeredness.  He has prepared you for Lent by speaking to you His Word about His love for you won on the Cross and delivered to you today in the Word.

Your hard times are forgiven.  Your blindness answered for you.  Your guilt died for.  God is at peace with you and has shown you His love in the giving up of His Son.

Yes, the Lenten Fast is almost here.  It begins with this Gospel: “Receive your sight, your faith has saved you!”  In the name of Jesus. Amen.