SERMON SERIES: THE SPIRIT OF LENT WEEK 2—OPTOMETRIST
The story is told of a man who had lost his sight. Suddenly plunged into darkness, he had to learn how to live all over again. It was an incredibly difficult time. But in this adversity, he came to know Jesus.
One day a friend of the blind man expressed his sympathies over his situation. But the blind man said to him: “Do not pity me…if I still had my eyesight, I might be blind yet. Now that I have become blind, I have learned to see. I could never see Jesus before, and I was not interested in him. But I see him now, and I am much happier today than I was before I was blind.”
In a surprising twist, the man had an operation later on, which restored his sight. Afterwards he said: “May God protect and keep me, so that the things these eyes now see may never again lead me away from the light my inward sight beholds!”[1]
There are many instances in the Bible where God healed blind people—like the men who sat by the roadside and cried out to Jesus: “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” (Matthew 20), or the man blind from birth in John’s Gospel (John 9), and even Saul; a fervent Pharisee who rejected Jesus and persecuted his people, and who was blinded after he encountered Jesus (Acts 9). Yet these healings were not only a restoration of physical sight, but the giving of spiritual sight too. Immediately after receiving their sight, the blind men by the roadside followed Jesus. The man born blind gradually grew in his understanding of who Jesus was, until he confessed that faith and bowed before Jesus. Saul regained his sight and had a new life as the Apostle Paul, writing a significant portion of the New Testament, pointing to the Christ whom he had previously persecuted.
In today’s gospel reading, it is Peter who cannot see. He’s not literally blind, but his spiritual vision is impaired.
Peter actually knows Jesus as the long-awaited Saviour of Israel. Before today’s text, while Jesus was travelling with his disciples to Caesarea Philippi, he asked them: “Who do you say that I am?” Peter answered: “You are the Christ.” (Mark 8:27-29).
Peter can see that Jesus is the Christ—but he doesn’t yet see what that means. He hasn’t got the same vision as Jesus of what Jesus’ mission is. At the beginning of our text today we hear that Jesus began to teach them that he must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly.
Jesus began to teach them. The inference is that Jesus would continue to teach them, all through their life. Jesus began to teach them. And he spoke plainly. That’s very important detail. God’s people need teaching. What is the goal of the Christian faith? To keep growing to spiritual maturity to be like Christ. To keep growing to be like Christ, we need to be able to see God’s will for us in his word. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church:
“Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-15).
Bishops don’t get to a day where they know everything there is to know about God and the Scriptures. Pastors don’t just arrive at church one day knowing all there is about God’s word. God’s people don’t reach complete knowledge of the kingdom of God on their confirmation day. Through family devotions, bedtime prayers, Sunday School, Confirmation—that’s when Jesus began to teach us. Like the earliest disciples, we need Jesus to continue to teach us. Through the Bible, he speaks plainly to us—his clear word, his word of truth, without error, to replace our human wisdom, not supplement it.
Jesus began to teach his disciples that he must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. But although Jesus had just said this plainly, Peter falls back to his human wisdom—’Jesus must have this all wrong!’ Although Peter saw Jesus as the Christ, he was so blind to Jesus’ mission of how he would bring life to the world, that he took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him. Jesus began to teach; Peter began to rebuke.
Then come some more plain words—that jolting, jarring rebuke of Jesus’ own to Peter: “Get behind me Satan!” Imagine hearing that from Jesus! From a human viewpoint it seems that Peter is just caring about Jesus. What’s the big deal?
Jesus isn’t suggesting Peter is possessed by Satan, or has become Satan, but that his outlook and view is so far removed from God’s; so worldly, so human, so gripped by the flesh—that it is the same as the Devil’s. Peter didn’t want harm to come to Jesus—but neither did Satan. Satan didn’t want Jesus to suffer and die to save the world, because then the world would still belong to the kingdom of darkness! Jesus said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” Peter had fallen to Satan’s temptation to live by bread alone rather than by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Peter’s outlook is a transposing of human understanding, vision and will for the world over and above the plain words of Jesus, instead of submitting to them. As God said through the prophet Isaiah:
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).
Peter had come to see Jesus as the Christ. But he hadn’t yet seen like Jesus. It’s easy to be hard on Peter at this point. Peter was, after all, only human—as we all are. Yet today’s text teaches us that there are only two ways by which to see—with physical eyes ordering our lives by human priorities, human ideas, human worldviews, human traditions. Or with spiritual eyes, focusing on God’s ordering of our life, revealed in his word. That is why we need the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit even to be a child of God, let alone be able to see like one. I’ve shared this with you many times before, but again this beautiful confession of Luther: “I believe that I cannot, by my own understanding or effort believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, and sanctified and kept me in true faith[2].
There are many ways we could picture the Holy Spirit—like a dove, descending with peace from heaven. A comforter. A teacher. How about the Holy Spirit as our Divine Optometrist?
We make appointments with an optometrist for our eye care, including eye exams, vision correction, eyesight interventions like glasses or contact lenses to help us see more clearly. The Holy Spirit is like our Divine Optometrist who helps us see spiritual realities clearly. Last week we focused on the Holy Spirit as the power we need for faith in God. That power is power to open our eyes to the unseen divine reality as we live out our faith in a faithless world. With our natural eyes, we see worldly, sinful realities, but with our spiritual eyes, we look at the Kingdom of God to see things as they really are, which unbelievers cannot see. The Holy Spirit opens our eyes to give us spiritual glasses to help us see the will of Christ, follow him, and grow to maturity in Christ-likeness in our own lives. To quote from Evangelist Keith Miller:
“By the power of the Holy Spirit, God allows us to see what our natural eyes cannot; He allows us to see beyond the surface and into the reality of things as they really are according to God’s plan, work, and good purposes. The moment we enter into a new relationship with our Creator through Christ Jesus, we experience a new birth. This, like natural birth, is a process. Gradually, as God opens our spiritual eyes to see what we could not see before, we start to use our eyes. Where once we could only construe surface meaning in the words and stories of the Bible, for instance, we are now able to go deep enough, into the breadth, width, and depth of it, to see in greater dimension and vastness the wonder, beauty, and glory in His Word. In the natural, the Bible is a great history and story book, but in the spiritual, the Light illumines; the Scriptures come alive in a meaningful way. Words, truths, promises, instruction, revelation, nature, and history open up with spiritual significance, direction, and insight. With God’s supernatural help, we can behold every wonderful thing He has for us.[3]
In Psalm 119 the Psalmist prays: “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law” (Psalm 119:18). In this season of Lent may we book regular appointments with our Spiritual Optometrist. May he keep our eyes open, and our contact lenses firmly in place. May he breathe on our glasses with the breath of life to clean our lenses, so that we can see Christ clearly in all we think, say and do, receiving his teaching as he speaks to us plainly. May he lead us to the word of God and delight in the wondrous things that God has revealed, and continues to reveal to us. May he help us see clearly that which we need to take hold of personally—the truths of who you are in him, who he is to you, and how to navigate the season you are in. May he open our eyes to see the heavenly reality of how nothing is impossible for God, when things only look impossible with human eyes. May he help you see the incredible depth of your Heavenly Father’s love for you, and the incredible riches of his grace, fixing our eyes on the Cross, where they are seen and found.
May he open our eyes so that in all things we not only see Jesus, but see like Jesus—as we faithfully take up our Cross and follow him. For that is why Jesus has first taken up his Cross for you. None of us could ever give anything in exchange for our soul, but Jesus has—his body, and his blood. As the Holy Spirit draws us to Christ in the Scriptures, showing us how to walk by faith and not by sight, let us join with the Apostle Paul in confessing: “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14). Amen.
[1] Burgess, David F (comp) (1988) Encyclopaedia of sermon illustrations (St Louis: CPH) P27-28
[2] Luther, M (1960) The Small Catechism. Explanation to the Third Article of the Creed (US: Augsburg) p11
[3]Miller, Keith (2024) The ability to see, to have spiritual perception. https://www.sfwm.org/blog/post/the-ability-to-see-to-have-spiritual-perception last accessed 24 Feb 2024 13:45
