Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
Blind Faith {Reflections}
What happens when our spiritual vision gets things backward? Ryan explores two powerful Gospel narratives that flip conventional religious understanding on its head.
First, we dive into John 9, where Jesus heals a man blind from birth—but the real story isn't just about physical healing. As the formerly blind man progressively recognizes Jesus (first as a man, then prophet, finally as the Son of Man), the supposedly clear-sighted religious leaders grow increasingly blind to God's work happening right before them. Their rigid adherence to Sabbath regulations prevents them from celebrating a life-changing miracle.
Then we explore the striking parable from Luke 18, where two men enter the temple to pray. The respected religious leader catalogs his moral achievements, while a despised tax collector simply pleads, "Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner." The shocking twist? It's the broken tax collector who leaves justified before God. The religious leader believed he was playing a game with clear rules—check the right boxes, perform the right rituals, avoid the wrong behaviors—but missed that God isn't interested in spiritual scorekeeping.
Both stories invite us to confront uncomfortable questions about our own spiritual vision. Are we like the Pharisees, technically "seeing" but missing what matters most? Do we approach God with a checklist of our accomplishments or with honest acknowledgment of our need? The most hopeful truth emerges: those who recognize their blindness and brokenness position themselves to receive true sight and resurrection. Perhaps our greatest spiritual strength is admitting how desperately we need God's mercy.
Join our community at Central in Elk River at 8:30 for our liturgical gathering, 10:00 for our modern service, or online at clcelkriver.org. Have you experienced this paradox in your own spiritual journey? We'd love to hear your story.
Join us! Facebook | Instagram | www.clcelkriver.org
Hey, what is up everybody, my name is Ryan and hey, welcome to our Reflections podcast. I was thinking today I was working on this sermon recently about a story in John, chapter 9, and it reminded me of another story in the Gospel of Luke that I also love and they're like very similar in one sort of thematic way and I wanted to share it and see if it was interesting to you. It was to me. So in John 9, quickly, there's a story where there's this blind man. He's been blind from birth and Jesus comes across him. And in the ancient world, and especially in this part of the Near East and in Judaism, people thought that if you were born with blindness or any kind of physical abnormality or disability, that you were a sinner, that you had sinned, or that your parents had sinned and it was a punishment from the gods. And so that's what they thought. And so they were like this guy had been excluded from the temple, from Jewish practice and a number of things. And so Jesus finds him and his disciples. They also kind of wrongly believe this is true. They're like, oh, jesus, who sinned this man or his parents? And Jesus is like, hey, listen, that isn't the point, let's just heal him. And so Jesus heals him, which is awesome, of course he would heal him. This is what he's doing. Jesus is bringing the kingdom of God here on earth as it is in heaven, and in the kingdom of God people shouldn't be blind. And so Jesus restores this man. He restores him socially, communally. The guy's now allowed into the temple. It's amazing. This guy's been blind his whole life, so he's healed.
Speaker 1:But there's a group of people that get mad, and it's the Pharisees. The Pharisees are these Jewish leaders and really the Pharisees. They're kind of—we're all sort of the Pharisees at one point of our lives or another. In other words, this isn't about them being Jewish or being Pharisees necessarily. It's like this is the human condition. These guys get mad. These are like what we call the gatekeepers, you know, and they're mad because Jesus, of course, heals this guy on the wrong day. It's the Sabbath, and Jewish law prohibits you from doing work on the Sabbath, including healing a guy. Jesus says, like you guys are missing the whole point. This guy needed to be healed, let's heal him. So the Pharisees, they start going on this inquisition, trying to figure out what happened, and they're really upset and they want to indict the man and his parents, and then Jesus and the guy's like I don't know, I couldn't see. Now I can see. I was blind, now I can see. He's like Jesus, maybe he's a prophet. It's pretty great. I love it. This guy's a total outsider, he's a nobody. Religious people they're mad about it and they get Jesus and they get after him and they kick the man out of the temple again Like hey, you're done, you're out of here, and they basically excommunicate this guy and Jesus is furious because they're missing the point. And here's the cool symbolism of this story the blind man was blind and now he can see. And these Pharisees think they can see, but they're the ones who are really blind. They just don't know it. Okay, so hold that story.
Speaker 1:Now there's a story in Luke chapter I think it's 18. And in Luke there's a story Jesus tells about another religious leader who is a good man and he goes into the temple to pray. And then there's a tax collector who's not a good man. He goes in the temple as well. So you have these two people that go into the temple to pray One's a religious leader and one's a tax collector. Tax collectors too, by the way, are folks who sort of betrayed their own people. They work for the Roman government. They're often known as thieves, they skim off the top, they're not trustworthy and they both go into the temple to pray.
Speaker 1:Jesus is telling a story about which one of these men leaves righteous or in right standing with God and you hear oh, this religious man is like, he's well-to-do, he dresses nice, he pays his taxes, he coaches his son's baseball team, he volunteers at the local food shelf. He does all the right things, he's a good dude. You'd want him in your church. He volunteers, he helps old ladies across the street. But when he goes in the temple to pray he says something like oh God, thankfully I'm not like that guy over there, the tax collector, and basically he sort of like checks off all the boxes of all the things that he does right to God, like, oh, oh God, I've done this right, I've done that right. And he goes down the list like showing and proving that he's a better man than the tax collector over there.
Speaker 1:Meanwhile, the tax collector is over in the corner. I imagine him and all he says is Lord, have mercy on me, I'm a sinner. Now, here's the thing the religious guy thinks that he can check off all the boxes to win the game. He's playing a game and all he has to do is do all the right things, say all the right things, prove he's a good guy, and then he's won. The tax collector is like I'm a dead man, I need a God who can raise the dead. So here's the reality. They're both in need of a God who can raise the dead. One of them knows it and one of them doesn't. The who can raise the dead One of them knows it and one of them doesn't. The religious guy thinks he doesn't need any help. He's like I've got all these things down, I'm the man, I wear a nice suit, I have a nice car, I've got a good job, I'm nice to people, and doesn't realize his own need and his own brokenness. The tax collector does, and so he's the one who leaves. Jesus says he's the righteous one. He leaves in right standing with God. So, man, I love these stories because it's a flipping of the script In the earlier story in John 9, with the Pharisees and the blind man.
Speaker 1:The Pharisees don't know it, but they're the ones who are blind, not the blind man. He gets it, in fact, when he washes in the pool and he washes the mud and the spit out of his eyes and then he begins to see, his faith begins to expand. He calls him Jesus at first, then he calls him a prophet and then he's like oh, you're the son of man. He realizes who he is and his faith grows after the miracle and his eyes are just ever more open. And the Pharisees get blinder and blinder and they don't get it and Jesus indicts them because of it.
Speaker 1:And then in the other story from Luke, it's the tax collector who is like I'm broken, I'm a dead man, I need help, I need a God. Lord, have mercy on me, I'm a sinner. He knows it. That's when Jesus can help him. The other guy thinks he's playing the game and I think Jesus is like or God is like hey, that's great, I love that you do all these wonderful things, you know you're doing all these wonderful, helpful things in your community and that's great. But, dude, I'm not playing that game. That's not the game. I'm playing no-transcript. And he can't because he thinks he's just fine how he is.
Speaker 1:So I guess here's what I want to say there are many of us that feel broken and lost and blind, and we know it and I want to say there's hope for you.
Speaker 1:Because you know it, you can begin to see again, you can find healing, you can receive the forgiveness that God offers freely anyway, and so you're in good company.
Speaker 1:If you feel broken and lost, you're like man, I know, I know, I know I'm I'm the chief among sinners. Is what Paul writes Like yeah, yeah, okay, welcome to the club. This is why every church gathering should start like an AA meeting and say something like oh, hey, I'm Ryan and I'm a habitual sinner. You know why? Let's just cut it, cut the junk, let's just call it like it is.
Speaker 1:Now I would also say if you're a person who's like, no, I'm good man, I don't need anybody, I'm great, I've got this, I've got that down, I do all these things, I would say be careful, because those are all good things, but we are all blind and dead in many ways, and we need a God who can give sight to the blind and who can raise the dead, and so, indeed, today, may God come and raise the dead parts of our lives that need it so desperately. And yeah, love you guys, peace Be good. Hey, if you enjoy this show, I'd love to have you. Share it with some friends. And don't forget, you are always welcome to join us in person at Central in Elk River at 830, which is our liturgical gathering, or at 10 o'clock, our modern gathering, or you can check us out online at clcelkriverorg Peace.
