Quinquagesima
Beloved. We have a fascinating account in today’s Gospel. In the second half of it Jesus comes across a blind man who was crying out for Jesus to have mercy on him. When the crowd told him “Silence!” he cried out all the more for Jesus to come and have mercy on him. As it turns out, Jesus had this blind man, whose name St. Mark records as Bartimaeus, brought to Him and then Jesus asks him the most interesting question: “What do you want me to do for you?” If, today, Jesus asked you that question what would you say? It is interesting to ponder because it reveals to us what is most important to us, at least at the present. Chances are, most would probably ask for some earthly blessing, like this blind man here did—be it something with health, or finances, or healing a relationship, some work situation that in one way or another is pressing on us, etc. Here Jesus asks “What do you want me to do for you?” and most would say that the answer is obvious—Jesus is talking with a blind beggar. Of course he’ll say: “Lord, I want to see again.” But there’s a little more to it than that. Blind Bartimaeus was crying out: Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! That title, Son of David, is significant because that title referred to the long promised Savior. This blind man recognized and was confessing that Jesus is that long promised Savior, the one who would be a descendant from David. But it is significant that Bartimaeus is blind because what do the OT prophets say about the Messiah? What do they say that the Messiah will do? Well among other things—heal the blind. Through Isaiah [35.4,5]: [Behold, your God]…will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened... That’s exactly what happened here. By giving sight to blind Bartimaeus, Jesus wasn’t just doing a miracle for the sake of doing a miracle. This miracle of healing the blind man pointed to Jesus as being the God/ the Savior who has come to save. In other words, this blind man’s faith was correct. Jesus is Son of David, and that’s why Jesus said to him, Your faith has saved you—not just given him the earthly blessing of sight, but saved him eternally before God. Blind Bartimaeus believed that Jesus is the Savior, his Savior and by this miracle Jesus most gloriously confirmed that faith is true and saving: Your faith has saved you.
Again, we come back to that haunting question of Jesus that He also asks each one of us today: “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus is not some magic genie who will grant us 3 wishes. This is a question of our faith: who/ what do we believe Jesus is? This question comes to us at a very vital time in the Church Year. We will, in a few days, enter the holy and penitential season of Lent. Let our answer/ prayer to Jesus, who is now asking us “What do you want me to do for you?” be: “Lord, I want to see, to see this Lenten season that You truly are my Savior who suffered and died for me—a poor, miserable sinner—and for my sin; that by Your holy life You reconciled me to God; brought forgiveness of my sin; gave me Your righteousness; opened heaven to me. Let me see by Your holy wounds, Your spilled blood, Your holy and innocent death what the penalty for my sin is and what I earn/ deserve for each of my sins. And all that You willingly endured for me and all sinners.” In other words, this is the most vital of prayers before entering Lent, for if our Lord does not give us sight to see Him and His saving work rightly and to trust in Him, our Lent this year will be a waste of time; it will be in vain. Let us not think that we are “above” such a prayer before and in Lent when we hear Jesus ask us: “What do you want me to do for you?” After all, Jesus had just announced His suffering, death and resurrection to the disciples and what was their response? –They did not understand any of these things. What he said was hidden from them, and they did not understand what was said. This upcoming Lenten season may we all the more clearly recognize Jesus as our Savior from sin, death, devil and hell.
This is Jesus’ work/ why He, the true God came from heaven to earth, becoming also true man—to be our Savior. It is His most exalted and glorious work. It is a most difficult work but it is a blessing for us. Our text is from an intriguing section of Scripture. Here, a few verses before our text, St. Isaiah records the Father’s “commission” to the Son to be the Savior of the world; He calls Him My Servant. Listen to the words of God the Father St. Isaiah recorded right before our text: Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations. Doesn’t this scene remind us of Jesus’ baptism where the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus like a dove and then the Father announces from heaven [Mt. 3.17]: This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased? And then in the next couple of verses the lowliness and humility of My Servant/ the Messiah/ Jesus is depicted as well as the success of His work and His teaching reaching the ends of the world. Then comes our text in which the Father again speaks to the Son: Thus says God the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it: “I am the Lord; I have called You in righteousness... God refers back to the creation. He who made it, everything out of nothing, and so beautifully and precisely planned out and designed everything, says/ the Father says to the Son, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, Who with the Holy Spirit was also active and involved in the creation, but Who has taken on human flesh and blood. I am the Lord; I have called You in righteousness... Here we see the difficulty of Jesus’ work in being our Savior. It is so difficult that Jesus, the God-man, must be assured that God’s power and wisdom will make certain that He will be preserved in His mission and that He will be successful. Jesus was not a machine. Yes, He is true God but He is also true man who needs that certainty and assurance, that strengthening for this most difficult task. Was it easy for Jesus to say/ could He without any feeling or emotion say: Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished. Indeed, he will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, mistreat him, spit on him, flog him, and kill him? On top of that, He is true God knowing what exactly would be happening to Him. Think of Jesus’ agony in Gethsemane as He prayed before His arrest. This Lent, think of the true anguish Jesus—true God and true man—suffered for our salvation. He wasn’t a rock or block of wood—but true man. As He carried out His saving work He needed and He had the Father’s assurance of His power and wisdom: Thus says God the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it. This is Jesus’ exalted vocation “I am the Lord; I have called You in righteousness...” Jesus was never in lack of power to carry out His saving work for us—He is God and the Father called Him and He and the Father and the Holy Spirit were in agreement/ of one will.
“I am the Lord; I have called You in righteousness...” This is the “why” of Jesus’ work/ why He had to suffer and die for the sins—the Lord’s righteousness. Because God is a holy and just God—a righteous God—sin must be punished. Because God is a righteous God His holy will and law must be kept. But our sin and our sinfulness are an affront to His holiness. Not only does the righteous God have to punish sin, but that lack of righteousness cannot stand; it must be made whole—that righteousness that is lacking must be made up.
But not only is God a holy and righteous God, He is also a merciful God who does not desire the death of the sinner but that he repent and live. So that’s why the Father sent to Son into the world and why the Son willingly came into this world: “I am the Lord; I have called You in righteousness...”
This is what makes Jesus’ work so exalted but so difficult! The righteousness of God must stand. This is something we couldn’t have done ourselves; we can’t make ourselves righteous before God. He had to come to us in His holy and righteous zeal to save us from our spiritual blindness and ignorance and free us from being held in the chains of sin, death and damnation. In other words, Jesus our Savior had to come to save us from our impotence and our ignorance. Jesus’s exalted but difficult work was: to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisonerts from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.
When Jesus came, His mission was rooted and grounded in God’s righteousness. Jesus had to live a holy life, completely sinless, so that the righteousness of God stands, that His righteous demands are upheld.
And Jesus came also for the purpose of enduring God’s righteous wrath over our sin. Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished. Indeed, he will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, mistreat him, spit on him, flog him, and kill him. There in Jesus’ suffering and on the cross we see what our sin, our lack of righteousness earn us; what we deserve for each of our sin—God’s righteous anger being poured out upon us. So when God the Father says to Jesus, the God-man, “I am the Lord; I have called You in righteousness”, we are seeing God’s righteous zeal for our salvation; we see God’s holy love for us in that in sending Jesus He is acting in His love toward us and in His plan to save us. In other words, God’s righteousness shows itself both in wrath and punishment—which Jesus endured for us—and in love and salvation, which God planned for us. We see both in Lent and in the cross.
Because Jesus’ work is so difficult, the Father says to Him in our text: “I am the Lord; I have called You in righteousness; I will take You by the hand and keep You.” Here is our great comfort and great joy: Jesus would be and was successful in His work. Here Jesus is promised: Having called You, I will uphold You. What was Jesus doing as He came in righteousness and for righteousness, as He was living that holy sinless life and suffering and dying on the cross for our sin? –He was fighting against death, sin, devil and hell. Do you think they would lie down and let Jesus conquer them? Hardly! Next Sunday we will hear some of the great temptations the devil threw at Jesus. On Good Friday we will hear the taunts of the crowds for Jesus to get down from the cross—that too a horrible temptation of the devil to stop Jesus’ saving work. But here in our text, although Jesus will suffer great and real obstacles to carry out our salvation, to fulfill the righteousness of God, He will be successful. I will take You by the hand and keep You. That glorious promise to Jesus is also our greatest comfort—Jesus was successful! How do we know that He didn’t sin once, that He endured all of God’s righteous anger over our sin? Not only do we have God’s promise here but we also have what Jesus said in today’s Gospel after announcing all of His suffering: On the third day, he will rise again. We have Easter! The Father accepted Jesus’ work! When Jesus was raised on Easter, that was the Father pronouncing absolution on the world. His righteousness was fulfilled. In Jesus we are at peace and reconciled to God. The Father kept His promise: I will take You by the hand and keep You.
When we heard Jesus ask us “What do you want me to do for you?” may our answer this Lent be in a new and glorious way to see, understand and thank Him for His most difficult but exalted work for us and our salvation. INJ Amen