Merredin Uniting Church

“When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had driven seven demons.”

Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus,

Mary, formerly of Bethany;

Mary, who ran away from home to live a sinful life in the town of Migdol on the road from Nazareth to Galilee.

Mary Magdalene.

Mary of the seven demons.

Mary who spent her time at the feet of Jesus while her sister worked in the kitchen.

Mary who stood at the foot of the Cross with Jesus’ mother.

Mary who went to the tomb and was first to see the risen Lord.

This Mary was transformed by the life of Jesus.

This Mary was the first to encounter the miracle of resurrection.

This Mary presents us with the opportunity of new life in Christ.

From beginning to end, the story of the Bible is one of restoration and transformation.

From the first Adam to the last.

Abram to Abraham.

Jacob to Israel.

Moses in the desert.

Simon to Peter.

Saul to Paul. You. Me.

Death – Resurrection!

When sin came into the world we were separated from God.

Holiness could not cope with sin.

We could not come to God.

BUT God has worked continuously to establish the means by which we might be restored – flood, the call to Abram, wrestling with Jacob, Moses, Joshua, David, prophets, priests and kings.

THEN He came as a baby born in Bethlehem.

One of us, born into the world, to face its threats and temptations … and finally to die to remove the consequence of sin, and to offer us new hope in the new life of the resurrection.

Jesus called twelve men as His disciples but many others gathered around Him – most notably, the two Mary’s, Salome, Martha and Lazarus.

Their lives were transformed in HIs presence; and none more so than this Mary of Migdol.

Her story pops up in each of four gospels. The gospels are not the story of Mary but of Jesus, but we can piece together the story of this woman and we can see the impact that our Lord had upon her.

It is almost certain that she is the same Mary who is the sister of Martha and Lazarus. Her hometown is Bethany, and she would have introduced Jesus to her brother and sister who opened their house to Him.

It would seem that this Mary left home and made a new home in the village of Migdol, which lies on the road between Nazareth and Galilee.

She was, it appears, a runaway.

In Migdol she seems to have earned a living as a prostitute.

We know that she wore an alabaster jar of costly perfume around her neck. This was a sign in those days that she was for sale.

John tells us that the jar contained a pint of pure nard – worth a year’s wages. She was high class.

We also know that Jesus had cast seven demons out of her.

Perhaps on one of His journeys through Migdol, going from Nazareth to Galilee, she had been inspired by the words of our Lord. Certainly, she was part of the group of people who travelled around with Jesus.

Mary of Magdala, was not a promising person. She had lived a lifetime of mistakes. She had messed up big time.

But then so had most of the people who were with Jesus.

He gathered around Him, the sinners, the tax-collectors and the outcasts, rather than the holy and religious people.

In fact, if anything, Jesus had little time for these “holy joe’s” – the only ones he argued with were the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the teachers of the law.

The ones He loved were the fishermen, the tax-collectors, the prostitutes, the lepers, the blind, the demon-possessed, the dumb and the other outcasts of society.

Mary may have been the worst of the worst.

But Mary was transformed.

Mary came to the Pharisee’s house with her alabaster jar of perfume. She stood weeping at the feet of Jesus, wetting His feet with her tears, wiping them with her hair and pouring out the perfume over Him.

Perhaps this was the first time they had met – she had seen Him, heard Him and been inspired by Him. Now she was pouring out the perfume, the symbol of her sin and waywardness over His feet.

John tells us that this took place at the home of Lazarus, Matthew and Mark say it happened at the home of Simon the Leper, Luke says it was at the home of Simon the Pharisee; but the story is almost identical in each case. Three of the four Evangelists say it happened in Bethany, the other does not give the place.

In each case there is some opposition to this extravagant waste of costly perfume, but Jesus welcomes it.

You see, the woman was not simply pouring out expensive perfume – she was laying down her life; she was dying to her old life.

She was pouring out the perfume – the symbol of her prostitution, as a smoker tosses our cigarettes when he gives up smoking or as an ex-alcoholic would pour the liquor down the drain.

This was no waste of perfume – this was an extravagant sacrifice of everything which kept her from the fulness of life promised by Jesus. And Jesus says that she has been forgiven much because she loved much.

He tells a story of two men – one owes 500 denarii and one fifty. Neither can repay their debt. The money lender writes off the debt of both. And it is the one who is forgiven most who is the most appreciative.

This woman was so wayward that she was invaded by seven demons – a Biblical way of saying that she was completely under the control of the devil. But in her encounter with Jesus, she is totally forgiven, completely restored and absolutely transformed.

Jesus says that she is anointing Him for burial – she is finding her salvation in His death at the Cross. And she is one of the few of Jesus’ inner circle who stayed to see the horror of Calvary.

And this transformed woman is given the privilege of being the first witness to the resurrection of Jesus.

“Mary”, He calls to her.

“Rabboni”, she responds.

And the wonder of the transformed life awakens in her spirit.

Mary’s transformation is for each of us.

We might not have strayed as far as she did, but in finding Jesus, we are restored as much as she was.

We are brought face to face with resurrection.

We are given new life, new hope and a new beginning.

And every day, holds that promise for those who come to Jesus in faith. Each day unfolds in resurrection, each day is a new day and a new beginning.

On this Resurrection Day, put your trust in the risen Lord, who transforms lives every day.

Amen

Welcome

3457 years ago, God brought His people out of slavery in Egypt.

It was a momentous event for a people chosen by God through Abraham. God gave them specific instructions on how to celebrate the event and to recall His divine action in their rescue from bondage.

It was a celebration to take place around the dinner table in every family home on the same night each year.

It was called the Passover Supper, or Pesach.

After the initial celebration of the meal, the Jews did not share it for 40 years, on God’s instructions, until after they entered into the Promised Land.

And then for a period of 70 years, while they were in exile in Babylon, about 2500 years ago, they also did not celebrate the passover.

On the night before He died, Jesus celebrated the Passover, saying that He would not share again in the meal until it found its fullness in the Kingdom of God.

He did however say that we should continue to celebrate this meal of bread and wine until He comes again.

Why is this meal so significant? Why has it featured for so long in  Jewish and Christian theology? And what does it tell us about Jesus?

Today is Good Friday. It is the day we remember that Jesus died on the Cross for the sin of the world. It is a celebration of God’s grace. We have turned it into a sad day but it is, in fact, a day of celebration. A day of rejoicing even, for the Cross was God’s intention from the first. The story of salvation which winds its way through the Bible points us continuously to the Cross, to the death of Jesus, to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

And the Passover meal – the Pesach of the Jews, celebrated for the past 3457 years is filled with words and prophecies that point us to the salvation which would come by our Lord and to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb which will take place at the end of time, and eternity reigns.

HYMN AHB 258 – When I survey the wondrous Cross

Before the celebration of the Pesach can begin, God commanded that all leaven or yeast (Chametz) be removed from the house.

Exodus 12:15 – For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.

In the Bible, yeast is presented to us as a metaphor for sin. It is the stealthy growth of sin in our lives which separates us from God. It was sin which took the people of God into Egypt, it was sin which took them into exile in Babylon and it is sin which separates us from God now.

Jesus came to deal with that sin, and so we begin by cleansing ourselves through confession.

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me that needs to be removed as the leaven was removed from the house in the days of old. Lead me in your everlasting way. AMEN

Here’s the story of the Passover …

Exodus 10:2-31

“This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. 3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. 4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. 5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. 6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. 7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. 8 That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. 9 Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire—head, legs and inner parts. 10 Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. 11 This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.

12 “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

14 “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance. 15 For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat—that is all you may do.

17 “Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. 18 In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. 19 For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is an alien or native-born. 20 Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.”

21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. Not one of you shall go out the door of his house until morning. 23 When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.

24 “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. 25 When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. 26 And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ 27 then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’ ” Then the people bowed down and worshiped. 28 The Israelites did just what the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron.

29 At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. 30 Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.

31 During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you have requested.

A real lamb died for the salvation of every household in Egypt. Jesus, the Lamb of God, died on the Cross for every person in every age who comes to Him in faith.

CHOIR – All in an April Evening

Here’s the story of the Last Supper. Listen carefully as Mark tells us how Jesus gave instructions for the preparation for the Passover, how they recline at the Table to eat, of the identification of the betrayer by dipping in the bowl, and how Jesus spoke of the bread as His body and the wine as His blood of the covenant. And then He says that He will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the Kingdom comes. They go out after the singing of the Hallel psalm.

Mark 14:12-26

On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”

13 So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. 14 Say to the owner of the house he enters, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 15 He will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.”

16 The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.

17 When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. 18 While they were reclining at the table eating, he said, “I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me—one who is eating with me.”

19 They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, “Surely not I?”

20 “It is one of the Twelve,” he replied, “one who dips bread into the bowl with me. 21 The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”

22 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.”

23 Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it.

24 “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them. 25 “I tell you the truth, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God.”

26 When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Now listen as Paul recounts how the Jewish Passover meal has become the Christian Holy Communion.

1 Corinthians 11:23-29

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

27 Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.

We come to the Supper a little bit fearful, and with much uncertainty. Do we deserve to be here? Should we be here?

Of course we are all unworthy … all of us are guilty, but when we come recognising the body and blood of the Lord, we are cleared of our guilt and of our sin.

The Table of the Lord is the Table of reconciliation and peace; just as the Cross is the place where justice and grace meet.

We come to the Table, not because we deserve to be there, but because we are invited there to receive grace and mercy.

HYMN AHB 266 – There is a green hill far away

And so to the Passover – which models the Last Supper, and which points us to the Christ who came to save …

Four Cups:

The Cup of Sanctification

The Cup of Deliverance

The Cup of Sanctification

The Cup of Praise

Everything hinges around these four cups of wine.

The Cup of Sanctification

At the start of the meal, to sanctify its purpose …

LET US PRAY …

Baruch a-tah Adonai, elo-haynu melech ha-olam, bo-ray p’ree haga-fen

Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who makes the fruit of the vine.

Urchatz – the washing of the hands (Jesus washes feet)

Karpas – the eating of the greens

Wine was red; Greens = hyssop (used to apply blood to doorposts) dipped in salt water

Yachatz – breaking of the bread

Three pieces of bread in an Echad = compound unity

One piece broken and hidden away

Broken = Christ’s suffering

Hidden = Burial in Tomb

Maggid – Story of the Exodus

FOUR QUESTIONS

Why only unleavened bread? Swiftness of salvation

Why the bitter herbs? Bondage

Why dip twice? Salt – tears; charoset = freedom

Why do we recline? Free!

STORY of the plagues

THREE ESSENTIALS

Pesach – Passover Lamb (Lamb shank bone)

Matzoh – bread without yeast

Maror – Bitterness (slavery)

The Cup of Deliverance

The retrieving of the Afikomen and sharing (GIFT!!!)

(The first element of Holy Communion)

This is my body which is given for you

The Cup of Redemption

(The second element of Holy Communion)

This is the Cup of the New covenant in my blood

THE MEAL IS EATEN

The Cup of Praise

Jesus did not drink from it (until I come again)

I have often wondered why today is called Good Friday. I once looked it up in a Christian reference book and it said that the word “Good” was derived from old Anglo-Saxon word “Gu-d” meaning “solemn or holy”.

I looked it up again yesterday in Google – I found that answer, but I also found that that is a very obscure reference. The Anglo-Saxon word “Gu-d” was in fact used to refer to a pie-base, where the slices of the pie “fitted together, or belonged together”.

In that sense we have a much more beautiful explanation of the description “Good Friday” – It is the day on which the Prince of glory died so that we, the wayward pieces of pie, could be brought back to God and so to have the relationship restored.

In sin we were separated from God, in the Cross we are restored to Him again.

HYMN AHB 265 – In the Cross of Christ I glory

LET US PRAY …

Baruch a-tah Adonai, elo-haynu melech ha-olam

We bless you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, for through you has come salvation.

In your body and in your blood, we are made partakers of the New Covenant of grace.

In Your name we go

with your blessing we are enriched

by your grace, we are saved

In the Name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Good day to you all.
Welcome to this service of worship, may you be blessed as we gather together in the Name of the Living God. Kevin is leading the service today as I will be in Bruce Rock for a Community Palm Sunday Service and to take the service for the Blessing of the Plough before the season starts.

On our way to Mukinbudin last Sunday after the service in Merredin, we got the news that Linda had given birth to an 8 pound boy. Contractions started at 3.30am (WA time) and at 8.00am Linda went to Genesis Clinic and Micah was born at 10.30am. Thank you for all your prayers and well wishes. Linda went home shortly after lunch, exhausted but in good spirits. We were able to speak with her, and Micah’s delighted sisters on Skype later on Sunday evening. Micah has a slight case of jaundice but all are well. Dad, Sven, has lost 7.4kg’s in preparation for running around with his son for the next twenty years.

Its Easter Week! The most significant and wonderful week of the Christian celebration. Today we remember Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem – He came as the King of Zion (the metaphorical Kingdom of God) and the accolades accorded to Him were perfect in every way (though few understood it at the time). The joyful celebration launches us into a week of darkness and horror – rejection and betrayal of the Messiah, an unjust trial, and a cruel death. But out of the darkness there burst forth a Light which shall never be darkened again. Jesus fulfilled His mission – He paid the price for the transgression of sin and He opened the door that all may enter in to a relationship with God in which Life has purpose and meaning, not only on this earth but even beyond the grave.

On Thursday evening (at 7pm) we will have a Tenebrae Service to commemorate the Last Supper of our Lord. It is a service which allows us to reflect on the last moments of betrayal and doubt which Jesus faced as He resolutely went forward to His death, so that He might win Life for the the sinners, the betrayers and the doubtful. It is a poignant service of deep reflection – remember that we leave the service in the dark and in silence as we prepare ourselves for the remembrance of the Cross.

On Friday morning, we gather again to see that this was no sudden decision of God to offer up His Son. From the earliest, God has intended that all mankind should be reconciled to Him and His love breaks through continuously in the words of Scripture. One of the most meaningful ways in which the Lord revealed His intention was through the Jewish Passover. It commemorated the rescue from slavery in Egypt and the protection from the Angel of Death by the blood of the lamb. In the service we will examine some of the elements of the Jewish Passover Meal to see that Jesus is indeed the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Through His death, and by His blood, we are rescued from slavery to sin, and the consequent eternal death. God has always intended that His love for us would break through the barrier of our transgression.

On Sunday we celebrate resurrection! Jesus’ victory over death is the key to the transformation of life. We will look at the life of Mary Magdalene, a demon-possessed prostitute, who yielded herself, her sin and her life to Jesus and was thus allowed the privilege and gift of being the very first witness to the Resurrection. She was truly transformed and that kind of transformation is God’s offer to us in Jesus Christ.

God bless,
David

Last Sunday we were challenged by the courage of the man born blind who held fast to his faith in the Jesus who enabled him to see. I said that we should not be hesitant about our own faith, either in believing great things from God nor in sharing with others what God has done in our lives. Today, as a response to the sermon, I am inviting you to share something of your understanding of the reality of God. What ordinary or extraordinary thing has God done in your life? What difficult challenges have you placed at the foot of the Cross, or before the Throne of grace?

I must admit that in trying to respond to this myself, I was, at first, just a little dismayed – I couldn’t think of anything that was really spectacular. My life seemed to be just like Ezekiel’s Valley of Dry Bones – I just drifted through, some things happened and then died and were discarded. Nothing seemed to have an ongoing sense of God-purposed life in it. I saw bones, but God saw something else – foot bones connecting to ankle bones, connecting to shin bones, connecting to thigh bones and so on. God sees me being formed by the very things which I have casually discarded.

In a flash of inspiration, I had begun to see the bones connecting … my grandfather’s stories before bedtime, two chaplains at the Anglican school which I attended who introduced “recalcitrant me” into prayer and holiness … my questions to God when a school friend died in an accident ..my secretary’s gentle questioning of my proposition that man had invented God … and, a voice in the night which called me to follow Christ.

We all have a collection of memories, mostly involving people who have impacted on our faith – initializing our faith walk, generating faith, sustaining faith. As time goes on we tend to discard these memories like the dry bones, but God has used those people and incidents to define our relationship with Him. What “bones” do you need to bring to life today?

The Marriage Course (in Merredin) came to and end this week and I want to thank each of the five couples who participated for their diligence and involvement. And especially I want to thank Margie who prepared the meals and did all the hard work in the background. We will run the course again and I hope that you will consider joining in. It is a self-assessment course for each couple – there is no group discussion or outside guidance. Each couple spend the time only with each other, sharing dinner and conversation. They are encouraged to also establish a “marriage time” each week (a “date”) to share thoughts and life. I have asked the group to share some of their experience during GodTalk time at Merredin this morning.

The second Ride for Life program comes to an end next week and everyone is invited to join the team and participants for the presentation ceremony and a “feed” (is this an Australian word, a horsey word or a Kevin word?) next Sunday evening at Kevin and Debbie Tengvall’s home at Saltbush Farm, Hines Hill. We have had three participants in the program this round and one person who attended the first round came to be a helper. It has been interesting to see how Kevin has taught some basic life skills using an equestrian format. The mission statement – “The outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man” has proved itself over and over again as the participants (and trainers and watchers) have learned to be aware of the way our attitude and behaviour can impact on other living beings (horses and people!)

We are gearing up towards the Great Eastern Gathering to be held in Merredin on May 21st. Thank you to those who have already volunteered to be involved in the catering (to be organised by the Ladies Guild) and who have offered billets for folk who may want to stay over. The lists are up in the tea room.

Lists for those who want to volunteer for duties at the worship services in Merredin are also up in the tea room. The duty rosters will be available by the Easter Weekend so please put your names up as soon as possible. Some folk like to have a break from time to time so the duty rosters will be developed only from the persons who volunteer and will be valid for the
second quarter of the year only.

God bless,
David

John 9:1-41

NARRATOR: As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him

DISCIPLE: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

JESUS: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

NARRATOR: Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes.

JESUS: “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam”

NARRATOR: So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

NARRATOR: His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked,

NEIGHBOUR 1: “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?”

NEIGHBOUR 2: “Yes, he is!”.

NEIGHBOUR 3: “No, he only looks like him.”

THE MAN: “I am the man.”

NEIGHBOURS TOGETHER: “How then were your eyes opened?”

THE MAN: “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.”

NEIGHBOUR 1: “Where is this man?”

THE MAN: “I don’t know.”

NARRATOR: They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight.

THE MAN: “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and now I see.”

PHARISEE 1: “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.”

PHARISEE 2: “How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?”

NARRATOR: So they were divided.

PHARISEE 1: “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.”

THE MAN: “He is a prophet.”

NARRATOR: The Jews still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents.

PHARISEE 1: “Is this your son?”

PHARISEE 2: “Is this the one you say was born blind?

PHARISEE 1: How is it that now he can see?”

PARENTS TOGETHER: “We know he is our son, and we know he was born blind. But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.”

NARRATOR: His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for already the Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue. That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

NARRATOR: A second time they summoned the man who had been blind.

PHARISEES TOGETHER: “Give glory to God, we know this man is a sinner.”

THE MAN: “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”

PHARISEE 1: “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”

THE MAN: “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?”

NARRATOR: Then they hurled insults at him and said,

PHARISEES TOGETHER: “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”

THE MAN: “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

PHARISEES TOGETHER: “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!”

NARRATOR: And they threw him out. When Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said,

JESUS: “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

THE MAN: “Who is he, sir?” Tell me so that I may believe in him.”

JESUS; “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”

THE MAN: “Lord, I believe!”

JESUS: “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”

PHARISEES TOGETHER: “What? Are we blind too?”

JESUS: “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.

Our journey of faith is a journey from darkness into light. We don’t always see it that way, and often we do not even see the struggle which this journey takes us on. For some it is an immediate transition from a dark room into light and for some it is a passage way in which the dark gradually decreases as they head towards the light which lies ahead.

In our text today we see the account in John’s Gospel of the man who was born blind and who is healed from his darkness and taken into a world of light. This is not just an account of the healing of a blind man – this is the healing of a blind man according to John’s Gospel. John very rarely presents just a record of Jesus’ life – He presents us with the theology of the earthly ministry of Jesus. In Chapter 20:31, he tells us specifically that he is “telling us these things so that we may know that Jesus is the Christ and that by believing we will have life in His name.” That is is intention – he wants us to believe and he wants us to have life in that faith.

The first point which we must note is that this blind man’s life is changed by divine initiative – he did not ask for his healing. In fact, being born blind, he had probably discounted any thought of healing. For someone who had previously been able to see, the restoration of sight was a possibility, but it was impossible for someone who had never been able to see.

This is how God acts in our life. Because of the original sin in the Garden, man has been born in sin. From that time we have been separated from God – every person is born separated from God. Jesus did not come to restore something which we used to have but had lost because of our sin. He came to restore us to something which only one man and woman had had before and which we have never experienced – a relationship with the Father.

The second point is that once Jesus had given this man his sight, the Lord disappears. He only returns at the end of the story to encourage the man and to vindicate him against his accusers who would deny his healing despite all evidence to the contrary. He clears the man of all accusation and doubt which may have crept in because those who do not believe are not prepared to accept the fact that a miracle has taken place in his life.

Jesus entered the world to save sinners. On the Cross He did just that – By His own initiative God has opened the way for each one to move from darkness into light. Not everyone accepts what God has done, and many will cast doubt, with claims to reason and to the laws of the universe. Jesus is no longer here and we often have to face the doubters and our accusers with nothing but our own experience of what He has done in us. This is why our testimony is so important.

But He will return and He will vindicate those who persevere in the face of the world’s doubt, and those who are martyred for their faith. In the Revelation, Jesus says to the 7 churches …

1. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. (Eternal Life)
2. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death. (Judgement of the wicked)
3. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. (God’s continual provision kept in the Ark)
4. To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations. (Thy Kingdom Come!)
5. He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.
6. Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. (Dwell in the house of the Lord forever)
7. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne.

In the meantime we have the Comforter, the Spirit of God, who convicts the world of sin, righteousness and judgment – who guides us into all righteousness.

John’s account of the healing of the man born blind records for us what life is like for those whom Jesus has blessed but who are living in a world between the first and the second coming of Jesus.

We are healed. We have come out of a world of darkness into the Light. We once were blind but now we see. But despite this we suffer abuse from friends, neighbours and religious leaders.

Life us not easy for those who choose to follow Christ. Our world is not yet the Kingdom, our journey is not yet over – but we can see where it is going.

When the disciples asked Jesus the theological question about sin – “who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind”, Jesus responded by saying that it was so that the work of God might be revealed.

This is the clue to the meaning of the story. Its not so much about a man having his sight restored as it is about people being saved. It is an insight into the fact that God, in Christ Jesus, has taken us out of darkness and put us into a world of light. This is the “revealed work of God.

And it tells us that not everyone will accept this. Our neighbours and friends will question the veracity of what has happened. There will be lots of questions and much doubt. Houses will be divided against each other. Parent against child, husband against wife.

The church authorities will be challenged – it must either accept the supernatural claims of the Christ or it must hold to its voice of human reason. John’s account tells us that the church will often chose reason over the supernatural, the law over the truth. This might seem surprising but it has happened time and time again in the life of the Church, and those who have claimed the supernatural action of God in their life have too often been excommunicated from the Church.

But those who overcome – those who hold fast to Christ’s claims of the Kingdom come, live in the expectation that Jesus will return and the oppressors will be put under judgement and will be revealed for who they really are.

It will be seen that light has come, but men loved the darkness more than the light.

And it will be shown that light comes only to those who recognise that life is blindness without Christ, while darkness will come to those who, without Christ, claim to see.

Don’t be hesitant about your faith.

Don’t suppress the miraculous in the face of reason.

The greatest miracle in the world is that you are saved through the death of Christ and live through eternity by His resurrection.