Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America

Saturday after Cantate

Posted on May 9, 2015 by Pastor Dulas under Devotions
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Scripture: St. John 9:35-41 (NKJV)

35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” 36 He answered and said, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?” 37 And Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you.” 38 Then he said, “Lord, I believe!” And he worshiped Him. 39 And Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.” 40 Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, “Are we blind also?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.”

Devotion

Jesus said, “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 10:32). This healed blind man had confessed Jesus before the Pharisees and as a result of His confession, the Pharisees had cast him out of the synagogue. Jesus comes to his defense.

Those who say that Jesus never claimed to be the Son of God could not be more wrong. Jesus knew that He was the Son of God and He taught others that He was the Son of God in Whom we are to believe/trust for forgiveness. Jesus gives this man words of absolution when He says, “You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you.” The healed blind man had not seen Jesus with His eyes after washing off the mud in the pool, Siloam. However, Jesus declares that the man had already seen Him (believed), when He trusted in Jesus’ words. Further, Jesus identifies Himself by talking with him.

The Pharisees recognize themselves in Jesus’ words, “…that those who see may be made blind.” Jesus explains further that if they had confessed their sin (being blind), He would have absolved them so that trusting in Jesus they “would have no sin.” But because they deny their sinful blindness saying, “We see,” their sin remains. 1 John 1:9-10, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Prayer: Almighty God, heal our blindness by the Word of Your Son that our sins might not remain, but that we would be declared without sin and righteous in Your sight. Amen.

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