Opening Our Eye to Understand the Scriptures

The Gospel Reading from Luke 18:31-43

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith.

Alone.

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg.

The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the 18th chapter. Taking the twelve, Jesus said to them, See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.

He will be delivered over to the Gentiles, and be mocked, and shamefully treated, and spit upon. And after flogging Him, they will kill Him, and on the third day He will rise. But they understood none of these things.

This saying was hidden from them. They did not grasp what was said. And as He drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside, begging and hearing a crowd going by. He inquired what this meant.

And they told him, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. And he cried out, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me.

And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to Him. And when He came near, He asked him, What do you want Me to do for you? And he said, Lord, let me recover my sight. And Jesus said to him, Recover your sight, your faith has made you well.

And immediately he recovered his sight and followed Him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God. This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus, amen. All right, our gospel text today, well, it makes me nervous.

I know it seems a little odd. You know, pastors are nervous about this gospel text. Yeah, because have you ever heard of somebody saying, you know, you have a blind spot? You know, when we think about our vehicles, right, you know, all of our vehicles, every one of them has a blind spot.

But it's really annoying when other people can readily see something in us that we have a very difficult time seeing within ourselves. In fact, if you were to think of it this way, sin itself results in blindness, true spiritual blindness.

And this is not a small thing. It's not a trivial thing. Always amazes me that the gospel of John begins with these wonderful words about how the light was coming into the darkness, was coming into the world, and those whom God created didn't even recognize Him.

If Jesus were walking down the street today, how many of us would go, oh, that's Jesus,.

Right?

You see, that's kind of the point. And here are the frightening words. I want you to think about this, but we're going to take away the fear here in a little bit. But let's kind of work our way through this, because this touches on, well, the blindness of sin that's in me, the blindness of sin that is in you.

Jesus says, and He asks His disciples several times, do you have eyes, but do not see? Do you have ears, but do not hear? And that's really kind of the point of this text, as we get ready to go into the Lenten season.

So taking the 12, Jesus said to them, see, we're going to Jerusalem. Note here, Jesus isn't talking allegorically. He doesn't say, the kingdom of God is like me going to Jerusalem. He's just kind of walking through and ticking off things, but watch how He does it.

We're going to go to Jerusalem, and here's the important words, everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. And the list that follows, you can find biblical text in the Old Testament that bear this out.

Talking about Himself, Jesus says He will be delivered over to the Gentiles, right? Mocked, shamefully treated, spit on, yeah, there's Old Testament text to talk about that. And after flogging Him, they'll kill Him, but on the third day, He'll rise.

And so Jesus walks through these things, and He says, all these things are written about Him in the prophets. From Moses to Malachi, you'll find texts, prophecies, telling about Jesus's death, burial, resurrection, suffering, His shameful treatment.

Why, by the way, did He do all of that? To suffer in our place, to reconcile us to God. We live in a world right now where we're all kind of on edge, watching as events are unfolding in the Ukraine with the invasion of the Ukraine by Russia.

Reconciliation and peace are something that's on our mind because it seems to be missing at the moment in our world, right? But note then, the hostilities between Russia and the Ukraine are nothing, and I mean this, nothing compared to the hostility between you and God as a result of your fall into sin and mine.

And Christ has, well, done the unbelievable, the unexpected. He has made peace with God for us by all these things that He said were written about Him in the Old Testament prophets. But here's the text.

It says, they understood none of these things, none of them. This saying was hidden from them. They didn't grasp what He said. But what Jesus said was actually quite straightforward. It'd be about me saying, all right, after the Aletheia service, I'm going to head over to the grocery store.

I'm going to buy some bananas, and I'm going to take my truck, and I'm going to fill it up with diesel, and then I'm going to come home and go to bed. You'd all know exactly what I was talking about. That's how plainly Jesus was talking.

But they understood none of it. And here's where we have to understand something. When God acts in judgment and makes it so we cannot understand the scriptures, that's a terrifying act of judgment. It means that we can grope all we want, but we're never going to find Him.

In fact, God is the one who has to open our eyes. God is the one who has to open our ears. And that's kind of the point. If you remember, it was not that long ago I preached on Mark's version of the story of blind Bartimaeus.

And I called that sermon, The Blind Man Who Could See. And that's really kind of the point. Juxtaposed to this text here, where the disciples, they hear Jesus speaking plainly, and none of these things are registering.

There you got blind Bartimaeus, a man who can't see, but man, he could hear. And in hearing, he heard from the biblical text, the Old Testament, about the Messiah and putting two and two together, even though he'd never seen Jesus, never heard him.

He knew exactly who he was.

How?

From the Bible, from the Old Testament. And so there's blind Bartimaeus crying out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. What a great prayer.

What great theology.

Where'd he get it from?

The Bible.

Okay, right. And so this is where we consider then the consequences of sin. Terrifying text number two, if you would. If you think about Genesis chapter 19, and the two angels that were sent to Sodom and Gomorrah, they ended up in nephew Lot's house, Abram's nephew Lot.

They ended up in his house, and the men of the city came out, and they, let's just say that they wanted to, I'll put it politely, wanted to rough up the two angels that were staying with Lot. It was far worse than that, by the way.

And here they are, they've gathered at the door of Lot, and Lot is saying, don't do this, don't do this, right? But they reacted terribly. They say, this fellow, he came to sojourn among us, and now he's become our judge.

We're going to deal worse with you, they said to Lot, than we are with them. So then they pressed hard against Lot. They drew near in order to break the door down, it says. But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house, and they shut the door.

And then they struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance of the house, both small and great. So they wore themselves out, groping for the door. Have you ever read that account and thought to yourselves, how is it that a group of men couldn't find a door that was five feet in front of them?

It doesn't sound possible, right? But listen, that's how this works. When God acts in judgment like this and blinds people, He blinds them for real. So the thing that they're looking for, they'll never find.

And so it's with that that we humbly must come to grips with a few things. Number one, when Peter makes that great confession of faith, Jesus says, who do people say that I am? And Peter says, you're the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Listen to Jesus' response. He says, blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood hasn't revealed that.

To you.

I'm a father who is in heaven. When we understand the scriptures, that is an act of mercy on the part of God. And you'll note that God intends for us to hear His word, to meditate on it, to consider our own sin, to call out to Him and ask Him for mercy and forgiveness and pray to God, the Holy Spirit, that He would give us even more understanding and that He would continue to open our eyes more and more to our own sin and to the greatness and mercy of God and to the realization that what?

The scriptures are about Christ. In that regard, then, consider what is said in the Gospel of Luke. In the Gospel of Luke, at the day of the resurrection, chapter 24, we got these words. That very day, two of the followers of Jesus were going to a village named Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem.

That's a pretty good walk. You figure I could probably walk about five and a half. I can walk five miles in about an hour and a half, right? So, you know, tack on another, you know, let's see, 20, 40 minutes.

So this is a good three hour, 15, you know, three hour, three and a half hour walk, right? That's a pretty good walk. And so while they were talking together, Jesus Himself drew near and He went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing Him.

Here we go again. The Greek text here, by the way, says their eyes were held. It's like, you know, Jesus took their eyes and said, nope, you're not going to know who I am. That's how God operates. And so He said to them, all right, what's this conversation you're holding with each other as you walk?

What is that? So they stood still looking sad. And then one of them named Cleopas answered Him, are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who doesn't know the things that have happened here in these days?

And Jesus said to them, what things? You know, He doesn't need to know. He experienced them all firsthand, right? But He's going to help them out and note that Jesus wants you to know the scriptures too.

So they said to Him, well, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered Him up to be condemned to death and they crucified Him.

But we had hoped that He was the one to redeem Israel. Let that sentence kind of roll around in your head for a second here. Say what? You just said Jesus was crucified and you had hoped He was the one to redeem Israel.

What do you think He was doing on the cross, right?

Okay.

So you're going to note here, they haven't understood the scriptures yet either, right? And this is going to take a divine act of mercy on the part of Christ to work this out. So the text continues. So we had hoped that He was the one to redeem Israel.

And yes, besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some of the women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early this morning. And when they did not find His body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive.

Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and they found it just as the women had said, but Him they did not see. Now, wait a second here. Let me go back to our gospel text. Jesus said, everything written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.

He's going to be delivered over to the Gentiles, mocked, shamefully treated, spit on, flogged, killed, die. On the third day, He'll rise. That's all in the Old Testament.

Okay.

So here, these guys on the road to Emmaus, the day of the resurrection, are ticking off the exact same litany of things that Jesus said before He went to the cross would happen and said that was all in the Bible.

So what do you think Jesus' response is going to be? And listen to it carefully. Oh, foolish ones, slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

Right?

You guys failed Bible 101. Were you doodling during Sabbath school? What's going on here?

Right?

So was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and then enter into His glory and then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted them, all the scriptures, the things concerning Himself?

Huh.

So Christ in our gospel text says all the things written about Him must be fulfilled on the day of the resurrection. They'd all been fulfilled, right? And Jesus still has to kind of walk people through.

And so the rest of the story is always fascinating. So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if He were going farther, but they urged Him strongly, stay with us. It's toward evening.

The day is now far spent. So He went in to stay with them. And when He was at table with them, He took the bread, blessed it, and broke it. What does that sound like? Gave it to them, and then their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him, and whoosh, He vanished from their sight.

I added the whoosh part.

By the way, that's really not in the Greek text, the whoosh bit. But you get the idea, right? And so what's interesting is that the Gospel of Luke itself ends with some very interesting words. These are not the very last words of the Gospel of Luke, but right near the last part of the last chapter.

And here's what it says. So Jesus said to them, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled.

He had appeared to them. It's the resurrection. And He said, listen, these are the words I told you about. And then watch what happens. Remember, because it said in our Gospel text, all these things, they didn't understand it.

The understanding was kept from them. Then He opened their minds in order to understand the scriptures. And He said to them, thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

Ah, you see, here's the solution. Jesus opened their minds. Now, this calls for us to be humble and to note this, then the same people who Christ opened their minds to understand the scriptures are the ones who wrote the balance of the scriptures that they wrote for us, the New Testament.

And we then note then that in order to understand God's word, we must be given understanding by God. And that comes by humbly crying out to God, asking Him for understanding and putting away our ego as if we know how the Bible should be understood, because many of us really don't.

In fact, I can probably say to a person here at Aletheia, we've all believed that the Bible was about us at one point or another. We wanted to go and slay our Goliaths and all that kind of nonsense, right?

Have you parted your Red Sea this week, by the way? I can't even part my hair right anymore, but let alone part my Red Sea. And when you're thinking this way, the scriptures are locked up. So what does this call for?

Repentance.

This calls for humbling ourselves. It calls for us calling out to God and saying, Lord, help me to understand your word. Help me through your Holy Spirit to see Christ in these texts, because Christ taught us that these are about Him, and to see the great things that Christ has done for us.

And you're going to note the things that Christ was pointing to, that he says that the law and the prophets and the Psalms were all written about were what? His death, his suffering, his burial, his crucifixion.

If you were to think of it this way, we're all very familiar with our epistle text from 1 Corinthians 13, because why? Every newlywed couple, every couple that's having a wedding, they always want this recited at their wedding, right?

But have you ever stopped to think for a second that if we just apply what Jesus said, work with me here, work with me here. Jesus said, all the things written about me and Moses and the prophets, and he opened up the minds of his disciples so that they could understand the scriptures.

And everything is about Jesus. You see, here's the thing. We live in a world where there is a supreme lack of love, of love towards God, love towards neighbor. And if you're not sure what I'm talking about, just think Ukraine for a second and ask yourself, is Putin showing love to the Ukrainians right now?

Right?

I don't consider mass murder to be love. I consider it to be something different. But none of us are better than Putin. I'm not. You're not. We're all just as guilty as he is, right? And so me sitting there scolding you and saying, you don't love enough and I don't love enough and Putin doesn't love enough, ain't going to do nothing, right?

This just throws us back. But if we remember all the things written about Christ, that he must suffer, bury, die, rise again on the third day. Why is that? You know why he did it? Because God so loved the world.

He loves you. He loves me.

In fact, when I see this list here about love, love is patient and kind. I've said it before and I'll say it again. It amazes me that I can replace the word love with Jesus and it still works perfectly.

You see, where we have fallen short and we are blinded by our own sin, where we live in darkness and love the darkness and hate the light, Christ is very different than that. He's not satisfied to let us go off to hell as we deserve and to experience God's wrath for an eternity.

In fact, let me say it this way. Jesus is patient and he's kind. Jesus does not envy or boast and he is not arrogant or rude. He doesn't insist on his own way. He's not irritable or resentful. He does not rejoice at wrongdoing.

He rejoices with the truth. Jesus bears all things and Jesus hopes all things and he has endured the cross for you and for me. And so as we get ready to approach Lent, don't think for a second that there's nothing you need to repent of.

In fact, you may be completely blind to it. And don't think that you perfectly understand the scriptures because I don't do that either. But let us then see these texts and understand that unless Christ opens our minds so that we can understand them, that we never will.

So let us pray in the midst of the darkness that Christ, the light of Christ shines. And let us humbly ask Jesus to open up his word to us. The word that tells us about the great things that he has done in order to save us and the great love of a God who has sent his son so that he would die so that we who are enemies of God could be reconciled to him and spend eternity with him in a world without.

End.

All is a gift by grace through faith because Jesus is love.

In the name of Jesus.

Amen.

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