Quinquagesima

Gesima Tide ends by inviting us onto another beginning. 

Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. (Matt. 20. 18) 
 
Christ invites us to go up to Jerusalem on this last Sunday in Gesima Tide, up to the Jerusalem of His Cross. There, we shall come to see and know our sin for what it truly is, no longer hidden, as what crucifies the Word of God in the flesh, Jesus Christ. We shall discover also what the hidden nature of God in Jesus Christ will do for us men and for our salvation. With this newfound knowledge, I pray that we might discover a newfound spiritual foundation that readies us for Lent.
        
Of course, discovering this kind of knowledge is not easy. The Christian whose faith seeks understanding soon discovers problems. On our first Gesima Sunday, in the Parables of the Workers in the Vineyard, we learned that understanding is the reward or crown bestowed upon those whose faith submits to God’s Grace with all humility and meekness. We struggled to learn that God’s singular gift is an incorruptible crown is just and for those who labor for what they neither desire nor deserve. Through the parable, Christ intended for us to struggle intellectually in the spirit for the Grace that is always unmerited. Last Sunday, we learned of the prudence and perseverance that enable us to reach the end.

Today, we discover that as we labor and toil to embrace the truth, all our doings without charity are nothing worth. (Collect, Quinquagesima) Our prudent work in the vineyard of the Lord must be conditioned by charity. First, the work must be a gift received as God’s charity for us. Second, the work must be done in the same spirit of charity and love. Last week our faith learned the wisdom of humility and meekness from a parable. Today, our faith discovers power and love from a miracle. Finding the charity or love that God gives will prove key to our salvation.

We turn to today’s Gospel lesson. Christ has prophesied his betrayal at the hands of the Jews into the hands of the Romans. He foretells how he will be mocked, spitefully entreated, spitted on, scourged, and put to death in anticipation of rising again on the third day. (idem) By His own example, the journey to salvation, the race that we run, requires courage also. That the Apostles understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken (Ibid, 34) should not surprise us. They are flummoxed and frozen in fear because of cowardice. T. S. Eliot reminds us, humankind cannot bear very much reality. (Four Quartets, Burnt Norton) In general, we do not like to suffer pain with difficulty. Christ knows this. He will condition His prophecy about the reality of His life with the charity that always nourishes faith.

Our Gospel continues.

And it came to pass, that as he was come nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the wayside begging: And hearing the multitude pass by, he asked what it meant. And they told him, that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by.(Luke 18. 35-37)  
 
Last week the seed of God’s Word in Jesus Christ fell on the obstinate and hardened road of the human heart, the wayside. Today, an eager heart whose heart is soft and ready for the same Word jumps onto the same road. The man’s blindness has nearly undone him. He knows himself. The surrounding world is alien and hidden from his eyes. His problem is quite simple. He desires to see that he might know and understand. He seeks a cure to fulfil his desire or love. He does not stop to imagine that he might be better off without his vision. Unlike the Apostles, he is not afraid of reality or the truth. Sight and knowledge will open a door into reality, no matter what suffering he might be called upon to see and endure. Anything is better than blindness to this man.

The Apostles cannot bear to know that Christ must be delivered unto the Gentiles. 
(Luke 18. 31) The blind man wants desperately to see and know all things. The Apostles not wish to see that their Lord shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on. (Luke 18. 32) The blind man has already endured something of what Christ will suffer. But the Apostles are uninterested in the blind man’s spiritual vision. And they which went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace. (ibid, 39) They consider the blind man nothing more than a nuisance. The Apostles have no faith in the charity or love that must suffer to see and to know. Calvin says that those who profess the name of Christ often hinder and delay those who cry out to Him in earnest. (J. Calvin: Harmony of the Gospels, xvii) The blind man has been suffering his whole life. The blind man, who wants to see and know for the very first time should be a model for our own faith’s desire to see and obtain the reality of God’s charity in Jesus Christ.

The Apostles are wounded and fearful; their faith is blind, and they fear to see and know the truth. But the blind man has spiritual vision. And he cried, saying, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. (Luke 18.38) What he could not see with his eyes, he saw with the eyes of his soul. His knowledge moves him to secure Christ’s love. He knows his need and would secure the cure that Christ alone brings into the world. This blind man sees the hidden truth in Jesus Christ. He knows God’s Love is in Jesus, and so he cried so much the more, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. (Luke 18. 39) Let the Apostles wallow luxuriously in philosophical fear. This man sees plainly and will obtain the Love of God in Jesus come what may.

Behold we go up to Jerusalem.  Man is fallen, in dire need of healing, and seeks out the cure from God’s own Son. Faith must seek to uncover the hidden truth of our sorry state and God’s response to it. We read on.

And Jesus stood, and commanded him to be brought unto him: and when he was come near, he asked him, Saying, What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee? And he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Receive thy sight: thy faith hath saved thee. (ibid, 40-42.) 
 
The courage in Christ will never quench His love for man, even on His way up to the Cross. Love does not cease to love because it must suffer. Love dies to Himself and will come alive to God in the life of the blind man. Jesus rewards the faith that longs to see more of His charity on the Cross of His love. Charity says to the blind man, Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet believe. (John 20. 29)
St. Paul tells us this morning that 

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth. (1 Cor. xiii. 4-8) 
 
God is love. (1 John iv. 8) Love suffers for the Good, envies no one, is not proud, and is selfless. God’s Charity for all men endures whatever He must to save us. Charity never ceases to be benevolent and magnanimous. Charity is consumed with God’s goodness and the means to establish it anew in the hearts of sinful men.

Today, let us admit that we have been blind to God’s Goodness. Let us cry out to Jesus for vision. Let us know that we will need courage to go up with Jesus to His Cross and to suffer what His love will require of us. Let us go up to Jerusalem to see what God’s Son must do to save us. We must go up to Jerusalem to see, know, and confess what our sin does to God’s own Son, God’s Word, in Jesus. We must go up to see and know how God’s most excellent gift of charity responds to it.
Amen
©wjsmartin