Faith Follows the Christ

Faith Follows the Christ

Luke 18:31-43 T Quinquagesima

INI

            Lent is here. Which means its time to die.

It’s time for you to die to yourself – your cares, riches, pleasures, sinful desires. It’s time to identify your idols and cast them aside, fasting from them while you walk with your Savior on the path of discipleship.

And it’s time to rise to new life with Christ, who walks the road to Jerusalem to be mocked, shamed, and ridiculed. He will be flogged. And the Jews and Gentiles will put Him to death. Yet, on the third day, Jesus will rise from the grave. Believe this. Your faith saves you.

There are two different stories in our text today that show us two different teachings about discipleship. They teach us about faith, and how faith comes. The disciples show the struggles we have in our walk of faith, while the blind beggar shows the actions of faith.

“We are going up to Jerusalem”, says Jesus to the twelve. But He invites all His disciples to join Him in this 40 day journey as we approach the cross at Holy Week. But why is Jesus trudging on towards Jerusalem when He predicts His own demise? Why would he journey on the path where He knows it will end in mock, shame, and scorn?

I can give you the right answer. He did it because He loves you. It’s there where He saves you. He bore the wrath of God for all the times you’ve misplaced your desires, or you’ve had shortcomings in following Him. That’s the right answer.

But taking a step back, perhaps we’re a bit more like the disciples. The text says: “They understood none of these things.” “The saying was hidden from them.” “They didn’t grasp what was said.”  

            Even though Jesus clearly told His disciples what the purpose of His entire ministry was – that He was supposed to die and rise from the dead – they still didn’t get it. The purposes of Christ’s sufferings were hidden from them. Instead of letting Jesus lead the way on the path of suffering, the disciples tried to protect Jesus from it. They tried to protect Jesus from His own mission

If you look at Peter in Garden of Gethsemane before Jesus’ crucifixion, he was trying to guard Jesus. He tried to prevent Jesus’ death from happening. He went to the courts of the Sanhedrin to try and find a way to bail Jesus out! The other disciples weren’t much better! They hid away in the upper room because they were afraid of being put to death alongside Jesus! That is, they were afraid of the path of suffering, the path of discipleship. They failed to follow wherever Jesus led.

In what ways do we try and deviate away from the path of discipleship Jesus set before us? Jesus heads towards Jerusalem. That’s the path he leads us down – it’s a path that embraces death, yet gains victory by His resurrection. We’d do well to follow Him to Jerusalem. Follow Him towards the cross, even if that means enduring whatever devilish schemes the world has to throw at us, for His name’s sake. By doing such things, we put to death our sins of pride, and our sins of caring what others think of us, before we care about what God thinks of us.

But its hard to not care what others think. It’s hard to ignore the cries of our foes and focus on Jesus. The doubts, the questions, the hatred of unbelievers against the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit pelt us from every side. “How do you call your God merciful when there’s so much suffering in the world?” “How could you even possibly believe in miracles, or the creation of the world for that matter?” “Why regularly go to church? You have faith, isn’t that enough? Isn’t everything else just overkill??” “How can you follow a leader who embraces a cross? If He truly was God, couldn’t he have just saved you a different way? Why did He embrace suffering? That’s weakness!” To embrace a path that includes the mocking of faith, the scorn of the world – that’s hard. But the Lord choose what is weak to shame the strong, that He may demonstrate His power over us all.

So, we struggle much in the same way as the disciples. Our zeal can become misplaced, as we drift away from the path of discipleship following and pleasing Christ, and we veer down a path of pleasing others around us.

But by following Christ down the road of suffering, we recognize our need for Him. And that’s faith. That’s what saves. And that’s what the blind beggar teaches us.

The blind man was off to the side of the road that Jesus was journeying down. The blind man knows suffering. He’s blind! He’s helpless! He’s had to beg to survive! As Jesus passes by, He cries, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Even though the crowds rebuked this man’s crying need for a Savior, the blind man yelled even louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus stopped. He sent to him asked the blind man, “What do you want me to do for you?” Which is the same thing the Lord asks us in prayer. Of course, the blind man wants his sight to be recovered. And Jesus is gracious enough to restore His sight. But Jesus’ did more than restore His physical sight. Because the man got up and started following Jesus towards Jerusalem, giving glory to God for all He’s done for him.

Of course, this blind man is faithful. He reached out to Jesus despite the hostility from the surrounding crowd. God used the weak to shame the strong. This blind man’s faith compelled him to find refuge in the Christ, who comes to make all things new – including you and me.

In that way, there’s a contrast between what’s happening to the disciples and blind man spiritually. That actually, the disciples are the blind ones in this story. Their faith is lacking and, in some way, incomplete. But the blind man is the one who really sees. He was brought to humility in his lack of sight and is led by the circumstances of life to find refuge in Him who is strong. In that way, the blind man teaches us that faith comes when we’re in a position of need.

This is why in Lent, we engage with the practice of fasting. In this age, we hardly have lack. In our everyday lives, everything is at our fingertips. We have momentary comforts of screens. We have food at a moment’s notice. We have medicine to help us physically. The list goes on. Everything in our lives serve us to make us comfortable. Now, these things can be good, but they can also be idols that distract us from ultimately finding refuge in Christ.

So, during this season of repentance, we deny ourselves of certain things, so that we may experience a noticeable “lack” of something. In that way, we train our muscles of discipleship to reach out to God for refuge and strength in times of lack.

It’s important to train ourselves in this way. Because faith is always under attack. And complacency is the attack of faith for Christians. Complacency can lead us off the road to Jerusalem, just like it did for the disciples.

But may our sufferings teach us where true salvation and healing is found. It’s found in Christ, the one whom we follow to Jerusalem. Because there, He saves us.

INI

Pastor Joshua Ralston