Thou Son of David, Have Mercy on Me

In Nomine Iesu!

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Sermon Text: St. Luke 18:31-43

“And he cried, saying, + ‘Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.’ And they that went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace: but he cried out the more a great deal, ‘Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.’”

Prayer in Pulpit before Sermon:

Lord God, heavenly Father, Who through Thy Son + Jesus Christ didst mercifully open the blind man’s eyes, restoring his sight, we beseech Thee, with Thy Word so enlighten our hearts that knowing Thee through Christ, Thy Son and our Redeemer, we may in all temptations and afflictions look only to Thy mercy, and at all times find comfort and deliverance; through + Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior + Jesus Christ. Amen. 

My dear friends, today we are presented a Gospel in two parts. At first glance, neither of the two parts have anything to do with each other. The first part is our Lord + Jesus telling His Apostles that they will be heading up to Jerusalem, so that He might endure His Passion, and the second part is our Lord healing the eyes of the blind man Bartimaeus. There seems to be no connection. However, at the end of the first part, the Evangelist St. Luke writes that the Apostles understood nothing of the things that the Lord told them. They remained blind in understanding to the prophecies of the Old Testament which declared that these are the things that the Messiah, the Christ, must endure. Their lack of understanding, at this point, of our Lord’s Passion is so thorough that the Evangelist St. Luke explains in three different ways, “And they understood none of these things; and this saying was hid from them, and they perceived not the things that were said.”

This is a reflection of the Epistle reading from the thirteenth chapter of St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Church at Corinth. The connection of the Epistle to the Gospel is St. Paul talking about our understanding of eternal things here in this life. We see things in a mirror, darkly. The true meanings are hidden from us. We can only know fully those things which the holy Scriptures reveal to us. And even then, like it was with the Apostles, many of the teachings of the Scriptures remain a dark mirror, that is, a mystery to us. We will not know their true meaning until they come to pass. As St. Paul writes, “now [we] know in part; but then shall [we] know fully even as also [we were] fully known.” The events must take place for us to fully grasp what the Scripture teaches about them.

And there are plenty of prophecies in the Old Testament which are easy for us today to distinguish as speaking of the Messiah. For, we have the advantage of the events having already taken place. We will hear many of those Messianic prophecies throughout the coming weeks. Here are just a few to whet our appetite: From the Prophet Isaiah, chapter fifty, verse six, “I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.” From Isaiah chapter fifty-three, verse seven, “He was oppressed, yet He humbled Himself and opened not His mouth; as a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before her shearers is dumb; yea, He opened not His mouth.” From the previous verse of chapter fifty-three of Isaiah, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Also, in the Psalter we hear of our Lord’s Passion. Psalm twenty-two, verses six to eight, “But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that see Me laugh Me to scorn: They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, ‘Commit Thyself unto the Lord; let Him deliver Him: Let Him deliver Him, seeing He delighteth in Him.’” Also, in verse eighteen of the same Psalm, “They part My garments among them, and upon My vesture do they cast lots.” And also, in Psalm sixty-nine, verse twenty-one, “They gave Me also gall for My meat; And in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink.”

We can easily see that these verses refer to our Lord’s Passion, for His Passion has already happened. But the Apostles understood none of these things, for the Scriptures had not yet been explained after the events had happened. They would get that catechesis after the Lord’s resurrection and before His ascension. But now, they remain as blind to these things as the blind man Bartimaeus. Just as we remain blind to the eternal things that we will experience in Heaven. We hear about them, we believe them to be true, but not having experienced them, we can only guess at what joys will be ours when we receive the crown of eternal life. Of the things of heaven, we can only see in a mirror, darkly. We can only view them as a child views the world, simply and without full understanding. When our Lord + Jesus tells His Apostles that He is going up to Jerusalem to suffer and die, and on the third day rise again from the dead, they understood not what the Lord was saying. But after His resurrection, they fully understood what He had been telling them all along.

Then they were no longer blind. They no longer saw in a mirror, darkly. But they had full understanding of what our Lord + Jesus did for them and for all mankind. They now understood that He had come to redeem the world from sin, death, and the power of the devil. By His death and resurrection, the things that He had been teaching them, were now revealed. The eyes of faith were opened. Their eyes of understanding were now able to see. But here in the Gospel, before they enter into Jericho, their eyes remained blind.

This is why St. Luke presents to us in the Gospel reading a blind man. In the Gospel of St. Matthew, it is two men. Here it is while they are entering into Jericho, in St. Matthew, they are leaving Jericho. Not to get to bogged down in details, which are best left for a Bible class, suffice it to say that this does not constitute a contradiction in Scripture. St. Augustine explains that one blind man met our Lord as He entered, and another met Him as He was leaving. But the main point is not how many blind men there were, or where they met our Lord, but what He does for them. There is some historical significance of where our Lord + Jesus is when He meets this blind man, which in another Gospel, his name is given as Bartimaeus. We are told by St. Luke that our Lord + Jesus is entering into Jericho. This is the first city which the Israelites destroyed when they conquered their enemies in Canaan.

Our Lord + Jesus begins His journey to Jerusalem, where He defeats sin, death, and the power of the devil, our spiritual enemies, where the Israelites began their conquest of Canaan. Our Lord begins His conquest to redeem mankind’s souls in Jericho. In the Book of Joshua, the walls of the city of Jericho are crumbled without any military might. The walls fall without any siege works, or catapults, or explosives. It is defeated simply by the Lord’s might and will. Our Lord + Jesus defeats the devil, and sin and death, by His passive obedience. He defeats the devil by allowing Himself to suffer and die the excruciating agonies of mockery, shame, spitting, scourging, crucifixion, and death. He suffers the punishments that we deserve although He is innocent of the crimes we have committed. He does all this willingly. He is, as the Prophet Isaiah foretold, a Lamb that is led silently to His death. He willingly, and without complaint, goes forth to receive our punishment and death. So that we might have life, eternal life, and have it abundantly. 

He has mercy upon us, because He loves us. He loves us in all the ways that St. Paul writes about in our Epistle for today. He is the only One Who can love in that way, for He is the embodiment of the love spoken of in the Epistle to the Church at Corinth. This is why He was born. He does all this because He is the Son of David. He is the Messiah.

The blind man Bartimaeus recognizes this. This is why he refers to the man + Jesus of Nazareth, as the Son of David. It is an acknowledgment by the blind man that the Lord + Jesus is the Messiah. This was the promise that was made to King David, and to his sons. His throne would never lack a man upon it from his loins, if they remained faithful to the Lord God. All of King David’s sons failed miserably in being faithful. Even the ones which did their best, still fell short in a few areas. It is only the Lord + Jesus Who remains faithful to the Lord God in all of His ways. It is only the Lord + Jesus who perfectly fulfills the will of the Lord God, Who fulfills the will of His heavenly Father. 

The blind man recognizes Who the Lord + Jesus is, even though he could not see Him with his eyes. He recognized the Lord + Jesus as the Messiah by His works, and His words. His physical eyes may have been blind, but his heart—his eyes of faith—saw plainly Who the Lord + Jesus was. He had the Scriptures, just like the Apostles did, but in his blindness, he understood, and perceived what they could not. It was not hid from him. Therefore, he begs the Lord + Jesus to restore his sight, so that he may not only see with his eyes of faith, but also with his physical eyes. His faith in the Lord + Jesus was already there. And the Lord + Jesus points it out. For his faith in the Lord brought him to ask the Lord to heal him. And the Lord granted him what his heart desired. He no longer saw darkly, but saw the light, because the Light of the world, granted him his sight.

Therefore, my dear friends, let us also cling in faith to our Lord + Jesus, for He desires to free us from our bondage to sin and death. He desires out of His great love for us to open our blind eyes, so that we may cling to Him for forgiveness, life, and salvation. We ourselves will be heading toward Jerusalem and to our Lord’s cross over the course of the coming weeks. We will see our sins, our breaking of the Ten Commandments, and our lost condition on account of it. Then, we will see our Lord paying the penalty of our sins by His suffering and death upon the tree of the holy cross. And then we will see that death has been thoroughly defeated when we rejoice on that happy morn when our Lord + Jesus rose again from the dead. “Behold, [my dear friends,] we go up to Jerusalem, and all the things that are written through the prophets shall be accomplished unto the Son of Man.” He will have won for us forgiveness, life, and salvation, so that we can receive those gifts in the means of grace. Thanks be to our Lord + Jesus for His wonderful love. In the Name of our Lord + Jesus, the Christ. Amen.

Prayer in Pulpit after Sermon:

Almighty God, be pleased to accompany Thy Word with Thy Holy Spirit and grant that Thy Word would increase faith in us; bring into the Way of Truth all such as have erred; turn the hearts of the unrepentant; and for sake of Thy Name grant succor to all heavy hearts and those who are heavy-laden, that they may through the mercy of the Lord + Jesus Christ be relieved and preserved so that they succumb not to the temptation of despair but rather that they gain the victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil; through the same + Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with the Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.

The Votum:

The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus. Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!