In the epistle reading today, the jailer, after the earthquake had set free from their restraints all the prisoners in his charge, asks Paul and Silas a question that each of us would do well to ponder: “What must I do to be saved?” He is told, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.” The man born blind also believed that Jesus is the Son of God; he believed, and worshipped Him. Who are we like? Do we resemble the blind man, or the jailer? Or are we more like the parents of the man born blind, who spoke, not from faith, but from fear of the Jews; or perhaps even like the Pharisees, whose denial of Christ was made in the most pious of terms, as they said, “We know that God spoke to Moses, but we don’t know where this guy comes from.” (OK, so I paraphrased it a little bit!)
Now, we might say, “Well, it took a miraculous healing to convince the man born blind; and a miraculous earthquake to convince the jailer; but nothing like that has ever happened to me!” And there’s no doubt but that, in our society, to be open and honest about our faith is to run the risk of being ridiculed; our culture moves us towards being like the blind man’s parents, who were afraid of being put out of the synagogue – which means being ostracized from their society – if they were to even suggest that perhaps Jesus was the Messiah. How, then, can we have faith, which is necessary for us if we wish to be saved?
I wish that I had a simple answer to this question to give you, but I don’t. I think I’ve seen some miracles – people who have been healed of disease after prayer and the laying on of hands; but nothing like the healing of someone born blind. And I’m such a child of our culture that, even with what I’ve seen, I can’t stop my mind from wondering whether there wasn’t an explanation for what happened that doesn’t require belief in a miracle. I’ve had prayers answered, for things both great and small; and yet a part of my mind says, “Maybe it was just random chance”; or, “Maybe it would have happened anyway.” I’m also sure that I have been delivered from dangerous situations with the help of God, and my guardian angel – but I can’t offer you any proof of these things; so why should anyone believe these things?
Sometimes, we can better say what we believe by starting with what we don’t believe; what, to put it in its $5 term, we call, the “apophatic way of knowing.” I don’t believe that our existence is merely the result of random chance. I don’t believe that life came into being or evolved without the guiding intelligence and purpose of a Creator; because if these things are true, there is no meaning or purpose to life; and there is no reason to restrain any impulse or to deny any desire, if, after our life is at an end, we cease completely to exist. I don’t believe that love is merely the product of biological urges. I don’t believe that the character traits that set us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom are merely accidental, or simply the result of the pressures of society to conform and keep order. I do believe instead that these are the product of our being made in the image of God; and that the love we so desire to share in life arises from our connection to God, Who, above all, is a God of love: for, without love, there in no mercy, no patience, and no forgiveness; and there are no miracles – and if being loved, despite all that is wicked and wrong and wretched in ourselves, is not a miracle, then I don’t know what a miracle is.
We are told, in the epistle to the Hebrews, that, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The man born blind had faith – he hoped that the Messiah would come; and He did come, and the blind man met Him, and was healed. The jailer had faith – he saw the miracle, and, without meeting the One responsible, put his trust and hope in Him. We don’t have to know in any provable way that Jesus Christ is the Son of God; it is enough for us to have hope, and trust the testimony of the Church, and of her saints, who bear witness to Him with their very lives. In this way, by faith, we, too, can believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and our Savior and Lord; and so have hope that we, too, will be saved.
Christ is risen!
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