January 18th, 2026: Blind Man Luke 18

Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to God. In the name

of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy

Spirit. Amen. It's so nice that you've moved

up. There's not this big moat between me and

the congregation, but we're here together worshiping.

When we look at a Gospel reading, One of the

accounts we hear in church or read at home, today's

story in particular, we might say, oh, how nice.

Jesus healed a blind man. He's God, so he can

do that. End of the story, and we go on. But,

of course, that's not all that's happening here.

This is very profound, which is why we have it

now after theophany and before we start to prepare

ourselves for Lent. Just before the account that

the deacon chanted so beautifully, we read this

from Luke chapter 18. And taking the twelve,

Luke 18 · chapter mention

when St. Luke says the twelve, you know what

that means. That's the twelve disciples. And

taking the twelve, he said to them, Behold, we're

going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is

written about the Son of Man by the prophets

will be accomplished. For he will be delivered,

he's speaking of himself, he will be delivered

over to the Gentiles, that is the Romans, and

will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit

upon. And after flogging him, they will kill

him. And on the third day he will arise. But

the twelve understood none of these things. The

saying was hidden from them, says St. Luke. And

they did not grasp what was said. St. Luke is

very clear. They didn't understand it, the saying

was hidden, and they could not grasp it. Jesus

is on the way, he's on the road. The way of the

cross, this is Luke 18. He's going up to Jerusalem.

He's in Jericho, 900 feet below sea level, Jerusalem

some 2 ,000 feet above. He is on his way. This

is just this gospel you heard today. It happens

just a few days before the raising of Lazarus,

which is depicted here on this west wall of the

choir, and then the meeting of Zacchaeus, which

is up here. One has to believe that the sufferings

to come were very much on Jesus' mind. So you

see, the church is preparing us already, not

so long now, for Lent, which begins on February

23rd. We'll have our Vespers of Forgiveness on

Sunday, after the Divine Liturgy on the 22nd,

if I have my dates correct. We'll have lunch.

We'll come back here for the vespers with the

rite of the ceremony of mutual forgiveness and

hear those wonderful hymns. Let us set out upon

the sea of the fast, as one says. So with this

account, this miracle, we should ask ourselves

a question about prayer as we look at this gospel.

It goes on to say, and as Jesus drew near to

Jericho with a huge contingent of people following

him, a blind man was sitting by the wayside begging.

And hearing the multitude pass by, he asked what

it meant. And they told him, Jesus of Nazareth

is passing by. And he cried out saying, Jesus,

son of David, not Jesus, son of Nazareth. He

went straight for the one who could save him.

Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Right

away, immediately the man began to shout, Jesus,

son of David, have mercy on me. For we know this

is the only name, it says in Acts, under heaven

given among mortals by which we must and can

be saved. And the man suffers all kinds of resistance

and pushback. People were telling him to be quiet.

Get back. Jesus doesn't want to see your dirty

body. You're embarrassing us and whatever else.

Shut up, basically. Stop yelling. I wonder, did

these people think that this man must be blind

and begging and poor because he was such a sinner?

That was probably in their head. But in his desire,

in his persistence, in his need, the blind beggar

takes the moment. He grabs hold of the moment.

He shouts out for mercy, and according to the

gospel, he is shouting out persistently and repeatedly.

He is grabbing that moment with all his force,

like Jacob wrestling the angel, which is Christ,

there in Genesis, wrestling and grasping the

Lord for his own. And Luke says very specifically,

Jesus standing still. Jesus stopped. He was standing

absolutely still. He's passing by, yes. But the

prayer causes him to stand still. This is a great

lesson for us. He's no longer passing by. Time

suddenly stands still, as surely as Joshua's

son. Maybe you know that story. You know, we

can traverse all kinds of distance with cars

and airplanes and our feet, but time is absolute

in this life. And it is extremely precious because

of that. I'd like to have a quarter. I used to

say a nickel, but inflation. I'd like to have

a quarter. For all the times I've let Jesus pass

me by in this life, I would be rich. But rich

in this world only. This man who gives this prayer,

this blind man, he is essentially saying what

we now say, the Jesus prayer. That we can cultivate

In the heart. It's the prayer of the one who

knows he is blind. For me, spiritually. But knows

there is also a light. A light has dawned, as

we heard last week. In the place, the region,

and darkness. The region of death. It's dawned.

It's coming. It's there. This man has persistence.

And then, after that persistence, comes the hope

from that desire. And the prayer to have that

light. That vision of Jesus Christ in the heart.

I'm speaking of us now. None of us here are blind.

Except perhaps spiritually. But how blind? The

vision of Christ in the heart. My dear brothers

and sisters, this is what Pascha is all about.

The risen Christ in the heart. To see that light.

to know that light, to have the kingdom of heaven

there in the heart, God's dominion, God's throne,

his rule, his peace, his love, his mercy, his

dominion, the kingdom of God is at hand. It's

a strange way to say it, but it means I can grasp

it then. This prayer that the blind man says,

which we now use as the Jesus prayer, is yes,

to see that light, but first, We have to see

our own sins. And to be able to say with St.

Paul, without a sense of debilitating psychotic

guilt, that I am the chief among sinners. Then,

being at hand, we can grasp Christ too. Like

Joshua, like this blind man. And he will stop

before us. But we have to pray. We have to notice

when he is there. He can come. Behold, I stand

at the door and knock. And we've got other noise

going, so we don't hear the knock. And then the

Lord maybe passes by for a while, so we do not

feel that he is with us. It's an amazing thing

that this man is teaching us about the importance

of persistence in prayer. To see this one thing

first. We do. We should. We must. We must pray

for many things. Think of the litanies the deacons

are praying. The many petitions that they chant.

All the things that we pray for. But how does

it start? In peace, let us pray to the Lord.

For the peace from above and for the salvation

of our souls, let us pray to the Lord. For the

peace of the whole world and for the salvation

of all, let us pray to the Lord. That's the first

thing we pray for before everything else. Because

you might be healed of whatever ailment you have,

but if you do not have that peace, what do you

have when you depart this life? You don't even

have peace. The recovery of your body because

it's going to die. It's the peace from above.

And this prayer, the Jesus prayer, is not something

we just repeat over and over and over again,

vainly. No, each one counts. Each one means something.

Each one, we're trying, we're yelling to the

Lord, stop, Lord, let me see. It shows our true

desire to not be discouraged. which you will

be, which we will be, I can guarantee, because

I'm there often, the difficulties of life, the

difficulties of the day, the hopelessness. If

you are new to the faith, full of zeal and desire

to know God, to serve God, to want the light

of God, to love him and your neighbor, to pray

and to worship, if you're new to the church,

Or perhaps, like me, you've grown up in the church

and you take things for granted. I promise you

there will come two sorts of resistance. The

first from inside you. Thoughts, difficulties,

this is too hard, temptations, anxieties, laziness.

And outside of you, like this man, experience

the noise, the distractions, the people telling

you this is stupid, the people telling you it's

false, it's narrow -minded, it's to this, it's

to that. When the blind man receives his sight

after his persistence, so keep your persistence

in prayer, no matter what. This is how we show

our love for God. This is how we acquire that

peace that St. Seraphim is telling us. He tells

us, you know, every time we walk in this church,

read that. He's talking to you and to me. He's

saying, don't forget, acquire the spirit of peace.

Acquire the spirit of peace. Acquire, yell like

this blind man with all your heart. Because time

is going. It's going away. And when the blind

man receives his sight, the first thing he sees

is what? It's Jesus, his Lord, his creator, his

savior, his creator. And the first thing he does,

and I would say the miracle of this story, despite

the noise against him and despite how long he

had been poor, begging, and blind, the first

thing he does, he follows Jesus. That's what

it says in the text. He follows Jesus. Immediately,

where is Jesus going? He's going to the cross.

But before Jesus continues on that dusty road

out of Jericho, I'm assuming some of you have

been there. There's a large banner. There was

when I went in 2009 over the city. It says, the

oldest city in the world. You could tell by the...

and the public restrooms. Before he follows Jesus,

but before Jesus continues on that dusty road

out of Jericho, he will look up into a tree,

happens to be a sycamore tree, and there's a

short little man up there, a notorious man, Zacchaeus

by name, up in that sycamore tree. We'll talk

about him next week. Now to the King eternal,

immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise,

be honor and glory, now and ever and unto ages

of ages. Amen.