Well actually I am color blind, the physical eyesight red/green color blind kind. Before you ask, yes I see apples as red and not grey, same with firetrucks and other things that are very red. Grass is green and when I have been to Ireland I have seen more shades of green than I can count. But some shades of green, ones that are more towards yellow, like neon green golf balls, I can’t pick up the green in them and see only yellow, very very bright yellow. Shades of pink that don’t have enough red in them can indeed look grey to me. The color gets washed out and actually looks bland and lifeless most times. Because I am unable to see the range of color that people without color deficiency have, that’s the correct phrase by the way, I am denied the experience of seeing the world in the greater beauty of what God has created. It is something I have lived with my whole life, other people see more of the worlds beauty than I do.

That leads me to why I can’t be color blind in the racial sense. I know that is a common phrase these days as people attempt to say, “I treat everyone the same no matter what color they are”. But I think we miss out on something beautiful and important when we try to be color blind in the racial sense. I miss out on a certain aspect of the beauty of God’s creation by not being able to see some shades of red and green, and I miss out on knowing something for what it really is, because I can’t truly see it. If I try to be color blind in the racial sense I run the risk of the same things and even worse. If I am color blind in the racial sense then I run the risk of seeing everyone in the same bland shade of grey and I will never be able to fully appreciate that they are in fact different from me and their color has given them experiences in life that are different from mine.

A fellow pastor named Darryl, who is black, is the one who opened my eyes to this a few years ago. If I claim to be color blind and not see that he is in fact black, then I will fail to fully appreciate who he is and what his life is like. I will be blind to what his life is like because I will fail to appreciate how life is different because of his being black and my being white. I will never ask the question, what was it like growing up in a black community. I will never want to know about the rich traditions or culture of black society and as a result I will be impoverished. I will fail to see the unique person God made him to be and fail to appreciate the experiences, good and bad, that shaped him into the person he is today. Being black is a part of the uniqueness of who he is and part of the beauty of who he is. Likewise if he looks at me and claims to be color blind and fails to see a white man, there are things about who God made me to be that he will miss. He will not be able to understand who I am and how my experiences as a white man have shaped me as an individual.

The question is not, can I be color blind. The question is, how will I treat you as a person who is different from me? When I see your color will I treat you as equally valuable and deserving of love and respect and dignity as Christ says I should? Will I see an opportunity to love another human being as someone made in the image of God, a God is is so vast and complex that His image is carried by people who are of so many different colors, and sizes, and shapes? Will I see a chance to grow in my understanding and appreciation for the diversity that God has made in the totality of this group called The Human Race? Will I see a chance for your different experiences in life to add richness and understanding to mine, and vice versa?

I don’t want to be color blind. Not in the red/green sense that I am. I want to see all the colors of the spectrum in their beauty and majesty., their richness and fullness. I don’t want to be color blind in the racial sense either. I don’t want to see people as shades of grey like I see shades of pink, washed out and bland, colorless and lifeless. I want to see people of all colors for who they are and see the richness and beauty of those many colors. I want to be able to know what they have experienced, their struggles and their victories, their hurts and their joys, their dreams and their nightmares. I want to know where those things are the same as mine and where they are different. I want that so I can celebrate with them and weep with them. I want to see them and have them know they are seen for who they really are. Just as I want to be seen for who I am and known for who I really am. I want that so I can grow as a Christ follower who loves God with all his heart mind soul and strength and who loves his neighbor as himself.

⁵⁰ Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.

After chastising the crowd for their desire for a show of miracles and wonders, Jesus speaks a very simple command to the man who came and asked for healing for his son. “Go, your son will live”. The man took Jesus at his word. Something in the way Jesus said those words caught the man’s attention as nothing ever before. He believed Jesus. Without any evidence at all, he took Jesus at his word. He demonstrated the exact opposite reaction that the crowd had. They wanted more signs and wonders before they would even consider believing.

Maybe it was the desperation of the man’s situation. He had no place else to turn for his sons life. Maybe it was the power of Jesus words. Maybe it was the work of the Holy Spirit giving the man faith. Maybe it was a combination of all three. Whatever the case, the man believed and began the journey home.

The next day he was met by some friends who told him that his son was well and would live. When he inquired about the time his son recovered it matched exactly with the moment Jesus spoke. How powerful is the healing power of Jesus? He doesn’t need to touch people to heal them, though sometimes he does. He doesn’t need to be near them to heal them though sometimes he is. All he needs to to command that healing take place and it does, even if the person being healed is miles away. Once again Jesus demonstrates his power.

How does that impact your picture of Jesus? So often we see him as this quiet, contemplative, wondering preacher. He is that but he is also the omnipotent God of power who spoke creation into existence. That God of power promises to be by your side no matter what as long as you put your trust in him. You are never alone. Not problem you have is too great for him. Trust him.

⁴⁸ So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”

Jesus returned to Cana where he changed water into wine. He is meet by a father whose son is near death. The man is desperate for Jesus to heal his son. You would think this is the perfect time for Jesus to jump right in and heal the boy and demonstrate that he is in fact the Lord and Messiah. By he seems to actually chastise the father by claiming that he won’t believe unless he sees sign and wonders. That certainly feels harsh. I mean after all his son is dying. What is Jesus thinking?

Is it possible that he is speaking not only or even primarily to the father but to the whole crowd that has gathered around. The water into wine trick would certainly have become common knowledge. Many of these folks were most likely at the wedding. Have the come looking for another miracle to tickle their spiritual curiosity? Jesus deals with this on several occasions. People just want a show. They want more and more proof. They want him to make more fish and bread to feast on.

I often hear people say that it would have been so much easier to believe in Jesus if they had been there in the first century and seen him perform miracles like the fish and bread or walking on water or raising the dead. But the fact is you and I would be no different from the people who actually say those things. They had a hard time believing Jesus. Some did, many were just curious, some outright rejected him.

That raises the whole question of what does it take for you to trust God? How big a miracle do you need to be able to say, yes I believe? Jesus has previously said that the greatest evidence he will give for his deity is the raising up of his body after three days. That happened on the first Easter morning. We won’t get to that until near the end of the year but fortunately for us we know that is happened and can look at so much of what Jesus said and did in the light of the resurrection.

The evidence for the life and death and resurrection of Jesus is so overwhelmingly strong that we don’t need to have lived back then and seen the miracles he did. We look back on the greatest miracle of all and put our trust in him.

³³ And in the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, ³⁴ “Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” ³⁵ But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm.

There could not be a more sharp contrast than that of the unbelief on the part of the people of Nazareth, who refused to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah and the demons who possessed a man and proclaimed exactly who Jesus was. The demons recognized the Messiah, the Holy One of God, when they saw him. Yet, even though they recognized who Jesus was, they refused to submit to him. In that regard they were no different than the people of Nazareth, except maybe even more guilty since they knew who Jesus was.

This shows us that it is possible to have true knowledge about God but still not have faith. Faith requires being willing to trust God and be obedient to him. The demons had knowledge by not trust. Many people today can claim to have a knowledge of God but if they fail to trust him and submit to him, they are no better than the demons.

We also see the power in the words of Jesus. All he needs to do is speak and the demons, who refused to submit to him willingly, are forced to do so by the power of his word. It is that same word that spoke the universe into existence. It is the same word that called forth Lazarus from the grave. It is the same word that pronounced forgiveness on you if you have come to faith in Christ. It is a word of power that accomplishes what God intends it to accomplish. In this case it drove demons out of a man and healed and restored him.

The word of Christ can also heal and restore you. But you need to trust it. You need to believe it is true. When Jesus says you are forgiven you can believe it. When Jesus says you are loved, you can trust it. When Jesus says he will never leave or forsake you, you can depend on it because the word of God is powerful and reliable.

²³ And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘“Physician, heal yourself.” What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’” ²⁴ And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. ²⁵ But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, ²⁶ and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. ²⁷ And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”

If Jesus wanted to get his hometown folks furious with him he could not have chosen a better way to do so. Upon receiving some pushback and doubt from them about the appropriateness of him identifying himself as the Messiah, he doubles down by calling their faith into question.

First he does it by connecting them to people in the past who rejected messengers sent by God. He especially connects them to people who cannot accept a prophet simply because he grew up among them. In doing this he is targeting their pride. “What makes this guy think he is so much better than us?” “We saw him grow up like the rest of us”. “He is not so special”.

Then he goes a step further and points out situations when people who were not ethnic Jews had greater faith than they did. Again he calls their pride into question. It is a spiritual pride. They think they are better than other people. They are certainly no worse than Jesus.

Spiritual pride is deadly. It eventually crushes the one who has it and the one who is made to feel unworthy. It is critical for followers of Jesus to understand that we are broken sinners who are far worse than we think we are. We have no room to look down on anyone else. We especially don’t have room to do that because we are following Jesus. That is all by the grace of God and is a gift. We cannot take any credit for our spiritual position before Christ and so we cannot look down on anyone whose position is different.

Sadly, the longer one is engaged in the life of the church and following Jesus, the greater the risk of becoming spiritually proud. One tends to forget the depths of their sin and the desperate need for Jesus. Reminding ourselves of our need for the Gospel is a daily exercise. It is needed to keep spiritually humble and to have a compassionate heart for those who do not know Him yet.

A second lesson in this passage is to remember that when you come to faith in Christ, it can be difficult for the people who know you best to accept the change. Being patient and allowing your changed life to speak for itself, and also staying humble, are necessary if you are going to reach the people closest to you. It took twenty years of me following Jesus before my father finally did. There is always hope.

¹⁷ And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
    and recovering of sight to the blind,
    to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

²⁰ And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. ²¹ And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

The passage from Isaiah was looked upon as a direct reference to what the Messiah would do. Jesus shocks the crowd in the synagogue by reading it and proclaiming that after all these centuries those words have come to pass. The most shocking part was that the audience was the people of Nazareth, the town he grew up in. They thought it would be a great day. Jesus was gaining in popularity so as he comes home they invite him to read the scripture for the day and speak.

In the providence of God the scripture for the day os this passage from Isaiah and it gives Jesus the opportunity to publicly announce that the Messiah has come. It also give him the opportunity to define the Gospel message that he is bringing. It is good news for people who have been down trodden and oppressed and enslaved. In some cases it is physical oppression and enslavement but for everyone it is a spiritual enslavement that he comes to break.

That raises the question of what our message is. Do people outside the Christian faith hear a message of freedom from you or is it a message of duty and religion and a different kind of enslavement? The Gospel is meant to bring freedom from all that weights us down and bring life that is abundant. Far too often the impression Christians give us that following Jesus is a burden. Jesus wants you to be free from your manmade religion and rules and live in the light of the Gospel message of freedom in Christ and a new life that is one of joy and celebration.