Why We Reject Christ

The
Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. John. (9:1-38)

In
our world, and perhaps since the foundation of the world, Satan has
sought to divide and confuse people. He does this in subtle and not
so subtle ways. He finds reasons for us to be divided and not at
peace with one another. He will use any and everything at his
disposal in order to achieve his objectives. He divides Christians
along denominational lines, so that they will not enter into the One,
Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and be healed. He divides
citizens along political lines. He makes us believe that there is
such a gap between republicans and democrats that they cannot be
civil with one another, or love one another. He wants to divide us
along any possible line. He seeks to divide by race, gender, class,
ideology. He seeks to divide by any means because he is the one who
divides. His very name means adversary.

Yet,
in today’s gospel we are given a glimpse into truth. The Lord
Jesus, the Word of God, teaches us that there is one thing that
properly separates us and creates two distinct groups; blindness and
sight. We begin with a focus on the physical blindness of the man who
was born blind. Some of the Church fathers tell us that this man was
likely born with no eyes, but only with empty sockets. He is
physically blind, but that is not the problem. The problem as we we
listen and read further is not his blindness but the spiritual
blindness of the Pharisees. We see then that the world can properly
be divided into two groups. Those with spiritual sight and those with
spiritual blindness. Our Lord says to His disciples “I am the light
of the world.” What divides us or unites us is our acceptance of
Jesus Christ as the light of the world. Either we are truly blind or
we can really see.

When
Christ is not the light of your world, everything is darkness. But
when Jesus Christ is the light of your world, you begin to see
clearly. Everything takes on a new look, everything is exposed and
healed by the light of Christ. As Christians, it is very important
that we take this seriously. Our guiding principle in life and in our
interaction with the world around us is not our political leanings or
our “personal opinions” or feelings. If you are guided by your
personal feelings, you might as well create an image of yourself,
pray before it and offer it sacrifices. Be honest with yourself and
choose whom you will follow, yourself or the Lord Jesus Christ, His
life and His teachings.

You
may be thinking “I would like to follow Jesus, but how can I be
sure that I am following Him and not my own opinions?” The answer
is to take seriously the work of studying the Bible and especially
the four gospels. Our serious study of the gospels requires a small
sacrifice of our time, and a big sacrifices of our own thoughts and
opinions. If you study the words of the Lord, His light will expose
your deficiencies and your inner darkness. Sometimes this is painful,
it is like laser surgery. But sometimes surgery is necessary for
healing to begin.

Although
their  physical eyes worked quite well, the Pharisees struggled
to see the spiritual light. They were quite confident in their ways
and according to the Lord, this way of rejection of the light was in
actuality, darkness. Why? did Because of their pride. St. Tikhon of
Zadonsk once said“When pride retreats from a man, humility begins
to dwell in him, and the more pride is diminished, so much more does
humility grow. The one gives way to the other as to its opposite.
Darkness departs and light appears. Pride is darkness, but humility
is light.”

Lest
we seem to only be picking on the Pharisees, we should recognize that
within each of us there are aspects of the pride of the Pharisees. We
each have hidden, secret pride that we carry and treasure deep within
us.

+
St. Justin Popovic writes “It can be said: pride is the ultimate
sin. Every sin, through its life force, comes from it and holds to
it: “the pride of life”–woven from countless
multifarious(various) prides, both great and small, both short-term
and long term. Let us remember the primary things: the pride of glory
(scientific, government, in any rank or position in general), pride
of beauty, pride of wealth, pride of benevolence, pride of humility
(yes! of humility), pride of charity, pride of success…There is not
a virtue that pride cannot convert into a vice. The pride of prayer
converts the person praying into a Pharisee, and the ascetic into a
self-murderer. So, every sin, in reality is a sin through pride,
because Satan is in reality Satan through pride. If it were not for
pride, sin would not exist, neither in the angelic or the human
world….”

It
is this pride that Christ searches out and exposes to the light
through our honest and authentic Christian life. A life that we
choose to fill with the word of God and with prayer. A
life that we fill with the sacraments and with worship. This allows
us to enter into a dialogue with the Holy Trinity. It
won’t happen by merely repeating words with vain repetitions, but
when we actually pray with pain of heart. This type of prayer exposes
our darkness to His divine light and opens
us up
to receive His
healing. That is why we believe and why we love Him, because He first
loved us. He
offered and continues to offer us His healing and His life of
resurrection.

This
light was offered to the Pharisees but they rejected it. They were
full of pride in themselves and in their knowledge and they lacked
love. Like recognizes like. Only the one who struggles for love and
humility can recognize the humble and loving hand of the Savior in
their lives. Without love for God, we won’t recognize His light but
will reject it as darkness. So let us not be confident in ourselves,
but in the One who alone has the power to give sight to the blind and
life to those who are in the tombs, to Christ our immortal Lord, be
the glory now and ever and unto ages of ages AMEN.

Source: Sermons