Quinquagesima
Luke 18:31-43
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
March 2, 2025
“Your faith has saved you.” Jesus said to the blind man. This is one of Jesus’ most oft repeated statements, “Your faith has saved you.” (Matthew 9:22; Mark 10:52; Luke 7:50; 17:19; 18:42) While often, the statement is translated, “Your faith has made you well,” because of the context of Jesus healing a person, it is always best understood by the axiom, “Your faith has saved you.” This is what He said to the sinful woman, who washed His feet, of whom Scripture does not say He healed in any other way (Luke 7:5). Before Jesus ascended into heaven, He gave this final instruction to His disciples, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” (Mark 16:16) And His disciples consistently and persistently proclaimed this same message, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household!” (Acts 16:31)
Faith alone saves. This means that we are not saved by our works. This means we are not condemned by our sins. We are saved when we believe that God forgives us and accepts us for Christ’s sake. That faith alone saves is the most comforting message mankind has ever heard. Yet, since faith alone saves, we must be sure that we have the correct faith! Not any faith saves. Faith in money does not save. When you die it will abandon you. Faith in health and fitness does not save. All flesh is grass and will fade like the flower in the field. Faith in Allah does not save. He is a false god, who demands obedience with no promise of salvation. Faith in your own goodness does not save. You are a sinner, who deserves damnation. No, only the true saving faith saves and grants eternal life. And in this Gospel lesson, we are taught clearly what the one, true, saving faith is. This Gospel lesson teaches us three things about saving faith.
First, saving faith holds fast to the true teaching of Christ found in Holy Scripture. Jesus said, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything written by the prophets about the Son of man will be fulfilled. For He will be delivered over to the gentiles and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon and after scourging Him, they will kill Him, and on the third day He will rise.” Faith is only as good as what your faith is in. You can have the strongest faith in the world, but if it is in something false, then your faith is still false. Saving faith trusts in Jesus Christ. And it is Holy Scripture, which teaches the truth about Jesus. Only Scripture, which was caused to be written by God Himself, is the source of the true teaching about Jesus. If a sermon or book does not find its source in Scripture, then its teaching about Jesus cannot be trusted. But what the Bible says about Jesus is trustworthy and sure.
“Everything written in the prophets will be fulfilled.” By prophets, Jesus means the Old Testament Scriptures. Jesus says in John 5, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.” Scripture teaches that Christ will be betrayed into the hands of gentiles, would be mistreated, crucified, and die, but on the third day rise. Psalm 35 prophesies of Christ, “Malicious witnesses rise up; they ask me of things that I do not go. They repay me evil for good; my soul is bereft.” (vss. 11-12) Psalm 22 prophesies, “Many bulls encompass me; strong bulls of Bashan surround me; they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion.” And “For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and my feet—I can count all my bones—they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots.” (vss. 12, 16-18) Isaiah prophesies in chapter 50, “The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.”
And of course, in chapter 53, Isaiah writes of Christ, “Surely, He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities, upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—everyone—to His own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. By oppression and judgment, He was taken away; and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. And they made His grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in His death, although He had done no violence, and there was no deceit in His mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush Him; He has put Him to grief.” (vss. 4-10) And prophecies like these are found throughout Scripture, starting way back in Genesis 3:15, when God spoke to Satan, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heal.”
And the Old Testament prophesied Jesus’ resurrection as well. Psalm 22 states, “Posterity shall serve Him.” Psalm 56, “For You have delivered my soul from death,” and Psalm 16, “For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let Your Holy One see corruption.” (vs. 10) And Isaiah writes in chapter 53, “When His soul makes an offering for guilt, He shall see His offspring; He shall prolong His days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.” (vs. 10)
The Old Testament clearly prophesied of Christ’s suffering and death for our sins and of His resurrection. And Jesus fulfilled it all. The New Testament, written by the Apostles of Jesus, even more clearly reveals Jesus as the Savior of sinners. And on this journey to Jerusalem, Jesus most clearly told His disciples exactly what would happen. Yet, His disciples did not understand what He was saying. It was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said. This is the second thing this Gospel lesson teaches us about true saving faith. True saving faith is a gift from God.
True saving faith is a gift from God means that a person can only have saving faith if God grants it. Jesus says in John 6, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:44) and, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (John 6:29) Why can a person only believe in Christ if it is granted by God? St. Paul explains in 1 Corinthian 2, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” (vs. 14) Because we are born spiritually dead in sin, we cannot accept the Gospel unless the Holy Spirit awakens us to believe His Holy Word. We are by nature spiritually deaf, blind, yes, even dead. So, faith must be a gift from God, or we would never believe.
The third thing this Gospel lesson teaches us about saving faith is that it is loud. Blind Bartimaeus shouted after Jesus. And when he was told to be quiet, he shouted all the more loudly. This is what saving faith does. It believes in Christ. It trusts that God saves for Christ’s sake. And it cries out to God for help. God says in Psalm 50, “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you and you will glorify Me.” (vs. 15) And so, the Psalmist cries, “Out of the depths, I cry to you, O Lord, hear my voice!” St. Paul writes in Romans 10, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” (vss. 9-10) And the Prophet Joel declares, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Joel 2:32)
So, saving faith is loud. It loudly cries out to God in mercy, pleading for forgiveness, because saving faith knows that sin is our greatest problem and that we deserve death and hell. And faith loudly confesses Jesus as the only name under heaven by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).
Blind Bartimaeus is a wonderful example of saving faith. First, he has true knowledge of Jesus, which he learned from Holy Scripture. He calls Him the Son of David. He does this, because he believes God’s promise to King David in 2 Samuel 7, “I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and will establish His kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever.” (vss. 12-13) Blind Bartimaeus believed what the prophets said about Christ, and He believed Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of David.
Second, Bartimaeus was blind. This shows that saving faith does not trust in the senses of the flesh. Rather, Bartimaeus received this faith as a gift from God. Bartimaeus was a beggar. And so, everyone who has true saving faith is a beggar, who receives forgiveness, salvation, and healing from God as a free gift by grace.
Finally, Bartimaeus was loud. He cried out to Jesus for mercy. And he didn’t stop until Christ had had mercy on him. And then he continued to follow Jesus, glorifying God. He didn’t become quiet after Christ had had mercy on him. Rather, he continued to be loud, praising God for Jesus’ sake.
And so, Bartimaeus teaches you about your faith. If your faith is saving faith, it must rest in the promises of Holy Scripture. And so, you should listen to God’s Word, meditate on it, learn it, and trust in it. That is the only way that you can have saving faith in Christ. Second, you must be a beggar. If you think you will earn your way or that God owes you something for your works, or that you can figure it out on your own, then you are going astray. Faith itself is a pure gift from God, given by the Holy Spirit through the Word. And Scripture teaches that everything we receive from God is from His bountiful goodness, without any merit or worthiness in us. We are beggars. Yet, it is a wonderful thing to be a beggar before Jesus, because He is kind and generous. He gladly does for beggars what they ask. And Holy Scripture teaches us to ask for only the best things.
Finally, Bartimaeus teaches you to be loud. First, be loud before God. God wants to hear your voice. He wants you to ask Him for help. He wants you to pray to Him and ask Him for everything you need. Do not be silent to Him. Plead for forgiveness of your sins. Ask for strengthening of faith. Ask for eternal life. And pray too for the things of this life. He will hear you and He will answer you. Second, be loud before others. It is a lie from Satan that you should keep your faith to yourself and not wear your religion on your sleave. Rather, Jesus says, “Whoever confesses me before men, I too will confess before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I too will deny before my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 10:32-33) And St. Peter exhorts us to always be prepared to give a defense of the reason for the hope that is in us (1 Peter 3:15). So, don’t let others tell you to be quiet. Confess Christ. Tell your children about Him. Tell your family and friends about Him. Pray at your dinner table out loud without embarrassment. Say prayers with your family regularly out loud. And come to church and sing loudly hymns of praise to our Lord.
May God grant all of you saving faith through His Word, that you may loudly proclaim His glories now and forever. Amen.
Luke 18:31-43
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
March 2, 2025
“Your faith has saved you.” Jesus said to the blind man. This is one of Jesus’ most oft repeated statements, “Your faith has saved you.” (Matthew 9:22; Mark 10:52; Luke 7:50; 17:19; 18:42) While often, the statement is translated, “Your faith has made you well,” because of the context of Jesus healing a person, it is always best understood by the axiom, “Your faith has saved you.” This is what He said to the sinful woman, who washed His feet, of whom Scripture does not say He healed in any other way (Luke 7:5). Before Jesus ascended into heaven, He gave this final instruction to His disciples, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” (Mark 16:16) And His disciples consistently and persistently proclaimed this same message, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household!” (Acts 16:31)
Faith alone saves. This means that we are not saved by our works. This means we are not condemned by our sins. We are saved when we believe that God forgives us and accepts us for Christ’s sake. That faith alone saves is the most comforting message mankind has ever heard. Yet, since faith alone saves, we must be sure that we have the correct faith! Not any faith saves. Faith in money does not save. When you die it will abandon you. Faith in health and fitness does not save. All flesh is grass and will fade like the flower in the field. Faith in Allah does not save. He is a false god, who demands obedience with no promise of salvation. Faith in your own goodness does not save. You are a sinner, who deserves damnation. No, only the true saving faith saves and grants eternal life. And in this Gospel lesson, we are taught clearly what the one, true, saving faith is. This Gospel lesson teaches us three things about saving faith.
First, saving faith holds fast to the true teaching of Christ found in Holy Scripture. Jesus said, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything written by the prophets about the Son of man will be fulfilled. For He will be delivered over to the gentiles and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon and after scourging Him, they will kill Him, and on the third day He will rise.” Faith is only as good as what your faith is in. You can have the strongest faith in the world, but if it is in something false, then your faith is still false. Saving faith trusts in Jesus Christ. And it is Holy Scripture, which teaches the truth about Jesus. Only Scripture, which was caused to be written by God Himself, is the source of the true teaching about Jesus. If a sermon or book does not find its source in Scripture, then its teaching about Jesus cannot be trusted. But what the Bible says about Jesus is trustworthy and sure.
“Everything written in the prophets will be fulfilled.” By prophets, Jesus means the Old Testament Scriptures. Jesus says in John 5, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.” Scripture teaches that Christ will be betrayed into the hands of gentiles, would be mistreated, crucified, and die, but on the third day rise. Psalm 35 prophesies of Christ, “Malicious witnesses rise up; they ask me of things that I do not go. They repay me evil for good; my soul is bereft.” (vss. 11-12) Psalm 22 prophesies, “Many bulls encompass me; strong bulls of Bashan surround me; they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion.” And “For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and my feet—I can count all my bones—they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots.” (vss. 12, 16-18) Isaiah prophesies in chapter 50, “The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.”
And of course, in chapter 53, Isaiah writes of Christ, “Surely, He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities, upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—everyone—to His own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. By oppression and judgment, He was taken away; and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. And they made His grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in His death, although He had done no violence, and there was no deceit in His mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush Him; He has put Him to grief.” (vss. 4-10) And prophecies like these are found throughout Scripture, starting way back in Genesis 3:15, when God spoke to Satan, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heal.”
And the Old Testament prophesied Jesus’ resurrection as well. Psalm 22 states, “Posterity shall serve Him.” Psalm 56, “For You have delivered my soul from death,” and Psalm 16, “For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let Your Holy One see corruption.” (vs. 10) And Isaiah writes in chapter 53, “When His soul makes an offering for guilt, He shall see His offspring; He shall prolong His days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.” (vs. 10)
The Old Testament clearly prophesied of Christ’s suffering and death for our sins and of His resurrection. And Jesus fulfilled it all. The New Testament, written by the Apostles of Jesus, even more clearly reveals Jesus as the Savior of sinners. And on this journey to Jerusalem, Jesus most clearly told His disciples exactly what would happen. Yet, His disciples did not understand what He was saying. It was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said. This is the second thing this Gospel lesson teaches us about true saving faith. True saving faith is a gift from God.
True saving faith is a gift from God means that a person can only have saving faith if God grants it. Jesus says in John 6, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:44) and, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (John 6:29) Why can a person only believe in Christ if it is granted by God? St. Paul explains in 1 Corinthian 2, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” (vs. 14) Because we are born spiritually dead in sin, we cannot accept the Gospel unless the Holy Spirit awakens us to believe His Holy Word. We are by nature spiritually deaf, blind, yes, even dead. So, faith must be a gift from God, or we would never believe.
The third thing this Gospel lesson teaches us about saving faith is that it is loud. Blind Bartimaeus shouted after Jesus. And when he was told to be quiet, he shouted all the more loudly. This is what saving faith does. It believes in Christ. It trusts that God saves for Christ’s sake. And it cries out to God for help. God says in Psalm 50, “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you and you will glorify Me.” (vs. 15) And so, the Psalmist cries, “Out of the depths, I cry to you, O Lord, hear my voice!” St. Paul writes in Romans 10, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” (vss. 9-10) And the Prophet Joel declares, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Joel 2:32)
So, saving faith is loud. It loudly cries out to God in mercy, pleading for forgiveness, because saving faith knows that sin is our greatest problem and that we deserve death and hell. And faith loudly confesses Jesus as the only name under heaven by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).
Blind Bartimaeus is a wonderful example of saving faith. First, he has true knowledge of Jesus, which he learned from Holy Scripture. He calls Him the Son of David. He does this, because he believes God’s promise to King David in 2 Samuel 7, “I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and will establish His kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever.” (vss. 12-13) Blind Bartimaeus believed what the prophets said about Christ, and He believed Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of David.
Second, Bartimaeus was blind. This shows that saving faith does not trust in the senses of the flesh. Rather, Bartimaeus received this faith as a gift from God. Bartimaeus was a beggar. And so, everyone who has true saving faith is a beggar, who receives forgiveness, salvation, and healing from God as a free gift by grace.
Finally, Bartimaeus was loud. He cried out to Jesus for mercy. And he didn’t stop until Christ had had mercy on him. And then he continued to follow Jesus, glorifying God. He didn’t become quiet after Christ had had mercy on him. Rather, he continued to be loud, praising God for Jesus’ sake.
And so, Bartimaeus teaches you about your faith. If your faith is saving faith, it must rest in the promises of Holy Scripture. And so, you should listen to God’s Word, meditate on it, learn it, and trust in it. That is the only way that you can have saving faith in Christ. Second, you must be a beggar. If you think you will earn your way or that God owes you something for your works, or that you can figure it out on your own, then you are going astray. Faith itself is a pure gift from God, given by the Holy Spirit through the Word. And Scripture teaches that everything we receive from God is from His bountiful goodness, without any merit or worthiness in us. We are beggars. Yet, it is a wonderful thing to be a beggar before Jesus, because He is kind and generous. He gladly does for beggars what they ask. And Holy Scripture teaches us to ask for only the best things.
Finally, Bartimaeus teaches you to be loud. First, be loud before God. God wants to hear your voice. He wants you to ask Him for help. He wants you to pray to Him and ask Him for everything you need. Do not be silent to Him. Plead for forgiveness of your sins. Ask for strengthening of faith. Ask for eternal life. And pray too for the things of this life. He will hear you and He will answer you. Second, be loud before others. It is a lie from Satan that you should keep your faith to yourself and not wear your religion on your sleave. Rather, Jesus says, “Whoever confesses me before men, I too will confess before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I too will deny before my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 10:32-33) And St. Peter exhorts us to always be prepared to give a defense of the reason for the hope that is in us (1 Peter 3:15). So, don’t let others tell you to be quiet. Confess Christ. Tell your children about Him. Tell your family and friends about Him. Pray at your dinner table out loud without embarrassment. Say prayers with your family regularly out loud. And come to church and sing loudly hymns of praise to our Lord.
May God grant all of you saving faith through His Word, that you may loudly proclaim His glories now and forever. Amen.
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