I command you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom: Preach the word; be urgent in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all patience and teaching.
— 2 Timothy 4:1-2
Fourth Sunday in Lent
Anno Domini 2026
Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.
Text. Our lesson is taken from the Gospel Reading.
“Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ 36 He answered, ’And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?’ 37 Jesus said to him, ‘You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.’ 38 He said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshiped him.”
This is our text.
Dear Redeemed in Christ.
This is a curious passage. Why does Jesus make a spittle of mud to heal the blind man? In other passages He simply speaks the word. But in this case Jesus uses mud. He anoints the blind eyes with mud, then says go wash. The man does so and his sight is restored.
Why the mud miracle? Well, we do not know. The text remains silent as to why Jesus used the mud. Likewise with parallel passages, we find nothing to explain this. But we do know the purpose. The purpose is to prove that Jesus is the Son of Man.
The question in the text is: who is the Son of Man? The miracle testifies and proves that Jesus is the Son of Man.
Notice in our text how Jesus said to the man who had been healed, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ Why would Jesus ask that question!? The answer is, because the title Son of Man is very, very important to understanding the person of Christ; therefore, it is very, very important to our faith.
Why would we say that? Because Jesus Himself frequently refers to Himself as the Son of Man in the New Testament. Also, several other passages in the New Testament refer to Jesus as the Son of Man. Altogether the title Son of Man appears in the New Testament 86 times.2 86 times -THAT IS SIGNIFICANT! Therefore, we ask,
Jesus is the Son of Man, what does this mean?
Theme. The miracle together with the Word of Christ convinced the man whom Jesus had healed that Jesus is indeed the Son of Man. This miracle was recorded so that we also might believe that Jesus is the Son of Man.
Miracles like this are important for two reasons. One, they testify that Jesus Christ is true God and True man. Second, according to Scripture our salvation must come by the “Seed of the Woman,” one of the sons of mankind. By this miracle Jesus reveals that He is that man; He is that “Son of Man” who brings God’s promised salvation.
I.
There seems to always be trouble with the doctrine that Christ must be true God, the Son of God from eternity, and true man born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem. It seems that denial of His deity or denial of His humanity appears continually through the centuries. Sometimes there comes a denial of His being true God and at other times a denial of His true humanity.
In the Fourth Century our forefathers had to assert His divinity in the face of strong opposition. This is how we got the Nicene Creed which we confess frequently. The second article, concerning the person of Christ, is long and repetitive. It hammers home the deity of Jesus in a cascade of words. Listen with attention to what it confesses about His divine nature.
“[I believe] in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made; who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary and was made man;…”
It also became necessary to assert the true humanity of Christ. A familiar example of that is the Athanasian Creed which speaks of Christ’s humanity with precise language. Here is that portion. Listen to how His humanity is described.
“…it is also necessary for everlasting salvation that one faithfully believe the incarnation [in human flesh] of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is the right faith that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is at the same time both God and man. He is God, begotten from the substance of the Father before all ages; and He is man, born from the substance of His mother in this age: perfect God and perfect man, composed of a rational soul and human flesh; equal to the Father with respect to His divinity, less than the Father with respect to His humanity.” 3
This is our faith and our confession of that faith. We confess that Jesus Christ is true God and true man. Today in our Gospel reading Christ wants to confirm that He is the Son of Man and that salvation must come from the Son of Man.
The name Son of Man was also a familiar name to the people which witnessed this miracle, for they were students of the Old Testament. The New Testament of the Bible had not yet been given to them, so their Bible contained only the Old Testament. In the Old Testament book of Daniel, we find an example of the usage of the title “Son of Man.” There in a vision the title Son of Man is used as one of the names, or titles, of the Messiah, the Christ. Daniel reports the vision saying;
“I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven… And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.”(emphasis added) 4
This vision occurred several centuries before the birth of Jesus. It clearly refers to Christ. This “Son of Man” is He who gathers all nations into an everlasting Kingdom. Such a person can only be the Christ of God. Think of Jesus’ words in Matthew where He says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations”5
Also, we find the title “Son of Man” referring to the Christ of God in the Psalms. For example in Psalm 8 we read;
“What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? 5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.”6 (emphasis added)
The only man of the sons of mankind that fits this description is Christ Jesus. Here again Christ is called the Son of Man
Then, of course, there is the most familiar Son of Man verse which is Genesis 3:15. There we read what God said to the serpent, Satan; “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; He shall crush thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. (emphasis added)7
Here the name “Son of Man” is not used, but it is clear that this child must be the Son of Man, for He is the Seed of the woman, who will crush the kingdom of the ancient foe and bring salvation to mankind.
Throughout Scripture it is revealed that salvation must come through the Son of Man, and by the miracle of the mud, Jesus shows once again that He is that man.
The Son of Man, then, is a son of humanity, the “seed of the woman.” In Christ Jesus, the eternal Son of God became fully human in order to crush the dominion of the Prince of this World. In the reading today He underscores for us that He is indeed the Son of Man.
II. The Son of Man, the Redeemer.
But what about the spittle; the mud used in the opening of the man’s eyes? As mentioned, the reading does not explain it. However, it does raise some thoughts in our minds.
Dirt, the dust of the earth, is a very significant thing to us human beings. We were created from the “dust of the earth.” Even atheists agree that our physical bodies come from the earth, are sustained by the earth, and return to the earth.
So, what do we observe in the text? Christ Jesus, who created mankind8 from the dust of the earth – “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made,” – now heals a man using mud from the dust of the earth. [Now do not try this at home. Don’t try to bottle the mud, we are not in the “healing mud” business.]
However, there is much more than Jesus’ sheer creative power happening here. Sheer creative power is child’s play for the almighty God. With a simple command God created the entire universe. There is something much deeper involved in this healing and in ALL of Jesus’ healings.
Here is what it is. In the reading the question came up asking, why is he blind – why is he blind! Remember how his disciples asked the question of Jesus saying, “Rabbi [teacher], who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ 3 Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.’”
They identified the cause of the man’s blindness as sin. And they are correct! Think about it, what is the cause of death and disease? Sin is the cause. Sin. That’s it. Sin. God said to Adam in the Garden, “…in the day that you eat (of the forbidden fruit) you shall surely die.” Adam ate, and death has been in the world ever since. God warned Adam that the consequences would be death.
Sin is the power behind death and disease, so in healing this blind man, Christ Jesus is using not only the power to create, but of most importance He is using the power of removing sin, and the consequences of sin. The miracle reveals that Jesus has the power to remove the power of sin.
Remember the question we asked in the beginning. We asked why is the title “Son of Man” so very, very important to understanding the person of Christ? The answer is because only the Son of Man has the power to take away the sin of this world.
The Apostle Paul sums up why salvation must come through the Son of Man in Romans 5. There he writes: “…by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” 9 Did we hear that; “by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” 10 The mud reminds us of the creative power of Christ, but the healing shows us the power of the forgiveness of sin.
The purpose of the miracle is to show that Jesus is that one man; the man who holds the power to take away the sin of the world. He is the very Son of Man who takes away the sin of the world.
For mankind’s diseases to be healed, his sin must be removed. For man’s death to be overcome, his sin must be removed. And so, it is. Jesus brings the power to remove sin. Because Jesus forgives all our sins, we can lift up our heads looking forward to the perfect healing on the last day, the day of the resurrection of the body. On that day will come the perfect healing and the final destruction of death.
How is it that Jesus has such great authority, the authority to forgive our sins? His authority is earned. It is the authority of the cross.
We have heard this many times, but it is always pleasant to ponder it again and again. By way of the cross Jesus literally takes away, yes removes, the power of sin. Jesus, the eternal Son of God, became the Son of Man. Why? Because mankind sinned; therefore, mankind is accountable for his sins. Mankind must pay the penalty for his sins. In God’s justice, the wages of sin is death.
So…God laid the sin of all mankind upon Jesus. The Son of Man took our guilt into His account. And remember, the wages of sin is death. He therefore died on the cross bearing the sins of all mankind. He took away the guilt of all mankind on behalf of all mankind.
Isaiah the great prophet sets it before us like this:
“ 3 He [Christ] was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows… he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 11 (emphasis added)
By His wounds, by His cross, we are healed. Now we are free. All who believe in the Son of Man and live in His forgiveness are free of condemnation and punishment. Paul writes this in Romans, “ 8 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”12
This gives us peace of heart. This gives us freedom, freedom from the oppression of guilt. This raises our heads to look forward to that day of complete healing in the resurrection of the body to everlasting life.
The obedience of the Son of Man earned this righteousness of forgiveness for all mankind. The death of the Son of Man gained divine pardon for all mankind. That we may believe this He made the blind man to see. He healed the blind man to show us His authority over sin and death. In this way He draws us to Himself so that we may be certain of the pardon and the righteousness of His forgiveness.
Conclusion
What do we take home from all this? Jesus, the eternal Son of God became the Son of Man in order to redeem all mankind. The Son of Man died, was raised from the dead, and ascended to the right hand of God. Now the Son of Man sits at right hand of God, even to this very day He sits at the right hand of God. From there He governs all things for the good and benefit of His people, who all live in His forgiveness.
This is marvelous because now the Son of Man is one of us. Our flesh and blood brother governs all things.
This is marvelous because the Son of Man is our friend. Jesus said to the disciples on one occasion, “No longer do I call you servants… but I have called you friends,13 no longer call you slaves, I call you friends.”
Is that not a wonder to behold? Now the Son of Man, our brother, our friend and Lord, is our advocate with the Father. This is why we pray in Jesus’ name. He pleads our case with the Father. He has never lost a case and never will because He has taken away the sin of the world. 14 Amen
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
The Word of the Lord endures forever.