LUKE 18:35-43
At that time, as Jesus drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging; and hearing a multitude going by, he inquired what this meant. They told him, "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by." And he cried, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent; but he cried out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" And Jesus stopped, and commanded him to be brought to him; and when he came near, he asked him, "What do you want me to do for you?" He said, "Lord, let me receive my sight." And Jesus said to him, "Receive your sight; your faith has made you well." And immediately he received his sight and followed him, glorifying God; and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.
Let me tell you the story of a blind man. Not a physically blind man, but a spiritually blind man. The man I would like to tell you about was born in 1725 and his name was John Newton. I don’t want to judge him too harshly, but using his own words, John Newton described himself as a wretch. And if you listen to the stories I am about share with you, I think you’ll be prone to agree.
Now, I must say, that John Newton was not born a wretch. In fact he had been born to a kind, Christian woman in London who did her very best to love and provide for her boy and to give him religious instruction. Newton remembered her fondly, but unfortunately she passed away when he was just seven and his step-mother was not the same kind of woman. And then after some time with his step-mother, and some more time at a boarding school, finally, at the young age of eleven, John Newton joined his father at sea.
As you could probably guess, growing up among the sailors was not work out well for John. He picked up many of the habits that sailors of his day were renowned for, drinking, gambling, and boy did that man have a mouth. And after about six years at his father’s side, the elder John Newton retired from the sea and the younger John Newton began his own career. He spent a short time as a merchant sailor, but his bad behavior got him into trouble and he was pressed into the service of the British Royal Navy. And then after attempting to desert his first ship, he was flogged, demoted, and transferred to a second ship, a slave ship. Even aboard this ship his behavior remained remarkably despicable. Martin Bernard writes that, “In a culture where sailors habitually swore, Newton was admonished several times for not only using the worst words the captain had ever heard, but creating new ones to exceed the limits of verbal debauchery.” At one point Newton even plotted to kill the captain and was chained up amongst the slaves that they were carrying.
Eventually Newton was abandoned by his shipmates in West Africa and for three years he himself served as a slave West Africa, at the service of Amos Clowe and his wife, the Princess Peye of the Sherbro people. John Newton would later write about his life in Africa, and specifically about slavery in West Africa, an institution he experienced firsthand. He describes a civilization organized into districts, governed by a council with representatives from each district, all maintaining a set of laws that prevented theft, fraud, and other crimes, and specifically included a prohibition on drawing blood, even from a slave.
Slavery itself was generally penal in nature, saved for those who had broken laws too big to be satisfied in other ways, significant theft, murder or assault, the stealing of another man’s wife. Most of those who went into slavery could expect to come out some day, when the offended party had been satisfied or the debts had been worked off. Slavery in Africa was slavery as it had been practiced throughout most of human history.
After a few years serving as a slave in West Africa, John was himself freed by another ship captain who had been sent by his father to find him. In one of his personal letters, he writes that he had grown so accustomed to Sierra Leon that he contemplated staying and only left on account of his childhood sweetheart Polly. It was on the return journey that his ship was caught up in a great storm and nearly sank. A crew member died in the storm that day and the rest worked for hours to keep the ship afloat. In this desperate moment, John Newton, a man whose foul mouth could literally make a sailor blush, exclaimed these words, “Lord have mercy on us!”
Eventually the storm died down and John Newton took the helm, steering the ship for the next eleven hours, alone with his thoughts. That night, and then on into the tired and hungry days that followed, John Newton kept asking himself, “Why?” Why would the Lord save him? Why would the Lord save this man who had denounced God? And more than just denounce God, he had ridiculed the piety of those around him? Why, in that moment of desperation, would he call out to God, of all things? And why, why oh why, would God care to save a wretch like him.
This event marked a turning point in John Newton’s life, though it would take a long time to bear fruit. A really long time. More than a decade, in fact. Newton made it home, married his lifelong sweet heart, and continued his work in the slave trade. Seven years later, at age 30, Newton suffered a rather serious stroke and decided that life at sea had become too difficult for him. He took a position at port and never sailed again.
During those seven years at sea and then in his port work, Newton began to study the bible and read theology. By all accounts he began to watch his mouth and control his temper. Over time he quit the drinking and the gambling. He studied Latin and Greek and Syraic. Eventually his friends and acquaintances began to encourage him to join the clergy, which he eventually did, becoming an Anglican Priest. It was here that John Newton enjoyed his second life.
John took to this life as a parish priest. His mouth, which had once made him the scourge of the southern seas, now brought him attention from the pulpit. But was not until 1788, 34 years after his work in the African Slave Trade, that John Newton finally began to speak about his own experiences. He wrote a pamphlet entitled, “Thoughts on the African Slave Trade.” In his introduction, he writes this:
“If my testimony should not be necessary, or serviceable, yet, perhaps, I am bound, in conscience, to take shame to myself by a public confession, which, however sincere, comes too late to prevent, or repair, the misery and mischief to which I have, formerly, been accessary. I hope it will always be a subject of humiliating reflection to me, that I was, once, an active instrument, in a business at which my heart now shudders.” As much as this pamphlet advocated for Abolition, it also served as John Newton’s public confession.
His writings are difficult. I read his pamphlet this week and worried about how much to share. He describes humans being treated like cargo, stacked up on shelves just a few feet high, often stuck below decks for weeks at a time, hundreds of them, left to sit and live and lay and sleep in their own waste, chained together. Chained, as he describes, not left hand to right hand and left foot to right hand as would make the most sense, but right hand to right hand and right foot to right foot, so as to make most natural movements, even rolling over on your shelf, impossible. He describes living human cargo being thrown overboard when water ran scarce. He describes the regular, shall I say mistreating, of the slave women by the crew.
And then, let me read one last passage from this pamphlet for you:
“When the ships make the land, (usually the West-India islands,) and have their port in view after having been four, five, six weeks or a longer time, at sea…then, and not before, they venture to release the Men Slaves from their irons. And then, the sight of the land, and their freedom from long and painful confinement, usually excite in them a degree of alacrity, and a transient feeling of joy—The prisoner leaps to lose his chains. But, this joy is short lived indeed. The condition of the unhappy Slaves is in a continual progress from bad to worse. Their case is truly pitiable, from the moment they are in a state of slavery, in their own country; but it may be deemed a state of ease and liberty, compared with their situation on board our ships. Yet, perhaps, they would wish to spend the remainder of their days on ship board, could they know, before-hand, the nature of the servitude which awaits them, on shore; and that the dreadful hardships and sufferings they have already endured, would, to the most of them, only terminate in excessive toil, hunger, and the excruciating tortures of the cart-whip, inflicted at the caprice of an unfeeling Overseer, proud of the power allowed him of punishing whom, and when, and how he pleases.”
In John Newton’s personal experience, slavery in Africa was pitiable, but could be considered “ease and liberty” when compared with what happened on the boats. And then, from what he saw and learned in the British Colonies, what happened to the slaves once they reached land was bad enough to make most of them want to get back onto the boats.
At this point I should probably beg your forgiveness. This story of John Newton was really meant to be a short introduction to my sermon, a paragraph or two at most. But the more I learned about him, the more I was personally inspired. I am not sure if I was ever the kind of wretch that John Newton was, but I have plenty to repent for. And the more I learned about him and his life, the more I wanted to share. I think I was inspired mostly by his ability to truly repent, to completely change his ways in the middle of his life. It was hard to imagine a more radical transformation than this one, from an active slave trader to a vocal Abolitionist.
Just as Jesus Christ once chose Paul, a Pharisee of Pharisees, a murderer of Christians, to spread his Gospel to the larger Roman Empire, so here also the Lord chose this foul-mouthed slave trader to speak on behalf of the Abolitionist cause. And it was his confession, specifically his confession, that helped pave the way for Britain to abolish the Atlantic Slave Trade in 1807. And it was in that same year, at age 82, that John Newton reposed in the Lord.
I tell you this story today, not just because I find it personally inspirational, but because of one other little detail from the life of John Newton. It was pretty normal for ministers of his day to compose little hymns and write verses to be used in services, and on New Year’s Day in 1773, John Newton debuted a little hymn that he would later describe as his autobiography set to verse. The first verse of his hymn reads like this:
“Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound
that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now am found
was blind, but now I see.”
Amazing Grace. In this beautiful, well known verse, John Newton describes himself as a blind man who by God’s Grace is now able to see. That was the parallel with our Gospel story today that I was going for. But as I dug into John Newton’s story, I was surprised how many additional parallels I encountered.
Today’s story begins with a bustling crowd entering into Jericho and passing by a blind man begging on the side of the road. This man asks the crowd what all the excitement is about and hears that Jesus is coming to town. To the blind man, this is, of course, very exciting news. And as the crowd continues to flow past him, the blind man begins to cry out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Notice these are the same words that John Newton cried out in the midst of the storm, “Lord, have mercy!”
And then Luke is careful to tell us that the man is turned away by those at the front of the crowd. This is not just a random detail in our Gospel story, but a regular theme seen throughout the Gospels. Think of the woman at the well being called out for her marital status or the Jesus telling the Canaanite woman that he came first to serve the Judeans. In fact, it is in this exact same chapter of Luke that Jesus tells the story of the tenacious widow who continues to pester the judge for justice until he finally relents and does as she wishes. God is not a genie waiting to grant our wishes. And even when he intends to say, “Yes,” he does it in his own time. And the wait can be a test of your faith. Will you remain diligent in your prayers, will you be faithful in your work, or will you walk away upset and unwilling to change like the Rich Young Ruler.
Ultimately, our blind man’s persistence is rewarded and Jesus asks for the man to be brought before him, inquiring, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man immediately asks that he might receive his sight and Jesus heals him, saying that it was “his faith” that made him well. It wasn’t just the blind man’s belief that Jesus was a great healer, or even the crying out for mercy, but it was his faithful perseverance, together with God’s grace, that had saved him.
Growing up as an Evangelical Christian, where that first moment of faith is given so much weight, I had always heard the line, “Was blind but now I see,” as if it were some sort of instantaneous transformation. But this week, digging deeper into John Newton’s actual story, I discovered that it was in truth a much more gradual healing. In Orthodox teaching, “spiritual blindness” is very real malady. It is a malfunctioning of the mind, in Greek called the nous, which can be thought of as the eye of the heart. It is the nous that St. Paul is talking about in Romans when he teaches, “Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” John Newton’s mind had been conformed to the pattern of the world during his years at sea, and it took time and effort for his mind to be renewed.
The Church teaches that a healthy mind, a renewed mind, both guards what enters into the heart and guides what comes out of the heart. The elders of our Church call this practice nepsis or watchfulness. In the decade between John Newton’s conversion and his eventual ministry, John Newton began to consume the Bible and other spiritual literature, and to watch his mouth and his temper. He cut out the drinking and the gambling. He guarded what went in, and he guided what came out.
And then the parable of the blind man ends this way, “And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, glorifying God; and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.” Again, we see this in the life of John Newton. His faithful tending to his heart and mind was ultimately rewarded by God when his blindness was transformed into sight. “And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.”
John Climacus teaches that, “it is the understanding which is obtained through divine illumination that can brighten the darkness present in others.” St. Saraphim of Sarov teaches, “Acquire a spirit of peace and a thousand around you will be saved.” The Lord himself proclaims, “Let your light shine before humanity, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” We must nurture the light of Christ in our own hearts before we can ever hope to spread His light to those around us.
Like David’s Psalms of confession that have been read in our Church for millennia, John Newton’s little hymn of confession has brought comfort to men and women all across our nation. It was sung by soldiers as they buried their companions in the Civil War. It brought comfort to the hearts of the Cherokee people as they walked westward along the trail of tears. It was sung by Civil Rights demonstrators as they struggled in our streets for equal rights. And it was sung in the little Baptist Church where I was raised and in Churches of all stripes and denominations, all across this land.
And all of this goes back to the day when a wretch of a man named John Newton, scared for his life, cried out in fear, “Lord have mercy on us!” And then went on to do the long hard work of truly repenting. I do not need to tell you that these words, “Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me,” live at the heart of Orthodox piety. Each one of us is that man tossed at sea. Each one of us is that blind man sitting by the side of the road. We need to keep these simple words, “Lord, have mercy,” forever in our hearts as we work at our own personal repentance and even more so if we ever hope to work toward any kind of national repentance.
But if we do this hard work, if we are faithful stewards of these lives God has given us, I believe we can be assured that our Lord who is also faithful, will one day call us to himself and say, “Receive your sight. Your faith has made you well.” Amen.