Lent 4 2014

Lent 1 Sin

Lent 2 Salvation

Lent 3 Faith

Lent 4 Sight

What we have in Lent 4 is the anointing of David Shepherd Son of Jesse from Bethlehem. The Twenty-Third Psalm which is attributed to David. A passage in Ephesians about shedding light on that which is dark. And finally the story of Jesus restoring the sight of a blind man on the Sabbath and the stir it makes among the Pharisees.

The first thing to strike me is the fact that this text matter-of-factly states that God talked to Samuel and he does so repeatedly. You may remember that it was Samuel who went to Eli when God spoke to him in his dreams as a boy. What would happen if you or I told our parents or friends that we had heard God talking to us?

Against God's wishes the people of Israel had lobbied Nathan the prophet to annoint and install Saul King so that they would have a monarch just as the neighbouring nations did. Before that the twelve tribes had existed as a Theocracy under the prophets and judges. Saul proved to be headstrong and a disappointment sinking eventually into madness and getting eliminated with Jonathan his son in battle.

In today's lesson Samuel is sent by devious means as instructed by God to anoint Saul's successor. It is under David as King that Israel enters into its Golden Age as a Nation but at the cost of great bloodshed and it should be remembered that even David sinned against God and suffered from a house divided so that it was left to Solomon his son to build God's Holy Temple. In fact it is through Bethsheba's offspring that Jesus and Joseph's lineage is traced, Matthew 1 states by the wife of Uriah. David is found minding his father's flocks of sheep in the hill country surrounding Bethlehem. There is no record of the reaction of David's seven older siblings when their bratty younger brother who was relegated to shepherd duty was anointed by Samuel the prophet. It was the fact that David's home was in Bethlehem that led Joseph to proudly claim that heritage and journey there and led to the birth of his son there.

Since this is not Good Shepherd Sunday one must assume that Psalm 23 was chosen as the Shepherd King David's most famous song. Two passages stand out:

Psa 23:4  Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Psa 23:5  You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

The rod in question is not that which defends in battle but the chastening and reproving rod which comforts because it provides God's guidance--call it your conscience if you will.

And the anointing could be seen to refer back to:

1Sa 16:13  Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.

Thus the Holy Spirit entered David from that day on. The anointing with oil gave David insight. To this day in Baptism we anoint with oil at baptism to symbolize the baptism of the Holy Spirit as well as the washing away of sin in repentance with water as instituted by John.

In Ephesians we return to this church year's overarching theme of Light. The Word made Flesh brings Light to our Darkness. As Children of the Light we are to bring the Word/Light to the world's Darkness.

And so we come to the 41 verses of John 9. Jesus restores a blind man to sight. Did the mud he places on the man's eyes remove the scales of the man's cataracts or did his faith restore his sight? The point is made that this man's blindness is not the result of some Deuteronomic Justice as punishment for someone's sins. Again in verse 5 Jesus states: "I am the light of the world." The former blind man's neighbours and the Pharisees did not have sight. They remained in the darkness of doubt blinded by the Law. All they could 'see' was the fact that this healing took place on the Sabbath in violation of the Commandment to do no work on God's Holy Day. They felt their authority threatened by the teachings of this Rabbi and threatened any who became his disciples with exclusion from the synagogue, in effect with being shunned by the community.

The issue of faith healing and Jesus signs, wonders, and miracles is a topic for another day. The fact that Jesus performed them in his day marked him as a messenger from God. As prophesied by the prophets and affirmed by Jesus and John it was recognized that he was the Messiah as a result of his ability to perform these acts. In the context of today's theme the healing is symbolic of the Word bringing Light to a world where the establishment was unwilling to see the Light.