Fourth Sunday of Lent
1 Samuel 16:1b, 6–7, 10–13a
Psalm 23:1–3a, 3b–4, 5, 6
Ephesians 5:8–14
John 9:1–41
“Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance but the Lord looks into the heart.” The heart of each human being has a precious treasure that only God sees. The plan God has for each of us flows from that deep reality.
Samuel the prophet learns that God’s plans flow from what is in the heart rather than from external appearances. To see as God sees is wisdom. When we are engaged in the politics of our age, we can easily get caught up in externals.
The anointing of God is not on the one who wins by personal power or by a show of strength. “Winners” can be left behind when they grasp prizes that have nothing to do with God’s plan. They can miss the truth right in front of them.
We are invited on this Fourth Sunday of Lent to contemplate light and darkness, sight and blindness. Jesus heals a man blind from birth who had one place at the doors of the temple as a beggar and now has a new place as one who can see as God sees, as well as having been cured of blindness. God’s plan for him opens a new world to him, even as it reveals the blindness of all around him.
Those who claim to see are unwilling to accept the gift of salvation because they are not able to move beyond their own way of seeing. Sin remains because the healing from sin is not accepted.
The miracle Jesus performed on this occasion was in stages, inviting action and response on the part of the one being healed. “He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and smeared the clay on his eyes, and said to him, ‘Go wash in the Pool of Siloam’ – which means Sent –. So he went and washed, and came back able to see.”
The journey to Siloam from the Temple Mount would have been easy for the man blind from birth. He knew where everything was. He had only to walk down and seek the smell of water at the Pool of Siloam, the water source for Jerusalem. He did not have to rely on anyone else to take him there.
The return journey to the area of the temple might have been more complicated because he had never seen anything before. Even though he now had sight, he likely had to rely on his other senses to get there.
When he was blind, relationships were simple. He was a beggar, and anyone with a voice that could be heard could be asked for charity. Now that he can see, relationships become more complex.
His neighbors hardly recognize him. The man once blind who now can see was hardly noticed by the religious authorities before, but now he is questioned at length. His parents all but disown him for fear, saying, “Ask him, he is of age; he can speak for himself.” Little by little, he begins to realize Who Jesus is: “He is a prophet.”
When Jesus encounters the man again, having sought him out after he was rejected by others, He reveals Himself as the Son of Man: “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” The man responds, “‘I do believe, Lord,’ and he worshiped him.”
Insight into the presence of God in Jesus leads the man to true understanding and frees him not only from his own physical blindness but also from the blindness of those around him who refuse to see.
Lent calls us to open our eyes to see the world through God’s way of seeing. Darkness is overcome by the enlightenment that Jesus offers. To become free of sin, we must see how we are caught up in it. If we choose to remain blind, our sin remains.
The experience of the Lord’s presence among us can open our eyes to see one another differently. “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”
“Do you believe in the Son of Man?”