Commentary on Lectionary for April 3, 2011

Lent 4A

1 Samuel 16:1-13; Psalm 23; Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1-41

One of Shakespeare’s favorite themes is the contrast between appearance and reality. “That one may smile and smile and be a villain,” Hamlet says of Gertrude. So many of our images are given (or pushed) on us by advertisers and politicians that it is extremely difficult to know what is real and what is either false or simply unreal. During the NCAA tournament, one has to wonder what being filmed for national TV does to a coach’s pre-game speech and behavior.

The choice of David as King of Israel could not be clearer in its emphasis on reality versus experience. This little shepherd had the courage and the acumen to challenge and defeat Goliath, whom anyone would have bet on to win that battle. And John sets out the same theme, only in terms of blindness. The man born blind is the only one who sees that Jesus is far from being a sinner, and is instead a Prophet.

The Pharisees are trapped in their law and can’t see any way around it. If you work on the Sabbath, you have broken the Law. They felt this law came directly from God. Therefore, anyone who broke this law MUST be a sinner. In their minds, there could be no other conclusion. They were blind to any other possibility.

The question is: what did they miss? What did they not see? Jesus said: Because you say you see, your sin remains. Whoa! Now we’re talking about sin! The Pharisees were raised on the principle that if a person is born blind, then his parents must have committed some sin. Physical ailments or handicaps were always the result of somebody’s sin. Job’s friends spent days trying to convince him of this.

Maybe Psalm 23 has the answer. What the Pharisees missed was “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” Jesus slowly and persistently shows that obedience to the specifications of the Law that spell out what keeping holy the Sabbath means and define what “work” on the Sabbath is, are not what God meant in the Sinai commandment. We in this part of the U.S. have given up on any societal attempt to keep the Sabbath holy and even if we wanted to, would have to keep our kids out of certain sports because their only practice time is on Sundays. But the need to preserve its holiness remains because such Sabbath rest is a time for us to remember what is truly important, to revive our spirits, and to reconnect with the Lord our Shepherd. This is what the Torah was supposed to be about.

This is not easy to see. The culture grows on us as if we were petri dishes. The appearances trump the realities like a championship bridge team. For us whose cataracts have been slowly growing, Paul starts the process of defining sight as light and blindness as darkness. John will make this transition also, especially in his letters. Jesus is identified as the light of the world. And so Paul has the best advice: “Live as children of light— 9: for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. 10: Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:9-10).

Now it’s easy to see: “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me“ (Psalm 23:4). We are meant to see God through Jesus.