Tuesday March 23 Lent 5
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Psalm 120
God saved me from those who lie and rely on deceit. Even though I am committed to peace, those around me still seek war.
Psalm 121
Confidence that God will watch over us to protect us from natural calamities and everyday situations.
Psalm 122
Joy at entering Jerusalem to worship in the temple. Prayers for Jerusalem.
Psalm 123
We keep our eyes trained on God’s direction to us, like servants alert to their owner’s slightest hand signal. We are oppressed by the wealthy and we anticipate God’s signal at any moment that God will act.
Jeremiah 25: 8-17
Because the people have abandoned justice, God will use the surrounding nations to capture the people and destroy their cities. God will call Nebuchadrezzar, the pagan king of Babylon, to capture the people and enslave them in Babylon as the consequence of what they have done. But God is not relentless, and after 70 years God will punish those nations for having enslaved God’s people, and will set the people free. Despite their suffering the consequences of the oppression they have carried out against the poor, God will not abandon them and will continue to protect and rescue them.
Jeremiah is interpreting the historical events of his time—the capture and destruction of Jerusalem and the people’s subsequent return to Jerusalem a generation later—as God’s underlying commitment even to people who have deliberately betrayed God. The challenge to us is whether we can interpret the events of our day in a parallel way, able to see God operating behind the international events of our time.
John 9: 18-41
Today we conclude the long conversation arising from Jesus healing someone born blind. As always in John’s gospel this conversation about sight and blindness is intended to be understood at multiple levels and perhaps is a response to criticisms of Jesus being levelled at Christians at the time this gospel was written.
In an attempt to disprove the miracle, the religious authorities call the man’s parents who are too frightened of being thrown out of their faith to admit that it was Jesus. It may be that religious leaders at this time were threatening Christians with the equivalent of excommunication if they continued to affirm that Jesus had given them insight. The authorities then once again confront the man who insists that he was healed, impossible though that seems. They contend that he is unreliable because his former blindness is proof of his sinfulness. These may have been arguments used against early Christians as being unreliable sinners.
Finally, Jesus comes to the man and explains that he is the image of God (the “Son of man”), and that Jesus’ role is to heal people so they see that the death and resurrection of love is the only way to live. Ironically there will be some who choose to be blind to that truth.
John is saying that this is the normal process of coming to understand the significance of Jesus: it’s a gradual process which can involve criticism by others, but Jesus’ self-offering death and subsequent resurrection is the lens through which we see life clearly, even if that insight is rejected by others who are blind to it and insist it is nonsense.
This week’s collect:
Almighty God,
your Son came into the world
to free us all from sin and death.
Breathe upon us with the power of your Spirit,
that we may be raised to new life in Christ,
and serve you in holiness and righteousness all our days;
through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
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