March 15, 2026 – The Fourth Sunday in Lent
Dr. Greg Phelps
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be always acceptable in your sight, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.
SLOW DOWN
Today’s unifying theme for the lessons is light, sight and seeing. You may have heard many times that “seeing is believing” but in a number of these passages today, “believing is seeing.”
First let’s set the scene from Samuel. Saul has offended God by failing to exterminate the Amalkites and their farm stock and King Agag. So, God has rejected Saul and tasks Samuel with anointing a new king. Samuel is understandably afraid because King Saul has threatened to kill him. Using a ruse, God leads Samuel to Jesse to review his sons for anointment. When he gets to the first son Eliab, Samuel sees a handsome young man and thinks surely this is the guy.
The lord, however, rejects Eliab. The Lord says ‘do not look on his appearance or the height of his stature… The Lord does not see as mortals see.” God sees differently and Samuel works his way through all the sons at the home with God rejecting each one.
‘Are there anymore?’ Samuel asks in desperation. David is summoned from where he is tending the sheep. Despite being the youngest, it was he whom God wanted anointed. Despite being the slightest and the least, God could see the leader he would become. Sight versus seeing.
Next in Ephesians we are encouraged to live as children of light. The admonition is “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness but expose them.” We see this today in the political adage behind freedom of information requests …that demonstrate— “sunlight is the greatest sanitizer of politics.” Exposing that which has been held in the dark into the light. Again, light and sight.
Now we get to the story in John with the man blind since birth. To revisit the scene, it is the Sabbath. Jesus first announces that he is the light of the world. The Gospel of John refers to Jesus as light almost 30 times. Next, he sees the blind man who is to others, literally furniture along the roadside. Taking pity he spat on the ground and made mud and put it on the man’s eyes and sends him wash in the pool of Siloam. Interestingly Siloam means “sent” which means Jesus sent the blind man to “pool of sent.” Remember he has not yet seen Jesus, only heard his voice.
Now ensues what can only be described as an Abbott and Costello kind of confusion. Because the healing was done on the Sabbath no one wants to get involved, as the Pharisees are incensed. They say, “this man is not from God for he did not observe the Sabbath.”
They’re not even sure that this is the blind guy in the first place. Another bystander says ‘no it just looks like him, but the other guy was blind!’ Meanwhile the formerly blind man repeatedly says it is him. Not convinced and looking for their preferred answer, the Pharisees then go to the parents to demand answers from them. They fear being ejected from the synagogue and hedge on identifying their own son. ‘Ask him,’ they say ‘he’s an adult, let him speak for himself.’ The formerly blind guy is still saying “I’m here. I can hear you, I can see you…hello!” Confusion abounds!
The formerly blind man points out the absurdity saying; ‘Here is an astonishing thing; you do not know where my healer comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. Pharisees insists Jesus is of sin and drive him out.’
He finally re-encounters Jesus. Remember he couldn’t see him on the first encounter when he was sent to the pool. Now he identifies Jesus and worships him. Jesus sums it all up saying “
‘I came into the world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.’
Now some of the blindness that we’re talking about is not just appearance but how do we see as Jesus sees? How do we use scripture to “see” biblically? How do we see those to whom Jesus was drawn, but are often invisible? How do we see the poor, the immigrant, the marginalized, the homeless? How do we see those whom much of society prefers us not to see?
For us here at Good Samaritan, we dwell in the context of ‘who is our neighbor?’ We are called as Christians to see them and minister to them. And we do. Between Family Promise, Volunteer Ministries Center, Cash in the Plate and other ministries, we are making efforts to see and help. But there is always more to do in the wider community.
Our church has been a member of Justice Knox since it was founded in 2016. Justice Knox works to show our elected officials the power of constituents supporting those invisible people on our margins. We do this by showing them voters, lots of voters motivated by church action to speak for our less fortunate neighbors. Some people say they want to avoid “POLITICS” but this ‘show and tell’ is the essence of Christian action. Remember as the book of James says, ‘faith without works is dead’. The Justice Knox Nehemiah Action Assembly is April 13. This is a chance for us to overcome society’s blindness and see as Jesus would have us see. I hope each of you might consider being seen that evening. Help heal the blindness in our community by showing up and being the light.
Amen