Fourth Sunday in Lent
One heresy in the early church was called Donatism. The Donatists held that the sacraments were only efficacious if presided over by priests who were sinless. It didn’t take the church long to realize that if it held to this policy there would be no sacraments for anyone. So if the gospel can be proclaimed through the preaching of a sinner, then we must allow for the possibility that God’s healing may be accomplished through extraordinary means. God chooses a boy too young to be taken seriously to anoint as one chosen to lead Israel. When the prophet Samuel is sent by God to find the new king who will replace Saul, Samuel goes through a long line of all Jesse’s tall, strapping, competent-looking sons of appropriate age. When none of them are chosen, finally Jesse sends for young David. All of the obvious-to-us choices were declined in favor of a boy. What we may see as authoritative, respectable, and trustworthy may not always align with God. Today’s first reading reminds us that “the Lord does not see as mortals see” (1 Sam. 16:7).
This theme of sight runs throughout today’s texts, both in terms of how God does not see as we see and also in Jesus’ healing of a man born blind. Jesus chooses to heal a blind man on the sabbath with dirt and saliva, much to the dismay of the good religious people who were certain they knew better than to display such questionable judgment and behavior. Lent is a time to reevaluate. Let it also be a time to examine the ways in which we do not see what God is doing around us because we too think we know better. Bottom line: God often uses the unexpected to accomplish redemption.
