4L20.    1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a.   The Lord was ready to choose his king over Israel.  Samuel looked at Jesse’s first son, Eliab “and thought, ‘Surely, the Lord’s anointed is here before him.’” “But the Lord said to Samuel,” “Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance but the Lord looks into the heart.”  David, the last of the sons who was left out tending sheep, was brought in before God who “said, ‘There—anoint him, for this is the one!’”  Human sight is infinitely limited because our human vision cannot see the fullness of the truth, of reality.  We can so easily think that what we see is all there is.  That is the lie the devil nourishes within us.  God does not have our human limitations.

John 9:1-41.   The people of Jesus’ times thought that any bodily deformity or defect was the result of our sin or that of generations before us.  When questioned, “Jesus answered, ‘Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.’”  Our physical, mental or emotional difficulties require that we go to God for help rather than depend on ourselves.  What we lack can make us all the richer, impelling us to fill  what is lacking in ourselves by sending us to the one who lacks in nothing that is good, our loving God.  Jesus is the light of the world, since in his light God, the Father is made visible.

When Jesus saw a man born blind, “he spat on the ground and made clay from his saliva, and smeared the clay on his eyes.”  The blind man went and washed, and came back able to see.”  Genesis 2:9 reads: “Out of the ground the Lord God made various trees grow that were delightful to look at and good for food.”  The Lord made the ground and it was good.  Out of that same goodness that is the earth, he still makes and does many good things. The blind man washed and was able to see.

The Pharisees refused to see the goodness of God in Jesus.  If they did, they would have had to surrender their authority to God and have lost some of the earthly goods they were obtaining by their making of themselves the supreme authority on earth.  “Then Jesus said, ‘I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind.’” The ways of this world that are self-service but not giving service to God are the ways by which we blind ourselves to the ultimate truth that is God.  By whose authority do we claim to assert the things we think and say are true: by God’s or by ours?

Ephesians 5:8-14.  “You were once darkness, but now you are in the light of the Lord.”  Jesus who is the light makes us ambassadors of the light.  He who ascended now commissions us through the Holy Spirit to bring his light to the world. “Live as children of the light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth.”  Darkness swallows us up and renders us lost in a material body that cannot see in the truth of eternal life.  If we continue to live in the coffin that is the devil, we will be in eternal darkness.  Jesus is the sunlight of eternal happiness.  Reality is eternal truth; the lie can be gratifying for the moment, since enables us to invent a world that is pleasing to us. It is so easy to be fooled.  What feels so good is all too inviting. We must deal with the truth or reality as it is and not what we wish it to be. It was not easy for Jesus on the cross; and nor for us with our feet planted on the ground of the real world. The Holy Spirit strengths us.  It is not easy because the darkness of this world and the devil can be so deceptively convincing and leave us lost in the darkness forever.  The Holy Spirit brings us the life of Christ.  Only he is the truth and the light.  All else is darkness and deception. Remain with him; his eternal victory is always ours!