Lent 4

1 Samuel 16:1-13
David as the anointed leader. The person God calls to lead may not be the person we would expect.

John 9:1-41
Jesus heals the blind man on the Sabbath. Lots of stuff about blindness and seeing.

Jesus heals a man born blind. He heals him through an act of anointing where he creates mud with his saliva. John 9:6:  “When Jesus had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with saliva and spread the mud over the man’s eyes.” Here Jesus is redoing Genesis where God created Adam and Eve out of mud. The word Adam is from the Hebrew word Adamah and means “mud creature”. Jesus is restoring the man to his “original state”. The man born blind was never a sinner, although he was judged a sinner by his community who determined that his lack of sight was a punishment from God. In anointing him with the mud of creation Jesus makes clear that the man born blind always was and is an original blessing, blessed to be a blessing to others. The man born blind is also anointing as a king in the new creation inaugurated by Jesus. The new creation is a state of utter unity with God knowing that God is everywhere.