Preparing for Worship - March 19, 2023

The Scriptures this week use the imagery of people being blind and deaf, and yet how the Lord can help and give hope, especially through the gift of Christ our Savior and His Word and work in and for us.

The Psalm is Psalm 142. David wrote this psalm, likely when he was hiding in a cave, alone, like a “prisoner,” when he was being pursued by King Saul, who wanted to kill him. He was in great danger and had been “brought very low” by his persecutors, who are “too strong” for him. He felt “his spirit fainting away within him,” and no one seemed to notice or care. (You could read more about this on your own in 1 Samuel 18:6ff. and in chapter 20ff., when David said, “There is but a step between me and death” (1 Samuel 20:3).) It is as if David felt hopeless, blinded by all his “troubles and complaints,” until he finally remembered to turn to the Lord, his “refuge,” and cry out to Him. Then he regains hope that he will be able to “give thanks” to the Lord, who “will deal bountifully with him,” in His own way and time.

The Old Testament lesson is from Isaiah 42:14-21. The Lord has “kept still for a long time,” waiting for His people to follow Him as they should. Too many, though, of His own “servant messengers,” the people of Israel, have become blind and deaf and have even fallen into idolatry and worship of false gods. Like an expectant mother, whose time for labor has come, the Lord must gasp and pant and cry out, in judgment for His people’s rebellion, but then, in time, with joy and guidance for the blind, turning “their darkness into light” and showing that they are “not forsaken.” Jesus quotes from the beginning of Isaiah 42 as referring to Himself, in Matthew 12:18-23 and then literally heals a blind and mute man. Jesus is the true light of the world, who is blind and deaf to the temptations of this sinful world and only follows His heavenly Father’s will, “pleasing” Him in perfect “righteousness,” in our place, as our Savior.

The Gospel lesson is from John 9:1-41. Jesus shows that He is the Promised Savior, as He heals a man “blind from birth.” He does this even on the sabbath day, showing God’s New Covenant and not limiting His mercy only to certain days and people. The religious leaders show that they are spiritually blind and “guilty,” as they reject Jesus and cast away the blind man now healed, even though he is only speaking the truth. The man is not only healed physically, but spiritually, for he is brought to believe that Jesus is the “Son of Man,” another Old Testament name for the Promised Savior, and he worships Jesus as “Lord.”

In the Epistle lesson, Ephesians 5:8-14, Paul proclaims that through the light of Christ, people who were spiritually asleep and, even worse, spiritually dead (spiritually “blind at birth,” as we all are), became living “children of light” and they themselves “light of the Lord.” They are now producing “fruit” in their lives that is “good and right and true… and pleasing to the Lord,” instead of “shameful, unfruitful works of darkness.” It is all because “Christ now shines on them,” as their Savior. That is the promise of the Lord for all, including us, in Christ.