Quinquagesima (11 Jan. 2018)

Look at the son

The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons."  And Samuel said, "How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me." And the LORD said, "Take a heifer with you and say, 'I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.'  And invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. And you shall anoint for me him whom I declare to you."  Samuel did what the LORD commanded and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling and said, "Do you come peaceably?"  And he said, "Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Consecrate yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice." And he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.  When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, "Surely the LORD's anointed is before him."  But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart."  Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, "Neither has the LORD chosen this one."  Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, "Neither has the LORD chosen this one."  And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, "The LORD has not chosen these."  Then Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all your sons here?" And he said, "There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep." And Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here."  And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the LORD said, "Arise, anoint him, for this is he."  Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.  1 Samuel 16:1-13

Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.  Say to those who have an anxious heart, "Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you."  Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.  Isaiah 35:3-7

For our shield belongs to the LORD, our king to the Holy One of Israel.  Of old you spoke in a vision to your godly one, and said: "I have granted help to one who is mighty; I have exalted one chosen from the people.  I have found David, my servant; with my holy oil I have anointed him, so that my hand shall be established with him; my arm also shall strengthen him.  The enemy shall not outwit him; the wicked shall not humble him.  I will crush his foes before him and strike down those who hate him.  My faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him, and in my name shall his horn be exalted.  I will set his hand on the sea and his right hand on the rivers.  He shall cry to me, 'You are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation.'  And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.  My steadfast love I will keep for him forever, and my covenant will stand firm for him.  I will establish his offspring forever and his throne as the days of the heavens.  Psalm 89:18-29

Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD, O my soul!  I will praise the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.  Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.  When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.  Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever; who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free; the LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous.  The LORD watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.  The LORD will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the LORD!  Psalm 146

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.  Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.  When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.  For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.  So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.  1 Corinthians 13:1-13

And taking the twelve, He said to them, "See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.  For He will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon.  And after flogging Him, they will kill Him, and on the third day He will rise."  But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.  As He drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging.  And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant.  They told him, "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by."  And he cried out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"  And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"  And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to Him. And when he came near, He asked him, "What do you want me to do for you?" He said, "Lord, let me recover my sight."  And Jesus said to him, "Recover your sight; your faith has made you well."  And immediately he recovered his sight and followed Him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.  Luke 18:31-43

"Son of David, have mercy on me!"

But who is the son of David, and who is David?

David was no one.  The youngest son of a shepherd, chosen above his brothers to shepherd a people.  God's strength, faithfulness, and steadfast love were with him.  A covenant was made between God and David.

But David is still a "no one."

It is the Son of David who people were looking for.  It was He that the throne was promised to.  His ascension to the throne would be a day of vengeance and of great majesty.  Isaiah was shown that day.  The deaf shall hear, The lame shall leap.  The mute shall sing for joy.  The deserts will become an oasis.

And blind men shall see.

On the road to Jerusalem, on His way to the Cross, Jesus stops one last time to fulfill the words of Isaiah.  One last blind man to heal.  But not too blind.

Unlike the Pharisees, and even the Disciples at times, this blind man could see.  He could see who Jesus is.  He could see that Jesus isn't just a descendant of David, the king of Israel, but that Jesus is the Son of David.  This is the man whom the prophets foretold, who the lawgiver spoke with on Sinai, who David declared his allegiance to, who would be the only and true Passover lamb.

With faith like that, did Jesus need to heal him?  This man could already see, and was seeing clearly who to put his faith in.  But our Lord is merciful, and granted this beggar his sight.

And praise be to God that He grants us, mere beggars, sight as well.