Fourth Sunday in Lent

You have anointed my head with oil,
and my cup is running over.
Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. Samuel then set out and went to Ramah. (1 Samuel 16:13)

The Sunday Lectionary in Year A features the great catechetical lessons that were traditionally used to prepare individuals for Baptism at Easter. Today we get lessons related to anointing, something the catechumens will experience soon.

Samuel anointing David
Dura-Europos (via Wikipedia)

Although anointing was used in other contexts in ancient Israel, the term "Anointed" came to refer to the Kings of Israel. The Hebrew word is מָׁשִיַח, (Mašíaḥ) which has been anglicized as Messiah. The Greek translation of this is χριστος (khristos), the source of "Christ." Most of those looking at this post already know this, but I want the imagery involved to be clear.

Today's first lesson tells of the anointing of David to be king. This is a treasonous act since Saul, the previously anointed king, is still alive and on the throne. That explains why Samuel was nervous about this and why there is so much anxiety and secrecy involved in this episode.

Peter's "confession" is a turning point in Mark's Gospel. When he says to Jesus "You are the Messiah" (Mark 8:29), this acknowledgment by a follower (not a stranger, a demon, or outsider) concludes Jesus' early ministry in Galilee and its environs. From here we move into the vision of the Transfiguration and Jesus' new course toward Jerusalem and the Cross.

We do not hear of a literal anointing of Jesus with oil until his feet are anointed in unwitting anticipation of his burial but Christians understand his anointing to be with the Holy Spirit, of which oil is a symbol, in his Baptism. There the Spirit descends upon him.


Today's Epistle brings in the theme of light:

For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light--for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. (Ephesians 5:8-9)

We are not merely children of the light, called to walk in the light and bear the fruit of light, we are told that "in the Lord YOU ARE LIGHT." An astonishing assertion.

Now the anointing and the light come together.

As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. We* must work the works of him who sent me* while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’ When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, saying to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. (John 9:1-7)

Intractable, incurable congenital blindness overcome by the power of God through the rather unsanitary method of an anointing of spit-mud. So tactile, so human, so dirty, so unexpected.


Into the formerly blind man's world light now comes flooding. The one thing he knew is that he used to be blind and now he can see. (Cue bagpipes for "Amazing Grace.")

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

We--lost in the darkness of ignorance, fear, willfulness, malice, brokenness, perversity, and desire--find the Holy One taking note of us (much as Jesus walked along and saw the blind man) and bringing us into the Light.
At our Baptism we are not daubed upon the eyes with a mud of clay and spittle, but we are anointed. The entire initiatory rite is, among other names, called Illumination. God's Light is given to us, who are now called light in the Lord.

Chrism is smeared on our foreheads with the sign of the Cross. We are anointed, christ-ened, made to be new messiahs, new christs, united to the Holy One of God.

The lessons for this Sunday are about us--about our being chosen of God and anointed, our being transferred from darkness into light, our being touched by Jesus and made to see, our experience of God as gracious Giver of Life, who renews and changes our lives, drawing us ever deeper into the Light, and making us vessels of light, healing, and love.



Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
--the BB