Devotions for the Fourth Week of Lent

Monday of Lent IV – the Prayer for the Week

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, your mercies are new every morning; and though we deserve only punishment, You receive us as Your children and provide for all our needs of body and soul. Grant that we may heartily acknowledge Your merciful goodness, give thanks for all Your benefits, and serve You in willing obedience; through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Sometimes the order in which something happens is important. I spent a few months in Italy and while there took a one-evening cooking class in which we learned how to make pizza the Italian way. The dough recipe requires a certain amount of time and planning. At one point, I am to combine the yeast and the flour together with the water and stir. And then I must wait. After the prescribed time has passed, I add salt. The salt retards the yeast. If I add it out of order or too soon, the dough won’t rise properly. I must do it in the proper order.

Notice the order of the things we ask God to do today. First that He would grant us to acknowledge His merciful goodness. Then, we give thanks for his benefits. It is only after He has given us the knowledge and the thankful hearts that we finally get around to serving God. If you skip the steps or imagine them out of order, it won’t work too well. Something goes awry.

The modifiers are also important in this progression. Read the prayer again and pay attention to how these things are described. The acknowledgment is heartily done. The thanksgiving is for all the benefits which God has given. The service rendered in a willing obedience. If we try to skip a step, the result won’t be a willing obedience but a slavish or worldly sort of obedience. And so, the acknowledgment of God’s benefits needs to be a thing of the heart and then the thanksgiving needs to be for all the benefits. Those are key ingredients, properly ordered, which lead us to an obedience which is not begrudging or offered as a purchase.

In these days of anxiety and turmoil this becomes especially important. Take stock of the things God has done for you. Begin with the gift of Jesus, your Baptism, and the people of your life who care for you. Think about opportunities to be educated and work and grow. God has been very good to you. Thank him for all those gifts. The list should be long. It is then that the obedience to which you are called becomes a willing service.

Tuesday of Lent IV: Isaiah 42:14-21

14 For a long time I have held my peace;

I have kept still and restrained myself;

now I will cry out like a woman in labor;

I will gasp and pant.

15 I will lay waste mountains and hills,

and dry up all their vegetation;

I will turn the rivers into islands,

and dry up the pools.

16 And I will lead the blind

in a way that they do not know,

in paths that they have not known

I will guide them.

I will turn the darkness before them into light,

the rough places into level ground.

These are the things I do,

and I do not forsake them.

17 They are turned back and utterly put to shame,

who trust in carved idols,

who say to metal images,

“You are our gods.”

18 Hear, you deaf,

and look, you blind, that you may see!

19 Who is blind but my servant,

or deaf as my messenger whom I send?

Who is blind as my dedicated one,

or blind as the servant of the LORD?

20 He sees many things, but does not observe them;

his ears are open, but he does not hear.

21 The LORD was pleased, for his righteousness' sake,

to magnify his law and make it glorious.

God has something to say, and He will not be denied. Like a woman in labor, He gasps and pants until it sees the light of day. I was privileged to be present at the birth of all three of my children. I remember my hand being crushed as my wife labored. There is a compulsion to a woman’s labor. When the time comes, this child will be born. Isaiah’s words speak of God’s great desire to say these things. Notice what He must say. He will lead the blind in a path they do not know. The light will shine for them. The rough places made smooth. The idolater will be the one put to shame. This is what God feels He has to say.

But look closely at the final verses of these words from Isaiah. The servant, the one who accomplishes these things, is also blind. Is He talking about Jesus? Yes. Jesus did not skim the creation but dove into our humanity fully. As it says in Isaiah 53, He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. In the strange mystery of God rescuing his rebellious creation, justice was made by greatest injustice and healing came through horrible wounding.

This demands our faith. We will not logic our way into this mystery of God. He tells the blind to look and the deaf to listen. Reason would switch those commands. The blind can listen and the deaf can see, but God works in strange ways. Often, we must simply rely upon his promise because that is all we have. Today, in a world that seems upside-down and backwards, as reasonable people might question everything, hear and trust the words at the end of verse 16 above: I do not forsake them. God has not and does not forsake you.

Wednesday of Lent IV: Psalm 142 A maskil of David, when he was in the cave

1 With my voice I cry out to the LORD;

with my voice I plead for mercy to the LORD.

2 I pour out my complaint before him;

I tell my trouble before him.

3 When my spirit faints within me,

you know my way!

In the path where I walk

they have hidden a trap for me.

4 Look to the right and see:

there is none who takes notice of me;

no refuge remains to me;

no one cares for my soul.

5 I cry to you, O LORD;

I say, “You are my refuge,

my portion in the land of the living.”

6 Attend to my cry,

for I am brought very low!

Deliver me from my persecutors,

for they are too strong for me!

7 Bring me out of prison,

that I may give thanks to your name!

The righteous will surround me,

for you will deal bountifully with me.

The ascriptions which appear at the beginning of many Psalms are not part of the inspired text. They are ancient but we don’t know quite when they were added or by whom. They tell us that 73 of the 150 Psalms were written by David and 16 of them include a context for the psalm. This is one of those 16. Whoever wrote the ascription wants us to read these words while having in mind the day that David hid in a cave. There are two times David was found in a cave. If you have the time, read those stories in I Samuel 22:1-5 and I Samuel 24. In both accounts, David is at the end of his rope. He is hiding. He is afraid. He might die.

Does that sound familiar to you? David begs God in verse 7 to lead him out of his prison. But he has self-isolated and is desperately trying to maintain a life-saving social distance from Saul. Sounds a little living in the days of the COVID shutdown. No one has thrown David in prison, but it feels like prison to him. There are lots of ways we can feel imprisoned even when we don’t have bars on the windows and guards who are standing at the door to prevent us from leaving. Do you feel a little imprisoned today? I think all people feel that at some point in their life.

This Psalm points us to another day. David looked forward to it, when the righteous and not his enemies would surround him. Join David today in pouring out your complaint to God. Are you lonely, afraid, bored, or something else? David brought it to God. You can too. Trust that God is big enough to listen to all that you feel, even if it is petty or small or if it seems like there is no solution. David felt that way too. He said a prayer in that cave.

Thursday of Lent IV: Ephesians 5:8-14

8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. 13 But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, 14 for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,

“Awake, O sleeper,

and arise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you.”

If you have time, open up your bible and read the verses before and after this in Ephesians 5. They bring great hope and blessing to us today.

These words before us speak of the great change that Christ has wrought in our lives. We were darkness and now we are light. Notice, it is not that we are “in” darkness and light, but we “were” darkness and “are” light. We are urged then to walk (live!) as children of light. That path can be difficult and sometimes hard to see. Our enemy is a masterful liar who often casts something evil as something good and vice versa. We must do some discerning about what is pleasing to the Lord. This is not easy, and it takes faith.

Paul quotes someone at the end of our reading. We have no idea who it is, but this quote is vitally important to this passage. It is not an Old Testament quotation, Paul’s usual but not only source for a quote. We think it might be a song which the people of Paul’s day were singing about Jesus. He shines on us and that is what makes us the light. The sleeper awakes. We rise from the death of our sins. But we are not shining with our own light. It is Christ who shines on us and illumines our lives. Look in the mirror, but don’t expect the light to come from inside that person. Expect, instead, that Christ is shining on you. Luther exhorts us daily to rise from the waters of our remembered baptism in which we have drown the old man and risen to a newness of life. You shine with the light of Christ.

Friday of Lent IV: John 9

1 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud 7 and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.

8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” 10 So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” 12 They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14 Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” 16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. 17 So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”

18 The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight 19 and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” 20 His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. 21 But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” 22 (His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.) 23 Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

24 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” 25 He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” 26 They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27 He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” 28 And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” 30 The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. 32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” 34 They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out.

35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” 38 He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. 39 Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” 40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.

As we experienced last week, this is a very long reading and it cannot be abbreviated. Read it slowly and carefully. Better, think of this as a play. It is written that way. If you have multiple folks in the house assign them parts. You will need a narrator, Jesus, the blind man, and someone to read the group parts, parents, neighbors, disciples, pharisees. They speak with one voice, but they are always a group of folks.

As you read this passage pay close attention to the words and actions of the blind man. Notice how he talks about Jesus throughout this story. In verse 10 he calls Jesus a man. In verse 17 he says Jesus is a prophet. In verse 33 he declares that Jesus is from God. In verse 38 he doesn’t say it with his mouth but with his knees. He falls upon his knees and worships Jesus. Pious Jews only worship God.

By the end of the story, only the blind man can see. Everyone else is in fact blind. Only the blind man has faith. The readings this week have all asked us to open our eyes, acknowledge the gifts of God, give thanks, and join this blind man in a willing obedience. We have been reminded of faith.

Like the Samaritan woman at the well, the Blind Man of this passage is an unlikely hero. Like the blind man, we too must grope our way into the future, unable to see what will happen. There is a whole industry devoted to predicting the future, but they are wrong so often. We are blind to the future in many respects. But God has opened our eyes to some incontrovertible truths. Jesus cares for people. He has died for their sins and risen for their justification. As the blind man saw so clearly. He is not only from God, He is God. Trust him.