Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Samuel anoints David as king

16 The Lord said to Samuel, ‘Stop being sad about Saul. I have decided that he will no longer be the king of Israel. Fill your horn with olive oil and go.^[a] I am sending you to a man whose name is Jesse. He lives in Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to become king.’

² Samuel said, ‘If I go to do that, people will tell Saul about it. Then he will kill me.’

The Lord said, ‘Take a calf with you. Tell the people that you have come to offer a sacrifice to the Lord. ³ Then ask Jesse to come to the sacrifice. I will show you what to do after that. I will show you the person that you must anoint with the oil.’

⁴ Samuel obeyed the Lord. He went to Bethlehem. The leaders of the town went to meet Samuel, but they were very afraid. They asked him, ‘Have you come to visit us as a friend?’

⁵ Samuel replied, ‘Yes. I do not bring any trouble. I have come to offer a sacrifice to the Lord. Make yourselves clean. Then come to the sacrifice with me.’

Samuel made Jesse and his sons clean to worship the Lord. Then he took them with him to the sacrifice.

⁶ When they arrived, Samuel saw Jesse's son Eliab. Samuel thought, ‘I am sure that the Lord has chosen this man to be king.’

⁷ But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look at how handsome or how tall Eliab is. I have not chosen him. The Lord does not look at people in the way that people do. People look at the face and body of a person. But the Lord sees what they are like inside.’

⁸ Then Jesse called his son Abinadab. Jesse caused him to stand in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, ‘The Lord has not chosen this man either.’

⁹ Jesse caused his son Shammah to stand in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, ‘The Lord has not chosen this man.’

¹⁰ Jesse caused seven of his sons to stand in front of Samuel. But Samuel said to Jesse, ‘The Lord has not chosen any of these men.’

¹¹ Samuel asked Jesse, ‘Are those all of your sons?’

Jesse answered, ‘I have one more son. He is the youngest. He is taking care of my sheep.’

Samuel said, ‘Send someone to bring him here. We cannot continue to offer the sacrifice until he arrives.’

¹² So Jesse told his men to bring his youngest son for Samuel to see. This young man was handsome and strong and he had beautiful eyes.

The Lord said to Samuel, ‘I have chosen this man. Now anoint him as king.’

¹³ Samuel took the horn that was full of olive oil. He poured the oil over David's head to anoint him. Samuel did this in front of David's brothers. From that moment, the Spirit of the Lord came on David with great power.

Then Samuel returned to his home in Ramah.

This is a song that David wrote.

God takes care of his people^[a]

⁸ Once your minds were completely in the dark. But now you belong to the Lord. As a result, you have become full of light. So now you must live as people who belong to the light. ⁹ The light helps you to live in a way that is good, right and true. ¹⁰ You should learn more and more to do the things that please the Lord. ¹¹ People whose minds are in the dark do things that have no good purpose. Keep away from wrong things like that. Instead, show how bad those things really are. ¹² People like that should be ashamed of the things that they do secretly. Those things are too bad for us even to talk about. ¹³ But when God's light shines on something, people can see clearly its true nature. ¹⁴ Everything that becomes clear to see is in the light. That is why it says:

Jesus makes a blind man able to see

9 While Jesus was walking along, he saw a certain man. This man had been blind since he was born. ² Jesus' disciples asked him, ‘Teacher, why was this man blind when he was born? Was it because he himself did something wrong? Or was it because his parents did something wrong?’ ³ Jesus answered, ‘It was not because either this man or his parents did something wrong. It happened so that God could show his great work in this man. ⁴ While it is still day, we must continue to work. God has sent me and we must do his work. We must work now because it will be night soon. Then nobody can work. ⁵ While I am still here in the world, I am the world's light.’

⁶ When Jesus had finished speaking, he spat on the ground. He mixed it with dirt on the ground so that he made mud. Then he put some of the mud on the eyes of the blind man. ⁷ Jesus said to him, ‘Go and wash in the Siloam pool.’ (The name Siloam means ‘Sent’.) So the man went there and he washed himself. When he returned, now he could see.

⁸ People began to talk about him. Some of these people lived near him. Others had seen him when he was asking for money. They said, ‘This is the man who sat here. He asked people to give him money. Isn't that right?’ ⁹ Some people said, ‘Yes, it is him.’ But other people said, ‘No, it is someone who seems to be like him.’ But the man himself said, ‘I am that man.’

¹⁰ They asked him, ‘How did your eyes now become able to see?’ ¹¹ He answered, ‘The man called Jesus made some mud. He put the mud on my eyes. Then he sent me to wash in the Siloam pool. So I went there and I washed. Then I could see.’

¹² They asked him, ‘Where is this man?’ He replied, ‘I do not know.’

The Pharisees talk to the man who had been blind

¹³ The people brought the man who had been blind to the Pharisees. ¹⁴ It was a Jewish day of rest when Jesus had done this miracle. He had used mud to make the man's eyes able to see. ¹⁵ So the Pharisees asked the man again, ‘How did you become able to see?’ The man replied, ‘Jesus put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I can see.’

¹⁶ So some of the Pharisees said, ‘This man Jesus cannot have come from God. He does not obey the rules about our day of rest.’ But other Pharisees said, ‘Nobody who is bad could do great things like this!’ So they did not agree with each other. ¹⁷ The Pharisees spoke again to the man who had been blind. They said to him, ‘What do you yourself say about this man? It was your eyes he has now made able to see.’ The man replied, ‘He is a prophet.’

¹⁸ The Jewish leaders still did not believe that the man had really been blind. They did not want to believe that he had now become able to see. So they told the man's parents to come to them. ¹⁹ They asked the parents, ‘Is this your son? You say, “When he was born, he was blind.” But now he can see. How did this happen?’ ²⁰ The parents replied, ‘We know that this is our son. And when he was born, he was blind. We know that, too. ²¹ But we do not know how he can see now. We do not know who made his eyes able to see. Ask him. He is old enough to answer you for himself!’ ²² The man's parents said these things because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. The Jewish leaders did not want anyone to say that Jesus was the Messiah. They would not let anyone like that belong to their meeting places. ²³ That is why the man's parents said, ‘Ask him. He is old enough.’

²⁴ So the leaders again spoke to the man who had been blind. They said to him, ‘In front of God, promise that you will speak only true things. We know that this man Jesus does not obey God.’ ²⁵ The man replied, ‘I do not know whether he obeys God or not. But I do know one thing: I was blind and now I can see.’ ²⁶ Then they asked him, ‘What did he do to you? How did he make your eyes able to see?’ ²⁷ He answered them, ‘I have told you already and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Maybe you want to become his disciples too!’ ²⁸ Then the leaders were very angry with him. They shouted at him, ‘No, it is you! You are that man's disciple. But we are disciples of Moses. ²⁹ We know that God spoke to Moses. But who is this man? We do not even know where he comes from.’

³⁰ The man answered, ‘That is a very strange thing! You do not know where this man comes from. But he is the one who made my eyes able to see. ³¹ We know that God does not listen to people who do not obey him. But he does listen to good people who do what he wants them to do. ³² Nobody has ever made the eyes of a blind man able to see, if that man had been blind when he was born. Since the world began, that has never happened! ³³ So this man Jesus must have come from God. Unless he came from God, he could not do anything like that.’

³⁴ The Jewish leaders answered him, ‘Since the day that you were born, you have never obeyed God's laws. You cannot teach us anything!’ And they threw him out of the meeting place.

People who do not believe in God are like blind people

³⁵ Jesus heard that the Jewish leaders had thrown the man out. So he went and he found the man. Jesus asked him, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ ³⁶ The man answered, ‘Sir, please tell me who he is. Then I can believe in him.’ ³⁷ Jesus said to him, ‘You have already seen him. It is me, the one who is talking to you now.’ ³⁸ Then the man said, ‘Lord, now I believe.’ He bent down on his knees and he worshipped Jesus.

³⁹ Then Jesus said, ‘I came into this world to judge people. Then people who know that they are blind will be able to see. And people who think they can see will become blind.’ ⁴⁰ Some of the Pharisees who were there with him heard this. They asked Jesus, ‘Do you mean that we are also blind?’ ⁴¹ Jesus said to them, ‘If you were blind, God would not punish you for the wrong things you have done. But you say that you can see. You do wrong things with your eyes open, so God will punish you as guilty people.’