To appreciate Scripture correctly, it's always
necessary to know what was happening in the community for which the author
No part of the Bible was composed in a vacuum.
If one didn't know the history of the community, one couldn't write for that
According to scholars like Walter Bruggemann,
only the Exodus influenced the earliest writings of the Hebrew Scriptures
more than King David's reign.
Choice of sons
Among other things, the authors of Genesis make
a big thing out of the fact that Isaac, Jacob and Judah were not their
family's oldest sons. In each case, Yahweh goes against "common
wisdom" and picks someone who doesn't fit the first-son category to
receive the promises given to Abraham and Sarah.
Bruggemann is convinced this emphasis on
Yahweh's habit of working through younger siblings springs from years of
reflection on the event narrated in Sunday's first reading (I Samuel
Yahweh tells Samuel to go to Bethlehem to
anoint one of Jesse's sons as the next king. Except for the youngest, who is
"tending the sheep," Jesse lines up his sons according to age in
order to see which one Yahweh directs Samuel to anoint.
To Jesse's amazement, the last of the judges
announces, "Yahweh has not chosen any one of these!" The reason:
"Not as humans see does God see, because humans see the appearance but
Yahweh looks into the heart." Instead, David, the youngest, is
The basic belief of people of faith is that
only faith enables us to cut through life's appearances to help us uncover
the true heart God has embedded in all His creatures. That's why the
biblical authors constantly return to themes of sight, and stress the
contrast between light and darkness.
"You were once in darkness," Paul
says in the second reading (Ephesians 5:8-14), "but now you are light
in the Lord. Live as children of the light, for light produces every kind of
goodness and righteousness and truth."
Jesus' earliest followers constantly reflected
on what their faith in His risen presence enabled them to see. Nothing could
compare to the light that now illumined every aspect of their lives.
St. John's long narrative in the Gospel about
the man born blind revolves around the same concept (John 9:1-41). Unlike
Matthew, Mark and Luke, who demand people have faith in Jesus before He can
work miracles on their behalf, John tells us such faith comes only after the
Notice that the blind beggar never asks Jesus
to give him sight. He's amazed when he washes the unwanted mud out of his
eyes and can see. He never anticipated a miracle. And when his faith-sight
comes, it arrives in stages.
The beggar begins by referring to Jesus as
"the man," then advances to "He's a prophet." Only at
the end of the narrative does he recognize divinity in the person who took
away his blindness: "He worshiped Him."
John is convinced that Christians go through
stages in their faith. Things become clearer as we go further along the
faith road. Jesus has problems only with those who claim "We see!"
but are actually blind.
There's nothing wrong with being on the road to
sight, but there's a lot wrong with thinking we've already reached the end
of that road.
Anyone with that mindset would never be able to
understand why Samuel passed over the first-born and anointed David.