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Tuesday, February 27th, 2024

Psalm 146:5–10

5Blessèd is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
6who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who keeps faith forever;
7who executes justice for the oppressed,
who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoners free;
8the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.
9The Lord watches over the sojourners;
he upholds the widow and the fatherless,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

10The Lord will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the Lord!

Old Testament Reading Job 30:16–31

16“And now my soul is poured out within me;
days of affliction have taken hold of me.
17The night racks my bones,
and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest.
18With great force my garment is disfigured;
it binds me about like the collar of my tunic.
19God has cast me into the mire,
and I have become like dust and ashes.
20I cry to you for help and you do not answer me;
I stand, and you only look at me.
21You have turned cruel to me;
with the might of your hand you persecute me.
22You lift me up on the wind; you make me ride on it,
and you toss me about in the roar of the storm.
23For I know that you will bring me to death
and to the house appointed for all living.
24“Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand,
and in his disaster cry for help?
25Did not I weep for him whose day was hard?
Was not my soul grieved for the needy?
26But when I hoped for good, evil came,
and when I waited for light, darkness came.
27My inward parts are in turmoil and never still;
days of affliction come to meet me.
28I go about darkened, but not by the sun;
I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
29I am a brother of jackals
and a companion of ostriches.
30My skin turns black and falls from me,
and my bones burn with heat.
31My lyre is turned to mourning,
and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.”

New Testament Reading John 9:1–23

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

8The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” 10So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11He 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.” 12They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

13They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15So 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.” 16Some 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. 17So 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.”

18The 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 19and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” 20His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. 21But 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.) 23Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”