Mark 8.22-26
They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man
and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him
outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on
him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?” He looked up and said, “I see people;
they look like trees walking around.”
Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were
opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Jesus sent him
home, saying, “Don’t even go into the village.”
So, a bit of context for today’s passage: as we read Mark, we
need to remember that we’re reading the very first written account of Jesus’
ministry. At this point Mark has just recounted the event where Jesus fed a
multitude with someone’s packed lunch and the section following this relates
Peter’s recognition of Jesus as the Messiah. Up until now we’ve had Jesus
followed by crowds of the curious, the needy and the newly faithful and,
inevitably, we’ve also seen Jesus in conflict with the religious authorities in
the shape of the scribes and Pharisees. That’s all familiar ground to us.
What may be less familiar is this story which is certainly
one of the oddest miracles and a pretty baffling event in the Gospel of Mark,
even considering that we’ve already seen Jesus cast demons out of a disturbed
man and into pigs that run head-first into the sea.
The story begins normally enough, but the longer it goes on,
the stranger it becomes: Jesus and his disciples come to Bethsaida and someone
brings a blind man to him and implores Jesus to touch him.
So far so good. Jesus then takes him by the hand, which is
itself a lovely picture of Jesus’ personal care and compassion for a helpless
sufferer, leads him out of the city, spits in his face and touches him.
That’s not the strangest part of the story: we see Jesus
touching people’s eyes during healing in all the gospels. The odd part isn’t
that Jesus spits in the man’s face: this isn’t the first time Jesus has used
saliva. It’s what happens next that seems strange: Jesus says something we
don’t expect. Do you see anything? We
expect Jesus to make an authoritative statement that the man’s actually been
healed. Instead, Jesus asks the man, Do
you see anything? as if to say, “Did it work?”
This is strange because miracles aren’t really a problem for
Jesus. As we read this question, we almost wonder if he was going through a bit
of a slump in his miracle working.
What’s even stranger than Jesus’ question is the response of
the blind man. The man says, I see people…
The blind man can now see. Obviously, something miraculous has happened. Jesus
touched the man and he was healed. Or was he? The man continues though, I see people … like trees, walking around.
Somehow the man is seeing, but he’s
not seeing clearly. His sight is restored-partially. He can see-but not
clearly.
So, Jesus tries again. He lays His hands on the man’s eyes and
he sees everything clearly. This second action of Jesus seemed to fully heal
the man and Jesus, aware that the man’s been healed, tells him not to go back
to the village and not to tell anyone what happened. After two attempts, the
man finally saw clearly.
This is a strange story. What do we do with a story like
this?
Could it be that Mark uses this story, a story that he alone records,
to illustration a point? Could it be that there’s a deeper meaning to this
story that we can’t yet see clearly?
In his Gospel, Mark spends eight chapters trying to answer
one question: who is Jesus? And this gospel’s been leading up to the moment in
the section immediately following, where Peter recognises Jesus as the Messiah.
Now the question’s been answered: Jesus is the Messiah, and Mark never goes
back to it. Up to this moment, the disciples sort of get that Jesus is Godly
and therefore special, that he has charisma and authority and exceptional
powers, but they don’t yet understand fully who he is. But from Peter’s
declaration onwards, Mark’s trying to answer a new question: what kind of
Messiah is Jesus? And that’s a question they clearly need to have answered.
So here, at the centre of this Gospel, when Mark’s
transitioning from one question to another, from “Who is Jesus?” to “what sort
of Messiah is he?”, when the disciples see, but don’t see clearly, we’ve this
strange, often over-looked or intentionally skipped story of a man who could
see, but not clearly.
The point of the story is simple: the disciples are at a
stage where they see Jesus, but don’t see him clearly and Jesus tells them and
the man he cured, not to tell anyone about him. He knows they see, but he also
knows they don’t see clearly and the last thing he wants is for them to go out
and share with people an unclear picture: their idea of Jesus, not the real
Jesus. Just like the blind man from Bethsaida, they see, but they don’t yet see
clearly.
Lovely.
Interesting story – or not, depending on your point of view.
So what?
What’s it got to do with us and our discipleship?
Well, it seems to me that many people are like the disciples
at this point in Jesus’ ministry, including people in our own congregations,
and that’s not to be critical: people are at different stages of spiritual
maturity. Some of our people like Jesus, are fascinated with Jesus and are
familiar with the things he’s done. They acknowledge the great things he’s done
but haven’t yet reached the point of accepting or fully understanding that
liking, admiring and recognising a role model is only part of the nature of
discipleship. They’ve yet to reach an understanding that discipleship involves
accepting the forgiveness and grace Jesus makes possible, and offers through
the atonement. It’s not that people have decided that the cross doesn’t matter,
they’ve yet to realise that commitment to Jesus involves a recognition that his
death and resurrection are central to our salvation.
Who’s going to tell them, to help them see more clearly?
Our congregations also include people who fail to see the
inseparable connection between the life that Jesus lived and the life he calls
his followers to live.
Who’s going to tell them, to help them see more clearly?
Have you found it to be the case in your personal experience
of discipleship that learning often takes place gradually rather than suddenly
and you have those “Aha!” moments? If people don’t see Jesus clearly, they
don’t see the full Jesus.
Who’s going to tell them, to help them to see more clearly,
to move on to a deeper understanding?
Amen
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