Perspective: Seeing Clearly

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Seeing Clearly

Jesus asked him, "What do you want me to do for you?"

The blind man said, "Teacher, I want to see."

Mark 10:51 (CEB)

I want to know You
I want to hear Your voice
I want to know You more
I want to touch You
I want to see Your face
I want to know You more

From "In the Secret" by Andy Park

One day, while Jesus and the Disciples are in the village of Bethsaida, a blind man is brought to Jesus.  Jesus takes the man outside the village, spits in the man's eyes, and places His hands over them.  When He removes His hands, He asks the man if he can see anything, and man claims that he can see people but that they look like walking trees.  In other words, the man has regained some of his sight, but everything is blurry to him.  He cannot yet see clearly.  Jesus places His hands over the man's eyes once again, and after He removes them, the man is able to see clearly.¹

As I've noted in the past, this story highlights the fact that Jesus sometimes has trouble getting people to see things clearly.²  The stories that immediately precede and follow it are worth noting.

While Jesus and the Disciples are on a boat on their way to Bethsaida, He instructs them to beware the "yeast" of certain people, referring to their teachings.  The Disciples misunderstand Jesus' metaphor, and, upon hearing the word yeast, they become concerned that they might not have brought enough bread with them.³  It's completely understandable that the Disciples might not immediately figure out Jesus' metapohr, but what is truly laughable about their concern is that they have twice watched Jesus miraculously feed thousands of people with only a few loaves of bread and a few fish.⁴  By now, they should know better than to worry that they don't have enough bread to eat.

After Jesus and the Disciples leave Bethsaida and head toward Caesarea Philippi, He asks them, "Who do you say that I am?"  One of the Disciples says, "You are the Messiah."⁵  Jesus then begins to teach the Disciples that, as the Messiah, He will have to bear a cross and that all who want to follow Him will have to take up their own crosses.  Three times Jesus will warn the Disciples that, when He arrives in Jerusalem, He will suffer, die, and be resurrected, and three times the Disciples will respond by aruging with Jesus, squabbling about which one of them is the greatest, or grabbing for power.⁶

In the Gospels, Jesus sometimes struggles to get the Disciples to see things clearly.  His problem is not that He is a poor teacher.  He is rather blunt when He instructs the Disciples to deny themselves and aspire to servanthood, and one would think that His miraculously feeding multitudes of people would be hard to forget.  His problem is that the Disciples are thick-headed and resistant to hard truths.  Of course, the Disciples represent all people who seek to follow Jesus, for all of us can be dense and stubborn at times.

Later on, while Jesus and His followers are headed from Jericho to Jerusalem, a blind man named Bartimaeus cries out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"  The people in the crowd try to get him to shut up, so he cries out even more loudly.  Jesus stops and asks him, "What do you want me to do for you?"  The blind man replies, "Teacher, I want to see."  Jesus restores the man's sight, and the man begins to follow Jesus.⁷

What might happen if we, like Bartimaeus, pray, "I want to see"?  Might we finally take to heart lessons we have had to learn over and over again?  Might we begin to accept hard truths we have been resisting?  Might we learn something new about what it means to truly follow Christ?  May we have the humility to admit that there are things that are still blurry to us, and may have the courage to pray that we may finally see them clearly.


Notes:

1. Mark 8:22-26
2. Kent Dobson.  "Healing Fail."  Mars Hill Bible Church, 06/07/2013.
3. Mark 8:14-21  (See also Matthew 15:12.)
4. Mark 6:30-44; 8:1-10
5. Mark 8:27-30 (NRSV)
6. Mark 8:31-38; 9:30-37; 10:32-45
7. Mark 10:46-52 (CEB)

Jesus Healing Blind Bartimaeus was sculpted by Johann Heinrich Stöver in 1861.  The photograph of the sculpture was taken by Marion Halft and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 1.0 Generic license.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.