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Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished. For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again." But they understood none of these things; this saying was hidden from them, and they did not know the things which were spoken.
Then it happened, as he was coming near Jericho, that a certain blind man sat by the road begging. And hearing a multitude passing by, he asked what it meant. So they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And he cried out, saying, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Then those who went before warned him that he should be quiet; but he cried out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be brought to Him. And when he had come near, He asked him, saying, "What do you want Me to do for you?" He said, "Lord, that I may receive my sight." Then Jesus said to him, "Receive your sight; your faith has made you well." And immediately he received his sight, and followed Him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.
- Luke 18:31-43
Yesterday we read that as Jesus spoke, many also brought infants to Him that He might touch them; but when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to Him and said, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it." Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" So Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery,' 'Do not murder,' 'Do not steal,' 'Do not bear false witness,' 'Honor your father and your mother.'" And he said, "All these things I have kept from my youth." So when Jesus heard these things, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw that he became very sorrowful, He said, "How hard is it for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." And those who heard it said, "Who then can be saved?" But He said, "The things which are impossible with men are possible with God." Then Peter said, "See, we have left all and followed You." So He said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times more in this present time, and in the age to come eternal life." See With God all things are possible.
Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished. For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again." But they understood none of these things; this saying was hidden from them, and they did not know the things which were spoken. My study bible suggests that this saying was hidden not by God, but because the disciples could not comprehend its meaning until the events of the Passion had taken place.
Then it happened, as he was coming near Jericho, that a certain blind man sat by the road begging. And hearing a multitude passing by, he asked what it meant. So they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And he cried out, saying, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Then those who went before warned him that he should be quiet; but he cried out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" So often in the Gospels we're given teachings and examples of persistence (see, for example, the story of the tenacious widow). This blind man didn't even know what was coming, but he heard the commotion, and he understood about Jesus. He calls Him Son of David, a clear Messianic title. Shouting twice, have mercy on me! this man is persistent in prayer. The opinions of the crowd and his own disability don't stop him. My study bible says there is a spiritual interpretation to this -- it symbolizes those future generations who would not see Christ, but hear about Him. Even when there are forces that would seek to silence us, our faith and our prayer become ever more important.
So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be brought to Him. And when he had come near, He asked him, saying, "What do you want Me to do for you?" He said, "Lord, that I may receive my sight." Then Jesus said to him, "Receive your sight; your faith has made you well." And immediately he received his sight, and followed Him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God. How interesting that Jesus should call him forward and demand of him clarity and specifics, an articulation of how he wants Jesus' mercy (What do you want Me to do for you?). To be illumined, to see or to have the eyes "enlightened" is linked with faith -- the faith that makes the blind man well. Jesus has said this phrase several times in Luke's Gospel after a healing: Your faith has made you well.
This blind man is an interesting case. He's an example, in fact, about how faith and persistence -- particularly in prayer -- can reshape, in some sense, a whole community. He has to fight against community to get attention. Everybody tries to shut him up, to make him be quiet. It doesn't matter how much pressure is on him to stop, he is persistent. And it's clearly an analogy to persistence in prayer, because of the phrase have mercy on me! which we've read recently in the story of the tax collector and the Pharisee. We should also recall that the notion that this man was blind because he sinned would have been a popular idea among these crowds. So his insistent shouting and pleading with Jesus would have seemed all the more disruptive somehow, and impudent. But the suspicions and popular notions of the people don't stop him; their prejudices don't stop him. His place as an afflicted, perhaps seemingly-undeserving sort of outsider (a beggar) is also a part of the image the crowds have of him. There's a reason he's outside of the city and not in it, not really a part of it. All these things must be taken in as the type of things that ordinarily work to suppress us from expressing who we are, to intimidate, make us feel "less than." In that case, persistence requires a tough sort of inner work, and more importantly, a faith in God's love for us. This persistent prayer becomes a need for all of us, just as Jesus has said so many times. We can't follow the crowd's opinions about us, all the voices that may be "in our heads" or all around us in popular culture. We have to remember our faith. The world is often merciless; it is God who is love so vast we can't comprehend it all. And by not following what the crowds say, this man changes the whole mechanism of the crowd. God's work in him, to heal his blindness, has the effect of taking away the blindness of the crowd. This little bit of a mustard seed of faith, this leaven hidden in all the crowd, becomes a transformative mechanism, a catalyst by which all of them praise God. Just one example in the midst of many can have this effect, and it is just as Jesus defined the ways of the Kingdom. We can't underestimate the importance of our persistence in faith and what it can lead to -- especially when we seem to have to fight the whole world to hang onto our faith, to keep praying to the One who truly loves and who is the truly merciful.
