Receive your sight; your faith has made you well

 

 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 

 

On Saturday, we read that people brought infants to Jesus 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 hard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.  And when Jesus saw that he became very sorrowful, He said, "How hard it is 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."

 

  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.  This is the third time Jesus has taught the twelve about what will happen when they come to Jerusalem, about His Passion, death, and Resurrection.  My study Bible comments that the saying was hidden from them 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 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.  This blind man greets Jesus with a Messianic title, Son of David.   Let us note his persistence, like that of the widow in the parable Jesus has recently told to the disciples, in this reading.  My study Bible comments that even though Jesus knows what we want before we ask, He calls us to ask freely so that we might learn of His mercy.  Note also that the blind man, in contrast to the nine lepers in this reading, responded by glorifying God, and in return, the people who had previously told him to be quiet, gave praise to God.

Today's story of the blind man gives us a number of teachings to consider.  First of all, Jesus is coming near Jericho.  Jericho was associated with sin (see, for example, the parable of the Good Samaritan, set on this road from Jerusalem to Jericho).  So in this Scriptural sense, the blindness of this man could also be associated with sin.  Blindness gives us many associations.  In the Scriptures it is associated with a lack of light in the eye, and light is synonymous with God, and specifically with Christ (John 1:4-9).  In its association here with Jericho, sin is a kind of blindness to the word or will of God, a lack of spiritual "enlightenment" in this sense.  In Matthew 4:16, we're given a quotation from Isaiah:  "The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death Light has dawned."  Here blindness, tied to Jericho, is symbolic of darkness.  But this blind man perhaps has an advantage over the others.  For he can actually see what others don't necessarily see.  His perception is with something other than his eyes, something other than appearances.  He knows Jesus is the "Son of David," the One who has come to save and to deliver.  Quite appropriately, in keeping with a knowledge perceptible spiritually, he says the prayer that would punctuate Christian worship more than any other, "Have mercy on me!'   From such a prayer, one would presume also a perception of Christ's compassion, the virtue that Jesus will exalt more than others.  See Christ's parable of Judgment, found at Matthew 25:31-46.  In these senses of his intuition of Christ. this blind man has a perception that others do not have.  Again, we go back to Jesus' teachings to find Christ's emphasis on the truth that is hidden from those who live for appearances.  Jesus' criticism is most greatly given to the religious leaders for their hypocrisy, a way of life for which He quoted from Isaiah yet again, "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me" (Matthew 15:7-9); for their hypocrisy, Jesus offers plenteous woe (Matthew 23).  In John's Gospel, we're told that even among the religious rulers, many believed in Christ, but would not speak of it for fear of being put out of the synagogue, "for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God" (John 12:42-43).  This kind of social conformity for public praise is yet another form of living for appearances, something this blind man clearly does not do, as he will not stop his pleas to Christ, although the people tell him to be quiet.  Today's lectionary reading also includes St. Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 10, in which he asks them, "Do you look at things according to the outward appearance?"  Apparently, Paul did not make a great impression by appearance, as "his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible."  In that same letter, he writes, "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.  For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God . . .."  Perhaps the blindness of this man begging outside of Jerusalem allowed him a perception of these weapons of warfare distinguished by gentleness, kindness, and mercy in the One who is "gentle and lowly in heart," who gives us "rest for your souls," and who taught that "My yoke is easy and My burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).  Perhaps there is an advantage for this particular blind man who begs by the road, for he is not taken in by his environment, and knows precisely how to approach Christ despite it. Let us endeavor also to such insight, and blindness to the standards that keep us in darkness.