Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!

 

 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 Jesus was casting out a demon and it was mute.  So it was, when the demon had gone out, that the mute spoke; and the multitudes marveled.  But some of them said, "He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.  Others, testing Him, sought from Him a sign from heaven.  But He, knowing their thoughts, said to them:  "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided against a house falls.  If Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?  Because you say I cast out demons by Beelzebub.  And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out?  Therefore they will be your judges.  But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.  When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace.  But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils.  He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters."

 

  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.   Today the lectionary skips ahead from our last reading (Luke 11:14-23; see above) to chapter 18, as Jesus is on the road to Jerusalem and is now approaching Jericho.  This is the third warning in Luke's Gospel that Jesus has given to the disciples about what will happen to Him after they reach Jerusalem.  But this saying was hidden not by God, my study Bible says, but because the disciples could not comprehend its meaning until after the events of His 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.   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!"  This road going past Jericho on the way toward Jerusalem was a notorious stretch to travel, that made its way through a deep canyon to elevations below sea level.  Jericho was known as a place for sin, but this route was popularly marked by its treacherous dangers because of bandits and robbers who could hide in caverns and attack travelers.  It is this road which gave the setting for the parable of the Good Samaritan (see this reading).  The blind man greets Jesus with a title associated with the Messiah, Son of David.  

 

 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.  Note that Jesus stood still and commanded him to be brought to Him.  My study Bible comments that, although Jesus knows what we want before we ask, He calls us to ask freely so that we might learn of His mercy.  There is also in patristic commentary a spiritual interpretation to this miracle.  In St. Matthew's version of this story (Matthew 20:29-34), there are two blind men.  In that interpretation, they symbolize future generations who would come to faith only by hearing, without the benefit of seeing Christ in person (see John 20:29).  The ones who try to silence the blind man symbolize persecutors and tyrants who, in each generation, try to silence the Church.  But nonetheless, under persecution, the Church all the more confesses Jesus Christ. 

 

It's easy to see this notorious road (St. Jerome called it "the Bloody Way") as a place synonymous with sin and all of its dangers.  A place that sloped to 1,000 feet below sea level (while Jerusalem is 3,000 feet above), it was an extremely steep mountain road with blind turns, and rocky narrow passes -- so travelers were easy prey for bandits.  So we come to another analogy for a life steeped and mired in sin -- blindness.  The blind man is an easy symbol for those of us so used to a way of life, or a particular environment, that we only see things one way, and we have no idea of what a different life we could be living, or what aberrations pass for normal in what we know.  We can see what the environment is like for this blind man in the responses of the people who surround him.  In the spiritual interpretation cited by my study Bible, we see an understanding that the people who try to silence the blind man have been historically seen as stand-ins for tyrants and persecutors who try to silence the Church and her faithful.  But we can broaden this understanding to include a possible interpretation of an entire environment steeped in denial of faith, where people prefer that others remain blind and silent, and oppress to the extent that those who do wish to seek Christ find it very difficult to do so.  If we look at the blind man as an individual seeking to grasp any hope of making his way out of his blindness, we can see the image of social forces that would suppress these urges in those who would seek Christ and His Kingdom for themselves.  The pressure to shush and to be quiet in that perspective is a pressure to silence our internal demands for safe spiritual space, the save haven of the kingdom of God as Christ gives it to us through His gospel message.  The urge to reach out to Christ is met here by Jesus, who clearly always knows what we want and need, as He knows our hearts more deeply than we know them.  But in the story, His standing still on the road, commanding that this blind man be brought to Him, shows His own will to engage those who recognize they need Him.  His engagement is made clear in that He does not simply give to the man what he needs, but makes him ask, by first asking the man, "What do you want Me to do for you?"  This explicit question demanding an explicit answer is perhaps our best testimony as to how Christ wants to engage us:  direct, personal, and knowing what we want in our own hearts.  In some sense, it gives us the truth that what He offers is a precious gift, on offer to all the world, but not given to all without the depth of knowledge of how badly we need it, and how priceless it truly is.  As Jesus says Himself, "Many are called, but few are chosen" (Matthew 22:14).  The blindness in today's story also extends, significantly, to the disciples, who cannot "see" or discern the meaning in Christ's warnings of what is to come in Jerusalem.  Perhaps it is that they are so fixed on their own expectations of a material kingdom manifesting, that they simply cannot take in what He's warning them about; perhaps they are afraid to do so.   As is common with many of us hearing shocking or dread news, they can't take it in and comprehend what it means to them.  The people on the road who shush the blind man represent another kind of blindness, common to social crowds today, as it was in Christ's time when so many in the crowds get Christ completely wrong and fail to understand who He is (Luke 9:18-19).  Perhaps it is true, in some sense, that it is this blind man who is the one who can truly see, as it is he who not only reaches to Christ -- despite the oppressive efforts of the crowd to silence him -- but knows what he needs and who can give that to him.  "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" is a cry for help, for what we need, made to the One who can give it to us, if we but understand His truth.  So it is that it finds its way to the prayer we reach to, the one that permeates our liturgies and worship, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!"  It's worthy to say at any time, any moment, even in the midst of crowds that deny its importance.  If we know our own blindness, and have a sense that we need spiritual sight, we may call on Him despite the noisy crowds that would drown out our needs.