23 And [Jesus] took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?” 24 And he looked up and said, “I see people, but they look like trees, walking.” 25 Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.
The Gospel of Mark is a surprisingly rich and complex story, with several subtle, yet persistent themes woven into the narrative. One of the primary themes in the book of Mark is blindness: namely the spiritual blindness of Jesus' own followers.
In the book of Mark there is something scholars call a "Markan sandwich" - it is a set of two similar stories which bookend other related stories, all put together to illustrate the same theme. Today's Lesson is the first piece of bread which precedes several stories of the disciples misunderstanding and even taking exception to Jesus' teachings and is then "sandwiched" by another story of Jesus healing a blind man in chapter 10. Mark's point throughout the section is to illustrate the disciples' need for clearer vision of what Jesus is about. They recognize he is messiah; but they think the messiah will come using might and power to establish God's kingdom. They do not understand the cross - the way of redemption which will come through suffering and shame. In other words, they do not see.
In today's lesson Jesus heals a man from the small town of Bethsaida - the same village where Peter and other major disciples are from. Jesus takes the man out of his village, symbolizing the necessity of the disciples to be taken out of their parochial, homeland thinking in order to see Jesus' mission with more global perspective. Jesus heals the man, yet his vision is only partially restored. Further healing is necessary. This foreshadows the next scene in Mark's Gospel when Jesus has a conversation with Peter - the man from Bethsaida - wherein Peter declares rightly that Jesus is messiah, yet then disagrees vehemently with Jesus when Jesus begins to teach that he must go to the cross and suffer before being raised in three days. Peter sees, but only partly.
Like Peter, I see Jesus as clearly a man from God. Yet I struggle with the way of the cross - the way of selflessness, service, humility, pain, brokenness, loss, and death. I struggle to see how this way can be the way of redemption.
In other words, I see people in my mind - Jesus and Peter and the other disciples, even me and my church - and they look like trees walking. But it's hard to make out that they're actually people carrying crosses. And when I do finally see it, I pretend to not see because it terrifies me what it might cost.
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