22 And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. 23 And he 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 men, 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. 26 And he sent him to his home, saying, “Do not even enter the village.”
Jesus would have us to see.
Like the blind man in the story our spiritual eyes are closed and Jesus comes to open them and allow us to see anew.
Just as in the story, the first necessary step in the receiving of new eyes is often the necessity of a change in location. We must be taken out of our own village before we can be made to see. Our village (geographic, ideological, political, religious) makes us blind to perspectives beyond our native and parochial experiences. This is why travel and study away and/or abroad is so important. This is how our eyes are first opened to the world around us.
But full sight seldom comes all at once. Like the man given sight in the story, once the sightedness is begun there is much we still do not see or we miss interpret. As Paul said, "We see through a glass darkly." There is the wisdom of humility here.
And in the story too there is foreshadowing of rejection. The blind man left his village and the. returned home. But Jesus warned him to go to his house and not into the village. Why? Because those who are stuck spiritually blind hate those who now see new things. Or as John's Gospel puts it, "The darkness hates the light."
Jesus would have us to see and then see again. But once we have seen we cannot unsee. Nor can we make others to see until they are ready, which means we cannot make others to see until they too know they are blind.
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