“Open Our Eyes, Lord!”
‘What do you want me to do for you?’ Jesus asked him. The blind man said, ‘Rabbi, I want to see.’” Mark 10:51 (New International Version)
“Better, one or two? This is going to look a bit fuzzy. Now, three or four? Read the bottom line for me if you can.” Those were the probing questions and imperatives of my optometrist just a few weeks ago during my annual eye exam. There were no significant changes in my vision this time around only a slight adjustment to help me with reading now that I am getting “old.” I will admit it has not always been my favorite appointment of the year, but, then again, I do not know of anyone who goes to the doctor because he or she actually enjoys it!
Going back to my earliest years in elementary school, I have had regular eye exams and most of my life have worn corrective lenses in the form of glasses or contacts. I suppose a good part of my unease each time it comes around is out of a fear of becoming blind. If you were to see my glasses or read my prescription, you would likely say, “You’re already there.” I have been blessed that over the last twenty or so years, my prescription has changed very little which was not always the case when I was in middle and high school. There were moments when I would actually cry because it seemed as though things were getting worse and worse, and all I wanted to do was see.
As someone who was born with the ability to see from the beginning, I can only imagine what it is like for those who have not had such an experience. My heart goes out to those who at one time were seeing, but due to certain conditions or accidents have be relegated to darkness. While I may feel for such people, some of those very ones do not let their physical blindness prevent them from enjoying life by adapting to their surroundings and finding ways to let their other senses make them stronger. I wonder what it must have been like for the blind whom we read of in the Gospels (There are multiple.). John 9 provides a lengthy account of Jesus having healed a man who was born blind and the responses offered by the religious leadership and his own family. Mark 10 supplies a more condensed narrative of a man in/near the city of Jericho who was at the mercy of others’ generosity.
The latter was known as Bartimaeus, a designation which merely meant he was the son of (Hebrew – bar) an otherwise unknown man by the name of Timaeus. As far as society was concerned, he was a nobody or, at best, that handicapped guy who was always wanting something. He was the kind of person some did not wish to see and, within the details of this story, did not wish to hear either. As Jesus passed by that day, the man’s desire went beyond that of bread or a few cents as he cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy upon me!” Unwilling to trouble Jesus with such carrying on, the crowd insisted the man know his place and hush. There was no time for a bunch of blabbing, after all, Jesus was an important person with little time for such trivialities. However, this man was not easily discouraged and called out all the more for Jesus to direct his attention toward him.
The crowd’s assumptions concerning Jesus’ time and concern for such a show of attention were met with Jesus’ insistence that the man be brought to him. What would Jesus have to say and would he offer a rebuke similar to that of the crowd? In typical Jesus-fashion…no. He did however wish to know what the man desired of him. Imagine that! Being asked directly of Jesus what he could do for you. I am sure we could all come up with a whole list of things which Jesus could do for us, but for this man the most important was his eyesight. For readers, it might seem like a “Well, duh Jesus!” moment, but we must look at this story as being more than another miracle opportunity for Jesus. While it does include the granting of physical sight, it also addresses a matter common to the Gospel message as a whole: seeing, but not seeing (note Matthew 13:13).
Within the Gospels, the blind prove to have had clearer vision than most (especially the religious leaders). They saw not with physical eyes, but through those of faith. The man in Mark 10 did not actually see Jesus when he was passing by, but he saw something the crowd was missing. Notice his chant was one which included Jesus’ Messianic identity as “Son of David” in addition to his request for mercy. The crowd tried to silence him just as the religious leaders attempted to pick apart the healing of the man born blind in John 9. Such people had good eyesight, but were blind in the spiritual sense to what God was doing in and through Jesus of Nazareth. What some thought was faith and the preservation of Jewish tradition proved to be the blinders which hindered their ability to see and acknowledge God at work void of their skepticism.
In 1975, Robert Cull composed a song which has since become a prayer/invitation for God to “open our eyes…” It is the kind of invitation which should be common to all of us and not only those with limited to no eyesight. The truth is we all wear blinders from time to time which prevent us from seeing (who Jesus is, who we are, the unchurched, those who are different, our purpose, etc.). Sixteenth-century English playwright John Heywood included in his compilation of proverbs, “There are none so blind as those who will not see.” That was the shortcoming for many in Jesus’ day and, if we are not careful, can serve to handicap us as well. Rather than settling into darkness or feeling our way through life, may we be honest with God and ourselves and say, “Lord, I want to see.”
In Christian Service and Love,
The Reverend Kelley Smart