Daily Bread

Jesus and his disciples came to Bethsaida. Some people brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village; and when he had put saliva on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, ‘Can you see anything?’ And the man looked up and said, ‘I can see people, but they look like trees, walking.’ Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Then he sent him away to his home, saying, ‘Do not even go into the village.’

I remember as a kid, one of the things I hated was my mum taking her handkerchief, licking it, then wiping muck off my face while I grimaced and squirmed! Did your mom, dad, or carer ever do this to you?

When I read the commentaries written about this healing, nearly every Bible scholar tries to figure out why the man was healed in two stages. They also try very hard to work out why Jesus used spittle, and to be fair, no-one really knows! But, what if there is a much, much simpler explanation?

What if Jesus was simply cleaning the guys eyes and asking him what he could see? Perhaps us non-visually impaired people assume blindness means 100% blindness but, "Most people with visual impairments can perceive light and many can see colours and shapes or have partial vision." (Medical News Today). This would make both pastoral and logical sense as the man says, "I can see people but they look like walking trees!" Then, and only then, after Jesus laid hands on him again was his sight was restored and he saw everything clearly.

So, with the explanation out of the way, as Jesus healed many people, why include this particular story? Well, it does come in a whole section of Mark's gospel where people struggle to 'see' who Jesus is. Yes, most Bible scholars use the physical blindness as a metaphor for spiritual blindness. Now, I must point out that today, like many other contextual things we encounter in the Bible, such as the subjugation of women and the acceptance of slavery, using this metaphor today is inappropriate and offensive. Although we can appreciate this metaphor in its original context, we must never use someones ability or lack of ability as a spiritual metaphor!

It is unfortunate that we don't have unique and specific words for spiritual 'seeing' and whenever I, as a pastor and teacher, use such words I have to be mindful of the grace shown to me by those that suffer with physical blindness. Perhaps, collectively, when talking about spirituality, we can learn to use words such as 'perception' and 'awareness' that don't refer to the physicality of seeing?

Extra note:

It's true that saliva was considered a healing agent, but I wonder if the use was less to do with people's expectations (after all, Jesus did lots of healing without its use) but the gospel writers included it as a direct response to and conflict with Roman Emperors who had claimed to have done the same. Perhaps this is why the blind man was not (fully) healed on its application! Jesus was saying, "Hey, sure, I can do what the Roman self-proclaimed 'sons of god' can do, but let me now show you the real thing and it has nothing to do with any folk customs." Just a thought...

Holy God
Help me always be mindful of how I use my words,
and how they can adversely affect and impact others.
Help me to truly perceive and become aware of who you are,
your majesty, your glory, and your power
to heal, transform, and change lives.
Now and forever.