Sheffield Cathedral. BCP Holy Communion (Sunday next before Lent, Year A) – 02.03.14
Readings: 1 Cor. 13.1-end; Luke 18.31-end
‘And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.’ – Luke 18.34
This morning’s gospel reading focuses on blindness, with the story of Jesus healing a blind man as he and his disciples approached Jericho. Mark’s gospel gives this man a name – Bartimaeus. Aware of the growing crowd clamouring to hear the controversial prophet, the blind man manages to get within earshot of Jesus and calls out, ‘Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me’.
When Jesus stops to ask him what he wants, the man cries out: ‘Lord, that I may receive my sight’ (18:41). So Jesus heals him, and he follows Jesus, glorifying God for the miracle that has been worked in his life.
We don’t know if the man had been blind from birth or had become blind later in life. All the gospel tells us is that his condition meant that he was forced to beg for his survival. It would not have been an easy life. It is hard to imagine the difference that the sight given to him by Jesus made to the man’s life, but it would certainly have been transformed.
In contrast to the blind man, the twelve disciples of Jesus could see with their eyes, but they were blind in their discernment. When Jesus spoke of going to Jerusalem in order to be mistreated and killed and then to be raised from the dead, his disciples heard the words but couldn’t ‘see’ what they meant. They were blind to what Jesus was revealing to them.
As Luke puts it: ‘And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them’. It is, of course, no accident that a story highlighting he spiritual blindness of the disciples at that point is put alongside a story about physical blindness. The gospel writers often use that device of highlighting deeper spiritual truths with human stories that we can identify with and by which we are then challenged about our own faith and trust in God.
This gospel reading therefore raises questions for our continuing journey of faith, which might be posed to each of us as follows:
Can we see what God is doing in your life?
Can you see the needs of people around you?
Are you open to that to which God is calling you right now?
In what ways are you ‘blind’ or at least ‘partially blind’, and in what way are you willing to call out to the Lord for mercy, so that you might see more clearly?
Something for us to ponder as we approach Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent.
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