Learning to See
Rev. Dr. Mark Porizky
10/29/06
Mark 10:32-52
A
few years ago The Killing Fields won the Academy Award for best picture.
The film told a small part of the tragic story of death and violence in
What
finally dawned on these doctors was that these women simply chose not to see
anymore. They had already seen too much—their husbands and children
slaughtered, their villages burned, their whole lives raped and gutted and
destroyed. For these survivors, blindness became a spiritual condition, instead
of a physical condition. In order to cope, they literally shut out the ugliness
of the world around them.
Our
gospel lesson today needs to be read on two levels. It is a story about physical
blindness. But it is also a story about spiritual blindness. If we struggle to
grasp it on one level we can certainly accept it at the other. There are only
two stories in the gospel of Mark that focus on restoring sight to the
blind—and these healing passages form a parentheses around Mark's discussion
of discipleship. What does it mean to see Jesus? What does it mean to follow
Jesus? What does it mean to clear away the fog of our complicated, confused
lives in order to focus on who and what and where we are called to be?
In
both healing stories it is clear that the disciples, who eat and sleep, yawn and
chew, argue and laugh with Jesus—these most intimate of companions— the
disciples don't have a clue as to what Jesus is talking about. Instead, they
remain blind to the possibilities of God. It is the outsiders—the beggars, the
infirm, the outcasts—who in a burst of faith and hope—and vision—are the
ones who see—the ones who are healed—the ones who respond to God's
invitation to wholeness. In a larger sense, then, our gospel story for today is
about making the
Mark 10:32-52
And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; and they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles; and they will mock him, and spit upon him, and scourge him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise."
And
James and John, the sons of Zeb'edee, came forward to him, and said to him,
"Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you."
And
he said to them, "What do you want me to do for you?"
And they said to him, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory."
But Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able
to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I
am baptized?"
And they said to him, "We are able." And Jesus said to them, "The
cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized,
you will be baptized; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to
grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared."
And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John.
And Jesus called them to him and said to them, "You know that those who are
supposed to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men
exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you; but whoever
would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among
you must be slave of all. For the Son of man also came not to be served but to
serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
And they came to Jericho; and as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a
great multitude, Bartimae'us, a blind beggar, the son of Timae'us, was sitting
by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to
cry out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"
And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent; but he cried out all the more,
"Son of David, have mercy on me!"
And Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." And they called the blind man,
saying to him, "Take heart; rise, he is calling you."
And throwing off his mantle he sprang up and came to Jesus.
And Jesus said to him, "What do you want me to do for you?" And the
blind man said to him, "Master, let me receive my sight."
And Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your faith has made you well."
And immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way.
One
of my great pleasures is reading literature from doctors who can, as authors,
clearly communicate the medical world they inhabit.
Dr. Oliver Sacks is one such author/doctor.
He wrote this true story for The
New Yorker magazine several years ago. The
story is about a man named Virgil.
Virgil
had been blind since he was two years old. He
was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a hereditary disease that destroys the retina
of the eye. He also developed thick
cataracts, but since his retina was damaged, the doctors never bothered to
remove the cataracts. For the next
forty years Virgil was almost totally blind.
Then
one day a friend took Virgil to an ophthalmologist to see if anything new could
be done for him. To examine his
retina, the ophthalmologist had to remove Virgil’s cataracts, which was now a
relatively easy procedure. So the
doctor removed the cataracts from one of Virgil’s eyes to see into his retina.
But when they took off the bandages from the cataract procedure, they
were stunned.
“Virgil
can see!” the friend wrote in her journal.
“Entire office in tears, first time Virgil has had sight for forty
years. An eye test proved that
Virgil’s sight in that eye was 20/80.
But
then came a new set of problems. When
the bandages were first taken off, Virgil said he saw light, movement, and
colors, but he had no idea what color meant.
It was all a meaningless blur. Only
when the surgeon spoke did Virgil realize that the colored blob he was looking
at was the face of the surgeon.
With
that Virgil embarked on a long, complicated process of learning to see.
The first time he was shown a square and a triangle, he could not
distinguish between them until he touched them.
He knew the difference in how a square and a triangle felt,
but he did not know the difference in how they looked.
When
Virgil first watched a baseball game on television he seemed to know exactly
what was going on, because he had listened to baseball games on the radio.
But when the sound on the television was turned down, he became
completely lost. He had no idea what
the colored patches on the screen were all about.
Furthermore,
since he had vision in only one eye, he had no depth perception, and since he
had no experience of seeing, he had no sense of distance.
He told Dr. Sacks, “When I crossed the road the traffic terrified me,
even when I was accompanied. I am
very insecure while walking; indeed I am more afraid now than before the
operation.”
Sometimes
Virgil reverted to behaving as if he were blind.
When going for a walk, he would close his eyes and use his cane.
It has taken years of experience and practice before Virgil could fully
function in the world of sight. (Oliver
Sacks, “To See and Not See,” The New
Yorker, May 10, 1993, 59-73.)
Now
we come to the blind man in the Bible named Bartimaeus.
Apparently
Bartimaeus had heard about Jesus because he calls him “Son of David.”
That expression was loaded with significance.
In the Old Testament God promised that a descendant of King David would
rule over the people of
Bartimaeus
knew those Scripture passages. He
knew the promises God made to David and the hope that one of David’s
descendants would become king and would give sight to the blind and blessing to
the people. So when Bartimaeus calls
Jesus “Son of David,” he is claiming that Jesus is the promised king, whom
the Jewish people called the Messiah, the Anointed One.
What
Bartimaeus, the blind man can see, however, the sighted disciples apparently
cannot. At this point the disciples
remind me of Virgil. Their eyes have
been opened, but they are frightened by what they see.
Jesus keeps talking about going to
So
the disciples did what Virgil did. They
closed their eyes and pretended that they could not see.
They engaged in what psychologists call “denial.”
You
can see denial in action in verse 37. James
and John say to Jesus, “Grant us to
sit, one at your right hand and one at your left when you come into your glory.”
Do
you know what is ironic about that request?
At the end of the gospel the people who end up on Jesus’ right and left
are the two thieves who are crucified with him.
That is what it means to be at the right and left hand of Jesus.
It means to be crucified with him.
I
doubt that being crucified with Jesus is what James and John had in mind.
In a sense James and John had their eyes opened by Jesus, just like
Bartimaeus. They saw clearly that
Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of David, the promised king.
But they closed their eyes to what that meant.
They did not recognize that following Jesus would take them on a path of
service, suffering and sacrifice.
Which
brings me back to Bartimaeus. The
Bible says that Bartimaeus immediately regained his sight and followed Jesus on
the way. That last phrase “on the
way” is significant. Earlier in
the chapter, the Scripture started out by saying, “They
were on the way, going up to
And
that reminds me of Virgil. Both
Virgil and Bartimaeus received their sight, but they had to learn how to see.
Virgil had to learn what certain shapes and colors meant.
He had to learn how to cross an intersection with cars whizzing by.
Something
similar was true for Bartimaeus. Bartimaeus
was given new eyesight when he recognized that Jesus is the Son of David, the
promised king. But he did not yet
understand what that meant, anymore than the other disciples did.
Like the disciples, Bartimaeus had to follow Jesus “on the way,” he
had to walk with Jesus on his path of service and sacrifice, before he
understood what it meant to see Jesus and to see the world through Jesus’
eyes.
To
see Jesus, to really see Jesus, you have to learn to see, just as Virgil did.
Jesus is just a shape, a face on a Sunday School picture, until you hear
the words he speaks. And when you
begin to associate the words he speaks with the life he led and the actions he
did, then you begin to understand him.
But
even if your eyes are opened to who his is, it still takes practice to follow
him, because it is scary. It is like
Virgil trying to cross the street. Now
that Virgil can see all those cars rushing by, he is scared to death.
Following
Jesus means you are going to see more pain in the world than you noticed before
(Mother accident/dependence of faith/pharmacy).
When you start looking at the world through Jesus’ eyes, you will see more pain, more sadness, more wrong in the world than you noticed before. You will also see more disappointing things about yourself, more weaknesses in yourself than you knew you had. You will also see more needs in the world, and at first that will overwhelm you, just like all the shapes, colors and movements in the world overwhelmed Virgil.
Virgil
had to get used to seeing those things, and you will need to get used to looking
at the world through the eyes of Jesus. It
takes practice; it takes years of watching him and following him around.
The
danger is that if you don’t put in the time and effort getting used to seeing
the world through Jesus’ eyes, then like Virgil you will close your eyes and
go back to being blind. You will
turn away from the world’s suffering and need.
You will close your eyes to your own faults and weaknesses.
You will go back to stumbling through life not really knowing where you
are going or who it is that walks beside you.
It
takes years of practice to see the world through the eyes of Jesus, years of
following Jesus, years of listening to his word in Scripture, years of talking
to him in prayer, years of hanging out with his other followers whom we call the
church. It takes years of practice
to see as Jesus sees, but when you put in the time and effort to do that, you
will know where you are going and who it is that walks beside you.
Less
than one month before he died in 1963, C. S. Lewis wrote the following letter to
a young girl who wanted to know if any other Narnia books were going to be
produced. It turned out to be a fond and fitting farewell to all of his devoted
readers.
Dear
Ruth,
Many thanks for your kind letter, and it was very good of you to write and tell
me that you like my books; and what a very good letter you write for your age!
If you continue to love Jesus, nothing much can go wrong with you, and I hope
that you may always do so. I'm so thankful that you realized the "hidden
story" in the Narnia books. It is odd, children nearly always do,
grown-ups…hardly ever.
I'm afraid the Narnia series has come to an end, and am sorry to tell you that
you can expect no more.
God bless you.
Your sincerely,
C.S. Lewis
A line that passed between Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Thoreau: "And what has become clearer to you since last we met?"
The
same could be said of our relationship with Jesus.
And what has become clearer to you since we last met.
Life
is the process of learning to see Jesus. Bartimaeus,
blind, saw him more quickly than did his disciples.
What
do you see?
Will you pray with me now.
St.
Andrew Presbyterian Church,
Web Site: SAPC-CT.HOME.ATT.NET
Office Email: SAPC-CT@ATT.NET
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