Today’s Gospel is the story of the healing of a blind man. His name is Timaeus, the Son of Timaeus, Bar-Timaeus. (Bar is the Aramaic word for son). This blind man, hearing that Jesus of Nazareth is near, cries out, “Lord, have mercy!” Jesus heals him with the instruction, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.”
Mark uses this real story of healing as a symbolic guidepost or frame in his Gospel. Previously Mark had another story of the healing of a blind man (8:22-26). This healing takes place in two stages. Jesus puts spittle on the man’s eyes, and the man declares, “I see people looking like trees and walking.” Jesus lays his hands on the man’s eyes a second time and now “he could see everything distinctly.” Mark uses these two stories of the healing of blind men to frame his middle section (8:27-10:45). The disciples are also blind and need healing. They see partially when Peter confesses, “You are the Messiah” (8:20). What they cannot see or accept is a suffering messiah: “Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him.” (8:31-32). Three times Jesus tries to open their eyes to show them that not only is he the Messiah but also a Messiah who is to suffer and die on the cross (8:31; 9:31; 10:33).
Jesus is patient with the disciples’ journey to faith. They need to be healed so that they can see as God sees: “You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do” (8:33). Jesus is also patient with us as we encounter him each day in the Scripture, in prayer, and in daily occurrences of our life. Like Peter at times, we see Jesus only partially. Each of us has our own blinders that can keep us from seeing the one true God of love and compassion. These blinders may be things we learned growing up, things we pick up from others or from the Internet. We always need to go back to Jesus, his words and his way to truly understand Jesus and God. So, we pray today with the blind man in today’s Gospel: “Lord, have mercy!”.
Image: “Jesus sana al ciego de nacimiento – Jesus heals a man born blind” by bellmon1 is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.