Reading: Mark 9-10, Psalm 99
Have you ever looked at one of those magic eye pictures that were all the rage in the 1990s? They look like a bunch of hazy lines, but once your eyes focus in just the right way, you see some sort of image. Faces, motorcycles, guitars, books, frogs, or whatever thing the artist thought the viewers would just love to endure a headache in order to see. I’m not sure when it started or exactly when it went out of vogue, but I can pretty clearly recall seeing people in the shopping mall starting and squinting at magic eye pictures through my middle and high school years. Eventually everyone had had enough and decided they could just as easily look at very ordinary things without enduring the headache of making their eyes focus in odd ways, and the magic eye pictures disappeared from the mainstream.
In today’s reading, we will see Jesus confronted with people who have a variety of things blinding them to the reality in front of them. The scene opens with Jesus going up a mountain with three of his disciples, where he chats with Moses and Elijah, representing the Law and the Prophets. God speaks from the top of the mountain, which you’ll recognize from Exodus, and indicates that Jesus is the Son of God, and now the mediator to whom humans should listen. He is superior to the Law and the Prophets. When he’s done with his conversation, he tells the disciples not to tell anyone about it until he has risen from the dead. And here we find our first set of blinders. They kept the matter to themselves, wondering what this rising from the dead might mean. Really. This guy has raised someone else from the dead already, and he has just had a morning chat with Moses and Elijah, and has just said he would rise from the dead. I think it means he is going to die and not stay that way. But they cannot see it… and ask a question instead about Elijah. All they can see is the prophets. But there is so much more.
Next we have a boy who has a problem. He appears to have the symptoms of epilepsy or some such disorder. There is a crowd around him and his father, arguing with one another. The boy’s father walks right up to Jesus and makes an astonishing confession: I believe, but help my unbelief. Though he cannot see, he at least knows that he cannot see. After Jesus rolls his eyes at this situation he heals the boy. The disciples ask why they couldn’t do it. I would have said something like because you spent your time arguing with the scribes instead of trusting the power of God! Jesus is nicer than me. He points them to prayer. What they were doing to heal anyone else I’m not sure, but I’m pretty sure arguing with scribes wasn’t the key to any of their healing activities.
This goes on: But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him. A conversation about who is the greatest. They can’t understand that the Kingdom of God works differently. The least is the greatest. There is a guy running around casting out demons in Jesus name who is not part of the “in” crowd. The Kingdom Jesus has been talking about is spreading, and they are worried about who is doing the work. Jesus is not.
On and on Jesus encounters people who can almost see, but not quite. The capstone story of this section is the story of the rich young man, who has kept all the commandments but is blinded by his wealth. He is standing right in front of the source of eternal life, but walks away from it because he has too much in front of his eyes. Even after this, the disciples go back to asking about greatness and honor in the Kingdom. They just cannot see that when humans gain honor in their own eyes, they become less in the Kingdom of God. Jesus tells them again that this Kingdom is different. If you want to be the greatest, serve. If you want to be first, be the slave of everyone.
Finally, we get to a story about a blind man who can see. On the road to Jericho a blind man named Bartimaeus is sitting there as Jesus passes by and yells out Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. When Jesus asks what he can do for him, he says Teacher, help me to see. When Jesus heals him, he picks up and follows after him. In all these stories, it seems only one person was able to see, and he was a blind man. He knew that what he needed from Jesus was the ability to see. Because of his inability to see physically, he was aware of his inability to see spiritually. Everyone else is staring at a magic eye picture, trying to cram the Kingdom of God into their brains by refocusing their eyes in an unnatural way. Bartimaeus has no refocusing to do, and he can see clearly.