I know that I don’t bring a lot to the table
Just little pieces of a broken heart
There’s days I wonder if You’ll still be faithful
Hold me together when I fall apart?
Would You remind me now of who You are?
That Your love will never change
That there’s healing in your name
That You can take broken things
And make them beautiful
- Ellie Holcomb, The Broken Beautiful, from the 2014 album “As Sure As The Sun”
In truth, when I think about it, every single person Jesus ever encountered needed hope restored in one way or another. They needed healing. They needed completeness. And the same holds true today. We’re all broken in some fashion.
Hot on the heels of raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead, two blind men show up to face the “Son of David”. That’s just another name for the Messiah since the prophet Isaiah made it known that the Christ would be a descendent of King David (Isaiah 9:7). In any event, Jesus continues His Tour of Healing by asking them if they really believe He can heal them. Why does He do that? I mean, they wouldn’t come to Him if they didn’t want to see again, would they? But that’s not what Jesus is asking. What He’s really after is whether or not they have the faith for Him to work. It’s not that He’s dependent upon our faith, but sometimes He waits and questions us in order to increase our faith. It’s more a question of did they really want His help because if He helps them, their lives are going to really change.
I think sometimes we go to God with requests for help, not fully understanding what the outcome will be in our lives. Being God, He knows what the future holds even though we don’t. I think He just wants us to be ready for whatever that future holds. I think He wants us to fully trust that He’s got us. I think He wants us to have faith. “Do you really believe I can make you see?” (v. 28).
When they respond in the affirmative, He does His thing and opens their eyes by touching them and saying “Because of your faith, it will happen” (v. 29). This act is something only the Messiah can do. None of the prophets of old ever made the blind to see. Think of how the trajectory of their lives were altered after this. Instead of begging, now they can earn a living. Instead of relying upon their other senses to get by, they can experience the beauty and the horrors of the visual world. And, more importantly, Jesus knows now they are afforded more opportunity to sin. These eyes He opened will undoubtedly lust from time to time. He heals them anyway. He restores hope.
Then He does a curious thing and warns them not to tell anyone what He’s done for them (they don’t listen, of course). Why? Some biblical scholars believe it’s because Jesus doesn’t want to be known strictly as a miracle worker. As the footnote in my study bible says, “He healed because He had compassion on people, but He also wanted to bring spiritual healing to a sin-sick world” (p. 1559). It seems like it would be more difficult to bring about the spiritual if the focus is primarily on the physical. But what do I know?
The challenge for me in this passage, is who am I? Am I the blind man who wants to see, or am I the person offering hope to others? My problem is that I can fluctuate between being both, when I really need to be the latter. While I am not trying to claim equality with Jesus, what I mean is that I need to be more solidly the person bringing others to the one who can restore hope. How about you? Which one are you? Or are you a third category (to be discussed next time out)?
The Winding Road 