discipleship | mission | practical theology

The reflection is based on the BCP Gospel reading for the Next Sunday before Lent [Quinquagesima]

There is clearly something in these readings about not seeing and seeing.  Jesus is making statements about what will happen to him when he enters Jerusalem and the disciples do not understand.  Understanding was hid from them and they could not see.  Are we to understand that the disciples were like this blind man that Jesus and the crowd pass as they entered Jericho.  He too could not see and had to enquire what all the noise was about as Jesus and the crowd approached; except this man calls out to Jesus to be saved.  Jesus hears him, asks him what he wants and then gives him what he asked for: sight.  This man then praises God and follows Jesus.  Yes surely there is a parallel here between the disciples lack of seeing and this man’s new seeing.

However, this is not just about those disciples on their feet walking with Jesus into Jericho, it is also about us as disciples tying to follow Jesus in the villages, towns and cities where we live.  Is Luke, as he writes this, challenging his readers to think about who can see and who cannot?  Am I more like the disciples who cannot see, or more like the blind man who has received sight?

Perhaps even more challenging is, who else could the blind man be: my neighbour, my work colleague, my brother, my friend, the stranger whom I pass in the street?  Can they see or not see?