What can you see?

seeking to see Jesus clearly 

We’re up before the alarm for a change, getting ready to visit family. The brilliance of early morning sunshine is subdued now by a filmy cloud covering yet our spirits aren’t dampened by it.

There’s a firm cushion at the ready to support my pain-riddled spine, a steadying arm to hold onto and a stick to help me wobble and walk the short distance from home to car and from driveway to door.

The journey itself isn’t far. It’s well known and familiar to us. But this time we’re forced into driving at much slower speeds than usual with roadworks everywhere and time consuming, circuitous detours.

My husband has Parkinson’s and will be facing a disability driving assessment soon, so he is naming each road sign we encounter as a way of memorising the Highway Code.

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The signs inform, direct and guide. Yet there are so many of them on this route that it’s easy to fall into confusion or overwhelm and miss a few, no matter how hard he tries. 

As he sings them out, and I add my voice too, I think what a gift it is to see. To gradually discover the way ahead mile by mile or step by step.

We don’t have perfect 20-20 vision, hampered as we are between us by myopia, astigmatism, dry eye syndrome, and fatigue. 

Whatever our sense of sight might be, there’s another way of seeing for all of us that develops somewhere else…

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Seeing and perceiving

blind from birth

Bartimaeus still saw more

than the sighted ones

he was able to perceive

Jesus' full identity

no hesitation

as he dropped his robe and ran

blindly through the crowd

following the voice of Christ

with his faith-filled heart alive

his seeing soul

rewarded with so much more

than he might know

as a full healing takes place

with vision restored again

the crowd are amazed

to witness the miracle

but will they notice

who this teacher really is

and all he is here to do?

more than that

do we see Jesus clearly

or is he blurred

mixed in our finite minds

in those spots which are blind?

© joylenton

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And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, 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. Get up; he is calling you.”  And throwing off his cloak, 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, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.” And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.”  And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.

— Mark 10:46-52 ESV

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I wonder how many of us would be bold enough to call out to Jesus like this. Perhaps we would hold back because of a lingering belief that we are unworthy to bother God with our needs, although Jesus has made us worthy by his grace. 

Or maybe we would shrug our shoulders and say, “You know what? I haven’t been healed yet and probably never will. This isn’t my day for a miracle.” It is God’s will to make us healed and whole. The timing is up to him and our participation is required as an act of faith.

If our vision of Jesus is flawed, or if we do not see ourselves as made worthy by God’s love, then we are likely to hang back and absent ourselves. 

May we believe that we, too, are promised recipients of God’s goodness and grace. He might be wanting to open our eyes to those gifts, asking us to believe and receive from his loving hands.

May we also remember that the receiving, the healing, could come much later than we expect, in small increments, perhaps, or look very different to how we desire or perceive it.

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Holy Spirit,

The story of Blind Bartimaeus suggests how our own spiritual sight becomes enlivened by your work in us, so that we are able to see Jesus for who he really is. 

Help us take off any blinkers we might be wearing, and remove lenses dulled by false assumptions, as you also open our eyes to the wonder of knowing Christ for ourselves.

May we marvel at the miracle of seeing Jesus as he truly is: our faithful Friend, anointed Saviour-King and living Lord. And as you know him to be—the Son, an integral part of the triune Godhead. 

May we experience the joy of being invited into a relationship with the Father because of his sacrificial life on earth, and glorious resurrection after suffering death on the cross.

Amen 

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💚☕️ Your takeaway ☕️💚

Seeing Jesus clearly for who he really is becomes possible when we seek him in Scripture, take off our doubting blinkers, put on faith-filled spiritual lenses, and desire an intimate relationship with him.

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