A New Way Of Seeing
Mark 10: 46-52
When I was counseling part of our on-going training included exercises in observing non-verbal communication. These exercises were to make us intently aware that while a person was speaking they were also communicating to us by the way they held their bodies, what they did with their hands, the look in their eyes, and the expression on their face,. As we went through this kind of training, we became more conscious of many things that we had not seen before. We were developing a new way of seeing. It meant that while we listened closely to what people they were saying, we also had to check out the meaning of what we were seeing. They might be saying that they were happy but the anguish in their face was communicating something different. It had to be checked out. A tear in the eye might mean sadness or it might mean that something was in their eye. This new way of seeing changed our way of relating to people and we were able to help them in a far more effective way than if just listened to what they were saying but remained blind to the non-verbally messages conveyed.
We saw more of who our clients really were
We saw what they really needed behind the facade that they presented
We saw how we could help them to see how they could help themselves
The gospel today is about blindness and the need for a new way of seeing. It is about the physical blindness of Bartimaeus. It follows a story in which we see the spiritual blindness of the disciples where James and John wanted power positions in the Kingdom of God whereas Jesus idea of greatness in the Kingdom of God was one who served and gave his life that others might live. In reading both these stories we are faced with looking at where our blindness lies, where we need a new way of seeing, and the difference it will make in our lives.
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Jesus asked the blind Bartimaeus what he wanted Jesus to do for him. Bartimaeus wanted to see again. Jesus healed him of his blindness. One could say that he received a new way of seeing and also new way of life. After Jesus said to Bartimaeus “Go, your faith has made you well”, Mark adds “He immediately regained his sight and followed him on the way.”
I like to speculate what Bartimaeus first saw. I believe he first saw Jesus, the gentleness in his face and the compassion in his eyes and he realized who Jesus really was, the suffering servant, the one who completely gave himself for others. Next he probably saw those around him, many suffering the way he had suffered and others like sheep without a shepherd looking for a change and meaning in their lives. He saw the disciples the ones following Jesus even sometimes in blindness, the ones who were called to carry on Jesus way of life. He saw the opportunity to follow Jesus in his compassionate ministry wherever it led. He didn’t look back even to pick up his cloak that he had thrown off but immediately “followed him on the way.”
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Where do we need a new way of seeing? What will we see?
Will we see Jesus in a new way? Will we see who Jesus really is, the Servant king, the one who always gives his life for others, the one who continually acts in compassionate love, the one who calls us to do the same compassionate lifestyle. Do we sing that hymn “Open Our Eyes, Lord” and really mean it:
Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus,
To reach out and touch him and say that we love him
Open our ears Lord, and help us to listen,
Open our eyes Lord, we want to see Jesus.
Will we see the world in a new way? Will we see the world with the eyes of Jesus? To see the real world is to see a world of wonder and beauty but also a world of pain, a world of sin and evil. It is to see thousands of soldiers and civilians killed by war in many troubled parts of the world . It is to see the thousands if not millions of children in the world who suffer from hunger and starvation. We see the devastation that AIDS has had on millions of people in the world, many of whom are children. We see the homeless in our own cities. In Nanaimo where I live, a small city of only 80,000 people, there are at least 300 homeless people to be counted on downtown streets at any given time, the majority being women. Also, there are tent cities where many people find some space to put up tents and live in some kind of community because homes are unaffordable. We see epidemic proportions of alcohol and drug abuse, spousal abuse and child abuse. We see enormous amounts of poverty in our country that is considered to be wealthy by the worlds standards. Many of us would like to remain blind to all these things and see only the beauty and the wonder and the grace of God’s brilliant and breathtaking creation. But if our eyes are to be opened, it is to see the cruelty and the greed and the prejudice that God’s recalcitrant children have produced even sometime in God’s holy name.
In our new way of seeing we would see are world in need of love and we might also we see opportunities for us to in involved in Christ’s compassionate ministry to the world. We have the chance to see where the world’s greatest need intersects with our greatest glory, abilities and skills. That is where our mission is. That is where we are being called to act – if we could only see it.
Will be see our neighbors in a new way? Many of our neighbors could be considered to be “the walking wounded”, suffering from hidden but infected and unhealed wounds, due to the high stress society in which we live. These are people wounded from all manner of losses, changes, and transitions. Many are adjusting to divorce, unemployment, a physically, mentally or emotionally challenged child, changing jobs, moving, mandatory retirement, death of a parent, child, or spouse, loss of their youth, their dreams or their faith and so forth. Even if we are wounded is some way or another, we are called to be the “wounded healers” with an empathy that comes out of our own suffering. We walk in the footsteps of one who calls us to bear each other’s burdens and empowers us to be instruments of healing and reconciliation.
Will we see the people who are closest to us in a new way? We might see in our families the need for understanding, forgiveness and healing.
Mitch Albom, the author of Tuesdays With Morrie has written a new book, For one More Day. (Hyperion, New York, 2006). It is about a mother and a son and explores the question, “What would you do if you could spend one more day with a lost loved one?” Charlie Benetto in the story has been given that chance to have one day with his mother who had died eight years earlier. During this day he was able to see the family in a different way. He was able to see his mother differently. He became aware of things he never knew about his mother and her sacrifices. He attempts to put his broken life back together with his mother’s tender guidance.
This is a day that many of us would yearn for but never happens. However, we always have the chance have a day like that with those who are living, a day to spend with a loved one that is like no other day – a day to listen, to love, to apologize, to forgive, to see things differently.
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If we, like Bartimaeus, recognized our need to be healed from a certain kind of blindness, even though our eyesight might be quite good, what would we ask to see? Would we ask to see Jesus in a different way, the world in a different way, our neighbors in a different way, our family in a different way, or ourselves in a different way? Would we be able to accept the changes that seeing in a new way would bring to our lives? Would we be able to leave our blindness behind? As Helen Keller once said, “there is none so blind as those who refuse to see.” Or would we be able to act like Bartimaeus, throw off our cloak, leave it behind along with our blindness, and with new vision and a new life follow the way of Jesus ?
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