“Vision”
SCRIPTURE
They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” So, throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way. —Mark 10:46-52
DEVOTIONAL
There is an ancient eastern parable that describes a King calling together all of the men of his Kingdom who have been born blind so that he can show them an elephant. He guides the men around this huge animal and tells them that an “elephant” stands in front of them before he invites them to approach this incredible beast. Each stepped forward to feel what was before them. Surrounding the animal, some of the men reached out and felt the head of the elephant, some felt its ears, others a tusk, some a trunk, and others the foot. After the blind men felt the elephant, the ruler asked them, “Tell me, then, what is an elephant?”
The men who had reached for the head agreed, “Sire, the elephant is like a pot, round and robust.” The ones who had felt the animal’s leg maintained that the elephant was like a pillar, extremely rough to the touch, and yet strangely soft. The men who had caught hold of the tusk denied this and described the elephant as, “hard and smooth, nothing soft or rough about it.” The men started to debate when another man, who had held an ear, spoke: “No! It is both soft and rough but neither like a post nor a pillar, but like a broad, thick piece of leather.”
As each described what they experienced, tensions rose, and they started to argue with one another, shouting, “Yes, it is! No, it’s not! An elephant is not that! Yes, it’s like that!” until they came to blows over the matter.
-
- Since the Enlightenment, “belief” has less to do with the mysteries to which our hearts are invested and more about the intellectual systems that describe our religion. How can our “beliefs” become a cause for conflict? What is at stake for us to be “right?”
- What helps us “to see” those things we might often overlook?
- “Blind Bartimaeus” began his discipleship with confession. What role should confession have in our own lives as we follow Jesus “on the way?”
“If you have understood, then what you have understood is not God.”
—St. Augustine
PRAYER
Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me, a sinner. Amen.
The daily devotionals for the season of Lent are written by Rev. Dr. Kirk Hall, Associate Pastor of Formation at First Presbyterian Church from 2010-2013. He is currently a founding partner at The Metis Project, LLC. and lives with his wife and two girls in Salisbury, Connecticut.