Blind Faith
There are days when reading the way people behaved in The Bible makes me want to be one of those not so passive audience members at the fiddy cent theater I used to attend on rink maintenance days in Shreveport. You know, there's someone listening to a cassette of Earth, Wind and Fire on their stuffed poodle-shaped dorm radio and a crazed ax murderer is sneaking out of the closest. You and everyone else in the theater are throwing popcorn and Milk Duds at the screen and screaming, "Take off your ear plugs and run!"
Um, that was everyone else. I sat with Minette and Dory and we were good. Not a peep. No airborne food. Scouts' honor.
That urge to help folks along, though. It can be hard to resist. Take John 5:1-15
5 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. [4] [b] 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”
12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”
13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.
One person came back to say, "Thank you." One. Out of ten. Really?
I thought about this passage after my first post-surgical visit to the woman who restored my sight this summer. Aside from the fact that she is fabulous and kind and gave me back something I thought was gone forever, she kept apologizing for my eyes being bruised and me still needing glasses.
If I wasn't so touch-shy, I would have given her a hug. I did thank her. I could see! As for glasses...I love glasses. The pair I'm wearing right now came from Zenni and I knew I had to get them when I tried them on and barked, "No capes!" They look like they belong to one of my favorite movie characters, Edna Mode. (I also look like a confused owl. I'll take that, too!)
The surgery for this requires patients to stay awake amd work with the doctors to move the eyes to assist with the extraction procedure and track how ll the anesthesia is working. By the time I was wheeled into the OR,I had been blind for ten months. If you came into my life after November of 2024, and I haven't met you yet, I still have no idea what you look like.
There is an AI machine that heps the doctor know how far along they are in removing the lens of your eye, all the while th doc and the OR crew ae talking to you about what is going on. It feels like a space mission. When the lens is removed, the first thing you see is light! It's analogous to taking to the lens off a camera, so there is no way to process an image with the cones in eyes just yet. After that, the surgeon talks you through placing the prosthetic lens. Blink twice, and you can see the smiling faces of the people who opened up your world again. Yes, right there in the operating room, you will be able to see!
This was all pretty miraculous to me. So what was the problem with the ten men at the pool? Did they not believe how blessed they were? Was this a time when people were walking around healing all comers? Maybe they were scared of the pharisees. Maybe they were afraid to trust how good things were turning out. There's that thing called allowing grace through applying benefit of the doubt. You never know when you'll need it, so you might want to liberally apply it.
Still, Jesus harnessed to power of faith and applied the literal healing tools of a lick and a promise. These days, we are given space age tools and the experience of being Spaceman Spiff for twenty minutes. Either way, how can we not be floored?
Healing can take so many different forms and we can be blessed to be both the healer and the healed when our hearts are engaged. The gratitude we can offer up not only adds to the experience, it gives us strength to move forward to different ways we can heal ourselves nnd others.
Um, that was everyone else. I sat with Minette and Dory and we were good. Not a peep. No airborne food. Scouts' honor.
That urge to help folks along, though. It can be hard to resist. Take John 5:1-15
5 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. [4] [b] 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”
12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”
13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.
One person came back to say, "Thank you." One. Out of ten. Really?
I thought about this passage after my first post-surgical visit to the woman who restored my sight this summer. Aside from the fact that she is fabulous and kind and gave me back something I thought was gone forever, she kept apologizing for my eyes being bruised and me still needing glasses.
If I wasn't so touch-shy, I would have given her a hug. I did thank her. I could see! As for glasses...I love glasses. The pair I'm wearing right now came from Zenni and I knew I had to get them when I tried them on and barked, "No capes!" They look like they belong to one of my favorite movie characters, Edna Mode. (I also look like a confused owl. I'll take that, too!)
The surgery for this requires patients to stay awake amd work with the doctors to move the eyes to assist with the extraction procedure and track how ll the anesthesia is working. By the time I was wheeled into the OR,I had been blind for ten months. If you came into my life after November of 2024, and I haven't met you yet, I still have no idea what you look like.
There is an AI machine that heps the doctor know how far along they are in removing the lens of your eye, all the while th doc and the OR crew ae talking to you about what is going on. It feels like a space mission. When the lens is removed, the first thing you see is light! It's analogous to taking to the lens off a camera, so there is no way to process an image with the cones in eyes just yet. After that, the surgeon talks you through placing the prosthetic lens. Blink twice, and you can see the smiling faces of the people who opened up your world again. Yes, right there in the operating room, you will be able to see!
This was all pretty miraculous to me. So what was the problem with the ten men at the pool? Did they not believe how blessed they were? Was this a time when people were walking around healing all comers? Maybe they were scared of the pharisees. Maybe they were afraid to trust how good things were turning out. There's that thing called allowing grace through applying benefit of the doubt. You never know when you'll need it, so you might want to liberally apply it.
Still, Jesus harnessed to power of faith and applied the literal healing tools of a lick and a promise. These days, we are given space age tools and the experience of being Spaceman Spiff for twenty minutes. Either way, how can we not be floored?
Healing can take so many different forms and we can be blessed to be both the healer and the healed when our hearts are engaged. The gratitude we can offer up not only adds to the experience, it gives us strength to move forward to different ways we can heal ourselves nnd others.