Monday, December 1, 2008

Men Like Trees

Prelogue:

For starters, I have a new song up at MySpace. Second, I oft wonder when blogging whether I should do blog more or less often. Is it too conceited to think that people might check my blog every other day or so, only to be let down when no new material is up? Or perhaps people only check every month or so, in which case there might be a wealth of Chad's life in words that would be left unread between visits. But I digress...

Main Entree:

I was reading the other day in the Gospel of Mark and came across a peculiar passage. Now, many passages of Scripture are peculiar. For some, the entirety of Scripture is peculiar and strange, as is the idea of God being a man and rising from the dead. For others, the Scriptures make sense and provide a living metaphor for why our hearts and souls both ache and rejoice in this fallen world. I am in the latter group. So, to those who also fall into the latter group, I offer Mark 8:22-26 for your consideration. In this passage, a blind man is brought to Jesus. Jesus first leads the man away from the public (8:23 - And he took the blind man by the hand and out of the village.) and then proceeds to heal the man. He spits on his eyes (gross, but better than surgery, amen?) and lays his hands over the man's eyes. The first time around, Jesus asks the man, "Do you see anything?" The reply: "I see men, but they look like trees, walking."

Weird? It is to me. Often Jesus will heal people in public or pose questions/problems in public so that a learning point can be made. In this particular case, the man is away from the public. Once he says he sees "men like trees," Jesus lays his hands on him again and he sees everything clearly. It seems to me that there is no purpose for the double healing, seeing as Jesus could have healed him correctly the first time. So I am have been wondering for a while the purpose of this "take two" healing. Is it a botched healing? Is there a message for the blind man? For us?

Postscript:

I am working on a video tour of my new house. It is incredible. The house, not the video. Hopefully I will get it up here by the weekend, so check back then.

6 comments:

patD said...

chad I read your posts faithfully.. so I want you to know that there is someone out there who cares and is interested in your thoughts and adventures.

As far as the double healing.. before I turn to commentaries or anything like that, I have no idea. I've been trying to formulate something intelligent without 'cheating' but I got nothing

Crashnab said...

I agree. Post away. How can I support the Local Rockstar if I don't know what said Rockstar is up to? Answer me that.

Skadoosh.

B-Ho said...

I check your blog hourly Chad, so I'm disappointed a lot. Thanks for making my day today though.

Andrew said...

I'm with Crashnab and Brian.

Brian T. said...

Hey! This is the Greene side of the Greene Turneys, but I wanted you to know that I think i remember one of my profs talking about this in class...cool that you thought of it, I never really processed it. He said something about how it can be compared to spiritual awakenings too...the knowledge of grace and truth grows gradually and what we see now in part one day we'll see in full! :-) That's exciting stuff!!! Hey- thanks for the thought! By the way...you're going to be living with us soon!!! i can't wait- i'm preparing the house right now!!!!!! (i bet you can't tell from my overabundant use of exclamation marks. don't hate, it reflects my current caffeine-induced mood)

John said...

Hey, man. Here's one to think about. What if Jesus actually OVER corrected his vision the first time and the men walking around like trees vision was not a blurry sighting but rather a pulling back of the spiritual veil allowing him to literally see men connected to Jesus, the life source, the vine . . . and we, the branches?