Isn’t it a relief to know that, where God is concerned, not all change is instant? It is to me anyway. Otherwise I’d be looking at my life and wondering hard. This bit has been tidied up nicely. That bit I’m proud of. But over there, hidden behind the other stuff, well those bits are better left unmentioned.
Truth is we aren’t exactly the people we’d like to be. Worse than that—we aren’t the people we feel we should be.
The other gospels—and elsewhere Mark’s the worst culprit—paint a picture of change, of healing, of transformation that’s altogether too instant for comfort. You have a withered hand: stretch it out! You are lame: stand up tall! You are troubled in spirit: watch those demons flee!
Healing like that speaks so strongly of the power of God but reflects poorly upon our unhealed, unchanged, and untransformed lives. Have we missed our chance? Have we lacked in faith? Have we been blind about our blindness? Maybe there’s a touch of all three in all our lives.
But today’s gospel is the story for us. Most change takes time. Most healing involves trial and error. Most transformation we have to grow into.
So if right now our vision is blurry and we can’t see the people for the trees—take heart – we are in the middle of things and Jesus is going to go on touching our eyes and our lives until we see the way of things as plain as day. For as long as it takes…