Eyes Wide Shut

Today we have 3 stories one right after another and lately I’ve been trying to find connections to the stories we study together each week, instead of just trying to pick something out of everything. So I applied that same method to these stories and I hope that through this process of connecting them all together we can draw closer to Jesus’ message and mission as well as what our message and mission should look like for the world.

In the first part of our story today we have Jesus predicting his passion, his death and resurrection. This is the third time that he has done it. The first two times were in Luke 9:21-22 and in Luke 9:43b-45. The first time Jesus orders them not to tell anyone about this, but that command to not tell anyone probably is also connected to the fact that Peter had just correctly declared Jesus as the Messiah of God. The second time he predicts his death he has just come down from his transfiguration and scolded everyone for being a faithless and perverse generation when the disciples could not cast a demon out of a boy. Everyone is praising him when Jesus does it and then Jesus turns to the 12 and tells them he’s going to die so they don’t understand. In this final prediction he is very specific about how it is all going to happen and they just don’t understand.

Now it may seem odd and maybe even cruel that this understanding of the passion was hidden from them, but we also have to keep our eyes forward and trust that it will work out and it does. In Luke 24:45-49 we see that after Jesus has risen from the dead he opens the eyes of the disciples to see and understand everything that he had taught them and they had gone through.

Next we see Jesus heal a blind man. Now we all know that Jesus brings sight to the blind, but this is actually the only blind person that Jesus heals in the gospel of Luke. It is important for us as readers to hear this story because if you remember back when Jesus was in Nazareth in Luke 4:16-19 he reads from the scroll of Isaiah which lists a bunch of ‘acts’ that will be done and Jesus says that this has been fulfilled in their hearing. Those acts include to bring good news to the poor which happens multiple times but as was clearly demonstrated last week with the rich man and Lazarus. He has released so many people from their different bondages through healing and teaching. He has helped those who have been oppressed by the system as well as helped to try to change the system. He has proclaimed God’s favor on people. The one thing I skipped over is he also says that he will bring recovery of the sight to the blind. Jesus fulfills all of these sayings and Luke makes sure to include stories about each and every one of these things.

This blind man asks for mercy by giving Jesus the title of Son of David, which was a messianic title. So in his shouting the blind man is basically naming Jesus in the same way that Peter names Jesus when he calls him the Messiah of God. When Jesus asks what kind of mercy he wants to receive the blind man asks for his sight back. Now Jesus gives him the ability to see again, and Jesus praises him for his faith. His inner sight, his ability to recognize Jesus for who he is and why he came was already there, so Jesus simply opened up his physical eyes in response to the openness he already had.

In our final story Jesus enters Jericho and we hear the famous story, and well known Sunday School song, of Zaccheus clamoring up a Sycamore tree. He does this because he is short. I feel like this text implies that Zaccheus already knows about Jesus and now he wants to physically see Jesus. So this idea to see Jesus for Zaccheus is less about seeing about Jesus as in learning about him, but more of getting a glimpse of that famous prophet everyone is talking about. I think this is an important distinction because I would believe that even though Zaccheus has never met Jesus, Jesus has already elicited a change in him and that is why he is so eager to ‘see’ him.

Another part about Zaccheus that I want to focus on is this idea of him giving back to the poor and paying back anyone he defrauded. As you can see in the Greek the word is didomi and in this sentence is didomu which means it is a present active indicative. Basically this means that it’s happening right now. So our NRSV translation makes it sound like it will happen in the future while the CEB makes it sound like it is already happening by saying ‘I give’, and the NIV says that ‘here and now he gives and will pack back’. So I think the important part to note about this is that it seems to be something that is happening. This knowing Jesus before hand and now being invited to be host to Jesus has further elicited this change in him, even a chief tax collector. Zaccheus is a changed and changing man and his response to that change is to live out the Torah to not take more than you should.

The final part about this encounter with Zaccheus that I want to briefly point out is that just like the rich man from the parable last week who never changed, we see an ongoing change in Zaccheus. This desire to change in response to being seen and known by Jesus. He was already open to Jesus by going and see him and then he really saw him when this incredible prophet welcomed a person who was hated by the general population.

So all these stories have to do with eyes being opened by Jesus. Admittedly it took the disciples until later, but perhaps that was the right time for it to happen. Then the blind man who already had his eyes set on God who also wanted to physically see. Then we see Zaccheus eyes being opened even more by Jesus’ interaction with him. AND I hope that the eyes of the crowds were opened that day when Jesus goes to Zacchaeus’ house and declares salvation to his household.

I believe the good news we hear today is that Jesus engages with people who have various degrees of ‘eye sight’. To the disciples who needed more time, the blind man who was more than ready, and Zacchaeus who just needed that extra little notice and nudge. Jesus talks with, heals, and visits all of us who are in our various stages of seeing and experiencing Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit. I invite us all to be faithful like the disciples even when things don’t make sense, persistent like the blind man, and curious like Zacchaeus as we continue to let the Holy Spirit work in and through us so that we too can share that same blessing of what it means to see Jesus with those who have yet to see. Amen.