Blog 2 Jessica Sturino

Blog 2 Jessica Sturino

When reading the gospel of Mark, I was particularly interested in Mark 8:22-26. This passage seems sort of out of sync with the rest of the book, in my opinion. In the first part of this section, Jesus is approached by a blind man who is seeking to be healed. This seems pretty routine; Jesus performs numerous miracles throughout Mark’s gospels, and the stories usually begin a lot like this one. The difference, however, comes in the execution. Jesus performs a small ritual and then asks the man if it worked. This seems odd to me. Shouldn’t he know whether the man was healed? Even more strange, the man was not fully healed. It took Jesus another try to get it right. Was Jesus having an off day in the miracles department?  This seems unlikely. According to J. Smith, an explanation for this strange story is that Mark is inserting a metaphor for the followers of Jesus at the time.¹ Throughout the gospel of Mark, the disciples seem confused about who exactly Jesus is. In Mark 4:31, the disciples are taken aback by one of Jesus’ miracles and say to one another “Who then is this? Even the wind and sea obey him!” ² Smith is suggesting that Mark is using the blind man as a metaphor for people, including the disciples, who had been exposed to the teachings of Jesus and were beginning to understand who he was, but who did not yet fully grasp Jesus’ authority or views. This story comes almost directly before the disciples seem to begin to more fully comprehend the man that they were devoting their lives to. In verse 29, Jesus asks the disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” and Peter answers, saying “You are the Messiah!”³ The idea that the disciples’ understanding of Jesus is coming into focus immediately following the story that is being told as a metaphor for their developing views of Jesus seems to be an effective way for Mark to get his point across. Until this point, the disciples had been “blind” in their concept of Jesus, but they were now beginning to see.

¹ Smith, J., “Seeing Jesus Clearly.” Southwestern Journal of Theology 53:2 (2011): 189-190.

² HCSB, Mark 4:31

³ HCSB, Mark 8:29

Bibliography

Smith, J. "Seeing Jesus Clearly." Southwestern Journal of Theology. 53. no. 2 (2011): 189-190.