We Walk by Faith and Not By Sight

Vision has been very much on my mind recently. Vision problems have played a large role in the lives of my husband and me the last 18 months or so. Between my macular edema and his cataracts, we have made numerous trips to the Front Range to see retinal specialists and cataract surgeons. For those of us who have enjoyed relatively good vision all our lives, having vision problems can be debilitating and frustrating. Being able to see—even with assistance from eyeglasses—is something we often take for granted. We seldom think about the challenges that face those who are visually impaired or blind.

Dealing with vision problems has made me think of the Gospel accounts in which Jesus healed those who were blind. One Gospel pericope that especially resonates with me is Mark 10:46-52, the story of Blind Bartimaeus. In Mark’s account, Jesus was near Jericho, on his way to Jerusalem, and he passed a blind beggar named Bartimaeus. Bartimaeus shouted, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me.” Though the crowd tried to silence Bartimaeus, he persisted in shouting out to Jesus.

When he realized that the blind man was calling him, Jesus stopped and asked those standing near the beggar to bring the man to him. Then Jesus asked the blind man, “What do you want me to do for you?” Bartimaeus replied, “Master, I want to see.” And Jesus said, “You may go. Your eyes are healed because of your faith” (Contemporary English Version).

Several things stand out for me in this brief passage, but one in particular resonates with me. As the blind man was sitting by the side of the road, he heard that Jesus was about to pass by and he shouted, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me.” Even though Bartimaeus was blind, he could “see” who Jesus truly was—the Son of David, the long-awaited Messiah. In a few other places in the Gospels, we read of blind people recognizing Jesus as the Son of David. But most folks did not realize who Jesus truly was. So, how could blind people truly “see” Jesus?

In my long career as an educator, I’ve had the opportunity to work with two visually impaired students. I was able to observe one student for three years when I was an instructional coach at a middle school on the Navajo Nation. Danielle had gradually been losing her sight since she was in preschool; by the time she was in eighth grade she was almost totally blind.

I watched Danielle help her classmates build our school’s homecoming float. Using her sense of touch, she was able to stuff more paper napkins into the float’s chicken wire infrastructure in a minute than her classmates could in five! I also watched her in class. Though she was unable to read the literature story her English class was reading, she listened and answered questions about the story that her classmates were unable to answer.

After eighth grade, Danielle left our small town to attend the New Mexico School for the Blind. She returned two years later, when I was the principal of the elementary school in our town, where Danielle’s younger brother was a student. One evening, Danielle attended an event at our school. I greeted her and asked if she remembered me. She took my hands in hers, smelled them, burst into a big smile, and exclaimed, “Mrs. Hotchkiss!”

In her book, Learning to Walk in the Dark, Barbara Brown Taylor tells the story of a young boy who lost his sight. The boy’s father said to him, “Please tell me everything you see.”

People who are visually impaired “see” differently than sighted people do. Blind people rely on other senses to gain information about the world around them. And they seem to develop a “sixth sense” about people and their environment.

I am reminded of a line in Ray Stevens’ song, “Everything is Beautiful” that goes, “There is none so blind as he who will not see.” This line is a proverb that has been used by writers and philosophers for centuries. Many attribute the original proverb to Jeremiah 5:21:

Hear this, O foolish and senseless people,

who have eyes, but do not see,

who have ears, but do not hear (NIV).

Jesus also repeated this proverb throughout his earthly ministry, including in Matthew 13:13, ^“This is why I use these stories to teach the people: They see, but they don’t really see. They hear, but they don’t really hear or understand” (Easy-to-Read Version).

Blind Bartimaeus was able to “see” beyond the visible to Jesus’ true identity. He had faith that Jesus could heal his blindness. Jesus understood the man’s great faith and healed him because of it.

Bartimaeus walked by faith, not by sight. These are the words of St. Paul in his Second Letter to the Corinthians 5:7, “For we walk by faith and not by sight” (NRSV).

As I meditate on the story of Blind Bartimaeus, I wonder if I am blind but do not see. Do I turn a blind eye to suffering, injustice, and violence? Do I ignore the needs of others? And do I truly see the beauty in the world around me and appreciate—and work to preserve--the wonders of God’s creation?

I also wonder if my faith is as strong as that of Bartimaeus? Am I willing to walk by faith and not by sight? Years ago, I saw a poster that read, “Faith is walking to the end of all the light you have…and taking one more step.” Do I have that kind of faith? Do I have faith to walk in the dark?

This Easter Season, I pray that all of us may strengthen our sense of sight so that we might truly see the needs in the world around us. And I pray that our faith will be strengthened so that we can step out in faith and respond to those needs. May we learn to walk by faith and not by sight.