24 March 2020
Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Jesus encounters another “blind” man: a man who has never “seen” mercy. There he is in one of the porticos of Bethesda, which means “house of mercy,” and yet he says to Jesus “Sir, I have no one to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me.” Yet this man is blind to Whom He is speaking, for this Jesus is the one who said to the woman at the well “…whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life,” (John 4:14). And these waters of Mercy have been stirred up in Jesus at the sight of this poor man: stirred to the utmost, tender pity.
“Do you want to be well?” He asks. Notice that the man does not answer! He cannot see an end to his plight: he can only see that the water in the pool might heal him, but he can never get there. But the Good Shepherd (John 10:11) has come to the Sheep Gate, leaving the ninety-nine to come after this one stray (Matthew 18:12), that this poor lamb might be led to still waters (Psalm 23:2) instead of the turbulent waters of superstition on which his eyes of flesh were fixed.
“Rise, take up your mat, and walk.” Rise up, man! You who despaired of going to the strange waters, the Living Water has come to you! You who languished in the house of mercy, Incarnate Mercy has come to you! The Lord “…raises the needy from the dust; from the ash heap lifts up the poor…” (1 Samuel 2:8)! When David came to take Jerusalem his enemies taunted him, saying “You shall not enter here: the blind and the lame will drive you away!” (2 Samuel 5:6), and now the Son of David (Matthew 9:27) says to the lame “Rise…and walk!” David said, in the pride of his victory over the city, “The lame and the blind shall be the personal enemies of David,” (2 Samuel 5:8), and yet the Son of David comes to you as a friend! As David showed mercy to Meribbaal for the sake of his friend, Jonathan, and had him eat at his own table with his sons (2 Samuel 9:1-13), the Son of David lays out a feast of mercy before you, in the sight of your foes (Psalm 23:5), for your own sake!
This man goes as he is told, and when questioned, he answers that he carries his mat on the Sabbath in blind obedience to the One who made him well: his prior blindness has been illuminated, and now the Word of Jesus is a lamp for his feet, and a light for his path (Psalm 119:105). Though he walks through the deadly valley of their scrutiny, he fears nothing, for the command of Jesus is the rod, the staff of his comfort (Psalm 23:4). Jesus comes to him and exhorts him to sin no more, “…that nothing worse may happen to…” him, and his eyes being opened to Whom it was that healed him, he himself became a light to others, speaking about Jesus.
To what do we, in our times of need, look to for false hope and healing; what things in this world distract us from fixing our eyes upon Jesus? Do we walk blindly in the dark, tripping over the obstacles of our sin, or is His Word a light for our path, as it became for this poor man? Oh Jesus, may the waters of mercy in your Sacred Heart be stirred to pity for us, crippled and ill by sin!