Matthew 9:27 - 31
As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”
When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”
“Yes, Lord,” they replied.
Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you”; and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.” But they went out and spread the news about him all over that region.
Many of the texts for the early days of Advent are about seeing, hearing, entering and obeying. The season begins in the darkness of Old Testament Prophets who longed for the promised Hope of God, who cried out expectantly for God's intervention in their world, but who did not live to see the Promise with their own eyes.
The theme is carried out in the Gospel readings as well. The prototypical story involves Zechariah, who sees and hears the angel's pronouncement, but doesn't believe the message. He becomes mute for the entire course of his wife Elizabeth's pregnancy, before the birth of their son John.
The Gospels often use seeing and hearing as metaphors for spiritual perception. Blindness and muteness describe the inability of persons to perceive reality at a spiritual level. There may or may not be sight on the physical level. Sight on the spiritual level is not guaranteed.
So when two "blind" men follow Jesus, crying out for "mercy," who are they and what exactly do they want? Mercy is the characteristic attribute of God, who generously lavishes mercy on the world. God is endlessly self-giving, and what God spends in the world is mercy, compassion, love and healing.
It may well be that the most merciful act of God with these men is not restoring their physical sight, but bringing them to a point of spiritual sight, a place where they see underneath things, where they see with the eyes of their hearts.
"Do you believe I am able to do this?" Jesus asked them. Certainly Jesus could heal their physical lack of sight. But the more important healing is the opening of spiritual eyes, allowing God to shape in us the capacity to see God, others, and the world with new eyes. We can believe that this is the work Jesus is eager to do.
Personally, my hunch is that these men didn't learn to see through their blindness at a spiritual level. They may have experienced a physical healing of their eye's physical maladies, but their souls were unchanged.
I live in a time and in a Western culture that does not see well. We are busy, obligated, over-committed and hyper-responsible people. It is easier to overlook than to see.
Our Advent invitation, though, is to see, to notice and to be aware. That kind of seeing is really what Christian spirituality is all about. This seeing puts me in new relationship with God, others, the world, and myself. It allows me increasingly to see what is real, not what is illusion.
Basically, Christian spirituality is about God healing our blindness -- at Advent and always.
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