About the Blind Man and the Blind
31/36th Sunday after Pentecost
First Epistle to Timothy 5:15-17; Luke 18:35-43
We read from the Gospel:
"And it came to pass, as He was drawing near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the road and begging." - Such was the fate of almost all blind people in times past - to sit - somewhere along the main road, at the market-place or fair, or near the church, and beg. In any other way it was almost impossible for a blind person to earn a living. The fate of the blind has been bitter for centuries, and only in recent decades in a country such as ours have the blind received some degree of social security.
But let's return to the Gospel story:
"And hearing a multitude passing by, he [the blind man] asked what it meant. / So they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. / And he cried out, saying, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’" (Luke 18:36-38)
A crowd of people always walked with Jesus, so the blind man paid attention to that noise and movement of many people. From the way the blind man began to shout, it is clear that he had already heard much about Jesus of Nazareth. When he shouted for Jesus to have mercy on him, shouted continuously, despite the fact that people were arguing with him, it is clear that the blind man had great faith in Jesus. No one in those days could make the blind sighted.
Therefore, when the blind man called Jesus the son of David and asked for mercy from Him, he was convinced that he possessed the power or grace of God. Probably, people had already told the blind man more than once that Jesus can heal the blind, the paralyzed, and the lepers, so he did not want to miss the opportunity when He passed by him.
The insistent appeal had an effect on Jesus. He stopped and instructed the blind man to be brought to Him, and then asked: "'What do you want me to do for you?' And he answered: 'Lord, that I may receive my sight!'" (Luke 18:41)
Let us note: the blind man did not see what Jesus looks like; he probably never personally heard the teaching of Christ before that time, yet he called Jesus Lord. He had such faith in Jesus that only the closest disciples of Christ had at that time.
Only later, when the prison guard asked the apostles Paul and Silas: "'What must I do to be saved?' – So they said: ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.’" (Acts of the Holy Apostles 16:30-31).
And that man of Jericho, blind in the body, acquired the same faith - how and under whose influence - we do not know. God can influence people through other people and directly by the Holy Spirit. It is only clear to us from The Gospel story that that physically blind man was spiritually sighted and the Lord healed him bodily as well: "Receive your sight; Your faith has made you well." (Luke 18:42)
Analogous with that Gospel story, let us recall that was a time in the past when there were many blind musicians in Ukraine: kobzars, bandurists, and later also lyre players. Taras Shevchenko praises one of these kobzars, Perebendia, (The Rambler)in the poem of the same name:
"Old Perebendia, minstrel blind,
. . . .
At the market-place - about Lazarus,
So that the memory should live,
He’ll sing in heavy heaving tones
Of how the Sich was ruined.
. . . .
As the kobzar sings,
. . . .
It’s his heart freely talking to the Lord,
The praises sung in homage to the Lord
. . . .” (1839)
Blind kobzars during the time of the Kozachchyna (Cossack period) were often from the former Zaporozhian Cossacks, who lost their sight either in battle, or were blinded by Turks when taken captive. And those kobzars travelled through the villages and cities of Ukraine and sang in their odes and songs of the historical events, the former glory of their people, and awakening their national consciousness.
In troubled and decisive times, such as, for example, during the Khmelnytskyi period, those kobzar singers were Cossack messengers who called the people to fight in the defence of the pious Orthodox faith and the defence of the freedom of their people.
When the Ukrainian language was banned in the Church and in schools, it lived on in songs and thoughts that spread among our people mainly through blind kobzars and lyre players, who sang not only about historical events, about the life and aspirations of the people, but also created and delivered religious chants in public gatherings during fairs, church holidays and generally on various occasions near churches. And because of those physically blind, but spiritually sighted, blind musicians, much of our historical and artistic heritage has been preserved and spread among the people. ("Our song, our thought...")
We will also recall that at the beginning of collectivization in Ukraine, an All-Ukrainian congress of those lonely kobzars, blind and sighted, was convened, at which time they were all executed without trial. They were shot, because they did not sing what the godless in power preferred, and there was no way they could be controlled or constrained.
It is with regret that we have to state that in recent decades, along with the great technical development of civilization, spiritual blindness has also become widespread: a number of pseudo-intellectualists are trying to instill, through the school system and various means of communication, the understanding that all creatures and plants in the universe arose as a result of an expedient combination of chemical elements, —- without the influence of any Creator and any All-Comprehensive mind.
Truth be told, those ideas are not new - they have been propagated by atheists and god-fighters of various colours and types for centuries, and, as the psalmist affirmed the truth, "The fool says in his heart: 'There is no God'." (Psalm 13:1)
God can make even the most contemporary or modern blind people see, and from time to time we see such blind people who become sighted and begin to see God in all His creation, but God heals only those people, makes them spiritually sighted, who really seek to know the truth , who did not sell their soul to the devil.
The same people whose souls were possessed by the devil, who became servants of the father of lies, such as the Pharisees and scribes, even the Lord Jesus Christ, while on earth, could not make them see.
We pray that the Lord will always enlighten our souls with His light, so that nothing evil dwells in them, so that we always feel and see the Creator in His creation, in the universe, so that we feel His parental care over us, His sons and daughters through our Lord Jesus Christ. Saint Paul the apostle testifies, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:26)
Amen.
Very Rev. Fr. Taras Slavchenko
Taras Slavchenko was born on March 8, 1918 in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine. After graduating from school and the Pedagogical College, he entered the language and literature faculty of the Scientific Pedagogical Institute. Having successfully completed it in 1938, he served as a teacher in a secondary school.