Healings of the blind distinguished

Pentecost +21 - Year B

Mark has two stories of healing sightless people: Mark 8:22-26 (unnamed - a test object) and Mark 10:46-52 (named - a hope engaged). In some ways they parallel the difference between Job 42:1-6 (living by rumor) and 42:10-17 (living a full life). Here are two retellings that resist a conflation of the incidents.

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Mark 8:22-26

let’s test this healer
blindness personified
brought to the city square

Jesus changes the test
shifting perspective
moved outside the walls

spit and hands
weave their spell
and we await results

first try brings walking trees
spell rewoven
clarifies human nature

don’t return to the testing ground
avoid group think
make this experience home

- - - - - -

Mark 10:46-52

a voice cries
pity - mercy - blessing
from a road’s margin

a voice cries
come - courage - blessing
from a broad way

a voice cries
hurrah - at last - I come
a journey begun

a voice cries
what - when - where
do you want

a voice cries
life - now - here
I want

abracadabra
want joined want
ipso facto

voices walk
a new broader way
the margins