In between I walked George and watched the England Ireland rugby game - and cheered for England. (Long-time readers will appreciate that still takes a determined effort.)
For bible study I'm looking at chapter 8 of Mark's gospel, picking out bits that might go unnoticed at first glance. There's a really weird healing done by Jesus. A blind man was brought to him and the first thing Jesus does is take him out of the village. When they're away from the crowds he spits in the man's eyes. And that's not even the oddest thing he does.
Next he asks the man if he can see anything. Now excuse me, this is Jesus aka God. He of all people should know if a healing's worked, and why for goodness sake, would it not have? Was he just having a bad day? Feeling a bit low on the self-esteem front? (Imagine Jesus having an existential crisis.) (Debra pointed out, quite rightly, that Jesus did in fact have existential crises, including a fairly major one in the Garden of Gethsemane.)
The man's reply doesn't inspire hope. 'I can see things like trees moving around.'
Oh oh, something's gone wrong here. Jesus puts his hands on the man's eyes again and this time the man can see clearly.
So I've done a bit of research and the answer I like best as to why this strange performance happened is: the man's vision was blurry because ... he had spit in his eye. Jesus simply rubbed it out the second time.
Looking more deeply into it of course there's a lot more going on. Cue spooky music. Or there might not have been. Often we read so deeply into things that we discover stuff that was never intended. Possibly.
It's good to put ideas out there to let others decide for themselves.
7 comments:
Had they not heard of hypromellose eye drops back then???
Obviously not, jaycee. Apparently there is some eye disease which can be cured but it takes the brain a while to realise.
I thought Jesus had existential crises all the time. He had one in the wilderness while being tempted by Satan, didn't he? (It's not temptation unless you're, well, tempted.) And what about the major one in the Garden of Gethsemane? Talk about contemplating your own mortality!
This is very true, Debra. 'Have I got to do this?' Yes, I'll edit my post.
It makes the expression "spit and polish" a bit wince-making, though I can remember how delighted I was with the results of my cataract operations and can only imagine how the man felt, spit or not.
Saliva contain antibiotic components, which is why biting your tongue or inside cheek doesn't cause infections. Components such as histatin, which not only kills bacteria, preventing infections, but also accelerates healing. Other antibiotic components of spit are secretory IgA, lactoferrin, lysozyme and peroxidase.
So spit would have been the only antibiotic available to Jesus, given the technology of the day. On the other hand, He may have been eating moldy bread too, given the hygiene of the day, and thus getting even more antibiotics in His spit ;-)
I'm sure it felt amazing, Sonata.
That's interesting, Stu. I shall throw that in to the study tonight.
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