Luke 18:31-43 Blindness and sight

Luke 18:31-34 Jesus tells the twelve that He will be killed in Jerusalem. Jesus was prophetically explaining the coming events to His disciples. Why were they unable to understand what He told them? Perhaps this is the reason for the following story.

Luke 8:35-43 Jesus heals blind man. Parallel passage Mark 10:46-52. Mark gives his name as Bartimaeus, although Luke does not name him. The essence of the story is that the blind man hears the crowd surrounding Jesus and asks what is going on. When he finds out that Jesus is passing by, he pleads with Him to restore his sight. Jesus heals him. All the people began to glorify God because of this healing.

          Perhaps this is a metaphor for the disciples' spiritual blindness. Jesus told them that all things written by the prophets concerning Him would be fulfilled. He will be

·        Handed over to the gentiles

·        Mocked, mistreated, and scourged

·        Killed

·        Raised from the dead on the third day

·        These are each individually things that the prophets had indeed foretold.

·        Psalm 22:12-13 speaks of Him being surrounded by strong bulls of Bashan; Psalm 22:16 mentions dogs surrounding Him; both as a reference to the gentiles

·        Psalm 22:14-15  speak of His torture. Isaiah 53:5 speaks specifically of His scourging

·        Isaiah 53:8-9 speak of His death, that He was cut off (not dying a natural death, but killed)

·        Psalm 16:10 says that God will not abandon the soul of His Holy One to the grave or allow His body to undergo decay

The purpose of God's plan was even explained by the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah 53:8 says that He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of God's people to whom this was due. Isaiah 53:11 says that the result of His anguish, He will justify many and bear their iniquities.  Isaiah 53:12 says that He bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors.

          But the disciples were unable to comprehend all this, as though they were having a mental block. Perhaps there was a spiritual component (i.e. Satanic opposition) to their blindness. So the healing of blind Bartimaeus could have been a metaphor for God's ability to eventually open their eyes to the truth. It didn't happen then, but will eventually (after the fact) become clear to them. (Luke 24:31-35)