NOTES for Mar 10:46-52
When people encounter Jesus, some are healed and others are not. Some notice Him, while others ignore Him. Some approach, while others pass by. Among those who approach, some come for the Kingdom and for life, while others come to argue or catch Him in His words. To each his own. The blind man by the road wants to be healed. He wants to receive his sight. To see. Above all, to see the One who can restore his sight, the very ability to see. Is it possible? Yes, of course. Everything is possible in the Kingdom, and this blind man is striving with all his might precisely toward the One who brought the Kingdom into the world.
It is possible, but only on one condition: the encounter must become the principal goal, the only thing that matters, something for whose sake, if necessary, any convention, rule, prohibition, or restriction can be set aside. Not God’s commandments, of course, but precisely the restrictions and rules invented by people, as well as human opinions. The blind man calls Jesus the Son of David, and therefore the Messiah. People try to silence him, for no one had officially recognized Jesus as the Messiah. Even unofficially, opinions differed greatly.
At that time, Jesus was generally a scandalous figure in public opinion, or at least an ambiguous one in every respect. To strive toward Him in this way, one had to trust Him completely, not even in spite of social conventions but beyond them all. One had simply to ignore those conventions and see only the Man Himself. Such a relationship with Christ is truly saving. Not because He is God and Man at once, but because the relationship is genuine. If it were not genuine, even His divinity would not help.
In the end, everything is determined precisely by relationships, by their depth and authenticity, whether they are relationships with God or with another person. Genuine relationships are always unconditional. They cannot be conditioned by any external factors, social, religious, or otherwise. Only then do relationships become effective and change those who enter into them. Then, in a relationship with Christ, everything is possible: miracles, healings, and participation in the Kingdom. Otherwise everything is futile, even if one meets Him face to face.