I have a confession.

I’m not good at begging God for healing. I’m sure that it made me a poor chaplain in the eyes of some people.

Like the one time when a patient’s daughter told me to pray. I said I had been. She told me the kind of praying I needed to do. I wasn’t going to be able to measure up.

What was hard is that the medical team all around the room had been doing chest compressions for a very long time while waiting for the family to come. The time of death was pronounced shortly after our conversation. All the rest of us knew that he’d died much earlier.

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Part of our struggle about demanding healing is the Gospel stories of Jesus healing people. We think, “Jesus healed that person, he should heal my mom.” We bring people metaphorically to Jesus and we ask Jesus to touch them, just like “some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.”

Mark tells this story right after Jesus said to the disciples, “Do you still not understand?”

I wish I knew whether Mark (and the Spirit) want us to learn about how Jesus heals physical blindness, or Mark (and the Spirit) want us to learn about how Jesus brings sight to souls.

Because, after all, when scolding the disciples, Jesus had said, “Do you still not see or understand?”

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The people brought the man and begged for a touch. Jesus took him by the hand and led him out of town. More than a quick touch, there was connection. It showed the blind man that Jesus saw him, that Jesus, apparently, knew the challenge of walking without sight and calmed that fear. He made rough places smooth.

Even before the healing, Jesus was with him.