The other day, one of my grad students reported on a retreat he had taken. Away from interruptions and schedules, he read through the Gospel of Mark. He suggested that we miss the big picture when we are reading a few words, a few sentences at a time.

That’s the risk of writing 300 words a day. We focus on small things and miss the larger story Mark is telling, that God is offering.

Let’s go back to the healing story we started the other day, telling it differently.

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Just as a few paragraphs ago, some people had brought a man who couldn’t hear or speak, begging Jesus to touch him, some people brought a blind man to Jesus.

Just as he had done with the deaf man a few paragraphs earlier, Jesus led the man away from the crowd.

Just as he had done with the deaf man a few paragraphs earlier, Jesus spit.

Just like he had done with a deaf man a few paragraphs earlier, Jesus touched what wasn’t working.

This time, Jesus asked the man whether his sight was getting better. He could see more than nothing, but less than everything. There were people, but “They look like trees walking around.”

Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes.

Now, just like the man a few paragraphs earlier could hear and speak, this man could see clearly.

A few paragraphs earlier, Jesus told “them” not to talk about the man who could speak. Jesus told this man to go home, to not go back into town.

A few paragraphs earlier, the people wouldn’t shut up. They started quoting Isaiah, talking about the deaf hearing and the mute speaking.

And now the blind man can see. If Mark is trying to help us understand more than physical healing, the next story he tells should be about people understanding something big.

And it is.