Thanks be to God for Second Touches
- davidwperk
- Aug 5
- 5 min read
Devotional Reflection, Tuesday, August 5, 2025
Proper 13, the week of the eighth Sunday after Pentecost
The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.
Key phrase for reflection from today’s reading:
23He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village; and when he had put saliva on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, ‘Can you see anything?’ 24And the man looked up and said, ‘I can see people, but they look like trees, walking.’ 25Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.
You will find the full text of today’s Gospel reading at the end of this reflection.
Daily Office Lectionary readings (BCP, 978)
AM Psalm 78:1-39; PM Psalm 78:40-72
2 Samuel 7:18-29; Acts 18:12-28; Mark 8:22-33
Today we celebrate the Feast of Albrecht Dürer, Matthias Grünewald, and Lucas Cranach, the Elder. (See below.)
David's Reflections
What a remarkable healing story. Mark alone shares this story. Evidently, this man had not always been blind, since the text says that his sight was restored. He had known what it was to see. Mark relates the story with such vivid detail. Saliva was (and still is) a folk healing remedy. Jesus' first laying on of hands brought this man only partial sight. It required a second touch to bring full vision. This progressive healing happens in no other miracle story in the Gospels.
The positioning of this story invests it with a unique symbolic value. Immediately after, Peter, speaking for the whole group, says that Jesus is the Messiah. However, it becomes obvious immediately that "Messiah" meant something entirely different to him and the Twelve than it did to Jesus. When Jesus predicted that he would be rejected and crucified, Peter took him aside and corrected him. We can guess that Peter heard Jesus in political terms, since crucifixion was Roman punishment for rebellion and treason. He possibly heard Jesus saying that they would resist Rome but they would lose. He may have been rebuking Jesus for political pessimism.
Jesus then rebuked Peter before the entire group with the accusation that they all were thinking entirely in old categories. His mission was one of embodying and fulfilling the kingdom of God, and that mission had no military agenda. Jesus would not be confronting Israel’s oppressive political powers in the same fashion as Moses and David had confronted the Egyptians and the Philistines. Jesus certainly resisted and spoke powerfully against oppression and injustice, but he rejected all force of arms as a means. As with the blind man in the miracle, the disciples were seeing, but they were not seeing clearly. They required additional touches from Jesus to restore their vision; some of those touches came after the resurrection.
So many areas in our lives require repeated touches of Jesus' healing love. Our visions of God, of others, and of ourselves need continual healings, second touches. Wounded emotions and memories require repeated touches. Some physical maladies yield slowly to repeated touches. Places of caughtness and lack of freedom often yield only to repeated touches. Broken relationships often require second touches.
This healing story focuses on the profound caughtness and brokenness of the human dilemma. Our need for God's love yawns out like a chasm; yet our darkness resists the very grace that delivers us. Thanks be to God for persistent, seeking, divine love, for God’s desire that we see clearly and live freely. Thanks be to God for second touches.
The Collect of the Day, Proper 13, the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 231)
Today we celebrate the Feast of Albrecht Dürer, Matthias Grünewald, and Lucas Cranach, the Elder, artists.
Collect of the Feast of Albrecht Dürer, Matthias Grünewald, and Lucas Cranach, the Elder, artists.
We give thanks to you, O Lord, for the vision and skill of Albrecht Dürer, Matthias Grünewald and Lucas Cranach the Elder, whose artistic depictions helped the peoples of their age understand the full suffering and glory of your incarnate Son; and we pray that their work may strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ and the mystery of the Holy Trinity; for you live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
A Collect for Peace
O God, the author of peace and lover of concord, to know you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect freedom: Defend us, your humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in your defense, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 99)
For those in the Armed Forces of our Country
Almighty God, we commend to your gracious care and keeping all the men and women of our armed forces at home and abroad. Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils which beset them; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 823)
A Prayer for Light
Lighten our darkness, we beseech you, O Lord; and by your great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of your only Son, Jesus Christ, Amen. (BCP, 111)
A Collect for Mission
Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of your faithful people is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers which we offer before you for all members of your holy Church, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve you; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. (BCP, 100)
Daily Office Gospel, Mark 8:22-33
22 They came to Bethsaida. Some people brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. 23He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village; and when he had put saliva on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, ‘Can you see anything?’ 24And the man looked up and said, ‘I can see people, but they look like trees, walking.’ 25Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26Then he sent him away to his home, saying, ‘Do not even go into the village.’
27 Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that I am?’ 28And they answered him, ‘John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.’ 29He asked them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered him, ‘You are the Messiah.’ 30And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.
31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’
Daily Prayer Offices in The Book of Common Prayer
Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer
Noonday Prayer, p. 103, Book of Common Prayer
Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p. 109, Book of Common Prayer
Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer
Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer
Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer
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