We've heard of visionary leaders, but what is meant by this description of a person? What do visionaries see that others miss, either due to inattention or "blindness"? Why are some people's intuitions more intuitive than others? How is it that some people proactively anticipate, while others simply react? In short, visionaries see not what has been or what is, but what is possible and maybe inevitable. But they don't ignore the past and the present, rather they are those who have a gift of analyzing the past, of understanding the present, and then put that knowledge to work as they plan their future. Visionaries see in three dimensions - the dimensions of the past, the present, and the future.
But visionaries are often not the smartest people in the room. They don't necessarily possess the most dynamic gifts. They might even lack some of the most basic of skills. Though they are well aware of their limitations, they don't allow those limitations to limit their dreams. Because, at their heart, visionaries are dreamers. But they don't live in fantasyland. Their visions are the kinds of dreams that sometimes come true. And even when their dreams do not pan out the way they had envisioned, they file those unrealized dreams away and utilize the information for another day.
Who might we label a visionary in Mark's gospel? Of all the characters who come and go, of all the actors who grace Mark's stage, who sees clearly, where others see with less than 20/20 accuracy? Who has perfect vision, where others fail to see at all?
"They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, 'Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!' Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, 'Son of David, have mercy on me!' Jesus stood still and said, 'Call him here.' And they called the blind man, saying to him, 'Take heart; get up, he is calling you.' So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, 'What do you want for me to do for you?' The blind man said to him, 'My teacher, let me see again.' Jesus said to him, 'Go; your faith has made you well.' Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way." (Mark 10:46-52, NRSV).
Though his 12 disciples had been hand-picked and had followed him for most of Mark's gospel, they often misunderstood Jesus. They failed to grasp the nuances of Jesus' kingdom mission and though they had physical sight, they usually failed to see clearly. Their vision was blurry. They were not what we would call visionaries.
Mark 8 makes this clear in narrative form. While sailing across the Sea of Galilee, Jesus scolds his followers for failing to understand that the political and religious leaders in Israel had it all wrong. After disembarking from the boat, Jesus then heals a blind man, but he seemingly gets the healing all wrong. The blind man regains his sight, but all that he sees are globs and blotches, instead of the finely contoured lines of people and objects. The blind man requires a second touch to see clearly. Instead of speaking in parables, in this instance Jesus enacts a parable. The blind man represents the disciples. They are blind but are slowly gaining at least limited vision. But they require Jesus' continual presence and touch if they are to see clearly.
Then, in Mark 10 as Jesus approaches Jericho, the blind beggar Bartimaeus sees what the sighted disciples have failed to see. Though living his life in darkness, ironically, he sees the light of Jesus' ministry and mission. He has the foresight to see where Jesus' path is taking him and what the kingdom of God is all about. He has faith that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah - that's why he calls him the 'Son of David'. He believes that Jesus has the power to heal him, because from the time of Isaiah, God's people had been promised that when God came back to them, he would do a new thing. And that new thing would include not only the lame walking, the deaf hearing, the mute speaking, but also the blind seeing. And Bartimaeus could also see that Jesus' healing touch required a response. It was the beginning of a journey - a journey to Jerusalem where God's kingdom would be established (Isaiah 35:5-10). This journey later became known as The Way. It was the way of discipleship and it always included following Jesus, but it did not necessarily have Jerusalem as its destination. Sometimes following Jesus along The Way meant following Jesus all the way to Rome (as in the Apostle Paul's case) or maybe to the ends of the earth (Matt 28:19-20). Wherever the destination, it always included moving through death, before discovering life (Mark 8:34-35). In a sense, to truly see, one first had to become "blind". Blind Bartimaeus was the true visionary in Mark's gospel!
What prevents us from seeing clearly in our world? What blinds us from the truth that Jesus wants us to see? How do we become a visionary like Bartimaeus?
I don't know the specifics in any person's story, but I think there are a few general things that hinder us. Chief among them is a lack of perspective. Like walking through a canyon with steep walls on all sides, a lack of perspective limits our ability to see beyond our present circumstances. We might require a rope to pull us out of that steep canyon so that we might see further. But once we're at the top of the canyon, where should we look first? I suggest backwards.
Despite all of today's modern advancements, we are not the first humans to have ever lived and we are not the smartest people to have walked the face of the earth. All of our modern achievements have been built on the accomplishments of those who have come before us. Christians have a canon of scripture that dates back thousands of years to the ancient Israelites, was compiled by and contributed to by the Jews of the second temple period, and was brought to canonical completion by the early disciples of Jesus. We also have hundreds of years of church history and theology from which to learn. I believe that we better glimpse our present, when we have gazed upon the past.
But we cannot exclusively fixate on the past. We also have to take time to reflect upon the present. As T.S. Eliot so prophetically wrote in the early 20th century; it is easy to be "distracted from distraction by distraction." Eliot went onto write in Burnt Norton that we are "filled with fancies and empty of meaning - tumid apathy with no concentration...in this twittering world." It may feel like we are fully engaged in the present when we jump from texting to Twitter (or X) to Facebook to Instagram to TikTok to whatever the next thing will be. But while we are busy taking selfies - we are missing the others, both things and people. As we fixate on our devices - we miss the larger world outside just waiting to be discovered. To more clearly see the present - we must be present.
With an appreciation of the past and a depth of understanding in the present, we gain a platform to dream our way into the future. We learn to see not only what has been and what is, but what might be possible. For the visionary, the future isn't predetermined, its waiting to be written. The "seer" sees with creativity. She is both realistic and idealistic. He is not bound by limitations, but rather motivated and inspired by challenges. The visionary dreams of what could be, what might be, and what surely must be. To quote one such "seer", the visionary "dreams of the world he wants to live in - he dreams out loud." - Shay
