This Lent, we will use the metaphor of eyesight to examine how the various people in Mark’s Gospel viewed Jesus during His Passion. In most cases, they misunderstood who He was and what He was doing; then again, sometimes by faith people did recognize Him correctly.

We have these forty days of Lent in which we may look within ourselves as people of faith in our day. How are we like or unlike the people who saw Jesus in the flesh? Most important, as we gather for worship, we will see what Jesus has done to save us from our sins by His holy, precious blood and innocent sufferings and death.

At first, Peter and the other disciples cannot see how they could ever fall away from Jesus. Then, when Peter is spotted by a servant girl and realizes that his own neck is on the line, he sees fit to deny Jesus, which leads to his weeping in remorse. What does it take for us to move beyond our own remorse to the discipleship we and our Lord desire?