“I Poured Drain Cleaner in My Eyes to Blind myself,” I have never been more shocked at a headline than when I read those 10 words. The tagline of the article only got worse, “I made Myself Blind because I was Meant to be Disabled: Living with BIID.” I struggled to process what I was reading. How could someone ever want to be blind? How could someone think they were meant to be disabled? These questions ran through my mind as I continued through the article. Jewel Shuping, a 30 year old North Carolina woman, had these desires. She wanted to be blind; felt that she was meant to be disabled. Shuping suffers from a rare disease called Body Integrity Identity Disorder, which causes normal, healthy people to desire a disability. In 2006 she found a psychologist willing to assist her in achieving this life-long dream.*
As I read through this article a few things came to my mind. First, I could not believe that a psychologist would help this woman blind herself. Second, I could not believe that we have reached a point in our culture that this action could be considered progress. But most importantly, I thought about how this type of action erodes and contradicts the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Throughout the gospels we see Jesus healing and giving sight to the blind (Mat 9:27-31, Mat 20:29-34, Mk 10:46-52, Lk 18:35-43, Jn 9). Each of these healings point us forward to a time when blindness will not exist. This reality becomes clear in Mark 8:22-26, when Jesus heals a blind man at Bethsaida.
The people at Bethsaida bring a blind man to Jesus and want him to restore his sight (v. 22). Jesus took the man outside the city, spit on his eyes, and laid hands on him (v. 23). Then Jesus asks, “Do you see anything (v. 23b, ESV)?” The blind man tells him that he can see people, but they look like trees walking (v. 24). Then Jesus touched him a second time, and he fully received his sight (v. 25).
This story helps us have a more complete understanding of the ministry of Christ. In the prophet Isaiah we read about a coming time when the blind will receive their sight (29:18, 32:3, 35:5, 42:7, 42:16, 43:8). These passages, together with other in the Old Testament established an expectation of a coming messiah who would restore sight to the blind and abolish all disability. This story of Jesus in Mark 8 shows us that this coming time would occur in two stages. First, just as Jesus partially healed the blind man, so would his initial coming partially usher in the overthrow of all disability. As Christ gave sight to the blind; hearing to the deaf; and the ability to walk to the paralyzed, he showed that a kingdom where these things did not exist had come in his ministry. Then Christ’s complete healing of the blind man points forward to a coming time when all disability will ultimately come to an end.
We now live in the time between times. We live with the hope of what Christ accomplished on this earth, and the promise of what is yet to come. We know that a day will come soon when blindness and deafness, and paralyzation will no longer be an issue. This hope only come sin the gospel of Jesus Christ. only in him can we have the confidence that one day all of these disabilities will no longer haunt us. For this reason, Jewel Shuping’s desire to have a disability erodes and contradicts the gospel. Blindness is not how things should be. Blindness is a result of the fall; and one day the gospel of Jesus Christ will overcome blindness along with all other disabilities.
*To read the complete story about Jewel Shuping click here.