Bible reading with a difference.

I think I had a bit of a revelation last night. I went along to bible study / small group / eighteen plus.... whatever you want to call it, and we did a bit of an exercise about reading the bible a special way. It's part of a series of workshops about spiritual practices that we have been working on during lent. Anyway, this way of reading the bible is really more like meditating on the words in the gospel. You basically choose a short story from the bible (parts of the gospels are particularly good for this) and read it through a couple times. Then you close your eyes and try to imagine yourself as part of the story. Sometimes you might take up the role of one of the characters, or an onlooker. I didn't think it would be that different to reading it, but I was wrong.
The story we used was the story of Jesus healing a blind man. Everyone in the church knows this story back to front, there are songs, plays and children's stories relating to this story, all focusing on the idea that the story is supposed to illustrate the grace of God. Last night, I did more than read this short story, I experienced it. I imagined myself to be seeing the story as I think it would have been explored through the lens of the camera. (I find I do that a lot in meditation, am I supposed to be a filmmaker?)
To my surprise, different parts of the story stood out for me while I was experiencing it this alternative way. Particularly, I found the Jesus actually healing the man didn't have much of a part in the story. Here's sort of what I imagined...
Jesus was walking down the street, followed by his friends, who were followed by a huge crowd of regular townspeople. Jesus walked right past the beggar on the road, not looking at him twice. Jesus' followers also flocked past the man, not taking a moment's notice.
While the blind man sat by the side of the road, he began to hear all the conversations that people were having. Being blind, the man had a keen sense of hearing, and could tell that this Jesus guy was the one. He knew that Jesus could heal him. He yelled out to Jesus, but was drowned out by the sound of the crowd. The people kept walking past, and kicked dirt in the man's face, saying "Jesus is not interested in you, he's far too busy and important to waste his time on you." The blind man cried out to Jesus again, but he was well and truly drowned out by the noisy crowd.
Jesus stopped, turned around, and told the crowd to shut-up. "Come forward" he beckoned the blind man. The blind man needed the crowd to help him get to Jesus, because there were so many people in the way.
The rest of the story is a blur. I don't think it's that important.
The thing that really stood out about this story for me, was that Jesus heard the man, even thought he was probably the smallest voice in the crowd. Once the man's cries were affirmed to be OK, the crowd then could help the man get the healing he needed.
I can't help but wonder if at some point in my life I feel like my voice is being drowned out, closed in on by the crowd. What am I trying to say in this part of my life? It's intriguing, but at least now I finally understand how people can say that the bible is "the living word" of God. =)