A Visit to the Spiritual Eye Doctor
Mark 8:22-26
I am speaking this morning from a passage that has long baffled me.
I believe it is a singular example of Christ healing a person, yet not completely healing them at first.
As for the timing of the event, this is likely the summer, less than a year before the Crucifixion.
It is between the Passover of John 6:4 and the Feast of Tabernacles in John 7:2.
It is late in the earthly ministry of Christ.
Opposition has been growing against him.
Frustration has set in among His followers, many of whom still expected the Messiah to overthrow Roman rule.
A short time before this around Passover had come news that John the Baptist has been killed by Herod Antipas.
Thousands of scared and confused people flocked to Christ.
In His great care, He fed the 5,000 plus with five barley loaves and two fishes. here on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee.
After this He walked on the stormy sea to join the disciples in their boat and then calmed the storm.
He retreated for a season to the northwest where Galilee bordered Tyre and Sidon.
He returned to Galilee and on the western shore feat 4,000 plus.
He and the disciples sail northeast to Bethsaida, where this miracle is performed.
As for the location of the event, It is the village of Bethsaida.
If you look at a map of the Sea of Galilee, you will see where the Jordan River feeds into it at almost due north.
Just east of this where Bethsaida lay.
It was not a very large town as far as we can tell, nothing like Capernaum to its west.
Its name means something like “House of the hunter” or “House of the fisherman”.
From that you can probably tell that it must have been a fishing village.
There is some history to this place in the New Testament.
The Gospel of John tells us that the Apostle Phillip was from there in John 1:44 and John 12:21.
John 1:44 also says it is the home of Andrew and Peter also, and we know these men were all fishermen.
We do not know how many times Christ passed through there, the sermons He preached there, or the people He healed there.
We have only two events linked to this city.
The first, In Luke 9:10, is that near Bethsaida the 5,000 plus were fed.
The second is the healing in our text.
There is only one other mention of this town, found both in Matthew 11:21 and Luke 10:13.
This last event takes place before the Feast of the Dedication in John 10:22, which would be in late December for us.
Let me read it from Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 11:20-22
Mat 11:20 Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not:
Mat 11:21 Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
Mat 11:22 But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you.
This indictment against Bethsaida tells us that:
- Christ had done much powerful work there.
- The people still largely rejected Him.
Now, as the details of the event itself.
Christ comes to Bethsaida, a town that He has a long history with.
A blind man is brought to Him – this man was unable to seek out Christ on his own.
I am reminded of blind Bartimaeus, who you find a couple of chapters later in Mark 10.
He heard that Christ was coming and cried out for help – “Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me!”
He did not have friends or relations to bring him to Christ, so when the opportunity came he called out and kept calling out until the Lord responded and healed him.
Thank God for friends and family that help guide others to the Savior!
Back to our blind man in Bethsaida…
Christ leads him out of the city.
This is curious – why not heal him on the spot?
I am certain it is to do with the overall unbelief of the city.
One more miracle would not change their hard hearts.
Christ then spits on the man’s useless eyes.
Why? I do not know.
Let me share with you the enlightening words from Albert Barnes’ Bible Commentary:
“Why this was done is not known.”
We get caught up in these side actions of Christ and forget that these have little, in fact probably nothing to do with the healing that takes place.
I think the varied methods that Christ used – such as spitting on the ground and making mud, touching, commanding, touching His garment – are there to draw our attention to the fact that CHRIST did something miraculous, and not that He had some secret magical medical ability.
Christ placed his hands on the blind man and asked if he could see now.
His response is interesting – “I see men as trees, walking.“
If I take my glasses off, that is about what I see too.
Some speculate there that he was not born blind, but that it was a result of some illness or injury later in life.
How else would he know the difference?
Christ then puts His hands on him once more and asks him what he sees now.
The man says he can see clearly now.
Christ sends him home and says not to go into town or tell anyone in it.
This sounds like he did not live in Bethsaida itself.
The reason for this command again is the overall unbelief of the inhabitants of the Bethsaida.
Now, I have always been fascinated by this miracle.
My number one questions has always been – why didn’t Christ heal him the first time?
Why did it take two times of Christ touching him to completely restore his sight?
Was this man so blind that Christ could not heal him with one touch?
That is ridiculous.
Christ’s power is unlimited.
No, I think there is a deeper lesson here.
One that, to be honest, I think I am nowhere near uncovering every aspect of it.
You see, I do not think this man’s partial healing and full healing has to do with God’s power.
I think it has to do with the blindness of mankind.
I am not talking about physical blindness.
If you study Scripture, there is a far worse blindness than not being about to see with our eyes.
This is a spiritual blindness.
This blindness keeps us from truly seeing God and His truth.
Christ used this idea often in His battles against the Jewish religious leaders of His day.
In Matthew 15:13 He called them “blind leaders of the blind”
In Matthew 23:16 and 24 they are “blind guides”
In Matthew 23:17 and 19, they are “fools and blind”
In Matthew 23:26 He calls out the “blind Pharisee”
In John 9:39, Christ talks about He came to show those that thought they could see that they were truly blind:
Joh 9:39 And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Romans 11 tells us that the nation of Israel were blinded because of their unbelief.
II Corinthians 3:14 says the same.
II Corinthians 4:3-4 says that Satan deceived and blinded the lost:
2Co 4:3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
2Co 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Paul describes the state of the lost as being blind in Ephesians 4:17-19
Eph 4:17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
Eph 4:18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
Eph 4:19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
II Peter 1:9 says those that lack the virtues of the Gospel are “blind and cannot see afar off”
I John 2:11 says that a man that hates his brother is blind:
1Jn 2:11 But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.
Revelation 3:17-18 Christ tells the church at Laodicea that they are deluded in their opinion of themselves:
Rev 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Yes, friends there is a far worse blindness that our mortal eyes not working.
It is a spiritual blindness.
Praise God we are not doomed to dwell in this darkness.
We have a Savior whose specialty is restoring sight, not just mortal sight but spiritual sight too.
How wonderful is it that we can sing out in John Newton’s timeless hymn:
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind but now I see.
That sight comes at salvation.
I think a wonderful picture of this is found in the conversion of Paul.
Paul saw the light – LITERALLY – on the Road to Damascus.
For three days his mortal eyes were as blind as his spiritual eyes were.
I think those three days he was in inner turmoil as he tried to figure things out.
When Ananias came and prayed for Paul – I think this is likely the moment he finally grasped the Gospel and laid hold of it in faith.
We then read:
Act 9:18 And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.
His spiritual blindness and his physical blindness both ended in the same instance.
Yes, Salvation brings spiritual sight cures spiritual blindness.
Let’s return to our theme and draw this to a conclusion.
That blind man had sight restored, but at first only partially.
Here is the lesson I think we can draw from that.
Yes, we can be saved and be no longer bound by sin’s blindness.
But how many are there today that are satisfied with only imperfect sight?
Christ asked that man after the first touch how his sight was.
He could have said, “wow, I can see!” and walked away unsure if men were trees or trees were men.
No, he was honest with the Lord about his blindness and his partial sight.
He wanted to see clearly.
Friends, how often do we stumble about half blind in this life?
We know deep down that we should see better, know better, be better than we do.
We even know the One that gives sight.
How often do we settle for less than God’s best for us?
How much better would we all be if we would just humbly go to the Savior, and confess, “Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief!”
“Lord, I do not want to settle for partial sight – I want as much of it as you’ll give me!”
I am convinced those are prayers that God will joyfully answer.
CONCLUSION.
- To find sight, often times you have to leave behind the fellowship of unbelievers.
- Remember how the blind man was told to leave Bethsaida
- To see clearly we must also leave the world behind and seek Christ.
- Christian maturity is not something that comes in one blast of power.
- Yes we receive all of the Holy Spirit at our salvation, but it takes time for Him to mold and shape us.
- Do not be satisfied with partial sight – seek fulness through Christ.
- Christ still cures spiritual blindness.