Mark 8:22-26 — Look Up!

Mark 8:22-26 
Then He came to Bethsaida; and they brought a blind man to Him, and begged Him to touch him. So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him if he saw anything. And he looked up and said, "I see men like trees, walking." Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly. Then He sent him away to his house, saying, “Neither go into the town, nor tell anyone in the town.”

Comments:

A road leading out of the ruins of Bethsaida

This miracle was a private one. The people begged Jesus to heal the blind man and he did, but first he took him by the hand and walked him out of the village. Perhaps they walked out of town on this very road leading NE from the main gate at Bethsaida. Jesus seems to have been more interested in healing the man than in putting on a show for the people. In fact, his parting instruction to the formerly blind man was for him to not even enter the town. I think Jesus was helping the man to see things clearly in other ways as well.

I can appreciate that.

Another interesting fact about this miracle is that Jesus did it in two parts. Do you read with a mind open to ask questions when you encounter something out of the ordinary? I make a practice of it, for it can be a great help to my study. So why did the Lord do this miracle in a unique two-part way? Why did he apparently use a process to heal this blind man? I wonder...

·       Perhaps Jesus used it to show us that healing sometimes happens in stages.  

·       Perhaps Jesus didn't do it as part of the process. He might have healed the man's eyes the first time and then healed his understanding (his ability to interpret the data) the second time.

·       Perhaps Jesus healed the man exactly as the man was believing in him to heal. Maybe it was the best that the man could hope for. Yet note that though the man didn't ask for further healing, Jesus didn’t leave it there, somehow content with a partial healing. He healed the man's eyes completely. Would it be a spiritualizing stretch to realize that Jesus desires for us to be able to see clearly? That he will not stop short of finishing the good work that he has begun in us? (Philippians 1:6)

I personally don't want to miss the fact that Jesus had the man "look up" and then the man was restored. It is when we look up, to the triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) instead of down at the earth and our problems that we are able to see things clearly. 

The Apostle Paul faced such tremendous pressure and persecution that it forced him to rely on God who raises the dead,

“For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.” (2 Corinthians 1:8-10)

It is when we stop trusting in our own efforts that we begin to trust in the Living God…who raises not only our eyes to look but the dead to live in the clear light of the presence of God! What will it take to bring us to that place?

Until the Lord touches us and we shift our focus to look upward we are either blind or we see men like trees walking.

#keeplookingup