“The Blessing of Sight” – MARK 8:22-26

Nothing in the inspired Scriptures is included by accident, and many insights can be gleaned by examining where a scene or teaching is found.

So, it is no accident that the Holy Spirit inspired Mark to include the healing of this blind man right after Jesus’ challenge to the disciples to understand. “Sight” is a figure for mental understanding and insight. In this miracle whereby sight is restored to a man by a two-step process, we can “see” the three stages of spiritual understanding in people.

The first stage is blindness.

Apart from Jesus this man had no hope to be able to see. Thanks to his friends (8:22), he was brought to Jesus and Jesus gave Him the blessing of sight. Jesus led Him to the outskirts of the city and put mud on his eyes, and then laid hands upon him (8:23). The transition form blindness to sight in a spiritual sense is much the same way, with the faith of others leading us to an encounter with Christ. At some point it becomes clear that their faith cannot help us any more, and we must “go away” with Jesus alone. In his second letter, Peter warns of those who neglect spiritual things and RETURN to blindness (2 Peter 1:9). If you pay attention to the verses before, you can see that it is when folks “go away FROM” Jesus that the blindness returns.

The second stage is partial sight.

Once Jesus applied the mud and laid hands on him, He asked “Can you see anything?” (8:23) and the response is fascinating. The man replied, “I see people, for I see them like tress, walking” (8:24). The man could “see”, but everything was not clear to him. We are like that with Christ. We never receive a burst of full knowledge. It is a process that must be sustained. This, however, is a dangerous time. The blind man could have pushed Jesus away at this point complaining of His incompetence in not fully healing Him. He also could have assumed that this was as good as it gets. Either way, the complete blessing of sight would not be realized. We have to persist with Jesus, allowing our faith and understanding to grow side by side.

The third stage is clear sight.

Jesus laid His hands on the man’s eye directly (8:25) and he could see “clearly”. The transition from blindness to clear sight was complete and the blessing received. Here is the goal for the Christian. Persist in the process of acquiring spiritual understanding. The disciples did not yet understand (8:18, 21), and Jesus encouraged them to keep on striving. Just as Peter teaches the continual adding and blending of the Christian “virtues” (2 Peter 1:3-8) to give us clarity in our faith, he warns of neglecting these things (2 Peter 1:9). Understanding comes with relationship.

Just spend time with Jesus, and you’ll see …