Jesus Heals a Blind Man Gradually

Mark 8:22–30
» View this passage in NIV (Bible Gateway)

On November 30, 1991, fierce winds from a freakish dust storm triggered a massive freeway pileup along Interstate 5 near Coalinga, California. At least 14 people died and dozens more were injured as topsoil whipped by 50 mile-per- hour winds reduced visibility to zero. The afterno … More

Blindness

Blindness was one of the great medical curses of the Middle East. We find Jesus taking a blind man by the hand and leading him out of town so He could deal with him privately (vv. 22-23). The healing of this person is recorded only in the book of Mark and it is the only miracle that Jesus performed which happened gradually. (vv. 24-26). In this miracle the blind man’s sight came back in two stages. After the first touch he had only limited vision, but after the second touch his eyesight was restored completely.

There is symbolic truth here. No man sees all of God’s truth all at one time. One of the dangers of a certain type of evangelism is that it encourages the idea that when a man has made his decision for Christ he is a full-grown Christian. One of the dangers of Church membership is that it can be presented in such a way as to imply that when a person becomes a member of the Church he has come to the end of the road. This is so far from the truth because becoming a Christian and Church membership are only the beginning of the road.

From this city of Bethsaida on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus and His disciples traveled about twenty-five miles north to the village of Caesarea of Philippi (vv. 27-30). Caesarea of Philippi was outside Galilee altogether. It was not in the territory of Herod, but in the territory of Philip. It was on His way here that Jesus asked His disciples, “Whom do you say that I am?’ and Peter answered by saying, “Thou art the Christ.” Why did Jesus warn His own disciples not to tell anyone about Him (v. 30)? Possibly it was because He knew they needed more teaching about the work He would accomplish through His death and resurrection and now they only knew half truth.

Application

What stages of spiritual sight have I passed through? Who do I know that needs help in this area? How can I help those who are spiritually blind?

Mark 8:22-30 (English Standard Version)

Warning: MagpieRSS: Failed to parse RSS file. (Space required at line 39, column 24) in /var/www/html/familytimes/includes/magpie6-1/rss_fetch.inc on line 230

Warning: array_slice() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given in /var/www/html/familytimes/includes/rss/esvLookup.php on line 15

View this passage in NIV (Bible Gateway) »