Can you imagine going to the doctor and telling them that you can’t see—and then having them spit on your eyes? What?
But in Mark 8:22-26 a story is told of a unique miracle not recorded anywhere else in the Bible. It’s the story of a blind man who was healed by Jesus, but in stages:
“When they arrived at Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man to Jesus, and they begged him to touch the man and heal him. Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. Then, spitting on the man’s eyes, he laid his hands on him and asked, “Can you see anything now?” The man looked around. “Yes,” he said, “I see people, but I can’t see them very clearly. They look like trees walking around.” Then Jesus placed his hands on the man’s eyes again, and his eyes were opened. His sight was completely restored, and he could see everything clearly. Jesus sent him away, saying, “Don’t go back into the village on your way home” (NLT).
Life-Giving Via Lay-Away?
After Jesus put spit on his eyes, the man could see only people “ . . . like trees walking around” (v. 24 b). After this response Jesus put His hands on the man’s eyes, and he was healed fully. What’s up with that?
Did Jesus’ Holy Spirit faucet get gunk in it? Does Jesus typically give life in the lay-away “a-little-bit-every-week” payment plan? Did He just not care enough? Or did He have a deeper lesson to teach?
There are many things we could learn from this story, but today I’m going to focus on only one: no one sees life with perfect clarity. All of us have spiritual blindness, but when Jesus heals us, we don’t all get better at the same rate or in the same way. This is a good thing for us all to understand, especially those of us who are dealing with something in our lives that we wish we could just get rid of; some kind of bad inclination, hang-up, habit—or even a full-blown addiction!
We all find ourselves, like the blind man, pleading with Jesus,
“Unless You work—and keep working on, in, and for me–nothing will ever change!”
For every person who is suddenly, radically, completely transformed, it seems that there are many more (the majority, in fact) who must grow in Christ slowly, in stages, and whose spiritual vision starts off cloudy and only slowly gets better. I’m saying that to be pessimistic, but realistic.
Grown Baby?
Spiritual growth is growth. It is not instant development. We are all born as spiritual babies, and in and through the power that Jesus gives us, we must all go through all the stages of life, learning and growing as we go along. In fact, the Apostle Paul, writing to Christians in the early church in Ephesus, put it like this:
Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love (Ephesians 4: 11-16, NLT).
Honesty = Healing
Like the blind man, we must go to God in complete honesty. If we can’t first admit our own spiritual blindness, Jesus can never heal us. We must come to the Lord just as we are, and when we do, He takes us as we are, but He never leaves us that way. That’s why the invitation of Jesus is always very personal. We aren’t supposed to come to a church, the Bible, or even a belief. If we were supposed to do those things, He would have told us so, but He simply said, “Come to Me!”
Are you blind? Today, come to Him. Is your vision still blurry? Stay with Him; you will not be disappointed. You will see clearly. It won’t come easily or quickly or in the same way for all of us, but when we admit our need, we then become excellent candidates for some divine eye surgery.
He came that we might see clearly. So today I hope that–as nasty as it sounds–you will ask (and let) Jesus to rub some of His super-spit on your eyes!
Additional Resources
Growing in Christ
