Seeing Clearly

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MARK

SEEING CLEARLY

Mark 8:22-26

22 They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, "Do you see anything?"  24 He looked up and said, "I see people; they look like trees walking around." 25 Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26 Jesus sent him home, saying, "Don't go into the village." 

NIV

There is several questions about this narrative which might bring us to the truth of this interaction between Jesus and the blind. Why did Jesus take this man by the hand outside the village? Why did it take two times of Jesus touching his eyes for him to see clearly? This is not what we have seen in the past events of healing. Some were healed just by touching the helm of his garment; some were healed because Jesus declared them to be healed, even when they were not in his presence. Some were healed immediately upon Jesus touching them. But here this is not the case. It might be that we should be seeing some people come to the Savior, but some people the Savior comes to them. That is to say some people choose to believe, but there are others who Jesus comes to and takes them by the hand leading them to salvation. We might also see that some come to saving faith in a split second, and instance, no questions, no doubts; they just hear the truth about Jesus and make that decision immediately. Others hear about Jesus, think it over, they need Jesus to reaffirm the truth in them somehow, perhaps by some miraculous sign, perhaps by some other way, but their conversion, their salvation in a process, it takes a little time for them to see the truth clearly. Maybe some of us within the church, those of us who consider ourselves to be saved, to be believers, to be Christian, are like those two ways about seeing the truth of the word regarding our lives in Christ. Some of us see it clearly right away, others it is a process. Some of us come to Christ freely on our own, seeking him, seeking the truth, others Jesus has to come and take by the hand and lead into the truth. Whichever it is, the result is the same, a true healing occurs whenever Jesus enters our life. Not matter how it happens whenever Jesus comes into our lives, we see clearly now. Once we saw as looking into a foggy mirror, a poor reflection, but now we see clearly.