Seeing Clearly

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO 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." 5 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 not as much detail as there could be here, so it leaves us with the opportunity to do some investigation of these questions. Why did Jesus take this man outside the village? Why did Jesus spit in the man’s eyes? Why did he need to do it twice before the man’s sight was completely restored? Why was he told not to return to the village? Could Jesus have wanted to avoid a crowd this time? Was he not wanting a confrontation with the Pharisees, who were already plotting against him, looking for a way to rid themselves of him? Whatever the reason, he takes the man to be alone with him and heals him in a most unusual manner. This whole situation does yield itself to some spiritual application. Once we were also blind, but not in the physical way this man was. We were spiritually blind, unable to see the truth, but when Jesus first opened our eyes, we saw the light. However, much like this man, we saw the light but we did not see everything clearly. We did not understand all the truth of the scriptures, or for that matter not very much at all. What we saw was that we were now saved, that we went from being dead, to having eternal life. We saw that our sin was forgiven and we were going to get to go to heaven when we died. That was about all we saw, and we needed Jesus to touch us more in order for us to gain our full sight. This is a constant, ever-present touch, as our sight is ever-increasing as we spend more time with Jesus. If we accepted only his first touch, and only were able to see a little we would be missing out on so much of the beauty of life in Christ. Our sight has been restored and we can see the truth of our life in Christ and are forever seeing more and more. As far as going back into the village, we have no idea why Jesus told him that. Yet it would seem that if he did go back into the village he would be returning to the place of his blindness. Perhaps Jesus did not want the attention here, or it did have something to do with no going back to where he once was. That too could be an application for us. It also could have been that this man was not from this town and Jesus intended him to go home. What we do know is Jesus did not tell him where to go, but where not to go, that was back to where he found him, blind in the village. So then once Jesus takes us from the darkness and brings us to the place he restores our sight, we are not to go back, but forward. Let us forever being seeing, and moving forward with Jesus, seeing clearly.