Healing the Blind man

Healing of the Blind Man
Mark 8.22 – 26

The message this morning is about the miracle Jesus performed at the village of Bethsaida – he gave sight to a blind man. I would be devastated if I lost my sight. A number of years ago I was listening to the Chr radio station while driving to Rochester. They were interviewing a man who had suddenly become blind. He was about 40 – married with two kids, a successful business man – leader in his church. On day his eyes felt a little different. The next day they hurt some, and within two weeks he was completely and irreversible blind. A virus had attacked the optical nerves and he was blind. As I listened, my heart sunk. What would my life be like if I could not see? I love to read and my profession depends on seeing the words – reading. I drive my car a lot. If I were blind I could not drive or do much else. The story today is about a blind man. Listen as I read Mark 8.22 -26.
Imagine with me this scene. One day a man’s children came to him. There were three young men and two daughters. They were all married and had children, and they loved their father a lot. “Dad, please come with us? There is a Rabbi in a village not too far from here. He is leading our people back to God. He can also heal people by the power of God, even blind people!” “I would like to go, but I am sure I will be blind the rest of my life. I believe my blindness is the will of God and I have accepted it,” the father replied. “At least come with us and listen to the man. He has some good things to say about our faith, and maybe, he will heal you,” said one of the sons.
Jesus had just come into the village of Bethsaida when the children brought their father to Jesus. Jesus walked outside the village with the man and then put spit on the man’s eyes. He asked the man if he could see. The man replied that he could see partially but not very well. Jesus touched him again and the man could see fully. This might be the only miracle that Jesus did where the person was only partially healed right away. I will talk about this some more in a bit. Can you imagine the joy for this whole family as the father rejoined them seeing again after so many years of being blind? He could see his kids and wife, the beauty of the sunrise and the other parts of God’s magnificent creation.
What a tremendous miracle. Here was a man who could not see at all. Jesus touched him and the optical nerves and all the other things that needed to be healed were made perfect. I believe the man had perfect 20/20 vision. This is a miracle and it was done by the power of God working through Jesus Christ.
This story is about healing physical blindness, but I think the chapter underneath is about spiritual blindness. In the chapter the Pharisees tried to test Jesus by asking for a sign of some kind to prove he was the Messiah. They had a lot of signs to see already, but they wanted an amazing miracle of some kind to absolutely prove who he was. Do a better trick and we will believe in you, they were saying, but they would not have believed in him no matter what. They were religious but really blind to the work of God, or maybe better we could say they were partially spiritually blind. There are some people who can not see any thing spiritual, but there are others who can see things of God but not clearly or completely. They are the partially spiritually blind. As the man Jesus healed, at first he could see men moving like trees, these men could see only a fussy image of God and what he was doing.
Even the disciples could not see what Jesus was doing and understand what Jesus was talking about. In Mark 8.17 – 21 the disciples did not understand him. Read.
In the recent newsletter from Trevor and Cassie Long, Trevor wrote that he has a number of students who are doing Bible studies with him. They like the discussion, but when it comes to certain teachings of the Bible, they dismiss them. They want to see spiritual things, but they only want to see certain things. They are partially spiritually blind.
I was talking to a man a couple of weeks ago at a church. He said he attended a lot. The more we talked the more I recognized that he had a view of God that was not biblical at all. I talked to him about putting Jesus Christ first in his life, but he said no. He did not want to become a religious fanatic or something. A little religious stuff is good, but not too much, according to him. He was partially spiritually blind.
Jesus came to earth to show us as clearly as possible what it was like to know God as completely as humans can. He taught the disciples and then all the people what walking with God and serving God was like. The Jews of his day were religious and even very moral, but God has always wanted more than that. He wanted a personal relationship with his people, just like he had in the garden with Adam and Eve before they sinned. Jesus had that intimate relationship with God when he was on earth, and we can have that relationship too. We all need to be cured of our blindness – spiritual blindness. God wants us to see him clearly and fully.
One of the things I enjoyed most last week in Jamaica was walking with Antony and Keysha. I was pushing a couple of kids on the swings when I first saw Keysha. I looked over and saw her playing in the dirt by a short wall by the swing set. I went over to say hi to her, but she ran away. I went back to pushing the swings and she went back to her place.
In the next hour or so I tried a number of times to talk to her. I reached out my hand and she moved away. I do not know her medical condition or her background, but I thought she was afraid of me. Eventually she came to me and took my hand. For the next two days Antony, Keysha and I walked up and down the street at Westhaven. I talked to them, prayed for them, sang to them, and played with them. Antony had little reaction, but Keysha smiled and sort of laughed a number of times. One of the workers said she had never walked with anyone like that at all.
On Saturday she walked with me for about an hour, but then I stopped to help some other kids. When I looked up, she was gone. I found her playing in the dirt again where she was when I first saw her. She would not come and walk with me again. She played in the dirt. At least she had a couple of days of having fun, I think.
I wonder how many of us are like that. God comes to us at the special time. We are playing in the dirt somewhere. He reaches out and takes us by the hand and we walk with him for a while, enjoying his touch, his love, and his closeness. Then for whatever reason, we decide to go back and play in the dirt. No matter what God does to reach out to us, we do our own thing.
This morning God is reaching out his hand to you and to me – he loves us so much. Please take his hand and walk with him. Be healed of spiritual blindness. See him clearly and come to him.