I Was Blind, But Now I See (Mark 8:22-26, 10:46-52)

In this episode we continue our study of the miracles in Mark with our 15th and 16th miracles. Both accounts are of Jesus healing blind men. Together we'll learn:

• Why Jesus spit and touched the blind man's eyes.
• Why the man couldn't see clearly at first.
• Why Jesus said Bartimaeus's faith healed him. 

These two blind men help us see our own spiritual blindness and our need for Jesus to restore our sight so we might see him clearly. I can't wait to study with you! 

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Transcript

Welcome back to Hanging on Every Word. This season we’re studying through the miracles in the book of Mark and we are nearing the end of the book as we study the 15th and 16th miracle today. Now, I’m going to go a little out of order for these last few miracles because I wanted to group these two together. They are both accounts of Jesus ealing a blind men and I love seeing their similarities and differences. So in this episode we’ll cover Mark 8 and 10 and We’ll come back to Mark 9 in the next episode. 

 Our first miracle in my Bible is called Jesus Heals a Blind Man at Bethsaida and it’s found in Mark 8:22-26. So, like we do on this Bible study podcast, I’m going to read those verses to you.

Starting in verse 22 it says:

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 even go into[a] the village.”

This miracle on first read is just kind of a weird, a little bit gross account of Jesus healing a blind man. It has some similar characteristics to the miracle of the man who was deaf and mute when Jesus put his fingers into his ears and touched his finger to his tongue. Like that miracle, Jesus takes this blind man out of town. And also like that miracle, Jesus’s healing is done in a very physical and intimate way. But there’s something unique about this miracle, in fact, it’s the only miracle we see like this, and that is that this miracle is progressive. 

It happens slowly, and in stages. Jesus puts his hand on the man and asks if he can see. And yes, he can, a little, but not well. So Jesus puts his hands on him again and then he can see clearly. Why did Jesus perform this miracle this way? Was his power not enough at first to heal the man? 

Well, to answer those questions, it’s helpful to put this verse into context in the whole chapter of Mark 8. After Jesus feeds the 4,000 he encounters some Pharisees who questioned him, asking for a sign from heaven. Ironically, this was right after he fed 4,000 plus people with seven loaves of bread. Jesus sighs deeply at the Pharisees and proclaims that no sign will be given to that generation, because they are always looking for a sign. 

In response to this encounter, Jesus, when he is alone with his disciples tells them to beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod. 

Jesus was using figurative language to help them understand a spiritual truth. Like a small amount of yeast will make a whole batch of dough rise, so a small amount of the Pharisee’s work’s based religion would spoil the message of the Gospel. But instead of picking up on Jesus’s spiritual meaning, the disciples thought he was critiquing them for not having any bread on their trip.

Again, this is right after Jesus fed 4,000 people from 7 loaves of bread. Jesus asks the disciples how they still don’t understand after feeding the 5,000 and then the 4,000? It’s as if they can’t see what’s right in front of them. Though Jesus is displaying his power, they don’t seem to see the reality or depth of who he is. 

So, just coming off of a conversation about spiritual blindness, the come upon an actual blind man. His friends had friends who begged Jesus to touch him. Jesus, with all the compassion we see displayed toward perfect strangers takes the blind man and guides him outside the village. Right away, we get imagery ofJesus being a guide to the blind. 

Then, Jesus spits into the man’s eyes, and puts his hands over them, an act that seems off the wall, even a little gross, if we’re honest. But if we put it into the context of spiritual blindness we see some beautiful connections. Take Revelation 3:18 when God is speaking to the church at Laodicia. 

It says I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

Jesus’s spit was like salve to the blind man’s eyes, allowing him to finally see. 

After performing this very intimate ritual of healing, Jesus does something we haven’t seen him do. He asks if the man can see anything. 

The man answers by saying he could make out the shapes of people but it was unclear. It resembled the shadows or trees walking around. 

The miracle worked, but not fully. This partial or gradual miracle shows us that Jesus can choose to heal however he wants to. We don’t get another example of this in of healing in the book of Mark. Perhaps this healing was very specific to the blind man. Perhaps his faith was just as blind as his eyesight and the gradual recovery wasn’t just for his eyes but his heart. We can be sure that Jesus’s power was sufficient to heal, we’ve seen so many examples of his great power in the book of Mark so far. While we don’t now much of his story but we can be sure that Jesus’s reasoning for the gradual miracle was the the man’s good and the father’s glory. 

After the man can only partially see, Jesus touches him again and this time, his eyes were opened and he could see clearly. Jesus completed the miracle, not leaving him in a state of partial blindness. 

And Jesus completes the miracle for us too. Just like the blind man, we were once blind and could not see. When Jesus saved us, cleansed up, put salve on our eyes that we might see him, we too see dimly, gradually growing in our vision of Jesus. This miracle reminds me of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 13:12

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

There is a gradual growth to our faith, a growing in knowing God. Just as the blind man stood before Jesus but could not see him, his eye sight gradually revealed the shape of Jesus, and then the characters of Jesus’s eyes and nose, his smile, the shape of his face, the lines of his shoulders, the fabric of his robe, all of the details of Jesus slowly came into focus. So it is with us as grow in Jesus, slowly we learn the beautiful depth of who he is. 

But all the while, just like the blind man, Jesus can see all of us with perfect clarity. As Paul said, we shall know him one day, even as he fully knows us right now. 

What a precious picture of a God who willingly lowers himself to open our blind eyes, to help us see what is already plain to him. This miracle shows us Jesus’s kingdom, namely his desire to help his children see the light of eternity. Jesus knows that our spiritual blindness is crippling and so he puts his healing salve over our eyes that we might see him clearly. 

Jesus, open our eyes to see you more. 

Ok, let’s turn now to the next miracle we’re going to discuss today. It’s called Blind Bartemaeus Receives his Sight and it’s found in Mark 10:46-52

Let me read that to you:

6 Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

48 Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

49 Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”

So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” 50 Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.

51 “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him.

The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.”

52 “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.

Unlike the last blind man, Bartimaeus didn’t have friends who helped him come to Jesus. He must have heard of Jesus’s fame to heal. And so even though no one brought him to Jesus, he shouted with everything inside of him for Jesus to draw near. 

His determination came disturbed the people around him and they shouted for him to be quiet, but their discouragement did not deter him. He called all the more. Bartimaeus persistency for Jesus is a picture of our our own desperation to Jesus, to call out to him to beg him to come near regardless of those who want to quiet our desperate prayers.

What Bartimaeus says of Jesus is also important. He called Jesus the Son of David. This is an important bliblical designation that recognizes Jesus as the song of David in the lineage of the king. God made a covenant with David all the way back in 2 Samual 7 that there would be a kind on his throne forever. This Davidic covenant was fulfilled in Jesus, but before other recognized that truth, Bartimaeus, though he was blind, could see Jesus for he was. His name for Jesus implies royalty, the song of a King, the one in line to be ruler of the Kingdom. 

And he asks the Son of David to have mercy on him, a request filled with humility and the right kind of fear we should display before a holy God. Bartimaeus had a right view of himself, which is ultimately the foundation of humility. He understood that his sinful, weak, desperate state was in desperate need of mercy from the one who was much greater than he.

Bartimaeus’s cries work because Jesus call him to him. I love the detail here: throwing his cloak of her jumps to his feet and went to Jesus. Bartimaeus waited for Jesus’s invitation, his calling toward him, but when Jesus said come, he was absolutely ready. 

Bartimaeus is ready again when Jesus asks him the question, What do you want me to do for you? 

Let’s pause a moment and consider the depth of this question. What do you want me to do for you? What would se say to Jesus if he were to ask us this question today? It may initially seem like an easy answer, but I took some time to consider it when I read through this account and it wasn’t so simple. Because I may want sometime from Jesus, like help with a circumstance or strength or direction, but what is it that I really want most from him? That answer helps us get to the heart of our prayers, to see the intentions behind our requests. If the stakes were as high as Bartimaeus, if Jesus, the healer stood before us, What is the one thing we would want most form him? And of course, Jesus, the healer, does stand before us today, just as real as he stood before Bartimaeus, hand outstretched, calling us toward him, and asking, what do YOU want from me. 

Bartimaeus shows now hesitation with his response. He wants to see. It’s important to notice here that when he answer he doesn’t say Healer, I want to see, but Rabbi, or Teacher, I want to see. There’s an implication that Bartimaeus is talking about more than physical sight, but like our last blind man, he is asking to see things unseen, to have his eyes opened to who Jesus is.

And in that sense, maybe the best answer, maybe the only answer to Jesus’s request, what do you want from me, is Rabbi, I want to see. 

Without any ceremony, Bartimaeus is healed. Jesus tells him to go, his faith has healed him, an astounding statement. Bartimaeus full reliance, his trust that what he can’t see is - the kingdom, the Father, the future - is heals him. May we not underestimate the power of faith. We’ve seen it connected to more than one miracle in the book of Mark. And the faith is always this: not that the person said or did the perfect thing, not that they prayed an impressive prayer or called down power from heaven. Rather their faith was believing with all of their heart even when they could not see the outcome. This faith is ours too - believing whole heartedly in a savior we cannot see or touch to save us for an eternity we trust that he has prepared for us.

This account ends differently than many in Mark. Bartimaeus gets to follow Jesus with his newfound sight. He issn’t tasked with staying and proclaiming the gospel to his town. He gets to follow Jesus. And Jesus isn’t heading toward fame, political power, or religious influence. He’s heading toward Jerusalem and the cross. Still Bartimaeus, with his eyes wide open for the first time, wants to only see and follow the footsteps of Jesus. 

When Jesus tells us to go our way, may our way be to follow Jesus.