The Message In The Spit

Mark 8:22-26 has always been a peculiar record to me.  There are many things to unpack here, and you can listen to my thoughts. But I do encourage you to study this on your own and see what the Holy Spirit would say to you.

22 And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. 23 And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?”24 And he looked up and said, “I see people, but they look like trees, walking.” 25 Then Jesus[a]laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26 And he sent him to his home, saying, “Do not even enter the village.”

Transcript

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Hey friends, this is Jesse B and thanks for listening to this segment of Unfiltered. A warm welcome goes out to listeners in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, who are the latest to join the podcast listening family. As always, if anyone listening gets something out of this content and you know of others who would too, go ahead and share an episode or two with them and don't forget to hit the subscribe button on your preferred podcast platform. So this evening we're going to be in Mark chapter eight, twenty two through twenty-six, and I am reading this out of the ESV. And they came to Bethseda, and some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid hands on him, he asked him, Do you see anything? And he looked up and said, I see people, but they look like trees walking. Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again, and he opened his eyes and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. And he sent him to his home, saying, Do not even enter the village. So this is kind of a peculiar passage here, but there's several things to note. Number one, the blind man did not ask for healing. People brought him to Jesus, begging Jesus to touch him. The second thing, Jesus then led the blind man by the hand out of the village, away from those people. Jesus then spit on his eyes and laid hands on him. The man could see, but not clearly. So Jesus laid hands on him again, and this second time the man could see clearly. And the other thing, Jesus instructed the man to go home, but not to go through the village. The first thing is that Jesus drew crowds wherever he went, and this crowd in Bethsaeda was no exception. While some may interpret the people bringing the blind man to Jesus for healing as an act of compassion, but we need to remember that people who were handicapped in those days were often seen as outcasts in that culture. And we see this attitude displayed with the disciples when in John 9, 2 through 4, when they passed another blind man, and the disciples asked who sinned that this man be born blind. But back to the scripture in Mark, it doesn't indicate that this man was brought to Jesus by his family, just some people who probably didn't do this, like I said, for compassionate reasons, but actually to see Jesus perform a miracle. Which explains the second part of this account. Jesus took the blind man by the hand and let him out of village. Jesus took the guy away from the people who only wanted to witness a spectacle, but Jesus still followed through because he saw the man needed help. Now the second part of this verse many will agree was unusual, especially since we know that Jesus never did anything without reason. So why would Jesus use his spit and then place his hands on the man's eyes to heal him? Why did Jesus have to do anything at all? Why not just say the words be healed and send the guy on his way? When I get to heaven I'm gonna ask unless the Holy Spirit reveals it to me before then or somebody else has deeper insight than I do. But nobody really knows one hundred percent the answers to these questions. Some people believe that the spit had some sort of healing power. I have heard that the reason a dog will lick its wounds is because there's something in that saliva that helps to heal these wounds. Others have said that according to some passages like Numbers 12, 14 and Deuteronomy 25, 9, that spitting in somebody's face would have been considered a serious insult, and even today it would be considered an insult. So perhaps there was something unusual about this man's blindness, and perhaps this man's blindness was caused by some sort of sinful act, and maybe Jesus was disgusted by the cause of the blindness. Which brings me to the third part. After spitting on the man's eyes, Jesus then laid his hands on him and asks if he sees anything. The man answers that he sees people, but they look like trees walking. So this man obviously knew enough to describe what he saw, and how else would he have known these things if he were blinded from birth? Jesus laid hands on the man's eyes again and his sight was fully restored. So a few things here. What if Jesus spit had nothing to do with the man's healing but Jesus laying hands on the man's face, not once, but twice did. Could it be the blindness was caused by illness or something that the man had done to bring this blindness upon himself? I'm also reminded of the verse in Matthew five twenty nine where Jesus said, If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Maybe this man took a figurative thing and made it literal, which reinforces the theory that the spit was Jesus' reaction to sin that this man committed. Yet Jesus still showed compassion and touched the man's face, and the second time fully restored the man's sight. And back to what I said about the dog and the saliva, and this just came to mind is that maybe the man's eyes were wounded at some point, and Jesus was using spittle to clean the eyes, or maybe restore it, or maybe the man was in pain, who knows? But you know, these are just speculations the Bible doesn't really say, but something to think about. So there's two things to point out so far. Um the healing wasn't instant, it was a process. Jesus obviously saw things that needed to be dealt with first before the healing could take place. And like I've mentioned before, there are things we pray for, but there are things that need to be dealt with first, such as praying that the Lord would increase your finances when you're a poor manager of your finances now. The Lord may be saying, you know, it's not that I don't want to answer the prayer and I will give you increase, but we're gonna work on that attitude toward tithing first. Then your impulse shopping next, and then after that, we're gonna tackle that gambling issue. And when we get all of that under control and your discipline improves, then we'll talk about increase. The other thing is that this man needed a second touch from Jesus just because the first time he couldn't see clearly. He said that people were walking around looking like trees. In other words, just because you see things clearly in the physical realm doesn't mean that you're gonna see things clearly in the spiritual realm. Sometimes we need a second touch. Sometimes it takes a third or a fourth until we get the clear picture. And the last part of this, Jesus told the man to go home, but not back to the village. And there are also different ideas on this too. Some say that Jesus didn't want the crowds rushing around him for performance purposes, which could have been the case. So often we seek the Lord for what he can do for us only and not for relationship. In fact, I heard somewhere that if we're seeking the Lord for everything or anything other than just him, you're wasting your time because at that point you're practicing religion instead of cultivating a relationship. Another idea is you cannot heal in the same environment that made you sick. Perhaps that was part of the reason Jesus did not want this man to enter back into the village. It could have been that the man's blindness, like I said before, was a result of a sinful act that happened among the very people who brought him to Jesus in the first place. There are times when we are going back to environments that God has delivered us from, but doing so only proves foolish because really we're insulting the Lord. But also we need to take into account that that environment or habit could be stronger than it was before. And that's why when people make the choice to commit sin, especially ones that they have been delivered from, the question that should be asked of anyone, would you have the spiritual clarity to come back to the Lord again, or would your heart be too hardened to see the need for repentance and healing of the soul? And then your reprobate lost. It's a very serious question. Now, this passage is a small account that packs a big punch, and there's a lot to meditate on, and a lot of lessons can come from this. So I would encourage all of you to study out Mark 8, 22 through 26 and see what the Holy Spirit reveals to you. And it's my prayer that you will go grow closer to the Lord for doing so. Until next time, love you guys. Good night.