A Blind Man Healed at Bethsaida

Preached at Hackney Down's Baptist Church, sometime 2002

Mark 8:22-26 based on sermon by Alexander Maclaren c1850

22 Then He came to Bethsaida; and they brought a blind man to Him, and begged Him to touch him. 23So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him if he saw anything. 24And he looked up and said, "I see men like trees, walking." 25Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly. 26Then He sent him away to his house, saying, "Neither go into the town, nor tell anyone in the town."

This miracle is only recorded in Mark’s Gospel, it has several peculiar features. The Lord takes the man away to do the miracle in private. In this aspect it is similar to the healing of the deaf and dumb man in chapter 7. In both cases the Lord uses touch and saliva as part of the healing and after healing Jesus asks the men to be silent about their healing. However the healing of the blind man has also one further peculiarity. The miraculous healing was performed in stages. As such it stands alone amongst the recorded miracles of Christ. Jesus seems to pause, mid-way through the healing to enquire what the man is feeling. Thus the question may arise as to what is the meaning, and what is the reason for this apparently unique way of working? Often in the reading of scripture the smallest seemingly insignificant detail can offer us an opportunity to understand deep truths about our Lord, about His nature and mission. For it is when we start to seek God in the word of God that revelation can come to us about the way we are living our lives. His purposes and our desires come into sharper focus. Asking questions of God is part of this seeking. Remember that Jesus himself has said “ask, and it will be given to you”.
So I want us to look at the three peculiar features of this miracle, (a) the work done in private, (b) the means by which the miracle was performed, (c) the slow pace of this miracle, that kept abreast of the man’s slow faith.

Christ takes the blind man by the hand to a private place

First, then we see that Christ isolates the man whom he wants to heal. Now was there something special about this time and place that Jesus wanted to keep the miracle a secret? There may well have been. Bethsaida was a town very near to the Sea of Galilee. In John’s Gospel it was said to be the home of Andrew, Philip and Peter. Many miracles had been performed there. The name Bethsaida means “house of fish”, so was most probable a town of fishermen. It has also been renames “Bethsaida Julius” a Roman governor and it was located in a supposed gentile part of Galilee. So it had Jews, Romans other Gentiles living together. However as a city they would not believe and in earlier verses of chapter eight keep asking for a sign, a miraculous sign. In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus said of the place “Woe to you Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repeated long ago” Sometimes Jesus miracles where very much in public, like the feeding of the four thousand at the beginning of Mark chapter 8, sometimes they very much in private. The fact that Jesus goes to great lengths to conceal his miraculous power here tells us a great truth: about the purpose of miracles in general and about his character.

While it is true that miracles testify to the work and glory of God, the fact that Jesus did this miracle in secret shows this is never the only purpose. He never did his miracles coldly, solely in order to witness to his mission. Every one of them came from the out flowing of his heart of loving-kindness. His mission was and is one of tenderness, sympathy and love for the needy and lost. The miracles are where we; needy and sinfully men and women, encounter a loving Father God. The difficulty that Jesus had in performing miracles in places where unbelief was rampant was not because Jesus did not have power in these places; His power was and is universal. The ultimate purpose of miracles was a believing, trusting relationship with Jesus. We live and we will all die. In the end what matters about this brief three score years and ten is do we know the living God. If a person has chosen the way of unbelief miracles have no purpose. This may have been true of the people in Bethsaida.

Let us get back to the Blind man. What sort of man was he? Well the text itself gives us little to go on but perhaps we can read between the lines and use our historical imagination. The eastern part of the Sea of Galilee was a place of gentiles and Bethsaida was in this area. He could have been a gentile. The first thing we notice about the man is that is does not come of his own accord; other people bring him. Then again it is not his prayers that are mentioned but theirs. The blind man asks nothing of Jesus. You see him standing there listless, hopeless, not showing any signs of believing that this Jewish stranger can do anything for him. He is standing there with his impassive blind face with no expectation, how is Christ to get to him? Its no use talking to him, his eyes are shut, he cannot see Christ smiling face radiating love for him. There is only one thing to do, lay hold of his hand. Jesus reaches out and touches the man, taking hold of his hand. Jesus places the blind man’s hand in his, lovingly, gently and firmly. At least the blind man must have though “here is someone who has an interest in me, whether he can do anything for me or not I don’t know, but He is going to try something” Would that touch not kindle some expectation in him? And is this a kind of a parable, just exactly what Jesus does for the whole world? Does He not in the same was reach out to grab hold of our unbelieving arms that hang lifeless by our side? The mystery of the incarnation is express here is this little act.

Thus having drawn near to his man, having kindled some small expectation, Jesus gently draws him out of the town. He is not told where he is going. Step by step Jesus leads him, and gradually his dependence on Jesus would grow. He may have thought “I am at his mercy, what is this stranger going to do to me?” Thus there would have been a growing expectation and some surrender to Christ’s guidance. These two things are the germs of the strongest and highest faith: expectation and surrender.

And doesn’t Jesus do this same thing for us all? Sometimes we are deeply depressed, sometimes ill, at times we may have a door shut in face stopping us from working in a certain area, perhaps someone very dear to us is struck down, in many different ways we find ourselves struggling through a desert. At these times Jesus says to us in a thousand different ways, “Come away with me into the secret place, and learn about my all sufficient friendship. Brothers and sisters, if we want Jesus to give us his highest gift, the beauty of his presence, we must be alone with him. He loves to deal with single souls. Our lives are jammed one again another in this crowded city, traffic, work and families. So great is the pressure on us it is often impossible to find outward peace and quite. But we must find that time and space for inward reflection. I do not think I shall see Jesus unless I go with him into the secret places of my soul. Jesus takes me as I am. He places my hand is His. Step by step He leads me, in expectation and in gradual surrender to His love I follow Him. Christ took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town.

Jesus uses ordinary “natural” means for the miracle

Perhaps there was something in this man that made it advisable to use the method that Jesus employed. If he was the kind of person that I have described then he was slow to believe, not caring very much about the possibility of a cure, and not have very much hope of anything happening. Jesus spits into the mans eyes, pauses to question him and then reapplies the spit. This may seem a bit disgusting for out modern ears, but Rabbis at the time though that spittle contained good medicine. When encountering small faith God often use physical means which can gives us an idea of the underlying spiritual realities. God stoops down to our level, presenting things is a way we can grasp with our limited understanding and faith. Is this not exact what the Old Testament is about. The mosaic system, the priestly and sacrificial system: where all just a picture for us of the heavenly realities. They were just a shadow of the things to come.

In the church we have forms of worship, different methods of communion, singing, prayer, preaching. These are given to us as a guide; the substance is the eternal, invisible Christ. In this not why Jesus came to this world as a helpless baby, God stooped down to our level, becoming one of us, to show us what love is. God uses a very earthy language so that we can understand him. Christ’s touch and saliva healed not because they where anything in themselves, but because He willed it and because He was the source of the energy. Let us keep the external things, even forms of worship, in there proper place, subordinate to Him.

Christ pace accommodates the slowness of the man’s faith

The whole story of the blind man is unique, at least this part of it. “He put His hands on him and He asked him if he saw anything.” You might expect an answer from the man with a little more gratitude, a little more wonder, and a little more emotion. But, in a matter of fact way, the blind replies he sees men walking like trees. Clearly he had not been blind from birth as he knows what tree and men ought to look like. Then Jesus puts his hands on his eyes again and made him look up. And he sight was finally restored and he could see all things.

I take the view that this strangely protracted process split into two halves was determined by the man’s faith. The healing was slow because his believing was slow. His faith was a condition of his cure. As a rule having faith in Jesus was a condition of Jesus’ healing. And this is mainly because our Lord would rather have men and women believing than have a sound body. People often want an outward miracle, but Jesus is more interested in using the outward miracle to flow into the inward healing of their spirits. So it is not that His power is limited by our lack of faith. God’s power has no limits. But if we are to receive His best, His spiritual blessing we must have trust in Him. So as a mother does with their child, Jesus keeps step, one little step at a time, Jesus goes slowly because the man goes slowly.

When we consider ourselves is this gradual opening up of our spiritual eyes not true for us? And the rate of progress is determined by our faith. When we first become Christian how dim and partially sighted is our view of the truth, how limited is our understanding of God. How little do we know of ourselves. But the Christian’s progress does not consist of seeing new things, but of seeing the old things more and more clearly, the same Gospel, the same Christ, the same cross. But as our eyes are opened by faith, little by little we understand more and more deeply his love for us. The first lesson we learn is the same as the last lesson we learn, for He is the alpha and omega, the first and last.

Now let me remind you that it seems that our level of expectancy can govern the rate of our growth in Christ. His power is not limited by our level of expectancy but we have been given some will in this. We can disobey him, we can chose to go our own way following the desires of our own hearts, we can quench the Holy Spirit, or we can chose to fan into flames the gifts of God in our lives. God has immeasurably more for me than I can think of or even imagine, but He chooses most often to bless me to level that I want and no more!

Dear friends, desire Him to help and bless you and He will do it. Expect Him to do it and He will do it. Go to Him like another blind man any say “Jesus, thou art the son of David, have mercy on me .. that I might receive my sight” and He will lay His hand on us, and in humble submission and expectation we shall start to see glimmer of spiritual light. And these shall grow until at last He takes us by the hand and leads out of the small town of this world, and asking us whether we see anything, He will touch our eyes and we shall see all things. And when we look up the first face we shall see shall be His, for the suffering of this present age is not worth comparing with the glory that shall be revelled.

May this be your experience and mine, by the mercy of God.

Amen