TEXT: MARK 8: 22-26 NRSV
22 They came to Bethsaida. Some people brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. 23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village; and when he had put saliva on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Can you see anything?” 24 And the man looked up and said, “I can see people, but they look like trees, walking.” 25 Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26 Then he sent him away to his home, saying, “Do not even go into the village.”†
TWO-TOUCH HEALING
Before coming to the little fishing village of Bethsaida, where the Jordan River feeds into the Sea of Galilee, Jesus had been confronted by the Pharisees, who demanded a sign of power to prove himself. Jesus says, “In no way will you be given a sign,” and he leaves in a boat with his disciples.
In Bethsaida, the people of the village brought to him a blind man and begged Jesus to heal him.
Why did they beg for the healing? There’s more than one possible reason:
They, like the Pharisees before, also wanted a sign of power. They may not have been Pharisees, but perhaps they too—having heard about Jesus—wanted Him to prove his authority by showing them His access to Heaven’s power. But if this were true, wouldn’t Jesus refuse to do the healing on the same grounds as with the Pharisees? Or maybe Jesus was okay with doing such signs for common folk, but not for the high and mighty self-righteous leaders?
A better reading is that this was Jesus’ deep compassion at work. He saw how much this man meant to the people, and he took pity on the man.
Jesus takes pity on the man more than the village, for he does not give them the show they may have been hoping for. Rather, he takes the man by the hand and leads him out of the village. Why didn’t the people follow? Mark is full of accounts where the crowds follow Jesus everywhere and are difficult to get away from, so what is different here? We have to assume that they were simply told not to follow.
Perhaps the Disciples were told to stay with the crowd, maybe one or two went with Jesus and the blind man.
It says that Jesus put saliva on the man’s eyes and laid hands on him. These may have been standard medical practices of the day in line with the beliefs of His contemporary culture. Several Roman writers and Jewish rabbis considered saliva to be a valid treatment for blindness. Since the people of that day had a high view of saliva’s healing properties, Jesus’ use of saliva would have communicated His intention to heal. Those being healed would have naturally interpreted Jesus’ method as a sign that He was doing the work of healing.
Jesus asks the man if he can see anything. He answers, “I see people, but they look like trees walking.”
Who were the walking trees? If they had left the village, who was there to be seen walking around like trees? Could it have been passers-by? Perhaps, but who would walk past the scene of someone healing a blind man? Travelers would have stopped to watch. It seems likely that a few Disciples would have gone with them. Evidently this man knew what trees looked like, so like last week’s healing, he is one who had once been sighted but since lost it. If he had been born blind, he wouldn’t know what trees look like, or what walking around looks like, would he?
“Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again. the man looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.”
Those of us who have been to an ophthalmologist can see Jesus in that role. “Can you see? How’s this look? How’s this?” And can’t you just see him squinting and blinking, moving his head around, peering intently, to make sense of his world again? But this man isn’t getting glasses; he is being completely healed, fully restored.
The man is healed, but Jesus tells him to go straight home—don’t even go back into the village. It seems Jesus wants to avoid any kind of spotlight for his miracle. He doesn’t want to call attention to himself. Rather, by sending the man home, He and his disciples can get away before the news hits the local headlines. They leave immediately, walking north to Caesarea Philippi.
WALKING TREES
What a strange story! This would have been an utterly run-of-the-mill healing story were it not for one remarkable detail: Jesus had to touch the man twice! Why?
The story as we expect it: Jesus takes the man aside, touches his eyes, and the man’s sight is restored. He jumps up, praising God, and returns to the village praising the Lord for this miracle. But that’s not the story.
Jesus touches the man, but he sees people who look like trees walking around. What a strange world—a world of walking trees. What is weirdest about this story is that Jesus’ first touch was not enough to do the trick. That is weird. We would think that the moment Jesus intended the man to have sight, he would have sight. The saliva, the hands on, the mud—all of these were unnecessary except for the good of the patient who thereby knew he was being worked upon. Jesus didn’t need those gestures, did he? Of course not. So why did he use them and why didn’t his touch automatically bring the man to total and complete restoration?
This story is for us. It says something to us about the condescension of God into the world of flesh; and it says something about the connection between what God alone can do, what we can do, and how God works along with us and within us.
THE GIFT OF STORY
This story is a gift to us. It shows us that our healing is often a process. Our growth isn’t reducible to a single, momentary event, and we may require more than one touch for God’s work to be complete in us. It seems Jesus goes out of His way to show us that this is true.
Yes, Jesus could have healed the man instantly. There’s no doubt about this, so we have to ask why Jesus gives us this partial-before-complete healing? I’ll say it is to show us that wholeness comes in time. Our conversion from blindness to sightedness is a process more than a single moment.
Yes, there are key moments—turnaround moments, moments of illumination, and new awareness—but these are all baby steps on faith’s long, marathon walk.
That this man requires Jesus to touch him a second time says more about us than it does about Jesus. While we can do nothing to heal ourselves—all power comes from Christ alone—we yet have a role to play in relationship to Christ our all-powerful healer.
This text suggests that our coming to faith—our path from lost to found—is not an intellectual quest, but a relational one. As such, our conversion is the process by which a bad relationship becomes a good one. Specifically, our bad relationship with God is transformed into a life-giving one.
Everyone has a relationship with God, even atheists, and apostates. There is no such thing as living in this world and not having a relationship of some kind with God. People can deny that relationship but that doesn’t make God go away. Because God is real, we walk in relationship to God whether we like it or not.
We are all born in a bad relationship with God. It’s called fallenness, or sin. We have a necessary distance from God. The relationship is made worse by the goodness and holiness of God because we embody neither goodness nor holiness in our natural self, so God is terrifying—He is an angry judge ready to dispense His justice against our sin—and we sinners hate that. So we ignore Him or pretend He doesn’t exist rather than acknowledging that He is God and worshipping Him alone.
We need a transformed relationship, and that is what we call metanoia—conversion.
HOW WE ARE CONVERTED
To ask the basic question How does a person receive the salvation of God? is to open a can of worms, for many different traditions count these steps differently and with different emphases. Without going into all the differences, I’d like to highlight the core and leave the nit-picking out, if just for today.
I’m going to use just three terms: Justification, Regeneration, and Sanctification.
Earlier this year, as we studied Romans 8, we came across a short list of God’s actions in saving us. Romans 8: 29-30:
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Most denominations have put these into a very particular, prescriptive line. You can divide some denominations out by how they line these different aspects. We could line it up just so and say, “This is how people come to be saved!”, but I don’t think Paul is being strictly prescriptive here. The work of the Spirit in choosing us, calling us, and opening our eyes is mysterious. Sometimes the steps go in a strange order or, as in today’s text, need to be revisited twice or more in order for them to take. I would propose that we should not think of them as linear steps, but rather as overlapping circles, for depending upon the person, God’s call, and history, these things may line up differently for different people, and that’s fine.
Justification
The offer of God’s acceptance in spite of unacceptability. Brokenness, fallenness, sinfulness, selfishness. God’s love for sinners shown in Christ. Christ taking the wrath of God for sin upon Himself.
This is the basic gospel—that God has acted on our behalf through Christ. Sin and alienation from God have been conquered by Christ and we can live in newness of life with God and with one another as a result.
Salvation comes through hearing the Word. We do not purchase it, subscribe to it, or do anything else to enact or activate it—it is done—we are to receive it by faith, which means we do not turn the act of receiving into a good work which saves us.
The best of the good news is that we as saved sinners receive our salvation in Christ with utter passivity. We are rescued, period. But grace can be difficult for many to receive, so they make up little games or souvenirs to cling to instead of simply trusting in the promise of God.
If that feels incomplete in some way, stay with me—there’s more to the process than this—we may need more than just one touch.
Regeneration
If you look online you’ll see hours of videos talking about regeneration: different denominations arguing over when and how it occurs, how it relates to the sacraments, yada, yada, yada. In brief, regeneration is spiritual rebirth—it is the change from a negative relationship to a positive relationship with God.
While regeneration is a work of God within us, it is something we cooperate with. Like the man in our story after the first touch; he can’t see quite right, but he is in relationship with Jesus and cooperates with Jesus as he’s being healed.
As we said last week, the primary work is all God’s, but you and I do make very real choices in this life—predestination does not mean pre-determinism. Just as a blind man can’t simply choose to be sighted, we are dependent upon the great healer to open our eyes and turn on the lights first—our responses to grace are our real choices.
We are born again by the work of God’s Holy Spirit, who awakens us to the awareness of God’s grace and love. We are then freed to live our lives as grateful responses to that grace.
Sanctification
Sanctification is the Christian walk with God. It is our transformation toward servanthood to God in Christ’s name. We are made into the likeness of Christ by the secret work of the Holy Spirit. Secret because it does not happen within our personal will or consciousness, but it calls for our cooperation and real decisions over how we choose to live now that we’ve been united in Christ.
Like the healed man of our text, we cooperate in our full healing process. Jesus asks him, “Can you see anything?” which calls the man to participate. He could have said, “Wow, I can see pretty good now—thanks, Mister!” and lived the rest of his life partially-healed; but he steps up in relationship to Jesus, saying, “I can see, but I’m not quite there.”
Perhaps you and I often feel that way—that we’re not quite there—we still need more touches.
The main thing that separates sanctification from regeneration is the promised gift of the Holy Spirit—the Spirit of Truth. We are not given salvation in order that we go back and live as blind people—doing all the things blind folks would do—but we live the new life—the new being in Christ—with the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our choices. This is the life of discipleship, and the life of discipleship is packed with real choices and decisions.
Can you guess what are the two most disputed books of the Bible? Make it easy: the first is Revelation, which barely made it into the canon of Scripture. The second is James. Martin Luther said he would surrender his academic chair of theology to anyone who could reconcile James’ teaching with Paul’s gospel of grace.
Now I’m not saying I can reconcile them, but it is helpful if we think of Paul’s work addressing the question: “How are we to be saved?” and James’ question, “Now that we’re being saved, how ought followers of Jesus to live?”
While we do make real choices and decisions, we do not choose to be saved (that’s God’s choice), but we do choose to live out our lives as those who are being saved.
MISSION & VISION
If you haven’t thought of it already, I’ll remind you that this business of sanctification—of being made into the image of Christ by the secret work of the Holy Spirit—is our mission statement and our vision:
Growing in Christ, Making Him Known
“Growing in” also means “growing into” Christ. As we are being made into Christlikeness, our lives are transformed into servants and witnesses, such that when people see us, they also see Him in us. That is our first—and best—way of making Him known.
We also do not hesitate to introduce people to Christ—primarily by sharing what difference He has made in our own lives. How we feel differently, think differently, and choose differently now that our hope is in Christ and His kingdom rather than the things of this world.
To be a person of faith means that God has opened our eyes from born-blindness, and He is continuing to improve our vision as we live for Him and make our decisions led by His gift of the Holy Spirit. †
QUESTIONS:
- 1.Why will Jesus not make a show out of his healings?
- 2.What does the need for multiple touches say about how Jesus heals us?
- 3.Why is conversion more a process than a single moment?
- 4.What is justification?
- 5.What is regeneration?
- 6.What is sanctification?
- 7.Which of the above are required for salvation?
- 8.Which of the above require our cooperation and effort?
- 9.Discuss how coming to faith has been a process for you.
- 10.How is your process going today?