Seeing Intently

Last week at our (new!) mid-week evening service, I spoke on Mark 8: 22-26, the healing of the blind man at Bethsaida. This is often interpreted as one of those rare occasions when Jesus' genuine humanity shows through, in the form of him making a mistake! That is, in this story, Jesus has to try twice before the man is properly healed.

You'll remember that the man who is brought to Jesus is blind; Jesus takes him aside, puts saliva on his eyelids, and asks him if he can now see. The man responds that, yes, he can see - but the people look like trees that are walking around. In other words, his sight has been partially restored, but things are still blurry. So Jesus has to touch his eyes for a second time, and it is only after this repeat-dose that the man recovers his sight completely.

The question is, though, is this really an example of Jesus getting it wrong, or at least, of not getting it totally right the first time around? Or is there a specific theological lesson Mark is trying to make?

The context, as usual, is helpful. Just before this event, Jesus and his disciples have been in the boat, trying to get away from the crowds. The disciples forget to bring any bread, and so begin to wonder where their next meal will come from. Jesus rebukes them for being so slow to understand. 'Do you still not comprehend? Do you have eyes but still don't truly see?' It seems that the disciples have been so focussed on the literal, physical question of lunch, that they have forgotten who it is they have with them! Their focus has shifted, away from Jesus and towards the more superficial (but more tangible) elements. This is exactly what the Pharisees have done earlier in their demands for a sign.

So, when Jesus and the disciples come to Bethsaida, the stage is set for a climax to this discussion of truly seeing what is really there to be seen - not just the physical, but the far more penetrating spiritual reality of who Jesus is.

In this light, it becomes interesting to read just what the blind man does. When Jesus first touches his eyes, the man looks around, to see what he can see. His focus is on the people around him - and, as he looks at them, he sees them as just blurry figures. But when Jesus touches his eyes for the second time, the text says that the man 'looked intently' - the word used here implies that he looked straight ahead. Instead of looking around him, he looked directly ahead - and as he did so, he would have seen...Jesus! No wonder, then, that Mark comments that, not only was his sight restored, but that he now 'saw everything clearly.'

The implication is that it was not just his physical sight that was restored, but indeed also his spiritual insight. All things - not just the world around him - now became clear. And they did so by him looking directly at the One through whom his healing had come, Jesus.

The blind man thus shows, not so much that Jesus got it wrong and had to have a second go, but that the restoration of true sight comes when we focus ourselves on the person of Jesus.