00:00Hey friends, in the Gospel of Mark, I want to ask you why Jesus healed a blind man twice.
00:08The same man.
00:10You know, I've been writing this Gospel of Mark book.
00:13It's about 500,000 words, and it's available for free out on douglasvandergraff.com.
00:20But, oh, you know, I just do free things all day for you because I care about every single
00:27one of you, and I want to share with you.
00:29I think it's so amazing, all these stories and this man that we love called Jesus Christ.
00:37Now, I want to talk to you about something that I think is really interesting.
00:41As I've been going through the Gospel of Mark, I found a miracle that is so unusual that once
00:49you notice it, it's almost impossible to forget.
00:53Jesus heals a blind man, but he does not appear to heal him all at once.
01:00That alone should make us curious, but in Mark chapter 8, people bring a blind man to Jesus
01:09and beg him to touch him.
01:11Now, Jesus does something really interesting here.
01:15He takes the man by the hand and leads him outside the village.
01:20Then, he spits on the man's eyes, places his hands on him, and asks him a remarkable question.
01:29Do you see anything?
01:32Now, the man looks up and says he can see people, but they look like trees walking around.
01:40Now, I want you to think about that.
01:43The man can see, but he cannot yet see clearly.
01:48Then, Jesus puts his hands on the man's eyes again, and this time, the man's sight is completely
01:57restored.
01:58You see, everything becomes clear.
02:02So, here's the question.
02:04Why did Jesus heal this man twice?
02:07Was the first healing unsuccessful?
02:11I mean, I doubt that could be the case, right?
02:13I mean, was Jesus somehow unable to completely restore his sight the first time?
02:20I doubt that.
02:22You know, of course, that explanation actually makes very little sense when we look at everything
02:29else Jesus does in the Gospels.
02:31Jesus heals people instantly.
02:34He heals people from a distance.
02:37He commands storms to stop, casts out demons, raises the dead.
02:43I mean, there is no indication that Jesus lacked the power to heal this man's eyes immediately.
02:51So, perhaps something else is happening here, and this is what blew me away.
02:57But the deeper you read, the more you need, right?
03:01And when we look at where Mark places this miracle, things become extremely interesting.
03:08Just before this healing, Jesus is talking to his disciples.
03:14They have witnessed miracle after miracle.
03:17They have seen Jesus feed thousands.
03:21They've seen healings.
03:23They've heard his teaching.
03:25They've watched things happen that should have made his identity 100% obvious.
03:32I mean, I think after seeing all that, I'd be pretty clear about who Jesus is.
03:38But these men, they still struggle to understand.
03:43And Jesus says to them in Mark 8, verses 18,
03:51That statement appears shortly before Jesus encounters this man who literally cannot see.
03:59That's probably not something we should simply rush past.
04:05The disciples have eyes, but spiritually, their understanding, for some reason, is still blurry.
04:13Then, Mark gives us this unusual miracle.
04:18A blind man receives sight, but at first, he only sees partially.
04:24People look like trees walking around.
04:27Then, Jesus touches him again, and suddenly, he sees 100% clear.
04:34Now, watch what happens immediately after this miracle.
04:39Jesus asks his disciples,
04:42Who do you say I am?
04:45And Peter answers,
04:47You are the Messiah.
04:49Finally, Peter sees something.
04:52He understands something enormously important about Jesus.
04:56But only a few verses later,
04:59Jesus begins explaining that he must suffer,
05:04be rejected,
05:05be killed,
05:07and rise again.
05:10Now, Peter doesn't like what he hears here,
05:13and he actually rebukes Jesus.
05:16Think about what that means.
05:18Peter recognizes Jesus as the Messiah.
05:23But Peter still does not understand Jesus clearly.
05:27He sees,
05:29but his vision is blurry,
05:32just like the blind man moments earlier.
05:35And that may be one of the reasons Mark places this miracle exactly where he does.
05:40The physical healing may also give us a picture of what is happening inside the disciples.
05:47They're no longer completely blind.
05:50They know Jesus is extraordinary.
05:53They know he's from God.
05:56Peter even recognizes him as the Messiah.
05:59But they still do not understand what kind of Messiah he is.
06:05They want glory without the cross.
06:09Victory without suffering.
06:12A kingdom that looks the way they expect it to look.
06:16They can see Jesus.
06:18They just cannot see him clearly yet.
06:21And that raises a difficult question for us.
06:26Can we believe in Jesus and still misunderstand Jesus?
06:31I honestly believe that the answer is yes.
06:36We can know his name.
06:38We can know Bible verses.
06:40We can even attend church and listen to sermons.
06:44We can call Jesus Lord,
06:46and yet parts of our understanding can still be blurry.
06:51We may see Jesus primarily as someone who is supposed to make our life easier,
06:57or someone who should give us everything we pray for,
07:01or someone who always agrees with our politics,
07:05our priorities, our traditions, our own opinions.
07:10We can slowly create a version of Jesus that looks strangely similar to ourselves.
07:17You ever notice that?
07:18And I think here Peter made a similar mistake.
07:22He correctly identified Jesus as the Messiah.
07:26But when Jesus explained that being the Messiah actually involved all of these other things,
07:34Peter resisted him.
07:36Peter essentially said here,
07:39that cannot be right.
07:41Imagine telling Jesus that he is wrong about Jesus.
07:49And yet that's exactly how spiritual blindness can work.
07:53Think about it.
07:55Sometimes the most dangerous kind of blindness is not seeing nothing.
08:00It's seeing enough to believe that you see everything clearly.
08:05There is another strange part about this miracle, too, I wanted to point out.
08:12Jesus spits on the man's eyes.
08:16Now, that sounds unusual to modern ears.
08:19And this is not the only time Jesus uses saliva during a healing.
08:28Mark actually records Jesus using saliva when healing a deaf man.
08:33And John describes Jesus making mud with saliva before healing another blind man.
08:40The Bible does not explicitly tell us why Jesus chose to do this.
08:46And we should be careful about pretending that we know something about Scripture that it does not tell us directly.
08:54But perhaps even that detail reminds us of something very important.
09:01Jesus was never concerned about fitting neatly inside people's expectations.
09:08His methods were sometimes surprising.
09:11His teachings were sometimes uncomfortable.
09:15His actions sometimes confused even the people who were closest to him.
09:22The disciples repeatedly thought they understood what Jesus was doing.
09:26Then Jesus.
09:28Jesus.
09:29Jesus then showed them that there was still more for them to see.
09:34More for us to see.
09:36And maybe that's the real challenge of this unusual miracle.
09:40We often ask Jesus to change our circumstances.
09:46But sometimes, Jesus needs to change the way we see.
09:52Maybe there are things about God that we think we understand perfectly that are still blurry.
09:59Maybe there are assumptions we inherited rather than examined.
10:04Maybe there are things Jesus taught that we have quietly replaced with what is more comfortable.
10:12The blind man did not pretend his vision was perfect.
10:17When Jesus asked what he saw, he admitted that things were still unclear.
10:24And Jesus continued his work.
10:27There is something so beautiful about that.
10:31And I hope you can see the beauty as well.
10:34You know, maybe spiritual growth begins when we are willing to say,
10:40Jesus, I can see something, but I may not be seeing clearly yet.
10:46That is a much different prayer than assuming we already understand everything.
10:53So, the next time you read Mark chapter 8, I'm going to ask you to pay attention to the order.
11:01The disciples cannot see clearly.
11:04A blind man receives partial sight.
11:08Then he receives clear sight.
11:11Peter recognizes Jesus.
11:14Then immediately, misunderstands him.
11:18And that sequence may be telling us something profound.
11:23Following Jesus is not merely about opening our eyes once.
11:29It's about allowing him to keep correcting our vision.
11:33Because the question may not simply be,
11:37Do I see Jesus?
11:39The deeper question may be,
11:42Do I see Jesus clearly?
11:50I want to invite you out to douglasvandegraaff.com
11:54I've created a million word article about Jesus and recognizing him.
11:59I've also just recently published one on Revelation and another now in the Gospel of Mark.
12:06I'll continue publishing on that website at a minimum of 500,000 words for each book of the New Testament.
12:14And I put them out there.
12:16They're all free for you to read.
12:18Free for you to interact with.
12:20I'll never charge you a dime.
12:22I do it because I care about you and I believe in Jesus Christ.
12:29God bless every single one of you.
12:33Every single one.
12:36And everyone you love.
12:40Bye-bye.
12:42Bye-bye.
12:42Bye-bye.
12:42Bye-bye.
12:42Bye-bye.
12:43Bye-bye.
12:43Bye-bye.
12:43Bye-bye.
12:44Bye-bye.
Comments