Mark (18)

Personal healing of the blind man.

He was brought to Jesus.

Jesus led him away from the crowd.

Jesus laid his hands on him.

Sight was restored.

Instructed not to go back into the village.

Highlights the personal care and compassion of Jesus. When we bring people to Jesus we are bringing them to a personal savior who can give sight to the blind. Remember when you were brought to Jesus?

Prophetic purpose of healing.

Turn to Is 35:4-6

Notice that the prophet Isaiah was recording truth about a future Savior. This is a messianic text that is pointing to the activity of the Messiah when He would come.

Jesus is fulfilling these prophesies as He fulfills His ministry.

Jesus is not just attracting crowds with great miracles, but rather He is revealing Himself as the messianic savior. He is God in the flesh. He is the Christ.

On a practical note the prophetic purpose of healing helps us to navigate some questions we may have. Some may wonder why we don’t see this kind of healing as often today? The miracles of Jesus and even of the apostles were for the purpose of revealing the true identity of Jesus. For the apostles it was to validate their ministry of having been with Jesus and to fulfill their role in establishing the gospel and extending the church. This is not to say that God doesn't still heal people of physical issues. The book of James even tells those who are sick to ask the elders of the church to pray for hem and if it’s God’s plan then they will be healed. However, the key purpose of miracles and healings has already been fulfilled by establishing the authority of Christ and His apostles. As a result we needn't seek signs and wonders, rather we have the revealed word of God in the Scriptures as sufficient to lead us and guide us to Christ.

Transition: Which takes us to our final consideration from our text today...

Progressive nature of discipleship.

Notice the interesting way in which Jesus healed the blind man. It was done in a kind of two phase process. After spitting and laying His hands on him Jesus asked if he could see. The man replied he could see people but they look like trees walking. So Jesus lad his hands on his eyes again, and then the man’s sight was restored and he could see everything clearly.

We might mistakenly think that Jesus needed two tries to heal this man. Or that His power was limited because of a strong blindness. However, the point is that Jesu sis doing more here than just healing this man. He is instructing His disciples about the progressive nature of having their own eyes opened.

We’ve already observed the disciples being hard hearted and incomplete in their understanding. Just before this passage Jesus had asked His disciples again , “Do you not yet understand?”

In this way Jesus is showing His disciples and us that the process of spiritual illumination is often just like this blind man. As we will see next week Jesus repeats this kind of progressive awakening when He asks His disciples who people say that He is. They reply with the cloudy vision of false identities. Then He asks, Who do you say that I am? And Peter gets it right, but only for a moment until he needs further correction and illumination. It really isn't until after Jesus resurrection and ascension that on the day of Pentecost recorded in Acts chapter 2 that Jesus disciples are truly awakened and able to see with spiritual clarity like this blind man can see physically.

I want us to consider progressive discipleship in a couple different ways.

The progressive aspect of our conversion.

The progressive nature of our sanctification.

Closing Question:

Am I seeing Jesus clearly?