The Second Touch

Mark 8:22–26 ESV

And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?” And he looked up and said, “I see people, but they look like trees, walking.” Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. And he sent him to his home, saying, “Do not even enter the village.”

INTRODUCTION:

1. THE SCENE

There are only two miracles that Mark records in his gospel that we don’t also find in either Matthew or Luke: the healing of the deaf man, at the end of chapter 7 – and the healing of the blind man here. This is a strange miracle. There is a critical lesson for us in this text, but it is a strange miracle to read about, isn’t it? Oh, in some ways, it is another 'day at the office' for Jesus. He and his disciples arrive in another town - Bethsaida - and people come to him with their needs - looking for the help that nobody else has been able to give - the help that they have heard this Jesus can bring. There are, undoubtedly, many different people with many different needs. Mark singles out but one individual and tells us of his case.

It is the case of a blind man - cannot see. He cannot even get to Jesus, without the help of faithful friends. Actually the friends bring him to Jesus and they are the ones who speak - begging Jesus to touch him. See the compassion of Jesus, as he takes the blind man, in v. 23, by the hand and leads him out of the village. This is no public spectacle - isn't a show for the entertainment of a disinterested crowd - this is a life, that has been lived with a very real struggle - and Jesus means to rescue him - away from curious eyes. So far, there is nothing terribly unusual about the scene around the Savior.

Jesus spits on his eyes and lays his hands on him - - - and right there - it just got strange. Spits? What’s that all about? Some commentators think that it is a sign pointing to the power of the Word of God. He spoke – and the universe came into existence - - now Jesus is applying the spit that comes from His mouth to this man in his need – to assure him that this power is being unleashed on his specific problem. I’m not sure about that.

Jesus did use spit in his cure of the deaf man in chapter 7 – this is not the first time he’s used a visual – so this healing is still not terribly strange so far.

But the second half of verse 23 marks this healing as utterly unique. Jesus asks the blind man – “Do you see anything?” Okay, this is strange. Why would Jesus need to ask the man that question? First of all, would he not already know? He knows what his enemies are thinking, when not a single word is said. He tells a disciple to take one particular fish, open its mouth and take out a coin – enough to pay his tax. Don’t you think he knows whether the man can see or not?

And the man’s response to Jesus’ question – that is where things become really, really strange: v. 24, “And he looked up and said, ‘I see people, but they look like trees, walking’.” The man looks up and he can see something – but he can’t see clearly – can’t see very well. He is only partially healed.

This is the only miracle of Jesus, in all of the Gospels, where Jesus doesn’t seem to get the job done properly, the FIRST time. What’s going on here? Is Lex Luther nearby, sent by Satan, with some kryptonite in his pocket, weakening Jesus’ power? Is Jesus so exhausted from his busy schedule and all of the demands on his power – requests for help, that he’s just running out of gas? I mean we do say that you cannot burn the candle at both ends for very long and expect to stay healthy, let alone at your best! Do you imagine Jesus hearing that the man can’t see properly – looking down at his hands and thinking, ‘what’s wrong with me? – I can heal blindness in my sleep?!’ Have you ever had one of those days, where absolutely nothing goes right? Have you ever wondered whether Jesus had one of those days? It would appear that this is one.

Something is obviously up, because this is very un-Jesus-like. When Jesus performs a miracle – he gets the job done right, the first time. And healing blindness – how hard is that?! Okay, for you and me, giving sight to a blind person would definitely be something to celebrate. But Jesus …?! He speaks to the wind and waves and instantly, they stop in obedience. He tells a dead girl to get up and she does. He casts a demon out of another girl – when the girl is not even in his presence. On and on the list goes – giving sight to a blind man just is not that big a deal, when Jesus has done all of these things without a hitch.

Jesus doesn’t give up. Verse 25, he lays his hands on the man’s eyes again; “and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.” So finally the job is finished. Practice makes perfect, or something like that.

If this miracle leaves you scratching your head, let me put it in its context, here in Mark – and I trust that will help you understand.

1. The Problem of Spiritual Blindness

There are 16 chapters in Mark’s Gospel and they divide into 2 roughly equal halves. The first 8 chapters, that we have been making our way through, are all about answering the question, “Who IS THIS Jesus?!” And consistently, throughout the chapters – people don’t get it. They don’t get “Who this is”.

The Pharisees and the rest of the religious establishment don’t ‘get it’ - - - they see Jesus as a problem to be managed. The crowds don’t get it – they see a miracle worker and either want to see a show, or want to make him a political king, carrying a sword and slicing down enemies. And as we’ve seen over and over again in these chapters – Jesus’ own disciples don’t ‘get it’. They don’t understand who he is, still. Last week’s passage ended, with Jesus’ lesson about the leaven – and the disciples started worrying that they had forgotten bread – Jesus just fed 4,000 people and the disciples, not hours later, are concerned that they are in a boat, with only 1 loaf of bread between 13 people. Jesus, in exasperation asks, in v. 17, “Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear?

Then comes this healing of the blind man. Only Mark records this miracle – it’s in none of the other gospels. And Mark puts it right here, just as we’re about to reach the climax of the first half of the book – Peter’s confession about Jesus in vv. 27-30. Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do you say I am?” And Peter, by Divine revelation says, “You are the Christ.” He’s had the first touch! But immediately after this confession, Peter shows that he – and the rest of the disciples still need another touch. They ‘get’ who Jesus is, but they don’t fully ‘get it’.

Jesus heals this man in this way – and Mark puts it right here, in this spot - because This is not just a miracle – this is a parable – a lesson to teach his disciples in his day … and a lesson for us today. Jesus doesn’t NEED to touch the man twice – he is teaching us a lesson about spiritual blindness.

a. Blindness: A Universal Problem

And the point Jesus makes here is that we are all, every last one of us, born spiritually blind. In this very chapter, you have the Pharisees demonstrating that they are blind to who Jesus is - - - and you have the disciples demonstrating the same thing. That’s everybody. The outsiders and the insiders – the atheists who don’t believe in God at all – and the religious, who begin attending church when they are 2 weeks old, and never miss a Sunday – Who try to save the world by their moral uprightness and charitable sacrifices - - - Everyone is born blind. We like to divide people into categories – good and bad. The good people are ripe for salvation and the bad people are just getting ready for judgment.

Spiritual Blindness is not only universal, it is also deep – it doesn’t go away, with the snap of a finger. There are stages – it is a process.

Even when Jesus ‘touches’ us – our sight doesn’t clear up immediately.

Do you see what this means for faith? It means that spiritual sight – the ability to see Jesus Christ for who He is – to see that He is the delight that we were created to enjoy - - - that faith – that vision is gift, and until Jesus, by the person of the Holy Spirit, spits in your eyes, as it were … you can NOT see.

What Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:4, “… the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

Do you get frustrated by the stubborn unbelievers in your life? You’ve got some in your family or circle of friends. You’ve witnessed to them – shared with them the Scriptures that grabbed you by the neck and threw you to your knees. Nahh… they had intellectual problems with Christian faith. So you did your homework – you found the answers to their questions – knock down arguments and thought, “Now he’ll have to give up the fight and give his life to Jesus.” But the response is still, “No. I just don’t see it.”

And you want to grab him by the neck: “See it! See it! Don’t be a fool!” Jesus’ lesson here says - Don’t be mad. You can’t be angry at a person who hasn’t received a gift yet. Share with them what God has done in your life. Reason with them – absolutely. And then – pray for them. Like the man’s friends who brought him to Jesus – and begged Jesus to touch their helpless friend – so we too need to Pray.

b. Fuzzy Vision

If unbelievers are the ones pictured by the man before the first touch from Jesus’ hand, then there are many believers – the religiously observant, regular churchgoers even - who are pictured by the man between the touches.

Churches in our day are filled with people who recognize that there is something special about Jesus – That He is God’s Son, sent to save us from sin and death. People recognize that Christianity is the only hope of the world - - that somehow, Jesus is the Savior we need - but they are not exactly sure how. And if you ask them what gives them greatest joy in life – the answers they will come back with will not have Jesus Christ at the center.

If seeing and savoring Jesus Christ is not the great joy of your life and delight of your days – then you are not seeing clearly, friend.

In our present day evangelical Christianity, when we think of salvation – we most often think of the example of Paul – You know, the Damascus road experience. Acts 9. One minute he’s killing Christians – then WHAM – bright light knocks him to the ground, Jesus speaks from heaven, and Paul gets up out of the dirt a brand new man. A few days later, he is preaching. Sure, he had to grow as a Christian – but he was seeing clearly.

We so often forget that there is another type of conversion example in the New Testament – the example of Peter. At some point, Peter really “gets” who Jesus is. At some point he stops trusting in himself for salvation and puts his trust fully in Jesus alone. At some point he is transferred from death to life. But where does it happen?! Have you ever thought about that? Peter lurches from failure to brilliance and back to failure again.

As we’ll see next week, he goes from divinely given insight into Jesus’ identity, to the crash and burn of trying to correct Jesus on what kind of Messiah he should be. Jesus says, that he must suffer and be killed and rise again - - Peter rebukes him – “No way Lord”. The night Jesus was betrayed, the very Peter who had confessed that He was the Christ, the Son of the Living God - - was cursing and denying that he even knew him.

For so long in his life – Peter is the blind man after the first touch of Jesus: He needed a second touch. That is the story of so many of us. We need another touch to see Jesus clearly. And the problem with us focusing so much on how Paul was saved as THE example of how salvation ALWAYS intersects an individual’s life, is that when the pressures of life mount and the joy fades. When you find yourselves in the dark days of winter and in your honest moments you know that Jesus Christ is not the supreme desire of your heart – God is not your great delight … the temptation comes for you to feel,

“This is all hopeless” “My Christianity must all be a sham.” “Why can’t I see? That must mean that the prayer I prayed at the meeting back in 94, didn’t really take. There’s no point in going on …”

You become spiritually dry – and because you don’t feel as though you are growing the way you should - - you pack it in - - - you close up the Bible, you start missing worship with the church – your prayer life tanks. Oh sure, sometimes those are the very things that you do when you feel self-sufficient. But there are others of you here, this very morning – and your spiritual life is barren wasteland because you feel as though there is something wrong with you and God may have done something with you in the past – but now He has moved right past.

I want to tell you this morning, recognizing that you are not where you should be, spiritually – that you don’t see clearly – is not a bad place to be. It is a necessary place to start.

Unless you have a holy dissatisfaction with where you are spiritually – you will not keep growing.

3. How We Get Healed

How do we get healed? First, be honest

Imagine if the blind man in our text didn’t tell the truth when Jesus asked if he could see after the first touch? That would be my temptation – and I think many of you would struggle with the same thing. Jesus asks, “Do you see anything?” And we would think, “Oh, I don’t want to hurt his feelings” Or, “I don’t want to be too presumptuous – what do I expect? At least I can see something.” And so we would say, “Sure, Jesus – everything’s good. I can see just fine - - - thanks so much for helping me.”

Imagine what would have happened if the blind man was content with the first touch – he would have spent the rest of his life, talking to trees and chopping down people.

Be Thirsty

There is a section of the Bible-believing Christian Church that believes in a second-blessing from the Lord. The doctrine is that when you become a Christian, you receive the Holy Spirit. But you need a ‘second blessing’ – a filling of the Holy Spirit that comes later and enables you to live in perfect holiness. My problem with the ‘holiness movement’ is that a second blessing – a second touch is not enough. At least, for me it’s not enough. I need more.

That’s what Paul says. Ephesians 5:18, “Do not be drunk with wine … but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” The word translated “be filled” is in the present, passive tense – never complete - - “Go on being filled with the Spirit”. “You need to be touched by Jesus again … and again … and again.”

Reminds me of the story I heard of a church, where the pastor gave an altar call, every Sunday. And every Sunday, there was one man who went forward with tears, praying out loud: “Fill me Lord”. Even if nobody else went forward, this man did, week without end. Of course, that meant the service lasted longer – mean that nobody could head home for lunch, politely anyway, as long as this man was at the front of the church, on his knees, crying out to God. “Fill me Lord”. After weeks and months, people became a little impatient. “Fill me Lord” – it was always the same thing.

Finally, one morning, the altar call went out, the man went forward and cried out once again, “Fill me Lord”. And another voice called out from within the congregation: “Don’t do it Lord, he leaks”.

That’s the point – we leak.

Be Confident.

On the cross – an absolute eclipse of the sun - - - picture of the spiritual reality that Jesus was enduring

Lucy Shaw, “Mary’s Song”

Mary pregnant with Jesus, thinking about the baby in her womb. End:

Now native to earth as I am, nailed to my poor planet, caught that I might be free,

Now blind in my womb, to know my darkness ended.

Brought to this birth for me to be newborn.

But for him to see me mended, I must see Him torn.”

That’s what Jesus did for you. That is how far He was willing to go so that you could see. Be confident.