Two-Stage Healing (Mark 8:22-30)

Intro

Mark 8:22-30 starts with a healing and ends with a declaration. It causes us to ask a simple question: What stage are you in with your pursuit of God?

• Previous interaction with the Pharisees happened in Dalmanutha, also called Magdala, which is on the west side of the Sea of Galilee, about halfway down as you’re looking at a map. Bethsaida is on the northern end of the Sea of Galilee, East and a little North of Capernaum.   
• As they were crossing the lake, Jesus had warned his disciples about the yeast of the Pharisees and Herod. They didn’t understand what he was talking about.  Jesus says, “You have eyes – can’t you see?”  The disciples should have been able to understand more than they did at that point.  They had eyes.  They had seen the miracles of Jesus.  They had seen the disbelief and contempt from their religious leaders.  They had seen the simple faith of people that their culture said were far from God.  This charge of “You have eyes – can’t you see” is going to have a direct connection to the miracle we’re looking at today.  

The Miracle 

Jesus lays his hand on the blind man and does something unusual: he heals in stages. At first the man can’t see clearly, then Jesus touches him again and his sight is completely restored. Mark 8:22-26

Mark 8:22-26 (NLT) When they arrived at Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man to Jesus, and they begged him to touch the man and heal him. Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. Then, spitting on the man’s eyes, he laid his hands on him and asked, “Can you see anything now?” The man looked around. “Yes,” he said, “I see people, but I can’t see them very clearly. They look like trees walking around.” Then Jesus placed his hands on the man’s eyes again, and his eyes were opened. His sight was completely restored, and he could see everything clearly. Jesus sent him away, saying, “Don’t go back into the village on your way home.”

Commentary:

• We again see the hectic pace of Jesus’ ministry.  As soon as they arrived, people were bringing someone to him for healing. 
• People were interceding on behalf of this man. Similarly to the healing of the deaf and mute man in Mark chapter 7, crowds are bringing him to Jesus and asking Jesus to lay hands on him and heal him. Jesus often healed with a touch.  He didn’t have to do this.  He could simply speak healing if he chose to do so.  He’s all powerful.  
• Jesus takes the man off, away from the crowds.  This is a pattern we’ve seen often in the gospel of Mark.  Jesus is trying to keep the miracle a secret so as not to escalate tensions with the religious leaders before their appointed time. 
• (Pillar New Testament Commentary) Particularly in Mark, where there are more references to laying on of hands than in any other gospel, all but one instance occurs in the context of healings.
• (Pillar New Testament Commentary) The two primary purposes of laying on of hands in the Old Covenant were to transfer either animals or persons from the profane to the sacred by consecrating them to God. When Jesus lays hands on people the effect is rather the opposite, however, for the profane is no longer elevated to the sacred, as in the OT, but rather by bestowing God’s holy and healing presence on ordinary, common, and even sinful people, Jesus brings the sacred to the profane.

The Metaphor

The two-stage healing is a metaphor for what Jesus’ disciples were experiencing on a spiritual level. Throughout the book of Mark the disciples were progressively gaining clarity on the true identity of Jesus. Mark 8:22-26

• He asks the man, “Can you see anything?”  This question echoes the question Jesus asked his disciples as they were crossing the lake.  This miracle is not just a miracle that brings healing to the blind man; it is a teaching moment for the disciples.  This healing is going to be a metaphor for the spiritual blindness that Jesus is gradually removing from the disciples.  Jesus could have clearly healed the man instantly.  He’s already performed more amazing miracles, including raising a dead girl to life and healing a paralytic.  This is probably one of those instances where after the disciples had seen the risen Jesus and after they were filled with the Holy Spirit they were like, “Oh, now I get it. Now I see why he brought his sight back gradually.” There were a lot of teaching moments like that for the disciples.  
  • For example: John 12:16 His disciples didn’t understand at the time that this was a fulfillment of prophecy. But after Jesus entered into his glory, they remembered what had happened and realized that these things had been written about him. 
  • The context of this passage is when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the colt of a donkey and it was only later that they realized it was a fulfillment of prophecy.  

• • It takes a work from God to see spiritual things clearly.  This is the work of the Holy Spirit for believers.  
    • (Pillar New Testament Commentary) The healing of the blind man of Bethsaida is the only miracle in the Gospels that proceeds in stages rather than being instantly effected…. The two-stage cure in the present miracle thus suggests a process of revelation – as much for the disciples, we suspect, as for the blind man at Bethsaida.

• Have you had a similar experience where you’ve read a passage in the Bible that you’ve read many times before, but your eyes were opened to a truth you had missed or maybe to a connection to Jesus that you hadn’t seen before? 

Mark 8:24 (NLT) The man looked around. “Yes,” he said, “I see people, but I can’t see them very clearly. They look like trees walking around.”

The Declaration

In Caesarea Philippi Peter makes a personal declaration of faith. This is the first time a character in the story echoes the truth of the book’s opening verse. Mark 8:27-30, Mark 1:1

Mark 8:27-30 (NLT) Jesus and his disciples left Galilee and went up to the villages near Caesarea Philippi. As they were walking along, he asked them, “Who do people say I am?” “Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say you are one of the other prophets.” Then he asked them, “But who do you say I am?”

Peter replied, “You are the Messiah.” But Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

• So many different opinions about who Jesus was.  Most of them were wrong.  Much like today – there are many wrong opinions about Jesus – He was a great teacher, healer, prophet, our example – Some of those are partially true, but they all fall short of who Jesus is.  He is the perfect lamb of God, our rescuer, God With Us.  
• It seems like Peter finally has it – “You are the Messiah”, but he still only partially sees the truth about who Jesus is.  That’s going to be obvious multiple times in the remaining parts of Mark’s gospel, including next week’s story.  He’s still got the wrong idea about what the Messiah was going to do.  He’s envisioning the conquering King Messiah who is going to overthrow the Roman government and restore rightful leadership and dominance to the nation of Israel.  He doesn’t recognize the suffering servant, Messiah.  It won’t be until after the resurrection that his eyes, and the eyes of the rest of the disciples, truly see clearly, who Jesus is. 
• Maybe that describes you as we’ve gone through the gospel of Mark.  God has been giving you more and more clarity about who Jesus is.  You’re starting to see clearly that he came to rescue you from your sin.  You’re beginning to understand your brokenness and your need for a savior.  
• Remember all the way back to the first week of Mark when we only looked at the first verse of chapter 1: This is the Good News about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.[a.  Mark’s goal from the very beginning was to help his readers see that Jesus is the Messiah.  Up to this point, Mark has declared Jesus’ role as Messiah, God has declared who he is “My beloved Son with whom I am well pleased”, the demons have declared who Jesus is. Even creation has declared Jesus’ deity by submitting to his commands when he calms the storm. , but this is the first time we see a person declare that Jesus is the Messiah.  We like to tease Peter because he often puts his foot in his mouth, as we’ll see again next week, but he is the first person to declare Jesus is the Messiah. 
• Pillar New Testament Commentary) The ability to see, both physically and spiritually, is a gift of God, not of human ability. We hear nothing of the man’s faith or behavior in the present story. There is no hint that as his faith grew his healing progressed. His healing from failed sight to partial sight to complete sight comes solely from the repeated touch of Jesus. His healing exemplifies the situation of the disciples who move through the same three stages… 
  • from non-understanding (8:17-21) 
  • to misunderstanding (8:29-33) 
  • to complete understanding (15:39)
• (Pillar New Testament Commentary) The disciples will be no longer blind, but their vision will remain imperfect and blurred, for they do not understand the meaning of Messiahship. Only at the cross and resurrection will they, like the man at Bethsaida, see “everything clearly” (v. 25).
• (Pillar New Testament Commentary) Responses of faithfulness to Jesus have been few and sporadic, and when faithfulness has been found, it has surprisingly come from “outsiders” – 
  • from an unclean woman (5:25-34), 
  • a Syro-phoenician woman (7:24-30), 
  • a Gentile deaf-mute (7:31-37). 
• Declarations of Jesus’ true identity as God’s Son have been given 
  • by Mark as narrator (1:1), 
  • by God (1:9-11), 
  • and by demons (1:25; 3:11; 5:7), 
  • but not yet by humans. 
• Caesarea Philippi is the first breakthrough in the human plot of the Gospel. 
  • Caesarea Philippi was an unlikely place for the first proclamation of Jesus as Messiah, for its population was chiefly non-Jewish. It was also the site of two painful memories to Jews. 
    • It was in Caesarea Philippi that Antiochus IV gained a decisive victory over Egypt in 200 B.C., causing Palestine to fall to the Seleucids and plunging the whole region into twenty years of war following the Maccabean Revolt in 168 B.C. 
    • The city was also famous for its sanctuary to Pan (from which the city gained the name Caesarea Panias). Half man and half goat, Pan was revered as guardian of flocks and nature and worshiped in a grotto at the foot of Mount Hermon next to the cave from which one of the three major tributaries of the Jordan River gushes forth. 
  • It is here in the outer regions of paganism and even hostility to Judaism that Jesus is first proclaimed Messiah!
• (Pillar New Testament Commentary) They must separate themselves from the majority opinion and risk a personal confession. Faith expresses itself in a public confession of Jesus, and neither faith nor confession is a proxy vote. There is a difference between judgment and confession: we may be instructed by the judgments of others, but the declaration that Jesus is the Christ depends on a believer’s personal confession.
• (Pillar New Testament Commentary) Jesus is not content to know what others think and say of him. His mission is not decided by his standing in the polls but by the judgment of each follower whom he has called.
• (Pillar New Testament Commentary) Only God and demons have recognized Jesus as Messiah in Mark so far. No human actor has yet declared Jesus to be Messiah.
  • (Pillar New Testament Commentary) The most common conception of the Messiah in pre-Christian texts is as an eschatological king. Otherwise, the messianic hope remained fairly general. Through the Messiah God would establish and protect an everlasting kingdom over all the earth. The Messiah would be the perfect king chosen by God from eternity, through whom God would first deliver Israel from its enemies and then cause Israel to live in peace and tranquillity thereafter (Sib. Or. 3:286-294).
    • “‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will raise up to David a righteous branch, a King, who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land'” (Jer 23:5).
    • Spoiler: they still missed it, as we’ll see next week…

God is continually working to reveal himself to us. The defining moment is when we make a personal declaration of faith in Jesus.

Romans 10:9-10 (NLT) If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.