Mark 8:22 - Meaning and Application

This healing is described only by Mark, and it has several unusual details.

Here is a blind man brought to Jesus by his friends, who asked Jesus to touch him (Mark 8:22). Their faith is clear. They did not doubt that one touch of Christ’s hand could give him sight. But the man himself does not show the same strong desire or confidence that some other blind men did. If those who are spiritually blind do not pray for themselves, let their friends and family pray for them, asking Christ to touch them.

Jesus then took the blind man by the hand and led him (Mark 8:23). He did not tell the friends to lead him. This shows Jesus’ amazing humility and kindness. He himself became, in effect, a guide for the blind, as Job describes, “eyes to the blind” (Job 29:15). No poor blind man ever had such a leader. Jesus led him out of the town. If he only wanted privacy, he could have led him into a house or an inner room and healed him there. Instead, he also meant to rebuke Bethsaida for the mighty works already done there that had been wasted (Matthew 11:21). In a sense, he was showing her that she was not worthy to receive more miracles within her walls. He may also have taken the man outside so he could look over the open fields, where there was a wider view than in the narrow streets.

Jesus then healed him, he who came into the world to preach recovery of sight to the blind and to give what he preached (Luke 4:18). He used a sign: he spit on the man’s eyes, or into them, as some think, and put his hands on him. He could have healed him with a word, as he did many others. But he chose this way to help very weak faith and to strengthen the man against unbelief. That spit also pointed to the eye salve with which Christ anoints the eyes of those who are spiritually blind (Revelation 3:18).

The healing happened in stages, which was not usual in Christ’s miracles. Jesus asked him, “Do you see anything?” (Mark 8:23). He wanted him to tell what his sight was like, partly for the people around him. The man looked up, and that was as far as his first recovery went. He could open his eyes, and he said, “I see people, but they look like trees walking.” He could tell people from trees only by their movement. He had some weak sight, and between him and the sky he could see a man standing upright like a tree, but he could not make out the shape clearly (Job 4:16).

Then the cure was completed. Christ never leaves his work half done. He put his hands on the man’s eyes again to drive away the remaining darkness, and then told him to look up again. After that, he saw everything clearly (Mark 8:25). Jesus took this way for several reasons. First, he was not tied to one method. He showed his freedom in all he did. He did not heal in a fixed pattern, but changed his way as he chose. God’s providence often reaches the same result in different ways, so people will watch his guidance with trusting faith.

Second, the healing matched the man’s faith. Perhaps his faith was very weak at first, and then it grew stronger, and his healing matched that growth. Christ does not always work by this rule, but he sometimes does so to rebuke those who come to him with doubts.

Third, Jesus was showing how his grace heals people who are spiritually blind. At first, their understanding is confused. They see men as trees walking. But like the light of dawn, it grows brighter and brighter until full day, and then they see clearly (Proverbs 4:18). So we should ask ourselves whether we see anything of those things that faith makes real and sure. If, by grace, we see even a little, we may hope to see more and more, because Jesus Christ will fully perfect those whom he makes holy.

After healing him, Jesus told the man not to tell anyone in Bethsaida, and not even to go into the town (Mark 8:26). Some people there had likely seen Jesus lead him out, and they may have expected him to return. They had already seen many miracles, yet they were not even curious enough to follow Jesus. Christ did not want such people to enjoy the sight of the healed man if they would not honor Christ enough to walk a short distance to see the miracle happen.

Jesus did not forbid him to tell others, but he must not tell anyone in that town. Those who lightly treat Christ’s kindness lose the benefit of it. Christ will make people feel the worth of their blessings by taking them away when they refuse to value them. Bethsaida, in the day when God visited her, would not recognize the things that made for her peace, and now they were hidden from her eyes. They would not see, and so they would not see.