I Can See Clearly Now

“Who is Jesus?” is the burning question on the minds of many of the Jewish people at the time of the healing in our text. The problem was that most people at that time could not see clearly who Jesus is, and that problem remains today.

Now, at least a year has lapsed since Jesus first appeared as an apparent successor to John the Baptist, or so many people thought. Like John, Jesus came preaching that people should repent and that the kingdom of God has come. But the miracles Jesus performed indicated that his ministry far exceeded that of John the Baptist.

The religious leaders of the Jews—the scribes and Pharisees—see Jesus as a threat. They say Jesus is a false teacher and some even say he is demon-possessed. The ordinary people say that Jesus is John the Baptist come back to life. Others of them said, “No, he is Elijah,” while others thought Jesus was another one of Israel’s prophets. These people knew that Jesus was a miracle worker and an exorcist. But they were not quite sure how Jesus and his ministry fit into God’s plan.

Then there are Jesus’ disciples. Their perception of who Jesus is has been on a dimmer switch. They have been slow to learn, despite the astounding miracles that Jesus performed in their presence. And we now approach the critical moment in Jesus’ ministry, when the disciples more fully come to grips with the true identity of Jesus. This will result in Peter’s dramatic confession that Jesus is the Christ, Israel’s long-awaited Messiah. We will see that in verses 27 and 29.

What, then, are the lessons that we can learn from this miracle to enable us to see Jesus more clearly and to follow him more faithfully? We will consider, first, the purpose of good friends; second, faith is personal, not borrowed; third, God cannot be put in a box; fourth, sometimes God works in steps; fifth, Jesus fully heals; sixth, three eye exams; and, seventh, Jesus is able.

The Purpose of Good Friends

Friends can either move us closer to God or farther away from him. The Bible in verse 22 says that this man’s friends brought him to Jesus. This is similar to the friends of the paralytic man in Mark 2, who had carried him to the house where Jesus was preaching and had torn open the roof of the house and lowered their friend to Jesus to be healed. Then there was the healing of the deaf-mute man in Mark 7. He too had friends who brought him to Jesus for healing.

So friendship is important. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 4:9–10, “Two are better than one, for they have a good return for their labor. When one falls down, the other can pick him up. But pity the man who, when he falls, has no one to pick him up!”

But bad friends can also have a negative influence on your life. The apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:33, “Bad company corrupts good morals.” Fortunately for this blind man, he has good friends who lead him to Jesus. They believed that Jesus alone could heal their friend’s blindness, so they acted. And observe too their earnest pleas on this man’s behalf. Verse 22 says they begged Jesus to touch their friend.

So I ask you: Do you have friends who bring you closer to Jesus or farther away from him? And what kind of friend are you? Do you beg Jesus to save your friends? Are you a friend who inspires others to follow Christ more closely? Or are you a hindrance to their walking with Jesus?

Faith Is Personal, Not Borrowed

The act of bringing others to Jesus is most commendable. Friends can and should inspire us. But a friend’s faith can never be a substitute for our own personal faith in Christ.

In this story, Jesus leads the blind man away from the village of so-called good religious synagogue attendees of the day, in order that the man might experience a personal encounter with Christ the Savior. Like Bethsaida, however, there are in every church people who are cultural Christians, whose Christianity is a mere heritage of habit rather than a defining devotion to Christ. Such people lack a conviction to follow Jesus because they themselves have never been regenerated. They are not born again from above. Church is just a place where they hang out for an hour or two on Sunday because that is what they have done all their lives. May Jesus take each one of us aside privately to minister real faith to us, even today.

God Cannot Be Put in a Box

It is a common mistake to expect saving grace to always come in a certain fixed way. Perhaps one of the reasons Jesus performed this miracle differently from his others is to remind us that God cannot be placed in a box. He does not dance to our tune.

There are a very wonderful variety of ways in which our Lord Jesus performed his miracles. Here Jesus heals by spitting in this man’s eyes and laying his hands on him. On another occasion, he placed mud in the eyes of another blind man and told him to wash. Sometimes Jesus simply touched the sick, and they were healed. Once one woman merely touched his robe and was healed. In other situations, Jesus just spoke and the demons fled, and people were healed, and the dead were raised. In most cases, people were healed instantly. But in a few cases, Jesus chose to heal in stages.

Similarly, there are a variety of ways in which people come to know Jesus savingly as Lord. While most people are brought by faith by the Holy Spirit through the preached word, the Spirit sometimes works through a hymn or the gospel witness of a friend, or the reading of the Bible or some other Christian book. Some people experience God’s regenerating power in a church service, and others on a mission trip. Some come to faith while recovering in the hospital, while others while attending Sunday school or going to children’s camp. There is even one man in our midst who was quickened by God the Holy Spirit while driving in his car on the causeway.

So the Lord Jesus changes his manner of working in order that it may be clear that he is not bound to any method of healing or salvation. Take the case in point.

God Works in Steps

Verse 23 tells us that Jesus spits on this man’s eyes and asks, “Do you see anything?” The answer: The man sees people like trees walking. This raises the question: Why did Jesus choose to do this in two steps? Did Jesus slip up? Certainly it happens to other people. I read that Tiger Woods once missed a two-foot putt, and Michael Jordan once missed a lay-up. And we have all embarrassed ourselves one time or another by failing to perform perfectly simple tasks that we have done dozens and dozens of times before without a mistake.

So some unbelieving theologians argue, then, that Jesus, after all, was merely human and faltered in this case. But while Jesus may be fully human, it is not in the sense that he made or makes mistakes. He is unaffected by Adam’s fall. Jesus was and is the perfect man, and he is also fully divine—perfect God and perfect man in one person, who does all things perfectly well.

So why did Jesus heal this man in stages? It is easier to answer the question in the negative. It was not because of any lack in Jesus, as if he did not have the power to heal the man all at once. It was not because this man’s blindness was a particularly difficult case. Jesus had already showed himself to have power over nature in the calming of the storm. Jesus had showed his power over demons in the deliverance of a demon-possessed man (Mark 5). Jesus had already shown his power over death in resurrecting a dead girl (Mark 5). Jesus showed his power over physical diseases by healing the woman who had the bleeding for twelve years (Mark 5). Jesus showed his power as Creator in feeding two large groups of people, one consisting of five thousand men and the other of four thousand men, plus all the attendant women and children that accompanied them on each occasion. Jesus showed his extraordinary power when he walked on water during a storm (Mark 6). And Jesus showed his power over physical disabilities in the healing of a paralytic man (Mark 2) and the deaf-mute man (Mark 7).

Why, then, this two-stage healing process? Some think the blind man’s faith was small, and Jesus was using this means to build it up. Perhaps, but we are not told this. And Jesus’ power to act is not dependent on our faith, for none of us would ever have been saved. We have other biblical examples of where God foreordained repeated efforts to accomplish his desired result. Joshua was ordered to march around Jericho thirteen times in seven days before its walls came down. Elijah prayed seven times before the rain came down.

It is most reasonable, then, to understand that Jesus potentially heals the blind man in two stages to make a point. He spits on the man’s eyes and miraculously the man sees, but only partially. He exclaims, “I see people like trees walking around.” This tells us three things.

First, this was not some scene out of “The Lord of the Rings,” where you have these giant trees called “ents” walking around. No, this man knows what people look like, and he knows what trees look like. It suggests that he was not born blind, but that at one time, he must have had sight and somehow lost it.

Second, this partial restoration of the man’s sight is a miracle in and of itself. After all, can any of you spit on a blind man’s eyes and restore even partial sight to him? Of course not! But Jesus does not stop there. In John 4:34 he says, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” Jesus then places his hands on the man’s eyes, and when the man opens them, his sight is fully restored, and he can see everything clearly. Jesus always finishes what he starts.

Third, given the context of this miracle in Mark 8, this healing is an illustration of the disciples’ partial but increasing understanding of who Jesus is. Think of chapter 4, when Jesus calms the storm and gets into the boat. The disciples look at Jesus and say, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him.” In chapter 6, Jesus feeds the five thousand and walks on water and calms the storm. In verse 5 we read that the disciples were completely astounded. And in chapter 8 we find another surprising example of the disciples’ lack of understanding of who Jesus is. It comes right after Jesus feeds the four thousand. He and his disciples get into a boat to cross the lake. (GJB) The disciples have forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf. Even though they had twice witnessed Jesus feeding huge crowds of people, they still doubt whether Jesus could feed twelve of them. Clearly, they had not fully learned the lesson of who Jesus is.

From this we learn that it is possible to have seeing eyes yet not see clearly. Thus, everything in the gospel of Mark has been leading up to this point in Mark 8, and particularly verses 27 through 29 and Peter’s declaration that Jesus is the Christ. The problem is that, while Peter understands who Jesus is far better than do the Pharisees and the people of Bethsaida, he will make this confession as a man with half-sight, seeing Jesus as Messiah but not fully grasping the totality of what that means.

Just as this blind man’s vision was not immediately restored in one fell swoop, so too Peter’s and the other disciples’ understanding of who Jesus is needs a second touch. However, this miracle highlights the fact that they will not be left in that situation forever. Like the blind man, the disciples too will one day have full sight, and, too, our understanding of who Jesus is may need a second Holy-Spirit touch.

Jesus Heals Fully

Another lesson that can learned from this story can be observed in the question Jesus asks, “What do you see?” Bear in mind, Jesus never asks questions for which he does not already know the answer. He is God in the flesh. He knows all things, even the thoughts of people. Thus, he already knew what the man could see when he asked the question.

There are other examples of this in Scripture where God asks questions to which he already knew the answer. We recently read in our devotions that God asked Elijah, “What are you doing hiding up here on Mount Horeb?” Jesus earlier asked the disciples, “With what shall we feed the multitudes?” Later on he would ask Bartimaeus, “What do you want the Son of Man to do for you?” In Mark 8:27 Jesus will ask, “Who do people say that I am?”

Yes, Jesus knows, and he knows all things well. He who began a good work in you will perfect it. He is both the finisher as well as the author of our faith (Heb. 12:2). Verse 25 tells us that Jesus then put his hands on the man’s eyes, his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything very clearly.

The word “restored” means restored to a former state, which is another indication that probably this man had not been born blind. The Greek further indicates that the man saw and continued to see, and the word clearly connotes that he has 20-20 vision.

Jesus fully completes what he starts. He never does half a job, and that should be a great comfort to us, for there is no half-salvation. Philippians 1:6 says this: “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

The healing that this blind man experienced was, in a sense, a sneak preview of the future prepared for all of God’s people. When Jesus came the first time, he came to die and to rise, to remove us from the penalty and power of sin and its dominion, but not from its presence. When Jesus comes the second time, he will cause us to rise from our graves and will perfect us and remove us from the presence of sin, never to sin again. In between, our understanding of who Jesus is will grow and our faith will be deepened with each new touch of the Holy Spirit applying God’s word to us and as we walk in obedience to him. But to participate in this, you must be born again from above.

Three Eye Exams

We sing in the hymn, “Amazing Grace,” the words, “I once was blind but now I see.” This infers there is a spiritual blindness by which we mean that he who suffers from this affliction is incapable of discerning the moral and spiritual truths that are obvious to others who are born again by God the Holy Spirit. And the capacity which such a person lacks is something distinct from, although not independent of, mental perception.

In other words, a person must have the brains to understand a spiritual truth, but he first needs something more. He needs a capacity of soul, about which the apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2:14. There we read, “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.” And in 2 Corinthians 4:4 we read, “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel [that displays] the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” This faculty of soul comes only to men and women who have been regenerated by God the Holy Spirit.

Now there is a sense in our passage that Jesus is giving an eye exam to several sets of patients. The first patient is the city of Bethsaida. Recall that Jesus led the man out of that city. Why? Because of its unbelief. Bethsaida was the home of Andrew, Peter, and Philip. But remember what Jesus had said about no honor being given in your own hometown, among your own relatives and even in your own house. The people of Bethsaida were not impressed with Jesus or his disciples. After all, they knew their families, their upbringing, and their occupations. As the old proverb says, “Familiarity breeds contempt.”

Furthermore, the people of Bethsaida had either witnessed firsthand or heard of Jesus’ miracles. Many of them had been done in their vicinity. Do you remember the messianic passage Jesus read from Isaiah 61:1, when he was in the synagogue in Nazareth? It says in Luke 4:18–19, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And is not this just what Jesus is doing? The miracles, then, are a strong proof that Jesus is the long-awaited and prayed-for Messiah.

But the people of Bethsaida still refuse to repent and believe and submit themselves to Jesus as their Messiah and Lord. This is why Jesus condemned them. In Luke 10:13, he said, “Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon,” which, by the way, were two very wicked cities, “they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.” According to Jesus, the people of Bethsaida had seen enough and now stand condemned for their persistent unbelief. Jesus is walking away from them.

And Jesus has not changed. At some point, he still refuses to work among people who persist in rejecting his grace and lordship. It is a dangerous thing for anyone to continually reject the message of God and harden his or her heart in unbelief. Sooner or later, God stops talking to you.

So Jesus is giving Bethsaida an eye exam, and they failed the test. Hopefully this does not describe you. But if it does, then cry out to God for his mercy to grant you spiritual eyes to see Jesus for who he is.

The second patient is the priests and the Pharisees. These religious leaders saw the miracles Jesus did. But they too hardened their hearts in unbelief. They are like Korazin and Bethsaida too. Recall what happened right after Jesus had fed the four thousand. The Pharisees came and began to test him. They asked Jesus for a sign from heaven to attest to his person and his mission in life. But Jesus refuses to gratify their demand. After all, had he not just showed them a very significant sign in feeding such a large crowd? Was not that a miracle as great or greater than that done by Elijah, the man they recognized as a true prophet? Elijah was used of God to feed the poor widow of Zarephath. So long as Elijah was there, her jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry. And now here is Jesus feeding four thousand plus people, and the Pharisees ask for a sign for proof that he is the Messiah.

So these religious leaders flunked their eye exam. They are completely blind. And Jesus essentially says to them, “Truly no sign will be given to this generation. I have done enough.” Then he gets into a boat and leaves them.

The third patient is the disciples. En route to Bethsaida, just before the healing of the blind man, the disciples are engaged in a private discussion about their lack of food for their next meal. Mark 8:14 tells us they had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf. Tragically, they missed the point. Just as Jesus had fed two very large crowds, he is certainly more than able to feed his twelve disciples.

What did their eye exam show? They see, but they do not see very clearly. They know Jesus worked miracles, and they believe he is the Messiah. We know that because they will argue over what cabinet positions they will hold in Jesus’ administration when he takes over the government. The disciples could read the big letters but not the smaller ones. Scripture tells us their minds were dull, but Jesus patiently keeps explaining things to them in private, and the dimmer switch is getting brighter.

Consider the next incident in Mark. It is a parallel text to Matthew 16:15–16, which reads, “‘But what about you?’ Jesus asked. ‘Who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’” Peter and the disciples are like the widow at Zarephath who only partially understood who Elijah was when he lived with her son and her, and their daily food was being miraculously provided. She did not fully understand, though, until her dead son was raised from the dead. Only then did she say, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of God from your mouth is the truth.”

So, finally, the disciples began to see more clearly. They began to read not just the big letters on the chart, but also the medium letters and a few of the small ones as well. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

Now Jesus begins to tell them about his coming crucifixion and resurrection on the third day. However, as we shall see in coming weeks, it will only be after Jesus rises from the dead that the disciples will see clearly the whole picture of who Jesus is and what he came to accomplish in redemption history.

Friends, it is vitally important that we see Jesus and who he truly is. Let me give you some examples. Someone might say, “I believe Jesus is truly a son of God. He is the model of what we ought to be if we fulfill our true potential.” No, no, no. Jesus is the Christ. He is what we will never become. Truly, we will become like him in holiness when we reach heaven. But Jesus is God the Son, the third Person of the Trinity, not a mere model man. Our hope is not to attain his status nor his nature of being, but to enter a state in which we will fellowship with him face to face in full righteousness.

Another person might say, “I believe that Jesus is the Son of God who came to teach us how to love.” And that too is a half-truth. First John 4:9–10 tells us, “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” Yes, Jesus shows us love, but he shows it through his action of atoning for our sins. If we do not accept the message that we are sinners, needing to be redeemed for the guilt of our sins, we do not understand Jesus or his mission. If we do not place our hope of salvation in the saving work of Jesus alone on the cross, we do not really truly understand. We are yet blind.

Yet another might say, “I believe it is through Jesus that we are saved. He makes it possible for us to be saved. It is our job to cap on what he did, to finish it up.” Again, not so. Jesus did not come to make it possible for you and me to be saved. This is the hardest misconception to rid ourselves of. We want so desperately to have some role to play. We want to do something to complete the work that Jesus began. But this is heresy. Jesus came to save us. He paid it all, and all to him we owe. And we have got to see this clearly. Jesus alone saves, and he saves fully, without our help.

Now, there are professing Christians, perhaps some here today, who attend church and hear sermons, but who have never let Jesus pull them aside and truly touch them. So I ask you: Do you see clearly? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

Jesus Is Able

“Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them” (Heb. 7:25). It is the sole prerogative of God to heal spiritual blindness. He alone is Jehovah Rophe, the God who heals. What a transcendent comfort it is, that “in Christ all the fullness of Deity lives in bodily form” (Col. 2:9).

But if he is the Christ, the Son of the living God, then you need to deal with him personally. It is of greatest importance to you. Second Corinthians 4:3–4 reads, “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

Jesus is the God/man, and there is no limit to his power to give sight to the seriously blind. All his patients have been cured in the past and shall be fully cured in the future. And you will be one among them, friend, if you will but put your trust and faith in him. There is not a day to waste. This is God’s appointed time for salvation. It is the time to bow your knee and say, “You are Christ the Lord. Forgive me my sins and come rule over me.”

For the rest of us who know Christ, this two-stage healing acts as a parable giving us hope that, although we perceive Jesus now only dimly as in a mirror, we can grow in grace through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in this life  and that in the life to come, we shall see him face to face in all of his grace and glory, declaring with the blind man that we can see everything clearly. Amen.