Ep. 49: Healing a blind man

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MARK 8:22-26

Another miracle is recorded in these parts, also on a heathen. It was in Bethsaida that a blind man was brought to him, with the plea that he would touch him. Here, also, the Saviour took him aside, led him out of the village and ‘spat on his eyes and put his hands upon him.’ We mark the similarity of the means employed in both cases. We may here recall that the use of saliva was a well-known Jewish remedy for infections of the eyes.

We can understand how to Gentiles the Messiah of Israel would chiefly stand out as ‘the Son of David.’ It was the most universal form in which the great Jewish hope could be viewed by them. It provided a contrast to Israel’s present fallen state and it recalled the Golden Age of Israel’s past and the fulfilment of what to David had only been promises. We remember the leper who knelt before him only said, ‘Lord, if You want, You can make me clean’ and the two blind men, ‘have mercy on us, You Son of David.’

As regards the two blind men (and the healed leper also), it is almost impossible not to connect Jesus’ peculiar insistence on their silence with their advanced faith. They had owned Jesus as ‘the Son of David’ as One able to do all things, even to open by his touch the eyes of the blind. And it had been done to them, as it always is, according to their faith.

But a profession of faith must not be publicly proclaimed. It would and did bring to him crowds which, unable spiritually to understand the meaning of such a confession, would only embarrass and hinder. For confession must only be the result of faith. A worked-up Jewish crowd was not something encouraged by Jesus and no help to the progress of his Kingdom. Neither was a world that has no faith in his power, nor experience of his ability and willingness to cleanse the leper and to open the eyes of the blind. Yet the leprosy of Israel and the blindness of the Gentile world are equally removed by the touch of his hand at the cry of faith.

This is an extract from the book, Jesus : Life and Times, available for £10 here (Finalist for Academic Book of the year at 2023 CRT awards)