THE LIFE OF CHRIST - THE MINISTRY OF WITHDRAWALS

Fourth Withdrawal

-In Bethsaida - A Blind Man Is Healed

-Mark 8:22-26

-With this account, as with many others, there are some details that we simply are not supplied with.

            -Why did Jesus take this man out of town?  We aren’t told.  Perhaps it was to minimize the frenzy

              that would result amongst the people if they witnessed the miraculous healing of this man.

            -Why did Jesus spit upon the eyes of the man?  We are not told.

-Those details are not important to the passage.  What is important is that Jesus, in His compassion,

  healed another person.

-Initially, the man indicated that he had recovered some sight but men looked as trees - his sight was

  not yet fully restored.

            -“He could see men walking, but indistinctly.  This shows he was not born blind, or he would not

              have known how trees appear as distinguished from men…The second touch of the hand of Jesus

              completed his restoration.  Jesus adopted this method of cure to give variety to the manifestations

              of his power by showing that he could heal in part and by progressive steps, as well as by his more

              usual method of effecting a perfect cure at one word” (Dorris, pg 193).

-Jesus instructed the man not to even enter into the village.

            -As we’ll see, Jesus wanted to have some privacy in order to teach the apostles some valuable

              lessons during this fourth and final withdrawal.

            -If this man, once blind but now seeing, entered back into the village more attention would once

              again be brought to Jesus and any privacy hoped for would be gone.