Year 2 Day 357

Year 2 Day 357


Pray (ACts)


Read - Mark 8:22-24


Message - Alan Burke 


If you are reading this devotion today, then it’s safe to say you have sight. It may not be twenty twenty vision, but you have sight to see and to read. Sight is one of those things that we often take for granted, recently I have in different homes sat with individuals who have  shared the challenges that they face with deteriorating vision. One individual expressed their frustration not only that they were loosing their sight but how little others understood of the impact it was having. Today we come to a passage where Jesus restores the sight of a blind man, it is not a promise to us that He will heal our deteriorating sight, but it does teach us that ‘Spiritual sight is a gift from God’ as this man is granted first partial sight (v22-24) and then full sight (v25-26). Jesus is the one who enables him to have Sight! But why was he Granted his sight in instalments?


Once more we are told of people who bring someone to Jesus and we are told that he was blind and they begged Jesus to touch him (22). This mans lack of sight would have impacted this man in so many ways that are unimaginable to many of us. He would have been unable to work, he would have been reliant on family, friends, those whom he knew, there was no such thing as brail, audio books, radio, and this man would have possibly had to turn to begging to survive (see also Mk 10:46). 


Not only that but among the Jews there was a belief that conditions like this were a judgement of God because either the sin of the individual or the sin of the parents (Jn 9:1-2), this is the question the disciples ask in John 9. So this man was a man who blind, who could not see, is brought by others to the only person who could help him, the only hope those who brought him, was in Jesus. They would have heard and known that Jesus had the power to heal, and so they bring him to the one whom they know has the power to work in him and they begged Jesus to touch him. In a sense by taking the man by the hand Jesus already did what they asked, but unlike Simon Peter’s mother in law in chapter one (v31) he took her bay the hand, helped her up and was healed by this simple touch it wasn’t the case for this man.


Here Jesus taking him by the hand is unlike that of what came before, he could have healed this man in that moment, even without touch by the power of His will from a distance, but he didn’t. Then he grants the man partial sight. Look at what we are told, Jesus spat on the mans eyes. Spittle, although could make one unclean, it was considered by some Jews to have healing properties, especially when it was accompanied by conversation, applied to the area of sickness or injury, and accompanied by a formula or prayer.


Then we are told that Jesus laid his hands on this mans eyes. The question of Jesus to this man is surprising, we see it there in v23, “do you see anything”. It seems more than a little strange doesn’t it, after all every other miracle it took place instantaneously, but here Jesus asks, and then when the answer comes and we read it there in v24, as the man looked up and said “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”. 


Yes the man was healed, he was granted partial sight, we might argue that he was only partially healed. On the other hand we might think that this man wasn’t healed at all, what use is seeing people and seeing them as trees. Here this healing required a second touch by Jesus, but then why are we being told this? Well it is this, spiritual sight is a gift from God and spiritual maturity is never instantaneous. None of us will see unless God works to give us sight by His Spirit within us, and when we have been given spiritual sight it grows as we see to know our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ more and more. So believer this day, know that you have spiritual sight because God has given it to you, and seek to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Pet 3:18) knowing one day when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is (1 Jn 3:2).


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q1 What is the chief end of man?
Man’ s chief end is to glorify God, (1 Cor. 10:31, Rom. 11:36) and to enjoy him for ever. (Ps. 73:25–28)
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