Mark 8:22-26

HEALING THE BLIND MAN

Mark 8:22-26. “And He comes into Bethsaida [i.e., it is Bethsaida Julias, as He did not sail toward the other Bethsaida, the birthplace of Peter, Andrew, and Philip]; and they bring to Him a blind man, and entreat Him that He may touch him. Taking the blind man by the hand, He led him off out of the village; spitting in his eyes, putting His hands on him, He asked him if he sees anything. And looking up, he continued to say, I see men like trees walking around. Then again He placed His hands on his eyes, and made him look up; and he was restored, and saw all men distinctly. And He sent him to his house, saying, Go not into the village, nor tell any one.” I find the inspired writers call this Bethsaida a “village,” and the other a city. There evidently is some unrevealed reason why Jesus led this blind man off out of the village in order to heal him, and admonished him not to go back into it. The latent idea of Divine retribution seems to linger in the narrative, our Lord doubtless having some unrevealed reason for not permitting them to witness His mighty work. The spittle used here, and the clay in Jerusalem in another case, were evidently to attract the attention of the blind men to the afflicted organism, at that moment receiving the Omnific touch. Here we have an irrefutable argument in favor of the two distinct works of grace, wrought in the restoration of spiritual eyesight. The sinner walks in Satan's rayless midnight, like this man, without a solitary gleam of the day. In regeneration, the day dawns, and, to our infinite rapture, glows and broadens all around. O what a wonderful blessing is regeneration! Out of darkness into light which we never saw before! While the transition is unutterably glorious, causing us to leap for joy, yet it is a significant fact, amid this glorious world of life into which this new birth brings us, that cloudy streaks and segments hang about and belt around, and we are soon cognizant to the fact that we do not see all things distinctly. Fifty years ago I passed out of darkness into light; but nineteen years rolled away before I received distinct vision, and walked beneath a cloudless sky, with no shadows hanging round. During this interval, I saw men like trees walking. In my early boyhood becoming a preacher and a circuit rider, my presiding elder and bishop, the collegiate president, the doctor, the colonel, and even the captain, and especially the rich people, were great, tall trees, bending over me, ready to fall on me, and crush me into smithereens. When the Lord gloriously sanctified me, thirty- one years ago, I immediately saw that they were not trees at all, but only men, fallible like myself, my friends and sympathizers, ready to help me rather than brain me with the club of ridicule and criticism. O it is blessed and ineffably glorious to see all things distinctly! If you are not there, fly to Jesus at once, and receive the second touch.