Gradually Restored Sight

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A number of years ago now, actually many years ago, Reader's Digest did a series of articles on the human body. In one of the articles they explained the wonders of the human eye; and certainly the human eye is clearly one of God's most amazing inventions. With all of our technology, no camera has ever been invented that is nearly as sophisticated or sensitive.

The front of your eye has the world's most sophisticated lens. It's a tiny envelop of fluid surrounded by a ring of tiny, but extraordinarily strong muscles. For their size they are the strongest muscles in your body. They move about a hundred thousand times a day. Just to put that in perspective, if you wanted to give your leg muscles the same sort of workout you would have to walk 50 miles a day.

When those little muscles on each side of the lens tense, the lens grows thicker for near vision. When they relax the lens flattens to allow you to see at a distance. But the most amazing part of the eye really isn't the lens, it's the retina. It's a kind of onion skin wallpaper on the inside back of the eye that is filled with nerves, and nowhere except the brain is more information handled in such a small area. The retina covers less than a square inch, but it contains 137 million light sensitive receptor cells. When the lens that's in the front of your eye receives light, it brings that light into correct focus and projects the image onto the retina in the back of your eye. The retina generates a tiny whisk of electricity, a few millionth of a single volt, not enough to tickle a mosquito.

Those electrical charges are transmitted to your brain through the optical nerve, about the size of a straw; and those electrical impulses from your retina to your brain are traveling at 300 miles an hour. The brain then interprets that data, and from the moment the light hits the lens of your eye, until your brain has properly interpreted the data that it's given, it all happens in about 2/100 of a second – and we just take all of that for granted. It happens hundreds of thousands of times every week throughout our life.

But when the miracle that is the human eye doesn't work, it is literally catastrophic because 80% of what a sighted person learns comes from his eyes. So blindness is and always has been a very serious matter.

Tonight, we come for the first time to meet a blind man in Mark's gospel. Let me read it for you, Mark 8, beginning in verse 22.

And they came to Bethsaida. And they brought a blind man to Jesus and implored Him to touch him. Taking the blind man by the hand, He brought him out of the village; and after spitting on his eyes and laying His hands on him, He asked him, "Do you see anything?" And he looked up and said, "I see men, for I see them like trees, walking around." Then again He laid His hands on his eyes, and he looked intently and was restored, and began to see everything clearly. And He sent him to his home, saying, "Do not even enter the village."

That's a remarkable story for a number of reasons, but the main reason is, this is the only time in all of the gospel record when Jesus didn't heal someone instantly and completely. As you would expect, there must be a very good reason why Jesus didn't heal this man's blindness in the same way that He had healed so many other physical maladies, and there is a good reason. Jesus taught His disciples and us a very crucial lesson through His only gradual miracle; but that lesson will only become clear to us once we've worked our way through this entire passage, so let's do that together.

It begins with the simple circumstances of the miracle; verse 22, "And they came to Bethsaida." Bethsaida, this is the northwest corner of the Sea of Galilee or the lake of Galilee, you can see Capernaum there in the middle of the screen, and where the red circle is just to its right is Bethsaida. The Jordan River enters the north side of the lake, between Capernaum and Bethsaida, so that gives you some orientation. It flows in the north and flows out the south, and that's where Bethsaida is. That's the plain of Bethsaida, kind of the whole area and again gives you some close up of what that area's like.

Here is the area that's been excavated, where the city was, that we're talking about tonight. You can see in the middle of that picture some rocks in a row, that's part of excavation work. Here's a little closer. I won't bore you with all the details, but this is a fascinating house to me. t This is actually a house. It's a house where there were fishing implements found, and obviously there were four walls, and the walls were covered with plaster and all of that. But you just sort of have to understand this is archeology; and this house was about 4,300 square feet. About a third of it was taken up with a central courtyard in the middle and that was very common in the ancient world; that's where the life of the family went on in that open central courtyard surrounded by the living quarters and all the other rooms that were part of the house.

Now, when we talk about Bethsaida, the name means "house of fishermen" or "house of the hunter"; there were both birds and fish that that area was known for, we don't know which of those names it implies, but there were three of the apostles from this community. In John 1 we hear that Philip was from Bethsaida, the same city as Andrew and Peter. Peter had moved apparently, from Bethsaida to Capernaum, and had a home there, we've talked about that in the past; but he was from the city of Bethsaida.

Philip, apparently, according to John 12, we would gather that maybe he still had a home there, still lived there; so it is very possible that Philip here is going home as he goes with the disciples and Jesus back here. There was probably (right next to the lake) a harbor and a small fishing village. And then Herod Philip built up on the hill a slight distance away that picture I just showed you a moment ago, the actual city itself. There's a Roman aqueduct they found and a Roman road that connects the two; so, it was sort of the suburbs, if you will, of the main city.

Mark says though, they came into the city of Bethsaida. So why were Jesus and His disciples in this town? Just a reminder, Jesus had been ministering for some time in Decapolis, the area to the east of the lake of Galilee, Gentile area. And then He had left and gotten in a boat and gone with His disciples to an area on the other side called Dalmanutha. And there's where He had the confrontation with the Pharisees, you'll remember; when they wanted a sign in heaven and Jesus very pointedly told them there would be no such sign. He left Dalmanutha and went up to Bethsaida, so that's where He has been and where He's come to Bethsaida. He's here in Bethsaida for two reasons. One of them is to get provisions.

You remember back in 8:14? They'd gotten in the boat but forgotten to take bread, so there was only one loaf in the boat. So, they go to a city, to get provisions for their trip. But there's another reason, and that's because of where they're going. The next story, the next account in Mark's gospel, takes us in verse 27, to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; that's where that is. There was a road from Bethsaida up to Caesarea Philippi, and so it made perfect sense. Jesus wanted to get the disciples to Caesarea Philippi, to go through Bethsaida, to get provisions on their way through town. This is the route they would have traveled.

So, Jesus and His disciples are simply traveling through this capital city of Herod Philip's area on their way to Caesarea Philippi. And on the way they make a stop for some food and some other provisions for the journey. But God in His providence has an encounter there arranged for Jesus. And that brings us to the second part of the flow of the story, and that is the desperate faith of a blind man and his friends – the desperate faith of a blind man and his friends.

Look at verse 22 again: "… they come to Bethsaida. And they brought a blind man to Jesus and implored Him to touch him." This is the first time in Mark we actually witness Jesus healing a blind person, specifically described in detail. The second one will be in Mark 10. But notice, "they brought."

You know there are so many nameless people in the gospels that I can't wait some day to meet; people who are so worthy of respect, who were devoted to their friends, devoted to Christ, and who were nameless in the story, but they're not nameless to God, and someday we'll have the chance to meet them.

Bethsaida was a mixed town of both Jews and Gentiles, but after Philip had brought the Roman influence in, it's likely that these were Gentiles. Regardless, though, this blind man had good friends who loved him, and these friends (and this is key), these friends really believed that Jesus could heal him. So, they brought him to Jesus, and they implored, they begged Jesus, to touch him. They knew that was Jesus' usual method; I won't take you back through Mark, but over and over again we're told Jesus touches and heals. And so, they knew this, somehow; we're not told how, but they knew this about Jesus; and maybe they were one of those who came over and witnessed all that He was doing in Galilee; maybe they had friends who did; maybe they heard about it through Philip's family, or part of Peter and Andrew's family still there in Bethsaida; we don't know. But they knew Jesus could heal him.

By the way, as an aside, in these friends of this blind man, we find a biblical argument, a biblical apologetic, for praying for the physical needs of others. They were concerned this man be healed, and they brought him to Jesus and begged Jesus to heal him. We do the same thing, don't we?

The clear implication of this, is that they were not skeptical about Christ. They had faith in Jesus. If Jesus would act their friend would be healed. It's equally clear, by the way, that the blind man apparently had faith as well. He allowed himself to be led by his friends to Jesus. And they're all fully confident that Jesus can heal the blindness.

Notice the man himself is simply called "a blind man." We're told very little about this man, but it's likely that he was not born blind, but had become blind many years before, perhaps as a child. How do we know that? Well, there are a couple of little clues; one is when he's first enabled to see, he knows what trees look like, and he knows that trees resemble men. That implies that he'd had full vision at one point. Also down in verse 25, the Greek word that's translated "restored," implies that perhaps he'd had vision before, but we can't be sure.

The most common causes of blindness in the ancient world were various diseases from which there were no treatment, there was no cure. But regardless of how it happened, this man was totally blind. And folks that is hard in any era, but being blind in the first century was a truly desperate plight.

Now, there was some provision God had made. The Old Testament law required that blind people not be taken advantage of. For example, Leviticus 19:14, "You shall not curse a deaf man, nor place a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall revere [or fear] your God; I am the Lord." God said if you fear Me, you're not going to take advantage for your own sport, of those who have disabilities. In Deuteronomy 27:18, "Cursed is he who misleads a blind person on the road." And all the people shall say, 'Amen.'"

So, God had looked out for those who had this severe disability. Practically, however, in the first century, there were very few tasks that a blind person could do to support himself and his family. So most blind people in the first century were reduced to a life of begging. In fact, in the next story about blindness in Mark 10, we meet a man named Bartimaeus who is called a "blind beggar." And Bartimaeus sat outside the city of Jericho, crying out to the pilgrims who were going to Jerusalem for help.

So, it was a hard life, a very, very difficult life. None of the resources that are available today, as hard as it is to be blind today, it was so much harder then; and there was an even darker side to blindness in the first century.

There were several Old Testament texts that the rabbis had misunderstood and misinterpreted. Here are a couple of them: Exodus 4:11, "The LORD said to … [Moses], 'Who has made man's mouth? … who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?'"

Now that is absolutely true; the Lord takes full responsibility for those things; but they combined it with some other verses, like Deuteronomy 28:28, "The LORD will smite you with madness …" [if you disobey Him,] "… and with blindness and with bewilderment of heart."

Second Kings 6:18, "When they came down to him, Elisha prayed to the LORD and said, 'Strike this people with blindness, I pray.'" [It was a judgment.] "So He struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha."

From these texts and others, the rabbis concluded that (and here's the key) all blindness was a divine judgment for sin. So, not only was their life an impossibility to earn a living to support themselves apart from begging, but they were looked upon as evil and wicked; they were cut off from society; they were assumed to be the worst of people because God had brought this malady upon them. This is what the rabbis taught, and this idea was so pervasive, that everyone assumed it to be true.

Look at John 9. It even influenced the disciples. John 9:1, "As … [Jesus] passed by, He saw a man blind from birth." Now watch the disciples' immediate response: "… [the] disciples asked Him," verse 2, "Rabbi, who sinned …" Obviously, somebody sinned; the question is, who? This man wouldn't be blind if somebody hadn't sinned. Was it he who sinned or his parents? This was what they bought into. But Jesus didn't agree with this sort of retribution theology; instead, look at His response, verse 3, "It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him." It's part of a great, divine plan. We'll meet this blind man in heaven. God had a purpose in it.

So, because of Jesus' perspective (the biblical perspective), He had a real compassion for the blind. There are a number of texts; I won't take you through all of those, but let me just give you a couple of examples. Matthew 15:30, "… large crowds came to Him, bringing with them those who were lame, [and] crippled, blind, mute, and many others, and they laid them down at His feet; and He healed them."

Matthew 21:14, "And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them." Luke 7:21, "At that very time He cured many people of diseases and afflictions and evil spirits; and He gave sight to many who were blind."

So, Jesus had a true tender heart of compassion for these people, who in the first century were outcasts, looked upon as horrible sinners because they couldn't see. So, here we have a desperate blind man and his friends, believing that Jesus can heal. So, the simple circumstances of the miracle there in Bethsaida; passing through; the desperate faith of the blind man and his friends we've seen together. That brings us to the third part of the flow of the story, and that is the first stage of healing – the first stage of healing. Look at verse 23, "Taking the blind man by the hand, He brought him out of the village…."

"Taking the blind man by the hand…"; I love that. Jesus here, establishes intimate, personal contact with this man by touch, and for a blind person, the most sensitive sense that he has is touch. Again, in this very simple gesture, as we did with the person you remember, who was deaf and mute, we see the heart, the tender heart of Jesus. I want you to, as my father-in-law used to say, many times to us in class, "Put on your sanctified imagination for a moment, and see what this would have been like."

They're in the midst of the crowded city of Bethsaida, perhaps in the marketplace or somewhere nearby. The friends recognize this is the Teacher, this is the One. They go and get their blind friend who's probably begging in the marketplace, and they bring him, they lead him by the hand to Jesus, and they find Jesus while He and the disciples are gaining their provisions for the rest of their trip, and they beg Jesus to heal him.

Jesus drops what He's doing. He drops the business of the moment, the trip that lies before them, and He reaches out to this man in a very tender way. He doesn't say to this man's friends, "Listen, let's get out of the city; bring him here. Bring him, and let's go outside the city." Instead, Jesus Himself grabs this man's hand, and becomes his personal guide, helping him. If you've ever been in an ancient city like this, the streets were not smooth; they were uneven, and the stones would stand out; and there would be stones missing; and there would be other hazards to avoid. And so, Jesus takes this man and his friends; and He grabs his hands; and He helps him avoid all the dangers for a blind person in a city built with rough stone pavement. He leads him around this obstacle, and He warns him about that stone that might have tripped him; and He steadies him when he trips or stumbles.

I love what Kent Hughes says, "This man was one of the most honored men who ever lived. Jesus, God incarnate, was leading him by the hand." And He brought him out of the village. Possibly Jesus took him out of the village for two reasons. It might have been for His own sake, that is Jesus and His disciples' sake. Jesus wants to respond to the faith of this man and his friends, but He doesn't want to make a huge scene in this brief journey through Bethsaida. And all of a sudden it becomes a major healing ministry. He's on the way to Caesarea Philipp; He's got something He wants to do with His disciples that's crucial for His mission on earth.

That could be the reason, but in light of what we learned back when we looked at the deaf mute, and Jesus lead that person out of the crowd, I think there's a more likely reason they went out of the village; I think it was for the sake of the man. Jesus took him away from the noise of the city to a quiet place, away from the gawkers to a private place. Jesus is treating this man with the dignity of one made in the image of God.

When they get outside the city, verse 23 says, Jesus begins to minister to him. "… and after spitting on his eyes and laying His hands on him, He asked him, 'Do you see anything?'"

Now, there are a couple of things to note here, one is, I love the fact that Jesus dealt with every person individually. As William Hendrickson said, "His heart went out to the needy ones, not just in general, but to each one in particular, so that His treatment of a case was never a mere duplication of what had done before." Jesus never treated a blind person the same as He treated another; and here, this man gets special treatment.

It's also very important that you don't misunderstand what Jesus does here. This is not some kind of hocus pocus, this is not some sort of magical cure; the power was not in Jesus' spittle. This is a way, as He did with the deaf mute, to communicate with this blind man. It's an acted-out parable; and the one point was, to draw the man's attention to what Jesus was about to do. By spitting in his eyes, He was telling this man, "Something is about to happen to you, and it has to do with your eyes, and I will be the One who does it."

And after He had spit on his eyes, He laid His hands on them. He laid His hands on him, it says, verse 25 tells us where He laid His hands, notice, "Then again He laid His hands on his eyes …" So after He spit on his eyes, He put His hands on this man's eyes. To us, human spittle and the rough touch of a carpenter's hands may seem a little unseemly, even gross, but to this man, it was the most exciting moment of his life. He had been brought to the Teacher that he and his friends believed could heal him. The Teacher Himself has grabbed his hands, taken him outside the city, and there in the quiet He has begun to act out a parable to him, to say, "I'm going to intervene."

He soon expected to be able to see again. After Jesus had spit on his eyes and touched them, He really does something even stranger. Notice what He does, back in Mark 8, He finishes verse 23 by saying, and, "He asked him, 'Do you see anything?'"

Now does that statement strike you as strange? It should. Because to this point in the gospel of Mark, we expect only one result when Jesus acts – what is it? Immediate, instantaneous healing. And Jesus doesn't ask, "Are you better?" He's never asked, "Are you better?" He says, "Get up and walk." He says, "Take your pallet and go home." But here He says, "Can you see?" It's clear from that question that Jesus knew the healing would only be partial.

Verse 24, the man's response, "… he looked up and said, 'I see men, for I see them like trees, walking around.'" As Jesus was spitting on this man's eyes and touching them, of course the man closed his eyes in response; and now he opens his eyes and looks out to see what he can see, to see if he has vision. And he can see, but it wasn't complete healing. He describes what he saw in a very picturesque way; he said, "I see men." In other words, "My eyes see what I know to be men, but they look like trees walking around." His eyes were at this moment, for the first time in many years, capturing light and dark and motion. He saw indistinct forms of the apostles, and his friends, and perhaps others coming and going from the city, but he could not clearly focus. He could not see them distinctly.

That brings us to the second stage of healing. Look at verse 25, "Then again … [Jesus] laid His hands on his eyes; and he looked intently and was restored, and began to see everything clearly." Now the man could see. The first time his eye sight was not yet completely cured; Jesus touches his eyes a second time, this time he looks intently, literally the Greek text says, "he looked through." It's like the focusing of the eyes in such a penetrating way to see what he can see with a laser gaze that sort of looks right through you, and he realizes his eyesight has been restored. And the second time he saw everything clearly. In fact, the Greek word for "clearly" is a very interesting word, it's a compound word, two words put together; the first part of the word is "tela", from which we get the word "television." The word means "distant" or "far." The word television simply means "vision of something that's distant or afar"; you're seeing a signal that didn't generate in your home.

The second half of the word means "radiant." So, literally, Mark says this: "He continued to see at a distance, radiantly." He could even make out things clearly at a distance; to put it in the vernacular, he had "20-20 vision." He could see everything perfectly, both near and far. He's healed. This is what we expect from Jesus when He acts.

The fifth part of the flow of the story comes in verse 26. "And He sent him to his home, saying, 'Do not even enter the village.'" Apparently this man didn't live inside the city proper, because Christ tells him to return to his home without entering the village or the city, depending on which is implied by that word. Why? Well, one reason would be to buy time for Jesus and His disciples to finish getting their provisions and to head on their journey up to Caesarea Philippi, before this miracle becomes known and He's flooded with others. Here was a man and his friends with genuine faith in Him who were looking out to Him and by a divine encounter came face to face with His healing power.

I think the other reason may have been, Jesus may have been allowing him to go first and tell his family and those he loved. Can you imagine what it was like, when this man who had been blind for many years showed up at his home, maybe he was a husband, maybe a father, maybe not; maybe his elderly parents were there, a brother, a sister. But can you imagine when he arrived home, and he could see?

Now, that's the story, as it unfolds. The question is, what does it mean? I want to look finally in the rest of our time together at Jesus' lessons from this miracle for all of His disciples, meaning for the twelve that were with Him then and for you and for me as well. There's a lesson here for us all.

Now, as we begin to look at this, let me remind you again, that this is the only miracle in all of the gospels in which the result is not immediate and complete. When Jesus touches somebody, it's instant healing. When He speaks to them, the dead are raised to life. When He merely thinks something, a dead girl is raised to life. Clearly, Jesus had that same kind of immediate healing power when it came to blindness; in fact, turn over to Mark 10. I mentioned Bartimaeus; look at how the story of blind Bartimaeus ends, verse 51 of Mark 10. Jesus said,

"What do you want Me to do for you?" … the blind man said to Him, "Rabboni, I want to regain my sight!" … Jesus said to him, "Go; your faith has made you well." Immediately he … [received] his sight and began following Him on the road.

So, Jesus had the power to heal blindness completely and instantly with a word or a touch. And this is the only time we have a record of Jesus healing this way. So, He obviously had a reason for doing it gradually. It was obviously intended to provide a spiritual lesson, either for the man, or for Jesus' disciples.

Some argue it must have been for the man. The man had a weak faith, and Jesus wanted to strengthen his faith with each stage. That's possible, but there's absolutely no indication of that in the text.

So, what lessons was Jesus trying to teach and to whom? It has to do with spiritual blindness and sight, but how? This, (and this is another key part of it) this is only one of two miracles that Mark alone records. In other words, you won't find this miracle in any of the other gospels, and there are only two of the miracles Mark records that are like that. So, why does Mark choose to include it? He must have a reason for including it in his gospel record. The key has got to be in the context. It must fit the context of what Mark is trying to communicate.

As D. Edmond Hiebert writes, "The fact that the miracle occurs following clear instances of the spiritual dullness of the disciples, is suggestive of an intended lesson for them." This isn't about the blind man; certainly Jesus in compassion healed him and intended to. But He did it in such a way as to provide a powerful spiritual lesson to the disciples. I have to agree with Hiebert; that is exactly the same conclusion to which I came. There is a spiritual lesson in how Jesus heals this man for His disciples and for us.

Now, let's see if we can put it together. You remember the first time in this book Jesus used the image of sight and blindness with His disciples? Go back to chapter 4. Jesus is giving parables, and in the midst of giving parables He quotes the prophet Isaiah; verse 11,

… He was saying to [His disciples], "To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom, …" [As Matthew says,] "To you has been granted to understand the mysteries of the kingdom …" "… but to those who are outside [they] get everything in parables, so that WHILE SEEING, THEY MAY NOT … [SEE] AND [MAY] NOT PERCEIVE, AND WHILE HEARING, THEY MAY HEAR AND NOT UNDERSTAND, OTHERWISE THEY MIGHT RETURN AND BE FORGIVEN."

So, here you have spiritual sight and spiritual blindness. Spiritual blindness is everybody outside, everybody who isn't a true follower of Jesus Christ. They are spiritually blind, to them it has not been given to understand. But to the disciples, it has been sovereignly, as an act of grace, permitted, given to them, granted to them to understand. They, now that they are disciples, have spiritual sight. In chapter 4, the verse I just looked at, Jesus' point is that His disciples had been sovereignly given eyes to see and understand the truth of God.

But compare that with the passage we saw last week. Look at Mark 8, Mark 8:17. Remember, they misunderstand the whole comment about leaven? They think Jesus is talking about bread. They don't understand yet that He's more than capable of taking care of their needs. So, He says to them, verse 17, … "Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet see or understand? Do you have a hardened heart? HAVING EYES, DO YOU NOT SEE?"

Jesus is saying to them, that although they have been given eyes to see God's truth, they don't yet see everything clearly. In certain areas they're acting like they're still spiritually what? Blind. Everything is not clear. Then in the very next passage Jesus gradually brings sight to a man who is physically blind. Connect the dots; but if you can't yet see where it's going, in the passage that follows this miracle, it becomes clear that the disciples are beginning to have more spiritual sight. Look at verse 27; they go to Caesarea Philippi, He asks them,

"So … "Who do people say that I am?" [They said, some say,] "John the Baptist; and others say Elijah; but others, one of the prophets.' … He continued by questioning them, 'But who do you say that I am?' Peter answered and said … 'You are the Christ.'" [Christos; You are the Messiah.]

And Matthew adds, "You are the Christos, the Messiah, the Son of the living God." So, they're starting to see, and yet, their vision still isn't perfect. Their vision of Christ, and why He came is far from perfect, because look at verse 31 of the same chapter:

… He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And He was stating the matter plainly. … Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. … turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter … [saying], "Get behind Me Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's."

Man's interests. What's going on here? They see, but their vision is far from perfect of why Jesus came and what He's going to do. It won't be until after the resurrection that the vision of the Apostles will become 20-20.

So, what do we learn about how this miracle fits into the flow of Mark's gospel? What are the spiritual lessons Jesus is teaching His disciples and us through this gradual healing, through gradually restoring this man's sight? I think there are three rich spiritual lessons.

The first is this: only Christ can heal spiritual blindness.

It's interesting, the prophet Isaiah (prophesying of the Messiah's coming), said that He would give sight to the blind. Jesus quotes that passage when He's in Nazareth; you remember this? Turn to Luke 4; Luke 4. You remember Jesus reads this passage in the synagogue in Nazareth? Look at verse 18; let's start at verse 17. Jesus comes to the synagogue on the Sabbath, He stands up to read, "… the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written…." So here He finds a passage from Isaiah, intentionally.

The Spirit of the LORD … is upon Me…" [This is Isaiah 61:1], 1 and following, "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because … [He] … anointed me To … [preach the gospel to the poor.] He … sent Me To proclaim … [release to the captives … recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the [acceptable or] favorable year of the Lord.]

What's going on here? Jesus reads that text, and then he says, He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, sat down, everybody's looking, and He says, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." "I am the fulfillment of that passage. I have come to release the prisoners, to heal the blind, to set free those who are oppressed." What does that mean? He's talking about spiritual blindness. "I came to proclaim the gospel, and it's a message that proclaims spiritual sight for those who are spiritually blind." Messiah, the suffering Servant, came to give sight to the spiritually blind; and only He can do it.

Listen, I have no doubt, tragically, sadly, that there are people sitting here tonight, under the sound of my voice, who are spiritually blind. The truth of God doesn't matter to you, in fact perhaps you find the whole thing quite boring; you'd rather be somewhere else doing something else. You are spiritually blind; you can't see. Only Christ can touch you and give you spiritual sight, and the only way you will ever get it is by doing what this blind man and his friends did, by coming to Christ, falling down before Him, and begging Him to give you spiritual sight. Only Christ can do it. I can't do it; your spouse can't do it; your parents can't do it; only Jesus Christ can open your eyes to see.

There's another lesson here, and that is wonderful news. Our spiritual blindness can be cured in a moment. With the first stage of the healing of this man, the man's eyes became able to see; verse 24 says he gained sight, "I see men…." He went from blindness to being able to see, his eyes being opened. And that happens when the Spirit of God brings life, when He turns on the light. I love that passage from Corinthians where Paul says, it's what happens in regeneration, what happens when God gives new life, is exactly like what happened when He created everything. God, when He created light originally said, "Let there be light." And there was light.

That's exactly what God does in the human heart, when the gospel is in that heart and God is calling and drawing that person through the gospel, God says, "Let there be light," and the light comes on, and you can see. If you're here tonight, and you're spiritually blind, listen, you plead with Jesus Christ and He, in a moment, will give you spiritual sight to see how wonderful He is, and how dreadful the things you've been pursuing are.

But there's another point, I think it's the major point of this passage; perfectly clear spiritual vision and then sight, happened gradually. Notice verse 24, "I see … like trees, walking around." Verse 25, "… he began to see everything clearly." This man's physical eyes, and what Jesus did in healing them, are a kind of parable with what happens with our spiritual sight, what happened with the disciples' spiritual sight. As another commentator writes, "The juxtaposition of the two stories …" of the disciples' blindness in the previous story and this man's gradual healing, "… is a clue that the lingering blindness of the disciples may also be relieved by the continued touch of Jesus."

In a moment, at salvation, we are granted the privilege of seeing; our spiritual eyes are opened. We were blind, and in a moment's time we can see where we couldn't see before, but our spiritual sight is still imperfect; our spiritual eyesight grows gradually. This is very encouraging, actually. Perhaps you know that you once were blind, but now you see. But you still (spiritually speaking), see men like trees walking. It's just not clear; everything hasn't come together. You don't see in it how it all fits together and what God is doing in your life and in the world at large, and it seems so slow. Your understanding is clouded.

Listen, Christian, don't be discouraged by that. Don't be content with that but don't be discouraged by that. It's okay, it's a process, and here's the really good news, just like with this man Jesus always finishes what He starts. He didn't leave this man with half-vision. He made his vision perfect. By the time Jesus was done with this man he had 20-20 vision; and He'll do the same with us.

When we came to faith in Christ, at that moment we were given spiritual sight, but that doesn't mean (like the disciples), that our vision was perfect; that we saw everything clearly; that we understood that it all worked together. No – Jesus instead continues to touch our eyes, as it were, and to give us increasing spiritual sight. You say, "How does that happen? How does He gradually improve our spiritual sight?" He does so through His Word, and through the aid of His Spirit as we come to understand the Truth He's revealed.

As we sit in services like this one, the one this morning, or your Sunday School class; or you hear a message on the radio; or you read a good book; and your understanding grows; your spiritual sight is strengthened. You see the truth about Him and the truth about His life, the truth about His death; the truth about what He's done for you; the truth about what's yet to come, and it all begins to fit together. And suddenly you not only see what's close at hand; you not only see that your sins have been forgiven and that you belong to God; but you begin to see at a greater distance God's plan in the world and what He's accomplishing; and all of a sudden you realize life isn't just about me, and my salvation isn't just about me, there's more; God's got this great sweeping plan, and I'm supposed to be a part of that; to use my gifts in my home and in my church, and around the world, for the kingdom.

That's what happened to the disciples. That's what happened to this man. And it's the same process that happens in the life of every Christian. Take heart. Be encouraged. If you're in Christ, you'll still get your 20-20 vision. Hang in there. Keep in the Word, keep depending on the Spirit, and continue to use the means that God has given for our spiritual growth.

Let's pray together.

Father, thank You for this amazing story, such an incredible parable. It was to the disciples at the time and Father, it is to us today as well. Lord, we feel for this man who was physically blind, and yet we rejoice in the power Christ showed in physically healing him in stages. Not because He couldn't heal him all at once, but as a lesson to us, to show us that like the disciples, our spiritual sight comes with conversion, but yet it's still blurry, still not clear.

Thank You, Father, that through Your Word, and through Your Spirit, through the resources You've put into our lives, You keep correcting our spiritual vision, until, like this man, we see clearly. Father, help us to be diligent.

And I pray Father, for the person here tonight who is spiritually blind, still in his or her sins, unable to see the disgusting nature of their own life as You see it, and unable to see the beauty of Christ. Father, may You be gracious; may that person leave here tonight, go to their home and find a quiet place, and do what this desperate blind man and His friends did, and that is plead with Jesus Christ to give him or her sight.

I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.