The Focus of a Blind Man
Somethings in the Scripture make me wonder what I am missing. I know that there has to be more to the story. It is not there by accident. The story of the blind man that Jesus healed in Bethsaida (Mark 8:22 – 26) held one of those moments.
It took Jesus two times to heal the man. Why? It had to be more than the man was REALLY blind. Just one chapter before that is the story of the man that was deaf and mute. That only took one round to fix.
There had to be more to the story, but I was missing it.
My morning reading took me through Chapter 8 of Mark. It started with the second feeding of a multitude – this time only 4000 were fed with seven loaves and seven baskets were taken up. Jesus and the disciples leave, come to Dalmanutha, encounter the Pharisees who demand a sign. Jesus and the disciples get into the boat and begin to cross to the other side.
The disciples start worrying about food. Remember, they just experienced the SECOND miracle of the masses being fed. Now they were worried that they only had one loaf with them.
Jesus is meditating on the encounter with the Pharisees – the learned men that are supposed to get it. “Beware the leaven of the Pharisees.” He warns the disciples.
“It is because we don’t have bread.” The disciples are still focused on food.
“You think this is about food? Really? Were you not there when the 5000 were fed or the 4000 thousand? Come on guys. How do you not get it?”
The very next thing that occurs is the encounter with the blind man. Jesus touches the eyes of the blind man and asks him, “what do you see?”
“I see men as trees.”
Jesus touches his eyes the second time and makes the man look up. It is then that the man is restored and his focus if fine.
The disciples were focused on food and on their physical needs. Jesus was ever focused on the spirit. The disciples heard from the place of their focus.
The encounter and healing of the blind man is a reminder that the key is focus. Look up and get that mindset of the spirit and you will have the focus you need to hear.
