Waiting For the Final Healing: Daily Thoughts from Mark (Mark 8:22-26)

Many of us, no, I guess I should say all of us, have experienced a partial healing from God.  All of us who are born again, that is.  We have been restored to relationship with God, but there are still the seeds of sin within and the prospect of physical death.  We’re redeemed but full redemption comes with the kingdom.

That is why this incident in Jesus’ ministry is so interesting.  It is a partial healing that is made complete.  It happens in two stages, just as ours will.  Jesus is not satisfied until we are wholly restored.

And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?” And he looked up and said, “I see people, but they look like trees, walking.” Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. And he sent him to his home, saying, “Do not even enter the village.” (Mark 8:22-26, ESV) 

Jesus is still in that portion of Galilee that is more Gentile than Jew, but again his popularity has become great and people immediately think of him in terms of healing.

There is a sweetness to the fact that whoever they are who bring this blind man to Jesus love this man.  They are desperate for Jesus to heal him.  But Jesus is not after more notoriety so he takes the man out of the village to make his healing more private.

It is fascinating that it takes two times of Jesus laying hands on this man for him to get complete healing.  Why?  We are not told.  But it is a helpful practice when praying for someone’s healing or other issues to ask them what they are experiencing as you pray.  I have had people tell me that God made it clear that He wasn’t going to heal them but was using this in their lives to accomplish a purpose.  I have had people tell me that God made clear what their ailment was so they could use a physician to cure it.

Jesus is going for full healing.  He stays with the process until that is accomplished.  When the man is fully healed Jesus tells him to go home, not to the village, once again to diminish the crowds’ expectations that all he is here for is to make their lives better.  His true friends know what has happened.  It does not need to be broadcast.  The message of the kingdom and the need to submit to it can get easily lost.

And perhaps that is why our healing has not been completed yet.  The healing involves more than just taking away all our guilt and the penalty of death.  It includes the development of faith in the God who loves us.  It includes telling others about this God who heals and rules.  We’re getting there.