Mark 8.22-33 (The Blind Man of Bethsaida)

The Blind Man of Bethsaida Text: Mark 8:22-26 Scripture Reading: Mark 7:31—8:38
Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” (Mt 24:35)
Every word of Scripture is the breathed out word of God, which is food for our eternal souls. Our
bodies need food, our souls need the life giving, life transforming Word of God. That being said,
What food for our souls can we learn from the blind man of Bethsaida?
Mark is the only Gospel writer to give us these two accounts: the healing of the blind man of
Bethsaida and also the account of the deaf man of the Decapolis, a group of ten Hellenistic
cities to the southeast of the Galilee.
The intriguing question before us is this: Why did Jesus heal the blind man in two stages? Some
would say that the blind man lacked enough faith. Others might say that some miracles Jesus
performed were more difficult than others. But our text is all about what Jesus said, and what
Jesus did. In what way does this text speak to our hearts?
We will see that 1) Jesus gives sight to the blind man; 2) Peter sees by the grace of God; and 3)
we ask the question: Who is really blind?
< read Mk 8:22-26, pray that we might see in the light of God’s Word >
Jesus gives sight to the blind man, in two stages
On the way to Bethsaida, the home of Andrew, Phillip and Peter, Jesus asks the disciples: Why
are you talking about bread? The disciples heard the word “leaven” and assumed, like we also
do, that they knew exactly to what Jesus referred. But then Jesus asks them:
Do you not yet understand? Are your hearts hardened? At that point Jesus is patiently teaching
them: Just as you have physical eyes to see and ears to hear, so you also have a heart that is
being awakened to see with the eye of faith and to hear with understanding the Word of God.
Are you not yet beginning to see clearly and hear the Word of life?
There is more to life than life in the shadowlands of this present world. Don’t you see, says
Jesus to his closest of friends. Don’t you see that I AM the giver of life? I have come to bring life
to this dying world and life to dead hearts? Don’t you see that what Adam lost, I AM here to
restore forever? Adam and Eve died in separation from their Creator. I AM He, their Creator and
yours. I AM and I have come to give you life everlasting, to open your eyes to see eternal truth. I
AM and I have come to open your ears to hear the life giving Word of God.
So we ask the question: For what purpose does Jesus heal the blind man in two stages? Is
Jesus somehow limited in his healing powers by the circumstances of the situation, or by the
lack of faith by the blind man?
The answer is, No. Jesus is not limited by people or by any circumstance of the situation. Jesus
is never limited by any external power in doing what He came to earth to do. Even in his
crucifixion, Jesus was not killed against his will, but by the grace of God, he gave him self in full
payment for my sin and yours, so that our joy might be complete in Christ. Jesus said,
“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father
knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. . . . For this
reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No
one takes it [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it
[my life] down, and I have authority to take it up again.”” (John 10:14–18, ESV)

“So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and
no one will take your joy from you.” (John 16:22, ESV)
Nor is Jesus limited by the faith of the blind man. God is never limited by the amount of our faith
in anything. It is never the amount of our faith that makes a difference, but in what we place our
faith. It is after all God who moves in our hearts to open our eyes and ears to the Word of God
that we might believe in God and place our trust in his Word. “So faith comes from hearing, and
hearing through the word of Christ.” (Rom 10:17)
It is by the creative power of the Word of God that we have life in the first place and that by that
same power we might believe in God and repent of our sin. “For God, who said, “Let light shine
out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Cor 4:6)
If you are hearing the Word of God clearly and by that Word understand that God created you,
but that in Adam you were born in sin and that you do sin proving the fact that you are a sinner
in need of a Savior to save you, then know this: that it is by the power of God’s living Word that
you are enabled to hear and see your need of a Savior.
What is it then that we are to see in our text? In the verses immediately preceding our text
Jesus asks five questions of the incredulous disciples. Twice Jesus asks, “Do you not yet
understand?” Do you not remember what you just witnessed in the multiplying of the bread? Do
you not see? Do you not hear? Don’t you understand?
In the verses immediately following our text Jesus asks, “Who do you say that I am?” To which
Peter replies, “You are the Christ.” “And [according to Matthew] Jesus answered, “Blessed are
you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in
heaven.” (Mat 16:17)
Peter sees by the grace of God
Peter sees and understands rightly by the grace of God that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah,
the Promised one sent from God to right all the wrong brought about by sin. Jesus is the Christ
come to earth in the fullness of time to bring righteousness and healing to the nations. This is
the One foretold by the prophets, born in the line of king David, and promised by God to
Abraham and also to Adam and Eve on the day that sin entered a very good created world.
Peter saw and understood the revelation of the Word in Christ, by the grace of God
However, Peter did not see clearly who Jesus is. Like the blind man of Bethsaida who saw
images of people, but images that looked like walking trees, Peter saw in Jesus Christ the
image of a warrior king come to judge the world for all the wrong of sin and to rule with power,
might and glory. And Peter was eager to rule along with Christ.
< read Mark 8:31-33 >
Just like us, Peter could not see the sinful bent of his own heart and his need of a Savior King to
free him from the chains of sin so intricately entwined around the fibers of his very being. Thus
Peter could not see clearly that in order for Christ to reign in his heart, he needed first to be
saved from the curse of sin and death; and then be given new life in Christ in order to live and to
humbly follow in obedient service to his King. Peter did not see that he could not be saved until
he had a Savior King who would conquer sin and death for Peter by taking Peter’s place on the
cruel Cross in full payment for sin.

Peter could not understand the full weight of his own sin, but Jesus knew that for this very
reason he had come into the sin cursed world to save us from our sin. This is what the angel
had prophesied before Jesus was born:
“But as [Joseph] considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him
in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that
which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call
his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”” (Matthew 1:20–21, ESV)
And John the Baptist prophesied when Jesus was baptized saying,
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29, ESV)
Jesus himself near the end of his public ministry summed up his purpose in coming to earth:
“Whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came
not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”” (Mat 20:28)
To this Paul would later add in his letter to Timothy:
“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” (1 Timothy 1:15, ESV)
Peter saw rightly by the grace of God in Christ, but Peter did not understand clearly the purpose
of God in saving him and us from sin. So, when Jesus said plainly that he would be killed and
rise again on the third day, Peter opposed the very plan of God to fully save all those who would
believe in Christ. Peter opposed the very means that God would use to save Peter. Peter
opposed God because he thought only “on the things of man,” things that seem important to
people in this life, on this side of eternity; things like material possessions, power and influence,
fame and popularity, beauty and strength.
After the resurrection Peter would see clearly the plan of God in Christ to redeem a people to be
his own, a qualitatively new people with new life in Christ. New hearts longing to follow Christ, in
humble obedience out of love for God. With this kind of clear God-given understanding, Peter
would later write in his last epistle that God has given us in Christ alone all that we need to
“escape from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.” (2 Pet 1:3-4)
For that reason we are to think the thoughts of God and value the things that God values: faith,
virtue, knowledge of God with self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and
love for God, for which we were created as His image bearers. Therefore, since all the things on
this earth are to be burnt up, what sort of people ought we to be? [Ans: Peter’s last words]
“You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried
away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace
and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to
the day of eternity. Amen.” (2 Peter 3:17–18, ESV)
Peter opposed God that day because he thought only on the things of man. He did not see with
the eye of faith. So, who really was the “blind man”? Was it the blind man of Bethsaida? Or was
the blind man a picture of Peter and of our true condition?
Who is really blind?
The simple answer is, “We are all blind.” We are all naturally born blind in Adam, blind to the
things of God. Our natural sinful inclination is to oppose God at every turn in what He would
graciously do to save us from ourselves. Like Peter we would oppose Jesus in going to the
Cross to save us because we would rather use Jesus to achieve our own deceitful desires.

We would rather come to God in our own way rather than submit humbly to Him as Savior and
Lord. But the prideful way is not the way of the Cross. Jesus speaks then to our hearts:
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow
me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake
and the gospel’s will save it.” (Mark 8:34–35, ESV)
If you are here today pursuing your own path, then Jesus would warn you—the way of the
rebellious heart is treacherous and deadly.
Jesus asks that we bring nothing with us when we come to Him at the Cross. It is a humbling
thing to come empty handed to Jesus, where we find grace and forgiveness. We would rather
come in a way to Christ for which we could be proud. But that is exactly the point of our sin, we
are proud and we like it that way. We would like to bask in our own glory, contrary to the
humbling plan of God to save us by grace.
Who is the blind man? Who is blind to the reality of a sinful heart? We are. For this reason, “God
opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (1 Peter 5:6) Paul writes of the grace of God
in Christ for which we who believe will glorify God throughout all of eternity:
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even
when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you
have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly
places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable
riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been
saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of
works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:4–9, ESV)
Let us then take heart, that the healing of the blind man of Bethsaida is both descriptive and
predictive. The blind man served as an object lesson for Peter and for all of us, showing us that
we are naturally blind in Adam and resistant to change. But there is also a promise in what
Jesus did for the blind man. For just as Jesus gave the man sight, so God initially enabled us to
see our need of Christ that we might be saved from sin. Then Jesus opens our eyes fully to see
clearly in the light of his life giving, life transforming Word so that we might grow in Christlike
change. And as we grow more like Christ, we continue to depend on the Word of God, because
the heart can only see clearly by the Spirit applied Word.
It is thus that God commands us to grow. Peter ends his little book with that command:
“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be
the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” (2 Peter 3:18, ESV)