11. A BLIND MAN WITHOUT A WILL OF HIS OWN (Mark.8:22-26)
BACKGROUND: This man had seen before; we know it because the gospels tell us that Jesus only healed one person who had been born blind
(John 9:32). This passage tells us the one and only time when Jesus healed someone in several stages. Jesus had discussed spiritual blindness with his disciples right before this event
(Mark.8:18). He had also complained once about the unbelief of Bethsaida, the place where this miracle took place
(Matt.11:21).
- Why didn't the blind man ask anything from Jesus?
- Imagine how the life of this man had been until this day.
- What had made this man so passive? Think of various reasons.
- What did the friends of the blind man want Jesus to do for him (vs.22)?
- How did Jesus answer the request of these friends?
- Are you more like the blind man or like the friends who brought him to
Jesus?
- Why didn't Jesus want to heal the man in Bethsaida but rather outside the village?
- Imagine that a stranger whom you cannot see took your hand. How would you react? (What does it reveal about the man that he
didn't protest when Jesus was leading him by the hand out of the village?)
- What four things did Jesus do to the blind man?
- Why did he have to do so many things to heal this man? (What would this gradual healing and the chance to talk to Jesus during the process have meant to the blind
man?)
- Jesus led the man out of the village in order to be free from the crowd. Do you think there were still people around them there or was the man mistaken when he thought he saw them
(vs.24)?
- Imagine Jesus holding both of his hands on the head of the man and asking whether he saw anything. What would have been the right answer to his question?
- Why didn't Jesus repeat this question at the second stage of healing (vs.25)?
- The man's friends were probably waiting for him in the village. Why
didn't Jesus want him to return there after he was healed? (What might have happened if he had returned to the village?)
- Besides his eyes, what else was healed in the life of this man?
- What was Jesus's ultimate goal for this man?
- This text also asks us whether we see Jesus with the eyes of our heart
(vs.18). Jesus is standing here before you and asking: "Do you see anything?" What do you answer him?
- How has Jesus been trying to open the eyes of your heart so that you can see
him?
- What does this miracle teach us about heaven?
GLAD TIDINGS: Opening the eyes of the blind was a sign that the Lord himself had arrived and people could look straight in his face
(Is.35:4-5). And yet Jesus was so hidden from their sight that most people
couldn't recognize him as God. It was not easy, even for his disciples, to see Jesus as he really is
(Mark.8:18). This incident shows us that Jesus doesn't give up before we really can see him as he is
(1 John 3:2).
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