Flashback Episode — A Do-Over with Jesus: Mark 8:22-26

As we continue our journey through the gospels, we come to an event where it appeared as though Jesus didn’t get His miracle 100% right the first time. All too often, I find myself picturing Jesus as succeeding the first time at everything He set out to do, and I imagine that even though Jesus faced struggles, problems, and challenges, my mind’s eye pictures Jesus as easily winning every challenge that came His way.

Jesus was always one step ahead of the trick questions of the religious leaders, He always seems to know the right words to say to help hurting people, and His touch, voice, or simply His presence healed people.

Knowing that Jesus succeeds with the tasks He set out to do then makes the miracle in our passage for this episode a little more fascinating. This is because the miracle in our passage seems to suggest that Jesus didn’t get the healing right the first time, and that He had to redo it in order for it to truly be successful.

Let’s read what happened. Our passage is found in the gospel of Mark, chapter 8, and we’ll be reading it using the Good News Translation. Starting in verse 22, Mark tells us that Jesus and His disciples:

²² [They] came to Bethsaida, where some people brought a blind man to Jesus and begged him to touch him. ²³ Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. After spitting on the man’s eyes, Jesus placed his hands on him and asked him, “Can you see anything?”

²⁴ The man looked up and said, “Yes, I can see people, but they look like trees walking around.”

²⁵ Jesus again placed his hands on the man’s eyes. This time the man looked intently, his eyesight returned, and he saw everything clearly. ²⁶ Jesus then sent him home with the order, “Don’t go back into the village.”

In this passage, as we were reading it together, a detail jumped off the page at me. In my mind, I find it fascinating that Jesus would take the man outside the village before healing him, and then after healing him, tell him to not go back into the village. I wonder if this is one more example of an event where Jesus wants to avoid receiving praise from people.

However, instead of focusing on this angle of our passage, let’s instead focus on the fascinating detail that Jesus’ first attempt at this miracle was only partially successful. After Jesus’ first attempt, the man responses that He can see movement, but that the people look more like trees than people.

This response is a clue for us that this man probably was not born blind. Instead, it is likely that at some point in his life, his eyesight failed or an accident took his sense of vision. I suspect this because someone who has never seen a person likely could not distinguish as quickly between a visual impression of a person versus simply what could be distinguished from the other senses.

However, regardless of whether this man really was born blind, or if he lost his ability to see at some point after he was born, it is fascinating that Jesus takes him out of the village and away from those who had brought him. Part of me suspects that Jesus could tell that those who had brought the man to Him were less interested in the health or well-being of the man and simply wanted to see Jesus perform a miracle.

If this was the case, Jesus separates the two desires in order to help this man: He desires to restore this man’s sight, but He does not want to satisfy the crowd’s selfish desire to see a miracle since they were unlikely to give God the glory for this miracle. To solve this dilemma, Jesus separated the man from the crowd, and led him out of the village.

At this point in the passage, I wonder whether the blind man had given up hope. If the blind man had given up hope of ever regaining his eyesight, he might have thought Jesus was separating him from the crowd because Jesus wanted to let him know that He might not be successful, or that this man’s blindness was incurable. While any speculation into what this blind man may have been thinking is impossible to verify, it would not surprise me to learn of at least one person coming to Jesus who was uncertain if Jesus could help their specific situation. In other words, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone believed Jesus could help everyone else, but that their own situation was unsolvable.

If this man had given up hope of ever having full eyesight again, he may have agreed to let the crowd bring him to Jesus because he was willing to see if Jesus could at least improve his eyesight a little. If this was what the man was thinking, then it explains what actually happens in this two-step miracle.

After Jesus leads the man away from the village and places His hands on the man’s eyes for the first time, we see the first step of this miracle take place. In other passages, the gospel writers seem to indicate that the level of faith present in an event could dictate how many people were healed. Usually this was the faith of the person who was being healed, but there are recorded cases where a friend or companion’s faith is sufficient.

Since this man was away from the crowd and away from other people who would clearly have enough faith, the faith necessary in this miracle was completely his. If the man’s faith was so small that all he expected was a slight improvement and a partial healing, then that is what would ultimately happen. The man came hoping to have his sight improved, and this ultimately resulted in him getting eyesight that was not perfect, but could at least help him get around without running into things.

However, from the first step of this miracle, the man received more than this. From seeing improvement in his eyesight, the man’s hope and faith in Jesus grew. With his increased level of faith, the second step of this miracle results in a complete restoration of the man’s eyesight.

If the faith necessary for this miracle was based on the faith of the man being healed, then we should not be surprised to learn that this miracle came in two parts. All too often, our faith in God is small at first, and only after we have experienced God working in our lives will our faith grow.

Also, this miracle challenges us with the truth that God will not stop blessing and healing as our level of faith increases. God is not going to give up on us if we don’t get our faith in Him right the first time. God is a God of second chances, and God is okay with us asking for a “do-over”.

Through Jesus’ sacrifice, God gave us the ultimate do-over card that we can use to restart and redirect our life towards Him no matter the number of times we stumble or make mistakes. God is the ultimate Giver, and most definitely a God of second chances.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life so you don’t need to ask for that “do-over”. When choosing God and following His will for your life, while times in this life may not be easy and while we may stumble, know that we have our future life with God secured.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself so you can learn about who Jesus is and what He did for you and I. Through the pages of the Bible, discover just how much Jesus loves you and what He went through to save you and me!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or abandon moving towards where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!