Hey Andy, why didn’t Jesus want the blind man in Mark 8:22-26 to tell anyone about his recent ‘miracle’? Did Jesus screw up the ‘healing the blind’ trick the first time around (the blind man “saw men as trees”)? Was Jesus afraid of being labeled a cheap fraud, as he demonstrated here?
I’ve heard people preach about this and look at Jesus as failing to completely heal him, but that’s not the case at all — Jesus didn’t screw up.
Why Jesus Didn’t Screw Up
Look at what the man said: “I can see people, but they look like trees, walking.” Why did he see this? Who was the man looking at? And how do men look like trees? Well, if he saw such, then what do you think, was he looking at Jesus, or was he looking at everyone else? Yeah, he was looking at everyone else. So Jesus “tries” a 2nd time, then asks, “Can you see now?” The man looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.” But the reason that he can see clearly now is because this time, he’s looking at Jesus, not the other people. But you see, it wasn’t that Jesus failed at healing the man and had to try again at healing him, but that the man failed to look at Jesus. So it’s like Jesus was saying, ‘OK, you don’t get it. Here, let me try this again. What do you see, now?’ And that time, the man was looking at Jesus, and could see clearly. So you see, it’s not that Jesus failed at healing the guy, but that they guy failed at seeing Jesus.
Why Not To Tell Anyone
Now, why didn’t Jesus want the man to tell anybody? Well, for one thing, the Law of Moses says that when someone is healed from an illness, they should then go immediately and show the High Priest. So Jesus wanted to keep everything in order. Now, if Jesus hadn’t told him to show himself to the High Priest, then it would be suggested that He was promoting disobedience to the Law, thus disqualifying Himself as Messiah. Second, in some incidents, when people went off and told everybody, versus obeying Jesus’ command not to, scripture tells us that Jesus couldn’t do ministry there –- it took their attention off anything He would say about the Kingdom of God, and onto ‘hey, show us another miracle!’
Do you see clearly now? 🙂
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