India is considered a place of dazzling lights and color. However, we do have our share of power outages. I remember while growing up, my friends and I used to watch the game of cricket and shout out loud when there was a power outage. We were overjoyed when the power came back on and our time of sitting in darkness was over. There are many more serious consequences when there is no light around. People can stumble and totally lose their sense of direction.

The Bible uses the picture of blindness for people who are without Christ and away from God. In fact, spiritual blindness was a form of judgment on unrepentant Israel (Isa 6:9ff). How can one walk spiritually without spiritual eyes or even have a sense of spiritual direction? It’s impossible! Spiritual blindness keeps us from seeing and being awestruck by the glory of Christ in His gospel (2 Cor. 4:4).

This glory is glory that changes us from the inside out (2 Cor. 3:18). Hence, one cannot begin to dream of being a disciple of Jesus Christ unless his or her blindness is removed. The wonderful news is that God has sent His Son into the world, who is the Light of the world (John 8:12).

In Mark 8:1-10, we see Jesus amazingly feed 4,000 people. The miracle proves that Jesus is Creator and Provider just like Yahweh in the Old Testament. A few verses later, on a boat ride, Jesus warns the disciples about the dangerous influence of the Pharisees and Herod. You would expect the disciples to get Jesus’ message and affirm what He just said. But they do not. Their spiritual comprehension was minimal.

Just after this sad account, Mark puts forward the incident where Jesus heals a blind man in two stages. After this healing account you see Peter confess that Jesus is the Christ! Christ’s miracle is sandwiched in between dullness and a glorious declaration. So the context helps us to see Mark’s intention to show in the two stage healing of the blind man that Jesus is the only source of true Light in this world.

We observe in Mark 8:22 onwards that a blind man is brought to Jesus to be touched. Jesus has become famous for His compassionate and healing touch. He touches lepers, sick people, dead people and here even blind people. People who would have felt untouchable by the religious hierarchy experienced the touch of God Incarnate.

What follows in this healing is very unique. No other miracle was done in two stages. No other miracle involved Jesus asking a question like “what do you see?” Is this a moment when Jesus needed an extra dose of deity and power?

The answer is a loud no! Then why did Jesus heal this man in two stages? The text says he saw men walking like trees and after a second touch he saw clearly. The context helps us to understand that Mark wants to show us that indeed Jesus is the source of our eyes being opened unto salvation.

However, we go through life still needing the eyes of our heart enlightened to God’s glorious purposes revealed in Scripture (Eph. 1:17ff). Jesus is the source of spiritual understanding for believers as well. We see this verified in the following passages of Mark 8. Peter confesses Jesus is the Christ by gracious revelation. Within minutes, Peter’s response to Jesus’ disclosure of His death and resurrection shows us our need for spiritual understanding to know and submit to Gods awesome purposes (vv31-33).

Thankfully, Jesus did not leave His disciples in a haze. He revealed to them more fully His gracious purposes by His Spirit as He had promised (John15:26). Has the miracle of new spiritual eyes happened in your life (Acts 26:18)? Are you constantly asking Him to grow your spiritual comprehension as you open His word (Ps 119:18)? All further progress depends on that. Are you grateful for the way He has grown you over the years in grace and knowledge? There will come a day when we will not see dimly but face to face!