[22] And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. [23] And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?” [24] And he looked up and said, “I see people, but they look like trees, walking.” [25] Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. [26] And he sent him to his home, saying, “Do not even enter the village.”
Jesus and his disciples came to Bethsaida, people brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him.
I find it interesting.
Jesus took him out of the village, healed him, and told him to go home, to not even enter the village. It makes me wonder why. In this passage, since we're not told if the man obeyed, we don't even know if he obeyed Christ (so many didn't when told not to do something). Just something I wonder about.
But Jesus didn't merely touch the man when he healed him.
1. he took him by the hand
2. led him to a different spot outside the village
3. spit on his eyes
4. laid hands on him
5. asked what he saw
6. laid hands on him again
7. asked him what he saw
8. told him to go home and not go into the village.
So many people that Jesus healed instantly.
He even raised Lazarus from the dead with just a few words.
He COULD have healed this man instantly but didn't.
It makes me wonder what Jesus is telling the man here?
Or what exactly he is trying to teach us.
1. the man himself did not ask for help... the people around him did the asking.
Was Jesus teaching us how we can ask for help for people who can't or won't ask for themselves?
2. Healing was a two part process with Jesus eliciting information from the person he was healing. Does that mean that sometimes in our healing, God/Christ will ask things of us during the process?
I know that healing is not always a quick process.
People can be healed of physical aliments quickly, as well as from emotional.
But often healing takes time.
Doesn't mean that God is not acting.
And sometimes we have to be asked so we can see the process happening.
Think on that.
If we aren't asked how we are doing, how do we know that healing is occurring. Won't it give us hope if we have to reflect on it?