Mark 8:23
- This is the second time that Mark describes how Jesus healed the sick by spitting (Mark 7:33).
- In biblical times, spittle was considered to have a healing effect.
Mark 8:25
- This is the only time when Jesus gradually heals someone.
- This does not mean that Jesus could not heal him instantly, Jesus has shown many times before that he has the authority to heal the sick.
- Jesus heals the blind man’s sight gradually to illustrate to the disciples that their spiritual blindness will be healed gradually.
- Jesus had just said to the disciples, “Do you have eyes and do not see?” (Mark 8:18).
- When the disciples began to walk with Jesus, they knew almost nothing about Jesus, but gradually and as they went along, they came to know Jesus more and more.
- In the same way, today we can gradually have our spiritual eyes opened by Jesus so that we understand more and more who Jesus is.
- When I went to the Bjärka-Säby Bible School, a friend and I used to read a chapter from the Bible every night. When we got to this passage, my friend asked me if I could pray for him, because he had a congenital defect in his foot. I prayed for my friend and then he tried standing on his foot and noticed that it had actually improved a little. Then he asked me to pray again, which I was happy to do because I noticed that it seemed to work. After the second prayer, he tried standing on his foot again and found that he had now been completely healed by God in his foot!
- When we witness miracles, our faith grows and we witness even more miracles.