22 And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. Mark 8:22
The irony is not to be missed. Let me explain.
Just a few verses back, the same crowd is chastised by Jesus for their disbelief . Please read the account in the same chapter:
15 And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.
16 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread.
17 And when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? perceive ye not yet, neither understand? have ye your heart yet hardened?
18 Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember?
What are we discussing amongst ourselves? We have already seen the Lord perform two mighty miracles of feeding multitudes with very little to start with, and end with plenty of surplus. He asks:
19 When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve.
20 And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven.
21 And he said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand?
Relevant and pointed. We who have seen His wondrous works in the land of Ham (Psalm 106:22) as it were, still cannot bring ourselves to believe that He is the same God. Behold, the Lord‘s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear Isaiah 59:1. And He is the alpha and omega 6 For I am the Lord, I change not, says He in Malachi 3
Yes it takes a bit of ramming for them to understand this truth. For their spiritual eyes to be opened. It is then that they look outside of themselves to people who are still in the dark, knowing that they themselves were in the same condition not long ago.
and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him.
Have you ever brought anybody to Jesus?
Good question. One that should make you sit up and ponder.
The world is full of people who having eyes do not see, and having ears do not hear? Mark 8:18
Going one step back, maybe the question should be, do we care enough for such people?
Here I am reminded (as I often am) of the quintessential Australian attitude of “I am alright Jack”
This philosophy of course dates back to the age of Creation itself when the murderer Cain trying to sound casual asked “am I his keeper?”, referring to his brother Abel whom he had murdered in cold blood.
Though that particular utterance was brusque in the circumstances, most of us in these modern times believe in not upsetting the apple cart. Giving people their space. Letting them do their own thing. Not pushing our point of view. While all of this seems quite appropriate and eminently in keeping with the view of not interfering in other people’s lives, should we forgo an opportunity to do good?
Mind you, there is no mention of the blind man in this story asking to be healed or taken to Jesus. The crows perceived the need in the light of their own recently revealed condition and they acted. Read Mark 2:2-11 : “While he was preaching God’s word to them, four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. They couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above his head. Then they lowered the man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus.”
The quadriplegic man would not be walking out of the house were it not for his friends who cared enough to seek unusual ways of bringing the man to Jesus.
Going back to Mark 8:
25 After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.
“Let us not be weary in well doing “Gal.6:9