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1st case (Mark 8:22-26)
Jesus “cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town. ” (v22-23) Is it necessary for Jesus to take him out of town for healing? Perhaps Jesus wanted to heal him in a private place. He wanted to keep this matter in a low profile. We are told that after the healing, Jesus “sent him away to his house, saying, ‘Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town.’ ” (v26) He certainly did the healing neither for fame nor for honour himself.
“And when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw aught. And he looked up, and said, ‘I see men as trees, walking.’ ” (v23-24) At this moment, Jesus restored only part of his sight. The man was still unable to see men’s whole body clearly, until Jesus “put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up; and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.” (v25) Why would it take Jesus to do the healing twice for full effect to come out? This was very rare in all his healing processes. All we can say is that his healing method is very unique each time.
There are two points that worth our meditation:
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Very often it takes time for a full recovery of our illness to take place. We may have to keep on praying and not to give up in mid-way until we obtain full recovery. Full trust (trust to the end) is necessary for a full recovery.
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Another implication is concerned with the Lord’s guidance by His Word. Psalm 19:8 says, “The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.” Proverbs 4:18 says, “The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” As we keep on reading the Bible and receiving instructions for its guidance of our life path, our spiritual eyes will see more clearly on matters that happen around us.
2nd case (Mark 10:46-52)
When we compare this case to the above one, we discover a totally different scenario. First of all, the blind man’s name was given—“blind Bartimeus, the son of Timeus” (v46). It is important for a person’s name to be recorded by the author. As we will see later, there is some remarkable thing about this person and perhaps it becomes worthwhile for his name to be mentioned in the eyes of the author (and in the eyes of God as well).
The scene was described as this: a great number of people were following Jesus and his disciples as they went out of Jericho. And the blind Bartimeus was sitting “by the highway side begging” (v46). “And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, ‘Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.’ ” (v47) Notice that he called Jesus of Nazareth “son of David”. That’s where his faith in the Messiah is indicated. He knew beforehand that Messiah was along the line of King David, and he believed that this Jesus of Nazareth was to be the King of the Jews. That’s why he named him “son of David”. Jesus confirmed his faith by telling him in verse 52, “thy faith hath made thee whole.” Not only did he have faith in Jesus’ power of healing, but more significantly he believed that he was the Christ even prior to his healing!
This man’s crying was so annoying that “many charged him that he should hold his peace.” (v48) However, he did not yield to their complaint “but he cried the more a great deal, ‘Thou son of David, have mercy on me.’ ” (v48) He knew very well this could be the only chance he heard Jesus pass by him. If he lost this chance to get Jesus' attention, he might lose it forever. His situation was very similar to that of the Canaanite woman, who cried aloud behind Jesus and the disciples and said, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil (被鬼附得甚苦).” (Matt 15:22) The disciples felt so annoying that they asked Jesus to send her away, almost causing her to lose the golden opportunity of seeking Jesus for mercy. Back to Bartimeus. No matter how noisy the crowd was and how much objection he faced, he did not yield to the huge opposing force. His persistence for mercy caught the attention of Jesus finally. Jesus stopped walking for his sake and “commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying unto him, ‘Be of good comfort, rise; he calleth thee.’ And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus.” (v49-50). Although Bartimeus was not healed yet, at least there existed a golden opportunity ahead.
There’s a great deal for us to learn from Bartimeus with respect to our prayer request. His attitude and action showed that his request was firm, sincere, urgent and persistent; it touched Jesus’ heart. Our Lord was pleased to grant his request. In the first case, the blind was led by others and they made the request for him. On the contrary, Bartimeus made the request by himself and he fought hard for Jesus’ reaction. He has expressed his deep need for the mercy of our Lord. Just look at his joyous move when Jesus called him to come over. “Casting away his garment” implied that he was determined not to beg anymore, bearing full confidence that Jesus would restore his sight in the end.
When Jesus asked, “What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?” he said without delay, “Lord, that I might receive my sight.” (v51) Once again, he professed his faith of Jesus’ healing power because he believed that Jesus was sent by God. It was interesting that Jesus did not even care to touch him and plainly said to him, “Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole.” (v52) Jesus explained to Bartimeus that it was his faith in Jesus that pleased him to heal him. Why didn’t Jesus take any touching move like he did in the first case? It was because he was glad to show Bartimeus the marvelous power of his healing, sort of telling him that he believed in the right person —honouring Jesus as the Christ emerging from the line of King David. In the first case, Jesus needed to do more to heal the blind with full recovery. It may have to do with the faith of the person who is going to experience the power of a miracle. Obviously, the faith of Bartimeus far exceeded the faith of the blind man in the first case.
In conclusion, the greater faith we have, the greater power of the miracle we can experience. “Thy faith hath made thee whole.” (v52) This word of Jesus not only revealed the secret of recovery for Bartimeus, it also showed Jesus’ acknowledgment of his strong faith. More importantly, Bartimeus was truly saved because the full recovery of his eyesight confirmed to him that the person standing before him was truly Jesus Christ the Savior. “And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.” (v52) Bartemeus was no longer a begger. He did not have to beg for a living and, as a result, nobody would despise him anymore. Notice that Jesus called him to go away once he got healed. However, as soon as he recovered his sight and saw the merciful Lord, he was willing to follow him and serve him on the way. This time, Jesus did not stop a healed person from serving him along the way.
In the process of healing Bartimeus, Jesus only responded simply “go thy way”. This case is comparable to the case of the Canaanite woman as mentioned above. In her case, Jesus’ method of healing her daughter was also as simple as saying a couple words. Jesus said to her, “For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter.” (Mark 7:29) There was another similar case, the case of the centurion whose servant “lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented” (Matt 8:6). Take a look at how Jesus answered his request, “Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.” (Matt 8:13) The common thing among these three cases was the strong faith of the persons who sought Jesus for healing and that earned the praise of Jesus greatly. Besides, the same simple word of Jesus “go thy way” demonstrated his enormous power of healing. Here the implication for us is: As we express greater faith in the Lord with respect to His power and mercy, our Lord is glad to show us more power for us to experience personally. In other words, the greater our faith, the more abundant we experience His grace and mighty power.