to read the texts click on the texts: Gen 8:6-13, 20-22; Mk 8:22-26
The miracle story that is our text for today is the second of
the two miracle stories in Mark in which Jesus uses external methods. The first
was in 7,31-37 in which Jesus cures a deaf man with an impediment in his
speech. By placing this miracle immediately after Jesus poignant question to
his disciples about their lack of understanding (8,21) and just before Peter’s
Confession of Jesus as the Christ (8,27-30), Mark probably intends to hint to
the reader that the disciples too wall understand. Their blindness will also be
healed.
The healing takes place in two stages to probably correspond with the
two answers to the questions of Jesus (8,27-30) about his identity. The first
is the response of the people who say that Jesus is John the Baptist or Elijah
or one of the prophets (8,28) and this seems to correspond to the first stage
in which the blind man can see people but who like trees walking (8,24). The
second is the response of Peter on behalf of the disciples that Jesus is the
Christ (8,30) which seems to correspond to the stage where the blind man can
see everything clearly (8,25). At the end of this episode, Mark leaves his
readers with the question of whether the disciples like the blind man will also
be able see.
Some of us have a tendency to pigeon hole God and put him in a
compartment. This leads to seeing him merely as one who fixes things for us or
one to whom we go only in need. We might fail to see that he is always there
and is much bigger than anything we can ever imagine.
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