Monday, January 25, 2010

Blind, but now seeing

“And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. 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?" And he looked up and said, "I see men, but they look like trees, walking." Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.” (Mark 8:22-25)

When you have a desire to see dear ones saved you pray to your heavenly Father and He will send Jesus to them. Jesus will take the hand of the blind person and lead him to a place where He can manifest Himself and endow the gift of regeneration unto him.

In the beginning the new creation will behold the newness of his being with childish eyes. He will have an understanding that his sins are forgiven, and that something has happened within. His spiritual sight will, however, be blurred, and this will be manifested through his aptness to follow the habits of the old man attempting to make himself presentable to God by his own works.

But it is Jesus who does everything, and who will ask the new man when his resources are exhausted; “Do you see anything?”, that is, do you appreciate that you are a new creation whose old man died on the cross with me? When I say died, I mean both those parts of you that you found repulsive and those parts in which you were proud. Do you know that both your “evil” and your “good” are nothing? Do you know that I am here to live in you through you as you? Do you know that I am the only One who can live the Christian life? Do you know that you also are resurrected with me to take part in my resurrection life?

It is now that Jesus put the final touch on His work in that person’s life. He opens his eyes so that he can behold clearly the beauty of the union life with Christ and enjoy his life as a perfect manifestation of the invisible God.

We have all gone from spiritual blindness to an intermediate position where things are a bit blurred, and from here we are firmly steered to the final revelation where we with increasingly clarity behold the magnificence of God’s plan. We are perfectly saved also in our state of childishness when we strive in our ignorance, but as our consciousnesses are renewed to the image of Christ we are transformed from glory to glory.

Notice that it is Jesus who is the doer. The man merely follows along, puts his trust in Jesus and answers a simple question. Obviously, the blind man could have refused Jesus’ offer to lead him out of the village, that is, his old self and old life. He could have lied to Jesus and retorted that his present sight was adequate, or perfectly suitable for his kind of life; that he was satisfied with his condition.

The spit symbolizes Jesus’ life now imparted to the man. In John 9:6 we find that Jesus spat on the ground and made mud that he smeared on the eyes of a man who was born blind, which is a common human condition, spiritually speaking. God formed man from dust of the ground (Gen 2:7), so when Jesus mixes His salvia with the dust this is a powerful image of the union life.

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