“They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, ‘Do you see anything?’ He looked up and said, ‘I see people; they look like trees walking around.’ Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly” (Mark 8:22-26 NIV).
The story of the healing of the blind man at Bethsaida in Mark 8 is a fascinating and somewhat puzzling story recounting one of Jesus’s many miracles. The healing takes place in two stages. After the first stage, the man describes people as “trees walking around” (vs. 24). This describes a man who has sight but cannot understand what he sees.
Functioning eyes are not the only component necessary for sight; the mind also needs to be able to process the information coming from the eyes in order to interpret visual information. In the second stage “his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly” (vs. 25). After Jesus put his hands once more on the eyes of the man, he was finally able to understand what he saw.
This miracle became even more interesting to me after studying computer vision in graduate school. A typical computer vision pipeline is illustrated in Figure 1. Computer vision relies on an image sensor (or camera) that captures light from a three-dimensional scene and projects it onto a two-dimensional image sensor. The image sensor is comprised of tiny photosensors that output an array of pixel values that can be transferred to a computer for processing. Recognizing objects requires the ability to perform various mathematical operations to extract “features” from the two-dimensional array of pixels and associate these features with other knowledge (a step sometimes referred to as “classification”). Indeed, there is more to computer vision than meets the eye.
Likewise, the human eye has a lens that focuses light onto the retina which is full of tiny photoreceptors (rods and cones). These signals then travel via the optic nerve to the visual cortex in the brain for interpretation of what is being seen. While the eye is not a camera, and the brain is not a computer, the study of computer vision highlighted for me that seeing is not the same as understanding.
Figure 1. Computer vision pipeline
Clearly, Jesus could have healed this man instantaneously. But instead, the Scripture passage describes a miracle deliberately completed in two phases. It appears that Jesus had a purpose in doing this. How are we to understand this? Although it’s difficult to be certain, here are a few thoughts on how this passage might be understood.
I think it is no accident that this story in Mark 8 is surrounded by portions of Scripture where Jesus was repeatedly asking his disciples, “Do you not yet understand?” Jesus’ question to the blind man in verse 23, “Do you see anything?” is very similar to Jesus’ question to his disciples a few verses back in verse 17, “Do you still not see or understand?” Again, in verse 18 of this chapter Jesus says, “do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear?” and again in verse 21, “Do you still not understand?”
Immediately following the story of the blind man is the story of Peter’s declaration that Jesus is the Messiah. Mark 8:27 reads “On the way he asked them, ‘Who do people say I am?’ They replied, ‘Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.’”
This initial response is like the blind man seeing trees walking around – not understanding what they are seeing.
Jesus continues in verse 29: “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.” This confession is significant – it occurs right in the physical center of the book of Mark – the centerpoint of the Gospel – something that was significant in Jewish literature.
The miracle of the blind man, in effect, describes two cures in one. The ability to see and understand is a gift of God. I think, like the process of healing the blind man, Jesus is gradually healing his disciples—as they move from not understanding to misunderstanding to full understanding. The gospel is an account of how Jesus is gradually “opening the eyes” of his disciples.
In particular, in Luke 24 we read about Jesus meeting the disciples after his resurrection and after the road to Emmaus. Here we read: “Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” (Luke 24:45-47)
Even though the disciples had been with Jesus for years—a time during which Jesus spoke often with them, and they had witnessed many miracles—somehow they had still missed the point. Jesus had to open their minds.
It is easy to criticize the disciples and wonder how they could be so slow to understand. However, we need to also look at ourselves—we are also in need of Jesus’ healing for understanding. In his book of devotions, Near Unto God, the Dutch theologian and statesman, Abraham Kuyper, writes the following:
“Seeing – that’s the key. When we say to each other “Now you see what I mean,” we’re usually referring to a spiritual kind of seeing, not simply what the eye admits in form and figure. At creation, we all came equipped with that kind of vision. But the fall dimmed our perceptions, gave us all white canes…
At the moment we come to see God in Jesus Christ, as he begs us to do, God Almighty, in His Spirit, comes to dwell in us. That is the moment that we draw near unto God, and He draws near unto us.
To see the Father in Christ is the greatest event of our lives, because at that moment we recognize God. That achievement is the highest aspiration of humanity itself. Knowing Christ fully is knowing God.”1
May each of us come to fully know him, too.
Note: Derek is grateful to a former colleague, Dr. Syd Hielema, for a helpful discussion on this passage. An earlier version of this reflection was published in Christian Courier and recently it was presented at a Calvin University chapel service led by computer science students.
A helpful reflection. I think that the same two-step idea that maybe was behind Jesus’ intentions as expressed in this article, was reflected in Paul’s thinking in his prayer for his friends in Philippi, as recorded in Philippians 1: 9-11 (NIV):
“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.”
Note here that true knowledge is not the mere accumulation of information, but extends to depth of insight (the idea of “really understanding” that Jesus was talking about as described in this paper) which then can generate the discernment and godly living that is the faithful presence sanctified witness to the gospel calling of every believer.
This also resonates with the biblical concept of “knowing” which is so much deeper than just the mere accumulation of information, where biblical knowing is only fully realised when it is demonstrated in action.