When I first came to Jesus, I realized that I was on the road to freedom…..but I had not yet arrived at my destination. You know the story with kids in the car, “Are we there yet? , Are we there yet?”. I believe that when we come to Jesus, when we make the decision to follow Him…..we might as well be patient and quit asking “Are we there yet?” because it’s annoying. We should simply recognize that we are happily on the road. Relax and enjoy the ride. When we are following Jesus, we are doing just that….following Him, moving after Him. It’s when we think we’ve arrived that we’ve got problems.
Mark 8:22-26 (TNIV)
22 They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 23 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?” 24 He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” 25 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. 26 Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t even go into the village.”
In these Scriptures here, it is important that we don’t miss the bridge (context) between this scene and the last scene where Jesus is pointing out to the disciples that they still had not gained a full understanding of who He was. You see, sight is a metaphor for understanding.
I see this pattern that is played out so often in our lives. We don’t understand Jesus’ impact, meaning, and purpose in our lives all at once. As we indeed follow Jesus and continue to learn from Him….our spiritual sight becomes restored. I would point out that if we choose to close our eyes to Jesus…..then most obviously we won’t be able to see.
While this is the only instance recorded in the Bible of Jesus healing someone in stages, I believe that it is an important point to pick up on. It wasn’t that Jesus couldn’t heal this man, indeed He ask him, “Do you see anything?” Indeed, Jesus healed this blind man.
Is Jesus asking you that same question? “Do you see anything?” Maybe your answer is like that of this blind man, “Yes Lord, I can see but things are still blurry.” The key is this…..KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN! Just like the blind man, Jesus will come more into focus and indeed, LIFE will come more into focus with every step forward!
Lastly, I want to point out that after this healing Jesus tells the man not to even go into the village. Could it have been that as word spread about His physical healing, and Jesus always showed compassion on people in need, that more and more would come to know Him as the physical healer when in fact, while this was true, His PRIMARY purpose was to heal people’s souls!
So, recognize that as you Follow Jesus and as you follow Him on that road to freedom: one, you indeed have freedom as you follow Jesus. But recognize also that it is a road that you are traveling on over time. You may first discover the freedom of Jesus as your Savior…but keep walking! Soon you will discover more and more each day, the freedoms associated with allowing Jesus Lordship over your life. Indeed, just like people that call up Dave Ramsey’s radio Show (concerning financial freedom) and loudly proclaiming, “I AM DEBT FREE”, as you follow Jesus, the sign you carried saying, “I am lost” can now be changed to proclaim to all that you see along the way, “I AM FREE”!