Healed Through Tarrying
Text: Mark 8:22-25
Had Jesus healed everybody in the same manner it would have caused men to put undue importance on the ritual of healing, and confuse that with the means of healing.
People are healed by grace, or mercy, and faith.
He healed people with a word (Ps. 107:20, Mt. 8:8,13)
He healed people by letting them touch Him (Mt. 9:20; 14:36)
He healed people by laying on His hands (Mark 6:5)
He healed people by simply saying they had already been healed (Mk 7:29, John 4:50)
Most were healed instantly. The deaf and dumb spake. A deaf person having never heard a word spoke instantly.
The issue of blood dried up instantly
Here the Lord is working in a more leisurely fashion. This is probably the most time Jesus took to heal a person.
This case is an unusual one, I think because the illness is blindness the Lord is trying to teach us about some other things here. Blindness in the bible often refers to the understanding or reasoning, or thinking part of man.
1st thing out of the box... Jesus did not heal him by spitting on him. His healing was a complex interaction between God and man requiring something from both, 2 upward looks from the man, and 2 sessions of hands being laid on by God.
Our message is tarry with Jesus and make sure you get all God has for you.
Some things take time, the power of God, the effort of man, and repeated sessions with God.
Not because God can’t do it all at once, but there are certain things God chooses to do gradually, or that God’s ability to bless is limited by our ability to receive.
God saves a soul instantly, but He tells us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, which can take a lifetime..
Observe how this man was healed.
1. He had friends who cared, who brought him to Jesus.
2. Jesus took him by the hand and led him out of the city. From this we learn:
A. Sometimes there are unseen aspects to healing. In this case, intimacy and time with Jesus is a prime ingredient. We read of Jesus leading the man out of the city holding his hand, picture it in your mind. Other people touched the hem of His garment and were healed this man held His hand for an hour or longer and wasn’t healed. This man may have had more physical contact with Jesus than anyone else in the Bible with the exception of His family. Something happened, deeper than physical healing. Maybe he was being healed of a spirit of rejection, all his life people probably shunned him, he was a beggar viewed as rejected and despised by God. An hour holding Jesus hand, maybe the reason some people don’t get healed is they don’t sit still long enough.
B. We also are made to reflect upon the idea that some places are not conducive to healing. He led him outside the city. Jesus could do few miracles in His own town because of unbelief. Again we see God’s ability to bless being limited by man’s ability to receive. Some environments are hostile to healing. Sometimes God has to lead you out of your city to get your blessing.
C. Jesus removed the crust from his eyes, hence He spit on His eyes. As long as the crust remained the man would not know he had been healed. This speaks of prepatory work for a miracle. Even as Elijah took many steps, gathering the people, repairing the altar, arranging the wood, slaying and cutting up the sacrifice, preaching to the people ....and then the fire fell.
D. Jesus put His hands upon him and imparted Divine life, then he challenged the man to respond to it. The text says the man looked up. I sense him straining to be delivered from blindness. Why? Some things God gives you the boxing gloves, and fixes the match, but that doesn’t mean you are not going to get punched around. Blindness we said earlier speaks of the understanding and the thought life. Change in that arena though dramatic is often slow going at times. Prov. 6:1,2 speaks of someone being trapped in a verbal promise. Negative speaking can also trap you and it takes time to break out of it. Divine life is poured in, you have to respond by being in the same groove.
Note: the man saw men as trees walking. He probably had sight earlier in his life. (His sight was said to be restored in v. 25, restored usually means you got something back that you had lost) Suppose he hadn’t seen earlier in life and didn’t have anything to compare his present sight with? He could have made the mistake to say, “Yeah, I can see real good now!” Suppose then he had said, “thanks Jesus, c ya later.” Our message today is about tarrying longer with Jesus. Don’t be in a rush with Jesus. Jesus responds, “wait I am not done with you.” But off the man goes. A lot of young Christians have spiritual pride, and all they really see is men as trees walking. A few thousand more sessions with Jesus and things will be better.
E. He laid hands upon him again, and again made him look up. Stand still, tarry and have another session with Jesus.
F. He told him not to go into the city, nor tell it there. Bethsaida means house of fish, it was the home town of Peter, James, Andrew, and Phillip. Mt 11;21 a city where Jesus and Christianity met with harsh unbelief, and perhaps ridicule. Sometimes church people have more negativity about healing than people in the world do. Some environments are not conducive to keeping what God has given you. Don’t listen to the people of Bethsaida. Get in an environment that is better for you spiritually.
Finally, we note he saw every man clearly. He tarried with Jesus long enough to get the full treatment. In this day and age their are many warning about the use/abuse of antibiotics. We are being told that if the doctor says take the medicine for 10 days, you better take it for the full 10 days, or else the antibiotic will kill only the weaker germs allowing stronger ones to survive and thrive. In time you could lose the ability for antibiotics to work for you. Some people have only had enough of Jesus, that the net effect is that they have been inoculated against saving faith, or healing faith, or delivering faith. Tarry with Jesus, let Him hold your hand for the full journey, get the full treatment, and then you also will see every man clearly.
Close: Prayer for those who sense a need to allow Jesus to hold their hand for a more complete work to be done.
