Faith: Jesus Opens Spiritual Eyes: Seeing God’s Faithfulness Clearly (Mark 8:22–26)

Introduction

Are you struggling to see something that might be right in front of you, God’s faithfulness, God’s direction, or even the true condition of your own heart? The central teaching today is this: Jesus not only heals physical blindness; He intentionally uses this miracle (Mark 8:22–26) to show us how He opens spiritually blind eyes, and how He calls us to bring the blind to Him so they can see clearly.

In Mark’s fast-moving Gospel, we usually cover several scenes at once. Here we slow down and stay with one healing because it’s meant to interpret the whole moment in Mark 8. Like looking for creamer in the fridge and somehow missing what’s right there, we can be sincere and still blind, especially in spiritual things. Some of us even sing “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” and quietly think, I don’t see it. This passage brings hope: the faithful God can open eyes.

Main Points

Are you struggling to see something that might be right in front of you, God’s faithfulness, God’s direction, or even the true condition of your own heart? The central teaching today is this: Jesus not only heals physical blindness; He intentionally uses this miracle (Mark 8:22–26) to show us how He opens spiritually blind eyes, and how He calls us to bring the blind to Him so they can see clearly.

In Mark’s fast-moving Gospel, we usually cover several scenes at once. Here we slow down and stay with one healing because it’s meant to interpret the whole moment in Mark 8. Like looking for creamer in the fridge and somehow missing what’s right there, we can be sincere and still blind, especially in spiritual things. Some of us even sing “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” and quietly think, I don’t see it. This passage brings hope: the faithful God can open eyes.

Seeing What’s Right In Front

Mark 8 has been building a theme: people are surrounded by evidence and still can’t see.

• The Pharisees demanded a sign right after Jesus fed thousands, missing the sign in front of them.
• The disciples on the boat didn’t understand Jesus’ warning about the “leaven of the Pharisees,” and they misread what Jesus had already done.
• Jesus had just confronted them: “Having eyes do you not see…?” (implied from the immediately preceding context in Mark 8).

So when we arrive at Bethsaida and a blind man is brought to Jesus (Mark 8:22), we’re not only watching a healing. We’re watching a living picture of what’s happening everywhere in that chapter: human beings, religious and irreligious, can be near Jesus and still not perceive Him.

A Living Parable, Not A Random Miracle

This healing is unusual in at least three ways:

1. Jesus leads the man out of town (Mark 8:23), signaling this isn’t performed for the crowd’s applause. It’s personal, intentional, and instructive.
2. Jesus uses spit and touch, even though He often heals with a word and has shown He doesn’t need physical proximity (as in earlier exorcisms and healings).
3. Jesus asks, “Do you see anything?” (Mark 8:23). This is the only miracle where Jesus interacts like this to confirm what the person is experiencing.

Mark has already taught us how to read Jesus this way. In Mark 4, Jesus’ parables carried spiritual truth through earthly stories, and we’re told that He taught with parables continually. In the same way, Jesus’ actions and miracles carry meaning. This blind man becomes a living parable: if Jesus can open physical eyes, He can open spiritual eyes.

Spiritual Blindness In A Blinded World

I want you to understand spiritual blindness not as a casual mistake but as a real condition with real causes. Scripture describes unbelief this way.

Paul writes:

• “Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded…” (2 Corinthians 4:3–4)

Notice: it’s not only eyes but minds that are blinded. That helps us make sense of why people can stand near truth and still reject it.

The Pharisees are a prime example. They began with a desire to honor God’s Law but elevated the Law into an idol. Their “god of the age” functioned like this:

• Law → self-righteousness → blindness to Christ.

They filtered Jesus through their traditions and their moral superiority, and it kept them from seeing the Messiah standing in front of them.

And I need you to see how present that same pattern is today. Our culture has many “little-g” gods that function the same way, things elevated as ultimate and unquestionable. People filter everything through them. It might be politics, sexual identity, moral performance, or any system that promises righteousness apart from Christ. The result is similar: people walk on eggshells, terrified of being declared “unclean,” labeled, or cancelled. Yet the gospel announces something radically different: God makes unclean people clean. He brings the cancelled into His family.

When you understand spiritual blindness this way, it changes your posture. You stop treating blinded people like enemies to mock and start treating them like sufferers to love.

Compassion For The Blind, Not Contempt

When a physically blind person can’t find the door, we don’t usually respond, “What an idiot, why can’t he figure it out?” We respond with compassion, because blindness limits what a person can do.

Spiritually, it’s the same. Many are genuinely blind to the glory of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4). They can’t see what you see. They may even be hostile toward what you love. That doesn’t remove responsibility, but it should deepen compassion.

Jesus’ posture in Mark 8 is tender:

• He takes the blind man by the hand (Mark 8:23).
• He guides him.
• He deals with him personally.

As I disciple you, I want to press this into your heart: if your view of unbelievers is mainly disgust, irritation, or superiority, you’re forgetting what you were saved from and how you were brought.

The Blind Must Be Brought To Jesus

Mark says, “They brought a blind man to Him and begged Him to touch him” (Mark 8:22). That line carries enormous discipleship weight.

The blind cannot lead themselves to sight. They need someone to guide them. And most of us came to Jesus because someone brought us, maybe a parent, a friend, a pastor, a coach, a neighbor. Few believers arrived by pure spiritual self-discovery. God used people.

Now it goes the other direction: I want you to ask, Who am I bringing? Who am I praying for? Who am I lovingly inviting, pleading, and guiding toward Jesus?

Paul says we are ambassadors:

• “We are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us… be reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:20, implied from the transcript)

This is part of your mission. Not everyone is an “evangelist” by gifting, but every disciple is a witness. The blind must be brought.

Cleansed By The Word Before Clear Sight

Now we come to the strange moment: Jesus spits on the man’s eyes (Mark 8:23). Why?

We may not get a single definitive explanation, but there’s a deeply practical insight here: sometimes you spit on an eye to clean it. Think of a mother wiping away the buildup from a child’s eyes in the morning, unpleasant for the child, intrusive, but loving and necessary.

In that same way, spiritual sight often begins with cleansing. God prepares us to see by washing away what’s clouding our vision, sin, lies, pride, misplaced worship, self-righteousness.

Scripture speaks of this kind of cleansing through the Word:

• Christ sanctifies and cleanses His church “with the washing of water by the word.” (Ephesians 5:26)

So when I bring you to the Word, when you submit to Scripture, when you sit under faithful teaching, when you let God confront and comfort you, this is not mere information transfer. It’s cleansing. Sometimes it’s uncomfortable. Sometimes it feels intrusive. But it’s mercy. Jesus is preparing your eyes.

From Partial Vision To Clear Vision

The man says, “I see men like trees, walking” (Mark 8:24). He has real sight, but it’s not clear. Then Jesus lays hands on him again, and the man sees everything clearly (Mark 8:25).

This is the only two-stage healing we’re shown, and it’s not here to suggest Jesus is weak. It’s here to teach us something about discipleship and perception: spiritual sight often comes in stages.

Some of you truly see, but you see people “like trees.” You have enough light to follow Jesus, but your discernment is blurry:

• You misunderstand what God is doing.
• You misread your suffering.
• You confuse moral effort with spiritual life.
• You interpret Jesus through the lens of your age.

So I want to encourage you: don’t confuse partial clarity with final clarity. Keep coming back to Jesus. Keep letting Him touch what needs healing. Keep submitting to the washing of the Word. The goal is not vague religious impression; the goal is to see everything clearly as Christ restores your vision.

And when Jesus tells the man not to go back into town or announce it there (Mark 8:26), it reinforces again: this moment is deeply personal and purposeful, not a publicity stunt. Jesus is forming disciples, not collecting crowds.

Conclusion

Mark 8:22–26 is a story about a blind man, but it’s also a mirror held up to our souls. Left to ourselves, we miss what’s right in front of us. The god of this age blinds minds (2 Corinthians 4:3–4). Even disciples can see partially and need further touch from Jesus.

So here’s the discipleship call I’m placing before you:

• Receive Jesus’ compassion for your own blindness.
• Submit to His cleansing through the washing of the Word (Ephesians 5:26).
• Don’t settle for blurry vision, keep coming until you see clearly.
• And take responsibility to bring blind people to Jesus, pleading, praying, and loving them like an ambassador of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:20).

The faithful God we sing to really does open eyes.

Lord Jesus, I confess that I often fail to see what is right in front of me. Cleanse my heart and wash my mind by Your Word. Where my vision is blurry, touch me again and give me clear sight, clear understanding of who You are, what You have done, and how You are leading me. Give me compassion for the spiritually blind, and courage to bring people to You with patience, love, and faithful witness. Make me an ambassador of reconciliation, and let the light of the gospel shine through my life. Amen.

Conclusion

Mark 8:22–26 is a story about a blind man, but it’s also a mirror held up to our souls. Left to ourselves, we miss what’s right in front of us. The god of this age blinds minds (2 Corinthians 4:3–4). Even disciples can see partially and need further touch from Jesus.

So here’s the discipleship call I’m placing before you:

• Receive Jesus’ compassion for your own blindness.
• Submit to His cleansing through the washing of the Word (Ephesians 5:26).
• Don’t settle for blurry vision, keep coming until you see clearly.
• And take responsibility to bring blind people to Jesus, pleading, praying, and loving them like an ambassador of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:20).

The faithful God we sing to really does open eyes.

Closing Prayer

Lord Jesus, I confess that I often fail to see what is right in front of me. Cleanse my heart and wash my mind by Your Word. Where my vision is blurry, touch me again and give me clear sight, clear understanding of who You are, what You have done, and how You are leading me. Give me compassion for the spiritually blind, and courage to bring people to You with patience, love, and faithful witness. Make me an ambassador of reconciliation, and let the light of the gospel shine through my life. Amen.