Mark 8.22-26: the blind man is healed

[S. Rey]

As I am begining to discover, reading the Scriptures can be one of the most enlightening things for us Orthodox Christians to do, so please forgive me if I ask several questions regarding interpretation of obscure passages. The latest passage is the scene where Christ cures the blind man in Mark 8: 22-26. What is perhaps most intriguing is that Jesus Christ performs the healing action a second time by laying His hands, after the man told Him that he could only see people "look like trees, walking" after the Christ put saliva on the man's eyes a first time. At first sight, it would almost look like Christ's healing action was incomplete, as if He had not done it properly and had to do it again. What is the meaning of this? And why does He first use saliva, and then lays His hands? I appreciate your inputs.

In Christ,

Sylvain.

[Kusanagi]

I read about the part where he uses saliva and then uses his hands, was going back to how man was made from dust (clay). But I am interested to know about what the man's eyes had to be touched twice in order for it to be healed fully.

But something similar like this does happen in the lives of the saints but i never thought much about it.

[Herman Blaydoe]

The man is being healed in stages, his healing is the reenactment of the healing of Israel, just as our ability to know God grows gradually. The leading out of town is the Exodus. The first "healing" is the Law and the prophets, the second healing where things are seen clearly is the coming of Christ. But it is not yet time for His glory to be revealed to all, so he is told to tell no one.

[Father David Moser]

From the Explanation of the Holy Gospel According to St Mark by Blessed Theophylact:

It appears that Bethsaida suffered from great unbelief, which is why Christ cries woe unto it, as Matthew records: "Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works, which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago." The Lord, therefore, comes to Bethsaida and the people bring a blind man unto Him. But the faith of those who bring the blind man was not genuine, which is why the Lord leads him out of the village and then heals him. He spits upon the eyes of the blind man, and puts His hands on him, so that we might learn that both the word of God as well as the action which follows the word are able to work miracles. For the hand is a symbol of action and the spit is symbol of the word, coming as it does from the mouth. The blind man himself did not have perfect faith, which is why the Lord does not at once make him to see clearly, but only in part, as his faith was only in part. For healing occurs according to one's faith. The Lord commands the man not to go back into the village, because, as I have mentioned, the inhabitants of Bethsaida were unbelieving and would have caused harm to the soul of the man. The Lord also commands him not to tell anyone what was done to him, lest, by not believing him, the villagers draw down upon themselves greater condemnation. And how often are we not also spiritually blind, living in the village, that is, in this world? But when Christ leads us out of the village, that is, from the world and its affairs, then we aer healed. But afer we have been healed, He tells us to return no more into the village, but to our home, for the home of each one of us is heaven and the dwelling places there.

[S. Rey]

Thank you Herman and Fr. David for these explanations!