Why Can I?

Mark 8:22-26

Have you ever ask why can others and I cannot, did you get a good answer?  As a young child, I was often told you could not go there, or do that, and my come back was why, you know Gary’s mother and dad let him do so and so?  If you had my mom or dad you knew what the reply was going to be; you do not have Gary’s mom or dad you’re not to do so.  Not the answer one is looking for, and I have found as an adult I often did the same thing with my daughter.

Today we will look at Luke’s account of Jesus healing a blind man in Bethsaida, now Bethsaida is the hometown of Philip, Andrew, and Peter.  Bethsaida is on the northeastern shore, or the Sea of Galilee and Jesus and the twelve disciples had just come on the beach when some friends brought a blind man to him and begged Him to touch him so he would be able to see.  Mark spent eight chapters on many accounts, but this is the first blind person healed he has told us about. 

This is the account; ^“And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him.  And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?”  And he looked up and said, “I see people, but they look like trees, walking.” Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.  And he sent him to his home, saying, “Do not even enter the village.”

Jesus took him by the hand and led him out of the village, and one must wonder why?  Why not heal this man in front of the entire village, why outside, why not allow his faithful friends to come along, I do not know, and the Scriptures are quiet on why?  Something else happens and we are not told why the first healing did not do the trick.  But my most significant why is when Jesus sent him to his home and commanded the man who had been blind and can now see clearly to go home but, “Do not even enter the village.”

We are not told what the man did, but one must believe he did what Jesus told him to do, and that brings up my last why, then why do you and I not do the same?  From birth we have been under the control of sin, but when Jesus reached out His hand and by the faith He gave us we entered into His saving grace and was set free from sin’s control.  Yes, we were blind to sins control, but now we see clearly, then why do we not do as Jesus commanded us to do?

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice