GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 8:25
Finish the Work
I dislike leaving anything undone. Sometimes my projects are spread over several days, months, or even years, but I get a sense of satisfaction when I can step back and see a project accomplished. I had, for example, a book that I began reading. I carried it with me when I accompanied Alice to a physician’s appointment, where there’s always a wait, or visited my own physician’s office, or went some place where I thought there might be a wait. But eventually I finished reading the book, got a feeling of satisfaction, and marked it off my mental to-do list.
Mark wrote about Jesus finishing his project. At Bethsaida, some people brought their blind friend to Jesus. After he took him out of the village, Jesus spat and used spittle to anoint the blind man’s eyes. The blind man opened his eyes, and he saw things moving around that he took to be men walking, but they looked like trees. His healing was incomplete. “Then again, he placed his hands on his eyes, and he opened his eyes, and he was restored, and he saw all things clearly.” (Mark 8:25) Writers derive many lessons from this event—that some healing is gradual, as a symbol of believers’ growth in understanding of God’s work, as an example of continuing to trust Jesus, or as a lesson to the blind man that he needed to continue to have patience and trust Jesus—just to cite a few of the lessons.
vOf the four recorded instances of sight restored in the New Testament, this is the only instance of gradual healing. Whatever lesson Jesus intended to convey, one point is that he didn’t leave a project undone. The now-restored blind man was undoubtedly satisfied with the completion of the healing; he saw all things clearly. Every believer is a work in progress. At the birthday celebration of an elderly believer, he said, “God ain’t through with me yet”—a sentiment shared by every Christian, and at least one lesson drawn from the blind man’s healing.
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