Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, May 28, 2023

The Man Who Saw Trees Walking. Today, Pastor Michael is going to tell a story about a man who saw trees walking.  A blind man could see, and others who could normally see were blind. Bethsaida (“house of the fishermen”)is where Jesus is today; his ministry headquarters was just down the road in Capernaum.  Jesus was in Bethsaida, and a group of people are coming up to him with a man whose eyes are bandaged, and they wanted Jesus to see this man and heal him.  Jesus took the man’s hand and leads him through the streets.  They get to the edge of town, and Jesus keeps going out into the fields with the man.  Jesus then took off the man’s bandages, spit on his fingers, and touched the man’s eyes. Jesus asked him, what did he see?  He told Jesus that he saw he saw men like trees, walking.  Then He put his hands on the man’s eyes again and made him look up, and he was restored and saw everyone clearly.  Jesus told him not to go into town. This is an interesting story because the healing was incremental or partial.  First, the man saw ‘trees’ walking.  But after he was touched a second time, his sight was fully restored. Healing isn’t the same all the time.  There is a lot of variety in the way folks are healed.  So, why is this a two-stage miracle?  Because some of the greatest miracles occur in two stages! Every single person begins in a state of spiritual blindness.  Jesus will have to open our eyes enough to ‘see’ we need salvation.  The Holy Spirit will open our eyes enough for us to recognize that we need Jesus. We then have that partial opening of our eyes and can see enough that we need Jesus.  Then He touches us, and we fully see that we can cry out to the Lord and be saved! (Disciple's Study Bible Notes) 8:22-26 MIRACLE, Christ—Miraculous events may become symbolic parables. Jesus healed the blind man in a unique two-step process. As in 7:32-37 Jesus used the power of touch in healing. Unique here is the apparent partial cure after the first “treatment.” The larger context depicts the blindness of the disciples. Verses can be found in Mark 8: 22-30. Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.