Day 1 – Mark 8:22-25

And they came to Bethsaida. And they brought a blind man to Jesus and implored Him to touch him. Taking the blind man by the hand, He brought him out of the village; and after spitting on his eyes and laying His hands on him, He asked him, “Do you see anything? And he looked up and said, “I see men, for I see them like trees, walking around.” Then again He laid His hands on his eyes; and he looked intently and was restored, and began to see everything clearly.^[1]

In the passage above, we read of a man whom Jesus healed of blindness but had to touch a second time before his vision was perfected. To place the passage in context this incident happened after the disciples who, as they crossed the sea, were discussing a lack of enough bread with them for everyone to eat and be satisfied. Jesus could have addressed their lack of preparedness, but instead He addresses their lack of focus, vision, understanding. They were worried about bread and missed the fact that they had the Bread of Life with them, as well as someone who had just fed five thousand men, not counting women and children, and then another four thousand. After feeding the five thousand He had twelve baskets full of scrapes left over and seven after the four thousand. I love this passage because Mark seemingly changes the subject away from bread to blindness and recounts the incident when Jesus had to touch a man, he had healed of blindness more than once. What was the problem? Faith, no! Doubt and unbelief, no! It was vision, focus. They had eyes but could not see, ears but could not hear. Their problem is our problem and one that can be corrected as we focus on Jesus.

Father, as we begin this new season enable us to focus more on Jesus and less on our temporal issues. Keep us from mirroring the lack of vision and focus of Jesus’ disciples who were more concerned with eating bread than being with the Bread of Life. May we never be deluded in believing that our efforts are greater and more reliable than what we have in and with Jesus. Amen.

^[1] New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Mk 8:22–25.