LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Two Necessary Visions
All Scripture is divinely inspired and useful in the work of the Holy Spirit that gradually conforms us to the image of Christ, until reaching with all the saints the state of the perfect man. This is also the case with the passage in Mark 8:22-26 about the blind man from Bethsaida.
There, at first, it seems to us that Jesus was not powerful enough to perform a perfect miracle, and that he needed to act twice for that man to see well. However, we can never understand the Scriptures with our limited mind, but only through the Spirit. Only when we understand by the Spirit, our mind is transformed. This is a necessity clearly taught in the Scriptures (Rom.12.2; Eph. 4.23).
With this miracle, the Lord teaches us that all of us, at first, are spiritually blind. We were born dead in crimes and sins, without any possibility of seeing and understanding spiritual things. So, in this passage, we come to understand that we need two miracles to see completely.
The first miracle we need is to know him crucified, dead and risen. Jesus said this to Nicodemus, referring to himself as that serpent raised up by Moses in the desert (John 3:14). We have to look at Jesus crucified, and believe in him and in his blood shed from him for the remission of our sins; also believe that with him we have died and risen, and that now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. This is the first revelation of Jesus, the first open vision we have of him.
However, this is not yet the complete vision, since another miracle is necessary: that the eyes of our understanding be opened to the full knowledge of him; to see, furthermore, the exalted Christ, head of the body that is the church, seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, with all power in heaven and on earth.
If our vision were only the initial one, of Christ alone as our Savior, it would still be limited. We therefore need these two miracles of the Lord: to see him crucified, risen and dwelling in us, but also exalted, because this points us to the new and living path that he opened for us.