NOTES for Mar 8:1-26
Jesus performs healings a little differently each time. As in this case, when He touches the eyes of the man He heals twice. At first glance this may seem strange: after all, this is God's power, which can heal a person in a single instant, while here there is clearly a certain process, certain stages, and for some reason the healing does not happen all at once. It may seem that Jesus is, as it were, testing things out, trying His power before the full and final healing.
In part that is true - only the issue is not His power, but the person's readiness. Healing looks simple and instantaneous only on paper, while in reality behind it stands a complex and intense process in which the one being healed takes part. In such cases we usually speak of faith: whoever believes receives healing. But faith, even understood as trust rather than as certain convictions, is a process, not only a single momentary decision. In healing a person, Jesus draws him into relationship with Himself and into the life of the Kingdom He has brought into the world, drawing him in to the extent that the person is ready to follow Him.
Such involvement always begins with a person's readiness to follow Jesus; without it nothing will work. That readiness, however, must be constantly confirmed, both because its measure differs and because at each next stage of the path that measure changes. In a certain sense one could say that at each successive stage of the path God asks the person again whether he is ready to move farther, and each time the person is free to answer God yes or no. The same is true in relationship with the Savior: each next step on the Christian path means a greater measure of a person's involvement in relationship with Christ, and that greater measure presupposes the person's consent to the next step.
It would seem that this is merely a matter of healing, of bringing it to completion. Yet for the person himself, "merely" means a very great deal, a huge step forward on the path of relationship with God and with Christ. No wonder the person overcomes it not in one step, but in two. Jesus treats everyone with whom He comes into contact with the utmost care, neither hurrying him nor pushing him from behind; but if a person is ready, the next step will certainly follow.