Miracles of Jesus

By J. Edwards

Often in the gospels we come across short paragraphs, which say that when Jesus went to a certain place, crowds of people would assemble and that He would heal them all. And from this we can see that Jesus never turned anyone away, there was no distinction, all who needed help were given help and their lives were transformed as a result.

Nor must we imagine that Jesus healed people in crowds, without regard for individuals. The person before Him always commanded His full attention and he would go to great lengths to seek out people in need.

Here then is just one example of Jesus focusing on an individual person. He was visiting Bethesda (Mark 8:22) when some people brought a blind man to Him and begged Him to touch the man. Jesus knew that the noise of the crowd would distract the blind man so he took him by the hand and led him out of the village, Then, alone with the man, He put saliva on his eyes laid his hands on him and asked him, ‘Can you see anything?’ And the man looked up and said, ‘I can see people, but they look like trees, walking.’ Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.

Why did Jesus ask the man concerning what he could see? This is the only time, apparently, that he did so. And what was the reason for the man’s inability to see things as they really were?

If you think about it, it's as though the man was seeing people walking upside-down, with legs waving in the air like branches, and their bodies like tree trunks below.

I believe that the man really was seeing things upside-down! When Jesus had touch him the first time, yes, the man’s eyes were healed. But, think about it, light passing through a single convex lens gives an inverted image on a screen. On that basis we should all see everything upside down, because it takes two lenses to transmit an image so that it is see the right way up. And for us it is known that our brains that turn the image that arrives inverted on the retina the right way up, so that we can see things properly. When Jesus touched the man the second time, it was simply to enable his mind to turn the man’s world the right way up, which enable him to see perfectly.

The science behind understanding this story was first explained to me, years ago, by a friend who was a medical student. A case of modern science helping us to understand what was going on in the gospels!
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And of course, Jesus is now as He was then, and cares for each one of us as individuals, precious in His sight. A great theologian was once asked to sum up his theological thinking in a few words, to which he replied, ‘Jesus loves me.’ Amen. ​
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