This story of healing has a different texture and feel than most of the others. It goes into great and surprising detail in describing exactly how the healing happened. It shows how Jesus, in this healing miracle and perhaps others, acted with intimacy, understanding, and compassion. (For a similar story about a man who was deaf and mute see Mark 7:31-37.)

Today, people with visual impairment engage in most of the activities of life with amazing confidence and ingenuity. In Jesus' day, blind people were seen as defective. They were shut out of productive work, and also out of worship. They were barred from the temple according to the law of Moses. Begging was the only way for them to maintain a living.

Notice that this blind man was brought to Jesus by others. Jesus seems immediately to understand the man's timidity or fear, so instead of making a spectacle of him, he takes him aside, away from the crowd. There, alone, Jesus can encourage his faith.

Then Jesus does something that seems really strange to us---he spits on the man's eyes and then touches them. Why? For one thing, spittle was thought to have medicinal properties, so he was indicating his intention to the blind man. By his action he was saying, "I will do something for your eyes."

Then, almost like an optometrist with a patient who is looking through the bulky optical instrument, Jesus asks, "Do you see anything?" Unlike many of Jesus' healing miracles, this one was not done instantaneously, but gradually---more like the way healing takes place naturally.

The blind man reports, "I see people; they look like trees walking around." One would not expect that a person who was blind from birth would instantaneously see with 20/20 vision. So, once more Jesus places his hands on the man's eyes---and then the man can see perfectly.

The fact that Jesus heals this man gradually, in steps, and with physical actions, takes nothing away from the miraculous nature of his healing. It does highlight Jesus' remarkable willingness to be with people where they are. Jesus does not overwhelm this man with his power and authority; he enters into the man's own world. Another interesting feature of this miracle is that it says nothing of the blind man's faith. While Jesus sometimes talks about faith as a necessary ingredient to healing, he sometimes heals people who display no faith at all (John 5:1-9, 9:1-12). Jesus' compassion is always much greater than our ability to receive it.