Mark 8:22-26

 

Jesus, as with the deaf mute of 7:33, removes the man who is going to be healed to a more private location.  Jesus acts like a Doctor. He provides a cure for the patient. He asks questions to see if it has worked. On finding that the cure was not complete he offers further healing. Jesus is thus being portrayed by Mark as the ‘great physician’.

Some scholars have argued that the healing of the blind man, is a symbolic action which describes the faith life of the disciples.

 

Mark, therefore, uses this story to inform the readers about where the disciples stand in his narrative. The story comes as: (a) a clarification that despite the dangerous similarities the “disciple” is different from the opponents and outsiders, (b) a challenge to recognize their limited sight and (c) an affirmation of the hope that total sight is available through the Great Physician. At the same time, the readers themselves, who may identify with the disciples, are to hear Jesus’ rhetorical questions in 8:17–21 and note their own lack of perception and precarious position that gives urgent rise to the warning against the “leaven of the Pharisees and Herod.”

Guelich, Robert A.: Word Biblical Commentary : Mark 1-8:26. Dallas : Word, Incorporated, 2002 (Word Biblical Commentary 34A), S. 434