"I See Men as Trees, Walking"

Only in Mark’s Gospel do we find the story of the blind man of Bethsaida who was healed by Jesus. The story is told in just six verses, but it contains several enigmatic elements that have long puzzled commentators. First, let’s take a look at the story:

"They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, ‘Do you see anything?’ He looked up and said, ‘I see people; they look like trees walking around.’ Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Jesus sent him home saying, ‘Don’t go into the village’" (Mark 8:22-26, NIV).

The name "Bethsaida" means "House of the Fisher." It was located on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. According to John 1:44, the apostles Philip, Andrew and Peter all hailed from this village.

Let us now focus on the three enigmatic elements of this story. First, Jesus takes the blind man out of town to minister to him. After he is healed, Jesus tells the man not to return to the village.

Secondly, Jesus spits in the blind man’s eyes.

Thirdly, the man, partially healed, says he sees people "like trees, walking around."

What is going on here? Why does the story include these enigmatic elements without explaining them?

Let’s address first things first. Why did Jesus lead the blind man out of town before he ministered to him?

Why Leave Town?
Earlier in his ministry, Jesus had attempted to take his talmidim (disciples) away with him for a private retreat at, or more likely, near, the city of Bethsaida (Luke 9:10). Once the locals found out about his presence, they glommed onto him and followed him everywhere (Luke 9:11a). Instead of getting bent out of shape at the inconvenience, Jesus graciously welcomed them and preached the Gospel of the Kingdom to them (v. 11b). Those who needed healing he healed. By evening, the crowds were hungry so Jesus met that need too – he performed there the famous miracle of the loaves and the fishes (v. 18-21). At this point, Luke’s account breaks off.

Later in Luke’s Gospel, we find Jesus teaching his disciples how to preach the Gospel, as he had done in Bethsaida. He explains to them that if they preach the Gospel in a town, and there heal the sick, and yet the villagers reject them, they are to go out into the town’s streets and say, "Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near" (Luke 10:11). This is what had happened in Bethsaida, for Jesus then says, "I tell you on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town. Woe to you Chorazin! Woe to you Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes…" (Luke 10:12-13).

Jesus’ excoriation of Bethsaida may help explain why he took the blind man out of town to heal him, and then warned him not to return to the town after his healing. Even though Jesus had performed spectacular miracles there, it appears that this Jewish town had failed to repent at the preaching of our Lord. Jesus then holds up the examples of Sodom, Tyre and Sidon – three gentile cities. He explains that these gentiles, had they seen what the citizens of Bethsaida had seen, would have been more responsive than his fellow Jews. They would have repented.

Many commentators explain that Jesus was simply taking the blind man away from the noise and confusion of the city. This doesn’t make sense, since there is nothing in the story that suggests noise and confusion. It just says "some people" brought this blind man to him.

The Significance of Spit
Now why did Jesus spit in the blind man’s eyes? This is similar to another time when he spit in some dust and made clay, with which he anointed blind eyes (Mark 7:33). If a modern evangelist or missionary followed Jesus’ example in this, how well received would it be?

Jesus, contrary to what many modern commentators suggest, was not adverse to following tradition, so long as it did not render the word of God "of none effect." From ancient times in Judaism, there was a tradition that the saliva of the first-born son of a father had healing properties. Writes A. Cohen, "For eye-trouble spittle was commonly used, but we are told there is a tradition that the spittle of the first-born son of a father has healing powers…" (Everyman’s Talmud, p. 253). The Talmudic reference is B.B. 126b, for those who wish to check it for themselves.

People Like Trees?
Our third, and most important, enigma is why the partially healed blind man saw "people walking, like trees." This statement is actually a powerful verification that a genuine miracle did take place just outside of Bethsaida that day.

Scientists have now learned that no matter how long a blind person has been blind, when they receive their sight back the cerebral cortex (the part of the brain relating to vision) must be reprogrammed, as if from childhood. In his book, An Anthropologist on Mars, Oliver Sacks, tells of a blind man named Virgil who, at age 50, was surgically restored to sight. Though the surgery was successful, Virgil had trouble adjusting to being sighted. Writes Sacks, "…Steps…posed a special hazard, because all he could see was a confusion, a flat surface of parallel and crisscrossing lines; he could not see them (although he knew them), to form a complex perception at a glance. This was one reason the cat, visually, was so puzzling; he could see a paw, the nose, the tail, an ear, but could not see all of them together, see them as a whole." Virgil’s wife commented, "Virgil finally put a tree together – he now knows that the trunk and leaves go together to form a complete unit."

When the blind man of Bethsaida began to see, he could not make sense of the imagery that was hitting his brain. It looked like trees walking. His brain had not yet adjusted to sight. What we find in this story is not poetic imagery, but a clinical description of how the man saw. Tree and man ran together. He cannot yet make sense of what he is seeing, as did trunk and tree for Virgil. The newly healed blind man had neither depth perception nor the ability synthesize shape and form.

Just as a person who has been crippled in his legs must learn to walk again, so the healed blind man had to learn how to see all over again.

In Jesus’ day, science did not yet understand the connection between the eye and the brain. Consequently, the description of the man who regained his sight in two stages as given in Mark is proof that a genuine miracle did indeed take place. As D. Keith Mano writes, "…this is irrefutable evidence that a miracle did occur in Bethsaida" (National Review, April 21, 1997, p. 26).

Perhaps this is why God inspired Mark to include this little six-verse story in his Gospel, the shortest of the three Synoptics.