The second touch

When Jesus touched the blind man at Bethsaida in Mark 8 vs 22 – 25 and asked what do you see, his response was “I see men like trees walking”. Then Jesus touched him a second time and he saw everyone clearly. The case of this blind man is synonyms with many of us Christians. When we come to Christ, and become a child of God, we typically accept Jesus saved us from sin and death by His death on the cross – the first touch. However, we do not necessarily accept Him as Lord – the second touch. Consequently, even though we are Christians, our perspective is still skewed. We don’t see correctly. We don’t see like Jesus sees. Hence, we need a second touch. 

So, what does that second touch entail? What does it mean to accept Jesus as “Lord”? Let’s double back to the ancient times when “Lords” existed in kingdoms. Whatever a “Lord” said was to be obeyed by the subject regardless of whether the subject understood the rationale or agreed with the action. No questions asked. Now these “Lords” were human and so their decisions could be marred because they didn’t have all the information to make decisions per time etc. For us however, our Lord is Jesus Christ who knows the end from the beginning hence when He says ‘do this’ or ‘do that’ or ‘don’t do this or that’, He has factored the end from the beginning and analysed it in all ways to come up with that decision and action plan.  

Let’s draw a parallel using a parent and a child. The child is about 6 years old and the parent says “you’re going to start school so you can get an education” but the child’s response is “No. I’m not going to school. I don’t need an education.” Do you think the parent will be like “Ok, that’s fine.”? I doubt that very much. From the child’s perspective, given that all he or she does right now is pretty much play and have fun, he can barely see the purpose of an education. However, from the parents’ perspective having looked at the world and the hope that the child will succeed, the parent knows that an education in some shape or form will be needed in the global and evolving world. So, the parent acts now by placing the child in school regardless of whether it makes sense to the child or not.  

Now if we who are human and evil know how to give good things to our children, how much more our heavenly father (Matt. 7:11). Let’s learn to trust His Lordship, obey His leading and seek understanding from Him when necessary. I’ll still suggest though that you don’t allow your lack of understanding negate your obedience. Trusting Him means you trust His heart even when you don’t understand His ways. Your mind is far too small to fully comprehend the ways of God. 

Stay connected, 

Bolaji Ajayi