The NT is filled with examples of the Lord Jesus bringing light to the blind. But the encounter in Mark8:22-26 is perhaps the most interesting of all these encounters for the specific details unique to the encounter. Right off the bat, you get the detail of the Lord leading him away from the village, bringing intimacy to a situation that others may have felt hadn't required it. But as in all of His healings, faith is important to the act, and perhaps He knew the blind man wouldn't have had the requisite faith in the presence of others.
This faith question is made all the more clear when we read the rest of the story. Lord spits as He has done on previous occasions, and lays on the hands, and something remarkable occurs. The blind man is not completely healed yet. Is this an example of a wound worse than other blind people's wounds? Can't be. In John 9, Lord gives sight to a man who had never seen before.
The only explanation was that either the man's faith was at fault, or that the Lord was testing Him in some way (or both). Perhaps this man was a skeptic all along. Perhaps he had tried other healers to no avail. Perhaps he expected Jesus to be just like the others. But the man lets himself hold out hope. And when the people look like trees, instead of running away in a huff, instead of blaming Jesus for His inability to heal, instead of not believing, he stays there, and the Lord lays hands again, and the man as it says in v25 looks intently for the first time and realizes he can see realizes he has been healed realizes that this man that Jesus is the one -- sight for sore eyes indeed.
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