Now in case you didn't catch what I did.. this blind man, after having been given his sight, did not understand at all what he was seeing. He couldn't differentiate between men and trees. The one clue he had to make any sense of anything, was that he knew men could walk.
just wanted to point out that in verse 24, the blind man hasn't been given his sight yet, he was restored after Jesus put his hands on the blind man's eyes again.
8:25 After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.
this reminds me of a movie i watched long time ago - "At First Sight" - based on actual event http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0132512/
I disagree and I really don't want to turn this thread into a debate but I will defend my reasoning here before we drop this matter. If you want to further debate it, you can email me or go to the general discussions section and start your own thread on it.
First of all, notice Jesus spat on his eyes and put his hands on him in the verse I quoted. What wa the consequence of this action?
The man tells us the consequence of such an action, it allowed him to see men but he could not understand them to be men. Were they men or were they trees? He knew both of them stood tall and upright and that men walked but why couldn't he seperate men from trees despite knowing these things? Because His mind could not make sense of what his eyes were seeing. He never learned to understand what sight brings to the brain.
Now, the second time, Jesus did something to His brain most likely, rewiring the nerves perhaps as well, to allow this once blind man to finally understand what it was he was seeing for the first time. The men were no longer like trees moving but trully men.
The reason for the two separate actions by Jesus is because this is exactly what happens when you give sight to a blind man who's never seen before in their life. They don't understand what they are seeing when they receive their sight. You need to teach them to understand, we can't do what Jesus did and rewire their brain after we give them back their sight, its just not possible for us. We have to use therapy and teach them. Hence this is what you are seeing with the two separate actions by Jesus on the blind man and the consequence for each action. To be honest, the story would have been much more suspicious had the man been healed of his blindness and instantly understood what he was seeing when he had never seen a thing his entire life because we know now through modern science that, that just isn't what happens. But alas, this isn't how the story goes down, it shows us the reality of the matter long before science ever figured it out. Similar to paul and how He was inspired to write long before science ever knew, that invisible atoms make up the visible world!
Your response, in my humble opinion, is a good example how most people completely miss this tiny detail. They got lost in the bigger things like, Jesus could give sight to the blind. There is a process to receiving sight, its not just a one step thing, snap your fingers and BAAAM, you can see and make sense of it all, and this story demonstrates that perfectly. A seemingly insignificant detail which in reality teaches us not only a spiritual lesson but a scientific one.