They brought to him a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. Despite Jesus ordering the crowd to keep quiet about the miracles God was working through him (cf. Mark 1:44, 5:43, 7:36), his reputation continued to spread and preceded him to the places he later visited. This resulted in many sick people being brought to Jesus so that he could lay his hands on them (touch them) and restore them to wholeness. In today’s Gospel reading, a blind man is brought to Jesus. Those who brought him begs Jesus to touch him, and in a surprising move, Jesus not only ‘touches’ him, but he does so in a rather ‘crude’ way. Laying his hands on the blind man, Jesus healed him by spitting in the man’s eyes. It was something that must have shocked those who witnessed the act. But it was not a shocking detail to Mark the evangelist. In fact, he might have been shocked had Jesus not made such a move at all!
For Mark, the Incarnation is a practical thing. God assuming human nature and coming to dwell with them is not simply an idea. The Incarnation is all about God getting his hands dirty, so to speak. God’s presence has to be felt. God must involve the self in the affairs of men and women. Jesus would have simply said the word and the blind man would have recovered his sight. But then Jesus would have remained apart from the people and Incarnation would have not made much sense. God assumes the flesh when he can be touched and when he touches back. Jesus touched the man in order to show those who were watching that the man’s blindness had not placed a barrier between him and them. He placed his hands on the man to show the people that in addition to the ability to see, what the man had also missed was human touch. Part of the Good News that Jesus had come to proclaim includes the removal of the barriers that men and women have placed between them. True healing cannot take place until such barriers are removed and done away with.