Big Idea: The materialistic outlook of the disciples constituted spiritual blindness, and Jesus castigated them for their hardened hearts and lack of understanding. Still, there is hope, for the same Jesus who could heal the deaf and blind could also heal their spiritual blindness.

Understanding the Text

These two episodes complete the section on failure and faith in 6:31–8:26. The first section on the misunderstanding of the disciples recalls their “hardness” (displayed in 6:44–52 [6:52 = 8:17]), and Jesus’s rebuke of them is the strongest yet. Still, there is a promise of overcoming their failure in the healing of the blind man in 8:22–26. Jesus accuses them of being blind and deaf to spiritual reality (8:18), but this passage is framed by a healing of a deaf person in 7:31–37 and of a…