Encounters with Jesus (3)

22 And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. 23 And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?” 24 And he looked up and said, “I see people, but they look like trees, walking.” 25 Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26 And he sent him to his home, saying, “Do not even enter the village.”

27 And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” 28 And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.”

29 And he asked them,

“But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” 30 And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him. 31 And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.

Introduction

These verses constitute a visual parable that, though historically true, also symbolizes the spiritual pilgrimage of the disciples.

The two-step healing Jesus uses is intentional.

It is meant to portray the gradual, step-by-step understanding of the disciples.

Jesus could have healed this man instantly.

That He doesn’t is pedagogical.

The disciples are slowly coming to see and understand that Jesus is the Messiah.

However, even after Peter’s great confession in 8:29, they still have only partial sight and understanding. He is not the kind of Messiah they expected.

Only after the cross and resurrection do they finally get it.

They are just like this blind man who received his sight gradually.[1]

We’re healed in Community.

Mark 8:22 (ESV)

22 And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him.

Jesus and His disciples arrive at Bethsaida on the northeast shore of the Sea of Galilee (cf. 6:45).

They are immediately met by a delegation who “brought a blind man to Him and begged Him to touch him” (cf. 7:32).

No doubt they have heard of His compassion (6:34; 8:2) and what He is capable of.

They believed “He has done everything well” (7:37) and are hopeful He will do something good for their friend.

We will never be disappointed when we bring our friends to Jesus, and neither were they! [2]

Do you think this blind man could’ve ever found Jesus on his own?

Of course not. He couldn’t see. Friends of his who could see Jesus brought this man to Jesus.

You may say, “It doesn’t say they’re friends.”

Oh yes, they are, because they begged him to touch him.

They were praying this man into Jesus’ hands. They were loving him into Jesus’ hands, and that’s why he came to see.[3]

Your sight will never, ever be cleared up if you only tell God about it.

You also have to say to other people who, from what you can tell, see better than you that you don’t see aright. You have to go to them and say, “Help me.” Are you willing to do that?

If you say, “Mind your own business,” that’s a great way to get rid of self-sufficiency, isn’t it? You have to process these things with friends.

“If Christianity was really a philosophy you followed by which you saved yourself, then maybe salvation would work by you coming and listening to a teacher. But if salvation is really a cosmic man coming to earth and saving you through a relationship with him, then frankly salvation tends to work through friendships.” Tim Keller [4]

We are Healed in Stages

Mark 8:23–26 (ESV)

23 And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?” 24 And he looked up and said, “I see people, but they look like trees, walking.” 25 Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26 And he sent him to his home, saying, “Do not even enter the village.”

Jesus is tender in His treatment of this blind man.

He took the blind by the hand; He led him away for privacy;

He spit on his eyes and asked, “Do you see anything?”

The Son of God did not expect complete healing at this point. He was not surprised.

The man responds, “I see some, more than ever before, but I still don’t see clearly.” Jesus then proceeded to heal his eyes perfectly.

Whenever you see details he’s doing (like doing it in two stages), he’s never doing it because he has to do it in order to exercise his power,

but because the recipients (in this case, the disciples and we who are watching it) need the details.

Jesus is doing it in this way not just to heal the man but to teach.

What is Jesus teaching?

He’s teaching about the pervasiveness of spiritual blindness.

This man is a symbol for everything else in the chapter, the pervasiveness of spiritual blindness, and to point out that

Nobody will really be able to tell who Jesus really is and the magnitude of who he is without external, divine, supernatural, and spiritual intervention and help.

He’s talking about the pervasiveness of spiritual blindness.[5]

All the commentators agree what Jesus is doing is trying to show

It takes more than one touch from Jesus to cure spiritual blindness.

Spiritual blindness is so deep that is doesn’t go away like that. It doesn’t go.

There are stages. There are multiple touches that are necessary. It’s a process of revealing and of illumination that has to happen.

Even when our spiritual sight is cleared up enough to see who Jesus is and to have a relationship with him, our sight is still not cleared up enough to actually live the life we should be living.

Therefore, spiritual sight does not clear up like that. It’s so deep, and it clings to us so much. If that’s the case, it’s that pervasive in its breadth and depth, before moving on to the next points,

I want to think practically about this.[6]

There are many layers to spiritual blindness.

In fact, I would say there is not a person on the face of the earth who doesn’t understand it. Even if you might be the most anti-supernatural, anti-spiritual, materialistic atheist, and you don’t believe in any of this spiritual stuff at all, you still know what I mean.

Do you know why?

Everybody goes through a situation where you really blow something, a relationship, a job, or a project.

You look back five years, and you say, “I was so blind. I knew it, but I didn’t know it.

I had the data, but I didn’t know what it meant.

I didn’t get it. It didn’t sink in. I was such an idiot.”

What is that? It’s not like you got new data. It’s not like you actually, literally, physically didn’t see something.

It’s that you realize you were spiritually blind.[7]

If the man hadn’t admitted he still didn’t see clearly, maybe Jesus would have never touched him again.

Dr. Lloyd-Jones basically says, “Interesting.

“What if Jesus had said, ‘Do you see aright?’ and the man said, ‘Of course, I do. What are you talking about? Yes, everything is just fine.’ He would have walked around the rest of his life cutting down people and talking to trunks.” Dr. Lloyd-Jones

He had holy dissatisfaction. He admitted it still didn’t work.

“No, I don’t still can’t see clearly. Please.” And Jesus touched him again.

What Dr. Lloyd-Jones is just saying is

be dissatisfied with your level of spiritual sight and it will be all right. Go to him and say, “I don’t see aright.”

I don’t care who you are. I don’t care how long you’ve been a Christian. I don’t care what you think you know. Unless you are like Jacob sometimes and you go and say,

“I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

Unless you have a holy dissatisfaction that your level of experience and your level of spiritual sight and your level of the experience of God’s love and your level of the experience of God’s holiness

… Unless you are dissatisfied and saying to Jesus, “No, I still don’t see the way I need to see,” you’re not going to keep growing.

Spiritual growth happens in stages.

You need to realize it happens in stages.

Say to Jesus things like, “Where am I holding on to the myth of self-sufficiency and blocking the clearing up of my sight?

Show me more.”

Sometimes, I have actually had people who are actually so hung up on the Pauline model they feel like unless there has been this total change, God is not working in their lives at all. A Saul on the Damascus road

What they would say is something like, “I wish I loved him more. I don’t feel like I love him more.” Do you know what the answer to that is? Unless he loved you, you wouldn’t wish he loved you more.[8]

What is the significance of this? Was it that this man was a particularly “difficult case” for Jesus? Hardly!

This miracle —like others—a sign to the disciples.

And this is confirmed by the fact that Jesus had already asked them about their vision of Him.

Mark 8:18 (ESV)

18 Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember?

Jesus is leading his disciples by the hand to the point at which their sight would become much clearer, and Peter would confess “You are the Christ” (v. 29).

Their spiritual understanding did not come instantaneously, but gradually. They, too, needed the second touch from the hands of their Master. (Ferguson, Mark, 125)

Mark 8:18 (ESV)

18 Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember?

As before,Jesus sent him home with a command not to enter the village.

26 And he sent him to his home, saying, “Do not even enter the village.”

No need for a show. No desire to make him a spectacle. This miracle was for his physical eyes, and it was for the disciples’ spiritual eyes.

That it accomplished those two purposes was enough.

Amazing grace how sweet the sound,

That saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost but now I’m found,

Was blind but now I see. (Newton, “Amazing Grace”)

That was true for this blind man. It was true for the Twelve. It was certainly true for me. Now, what about you?[9]

There Is an Inescapable Question

Mark 8:27–28 (ESV)

Jesus asks a straightforward question, a question the Twelve have pondered since He calmed the sea in 4:41: “

“Who do people say that I am?”

The disciples give the popular opinions making the rounds.

(cf. 6:14–16). Some agreed with Herod Antipas that He was some kind of reincarnation of John the Baptist.

Others judged He was Elijah, the prophetic forerunner before the eschatological “Day of the Lord” (Mal 3:1; 4:5–6).

Still others made a simpler claim: “He is one of the prophets,” perhaps the One promised by Moses (Deut 18:15, 18).

There were many favorable assessments to be sure.

Each is positive and affirming, much like those who today would applaud Him as a great moral teacher, the example all should emulate.

They honor Him but misrepresent Him.

They applaud Him while denying who He really is. This inescapable question demands an accurate and acceptable answer. “Who do people say that I am?”[10]

There Is One Acceptable Answer

Mark 8:29–30 ESV

And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.

Jesus shifts the question to His disciples.

Accurate declarations of who Jesus is have been given at the beginning of this Gospel by Mark the narrator: “Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (1:1); God the Father: “You are My beloved Son; I take delight in You!” (1:11); and demons: “the Holy One of God” (1:24), “You are the Son of God” (3:11), “Jesus, Son of the Most High God” (5:7).

At the end of this Gospel, a Roman centurion will say, “This man really was God’s Son!” (15:39).

At the center of Mark’s Gospel,

The voice of Peter answers, “You are the Messiah.” This is the one and only acceptable answer. Peter and the Twelve reject the prevailing opinions of the crowds and religious leaders, and so must we!

Popular and trendy views of Jesus must always surrender to the clear and consistent witness of Scripture.

James Edwards is right: “The categories of John the Baptist or Elijah or one of the prophets are no closer to the real Jesus than are the various ‘Jesus’ figures of historical criticism or Enlightenment rationalism or feminism or Aryan and racist theories or the Jesus Seminar or the various sociological models in our day” (Mark, 248).

Resist the trends! Stand on the Word against these faulty assaults! Personally, publicly, and even proudly declare your allegiance to Jesus proclaiming He is the Son of God, the Messiah, the One and Only Savior of the world. [11]

You need to see the ultimate way Jesus cured your spiritual blindness. That will give you the confidence to let him apply the antidote to your life.

How did Jesus ultimately cure our spiritual blindness?

The reason why he keeps saying to people, “Don’t tell people,” is because he has work to do before it happens and he’s just trying to slow the process down.

The main point to see here is every time Jesus uses his redemptive power, he’s putting nails in his own coffin.

Every time he heals somebody, every time he does anything good, he’s putting nails in his own coffin, in his own hands.

When Jesus Christ was on the cross, in Mark 15:33–34, we read this: “At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?’—which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ ”

On the cross there was this eclipse, absolute physical darkness, but it was only an image of the complete spiritual darkness into which Jesus Christ was plunged, when he lost the cosmic light of his Father’s love.

Why did Jesus Christ get plunged into darkness?

Here he’s bringing a man out of the darkness into the light. Why? Why can he do that?

Because Jesus Christ was willing to leave the light and be plunged into absolute darkness. It didn’t just happen at the cross.

To see our blindness ended, Jesus has to be plunged into darkness. And he did it for us.

Does that move you?

Do you realize your value to him?

Do you realize what he gave up for you?

As it moves you, does it make you want to be holy?

Does it make you want to stop sweating the small stuff?

stop feeling sorry for yourself, stop worrying about who is criticizing you, stop worrying about whether you’ve put on weight, stop worrying about these stupid things?

Does it make you want to say, “I want to do something about what’s wrong in the world; I want to sacrifice for others; I want to live for him”?

Do you feel yourself moving in that direction?

Why? Because your sight is clearing.

Spiritual sight does not get cleared by some kind of abstract truth.

You read the thing, suddenly something happens, and the light bulb goes on. No.

Our sight is cleared by the truth of the gospel. It’s the truth of what he did on the cross.

It’s knowing he was plunged into darkness that will bring light to your heart, and to the degree it does it begins to clear it up.

Do you see?

You have to have the confidence.

By looking at what he did to cure your spiritual blindness, to give yourself to him and say, “I don’t see clearly. Show me what you want me to see.

Even though it may be things I’m afraid to see, show me. I trust you,” you can pray the prayer. [12]

[1]Akin, D. L. (2014). Exalting jesus in mark (D. L. Akin, D. Platt, & T. Merida, Eds.; Mk 8:22–26). Holman Reference. [2]Akin, D. L. (2014). Exalting jesus in mark (D. L. Akin, D. Platt, & T. Merida, Eds.; Mk 8:22). Holman Reference. [3]Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. Redeemer Presbyterian Church. [4]Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. Redeemer Presbyterian Church. [5]Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. Redeemer Presbyterian Church. [6]Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. Redeemer Presbyterian Church. [7]Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. Redeemer Presbyterian Church. [8]Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. Redeemer Presbyterian Church. [9]Akin, D. L. (2014). Exalting jesus in mark (D. L. Akin, D. Platt, & T. Merida, Eds.; Mk 8:23–26). Holman Reference. [10]Akin, D. L. (2014). Exalting jesus in mark (D. L. Akin, D. Platt, & T. Merida, Eds.; Mk 8:27–28). Holman Reference. [11]Akin, D. L. (2014). Exalting jesus in mark (D. L. Akin, D. Platt, & T. Merida, Eds.; Mk 8:29–30). Holman Reference. [12]Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. Redeemer Presbyterian Church.

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