Seeing Clearly for the first time
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A blind man receives His sight
A blind man receives His sight
22 Then they came to Bethsaida. They brought a blind man to Him and begged Him to touch him.
His friends are doing this on his behalf.
It is entirely possible that this man doubted whether Jesus could really make him see at all. .
23 He took the blind man by the hand and brought him out of the village. Spitting on his eyes and laying His hands on him, He asked him, “Do you see anything?”
Jesus led this man by the hand.
Presuming this man was born blind, he has been led by other people his whole life.
And now Jesus is leading Him by the hand.
He has nver had a leader like this.
When you’re blind you are easy to take advantage of.
You can’t protect yourself.
Your possessions are up for grabs.
Your world is small.
He is now being led by a man who will protect him.
Who will not steal from him, but will only give.
And He will give him something that no one else can.
He is being led by the man who made the whole world, and has the power to unveil it for him.
There is a deeply personal nature to what is happening for this man.
This man has two problems.
He is blind.
But that pales in comparison with his second problem which is that he is spiritually blind, without faith.
We confess that we are all spiritually blind, but this is a very unique moment where we will see Jesus cure physical and spiritual blindness at the same exact moment.
This is what Jesus came to do.
18 The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed,
23 And he took hold of the blind man’s hand and led him outside the village, and after spitting in his eyes, he placed his hands on him and asked him, “Do you see anything?” 24 And looking up he said, “I see people, for I see them like trees walking around.” 25 Then he placed his hands on his eyes again, and he opened his eyes and was cured, and could see everything clearly.
Two big questions.
Why does he heal him in two parts?
And why does he use spit?
Ryan Sermon: Pliny the Elder in his “Natural History” speaks highly of the role of saliva in this society…. Best of all safeguards against serpents
They spat upon the victim of an epileptic fit.
They spat into the right shoe before putting it on, for good luck.
Pains in the neck were treated by applying fasting saliva.
So powerful was the force attributed to saliva, wrote Pliny, that many believed that spitting three times before taking any medicament sufficed to enhance its curative power.
Jesus was anointing his eyes:
18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire so that you may be rich, white clothes so that you may be dressed and your shameful nakedness not be exposed, and ointment to spread on your eyes so that you may see.
Why does he heal him in two parts?
Jesus was jumpstarting this man’s faith.
We confess that faith is a gift.
8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— 9 not from works, so that no one can boast.
This man was struggling though.
This is why Jesus pulls him aside.
This man needs what we all need.
A one on one encounter with the one who made us.
If your faith feels weak or non-existent,
there is absolutely nothing that will stimulate your faith other than the very Word of God.
So the first part of Jesus’ healing reveals to the man that Jesus does have the power to heal him.
And his faith is stimulated.
It’s being fanned into flame.
This wasn’t because Jesus messed up the first time,
it was intentional by Jesus to show to this man and those watching that Jesus CAN give him sight.
A Blind man receives his sight x2
27 Jesus went out with His disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the road He asked His disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”
Jesus is gauging them, and stimulating their faith just like the blind man.
28 And they told him, saying, “John the Baptist, and others Elijah, and others that you are one of the prophets.”
These are the same answers given throughout the book so far.
It’s clear that people are confused about who Jesus is.
Matthew–Luke § 129. Peter’s Confession (Mark 8:27–30; Matthew 16:13–20; Luke 9:18–21)
There was considerable messianic speculation among Jews in late antiquity, as the summary of the disciples in Mark 8:28 indicates. There were anticipations of a coming prophet, or priest, or king—all based on prophecies and/or typologies in Scripture, which are further developed in the intertestamental literature. (For example, the expectation of a coming prophet is based on Deut. 18:15–18 and Mal. 4:1–5, while the expectation of a priestly figure is based on Gen. 14 and Ps. 110:4. This latter figure, of course, is Melchizedek, who figures significantly in the Dead Sea Scrolls, especially 11QMelchizedek. Royal messianic expectations are usually based on Gen. 49:10; Num. 24:17; and Isa. 11:1–5.)
The vision of the people who had observed Jesus was blurry.
They were able to see a prophet, but they were unable to see Jesus for who He really is, which is the Messiah.
So Jesus asks the same question that he had asked the blind man, just in a different form.
Mark 8:29 (HCSB)
29 “But you,” He asked them again, “who do you say that I am?”
What do you see?
And Peter answers “You are the Messiah”.
I saw one commentator say that this is the watershed moment in the gospel of Mark.
After this, nothing will be the same.
New Testament II: Mark (Revised) Overview
The venerable Bede grasped the subtle irony embedded in this passage: Jesus’ human identity was being declared in a divine voice while his divine identity was being declared in a human voice
30 And he warned them that they should tell no one about him.
Why did Jesus tell them not to tell anyone he is the Messiah?
Because He wasn’t the first.
He was the true Messiah but he wasn’t the type they were looking for.
Messiah claimants before and after Christ.
Jewish, Christian, and Muslim claimants.
The expectation of the coming Messiah was one who was going to deliver Israel and possibly even kill the Roman Emperor himself.
This truly is the tipping point because next week we see that as soon as Jesus is identified as the Messiah, he immediately deconstructs their expectations and reveals more of God’s plan than ever.
The Messiah is actually going to suffer and die.
What do we need to see clearly concerning Jesus?
What do we need to see clearly concerning Jesus?
We need to see him as the Christ.
“The anointed one”.
He’s not an anointed one.
He’s not an option amongst many,
He’s not even an option at all.
He is the crucified and risen King of the World,
and His kingship is not contingent on your response to Him.
I’m not a fan of the language “Making Jesus the Lord of your life.,”
I understand what people are saying, but we don’t make Jesus anything.
Jesus is THE Lord of ALL life regardless of what you think of him.
When we use our eyes, we are not making reality, we are simply observing it.
The man who received his sight from Jesus wasn’t creating the things he saw, he was simply seeing them.
Peter did not make Jesus the Christ by calling Him such, he was simply responding to what he had seen and heard.
And that’s what faith is.
I love the relationship between these two stories where faith is connected with seeing.
What is required for seeing?
Assuming your eyes work.
Light!
This morning Jason and I were reading 2 Corinthians together and we were reflecting on chapter 4.
3 But if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 In their case, the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For we are not proclaiming ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves because of Jesus. 6 For God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ.
It is God himself who illuminates our hearts so that we can see clearly.
This is what the stories of the blind man and Pete show so clearly.
Faith is a gift.
Light analogy in a cave.
Faith illuminates in our darkness what has been there the whole time.
Christ!
So what does it mean that Jesus is Christ?
Christ=Messiah
Matthew–Luke § 129. Peter’s Confession (Mark 8:27–30; Matthew 16:13–20; Luke 9:18–21)
meshiah
Used of prophets, priests, and kings.
Anointed one.
Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke Matthew 16:13–19; Mark 8:27–29; Luke 9:18–20
Thou art the Christ. The confession is short, but it embraces all that is contained in our salvation; for the designation Christ, or Anointed, includes both an everlasting Kingdom and an everlasting Priesthood, to reconcile us to God, and, by expiating our sins through his sacrifice, to obtain for us a perfect righteousness, and, having received us under his protection, to uphold and supply and enrich us with every description of blessings