The Compassionate Provision of Christ: Part 3
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Title: The Compassionate Provision of Christ: Part 3
And they came to Bethsaida. And they brought a blind man to Jesus and implored Him to touch him.
Taking the blind man by the hand, He brought him out of the village; and after spitting on his eyes and laying His hands on him, He asked him, “Do you see anything?”
And he looked up and said, “I see men, for I see them like trees, walking around.”
Then again He laid His hands on his eyes; and he looked intently and was restored, and began to see everything clearly.
And He sent him to his home, saying, “Do not even enter the village.”
Jesus went out, along with His disciples, to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way He questioned His disciples, saying to them, “Who do people say that I am?”
They told Him, saying, “John the Baptist; and others say Elijah; but others, one of the prophets.”
And He continued by questioning them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said to Him, “You are the Christ.”
And He warned them to tell no one about Him.
Christ gives us what we need to serve others; If we are to have the compassion of Christ needed to serve, we must also have the focus of Christ.
He is the only one who makes our focus clear. He is the one who gives focus to His church. That focus must be on Him.
Thesis: If our focus is not on Christ, we have nothing to do with His compassionate provision.
Intro:
Last week, I began by saying we must see Christ for who He truly is. This week I’d reiterate that and clarify...
A partial vision of Christ is not good enough
And they came to Bethsaida. And they brought a blind man to Jesus and implored Him to touch him.
Mark is, in a sense, shifting gears on us. He has changed the scenery. We knew this was coming, if you recall last week’s message, the text indicated Jesus left the Pharisees and got in the boat with His disciples, to go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.
It was in the boat they had their discussion about the loaf of bread, the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod, and what Jesus was really concerned with was their hearts, not what they were going to eat.
Well, now we see where this “other side” was, specifically.
It was the town of Bethsaida - If you recall, back in chapter 6, this was the intended landing spot for the disciples after the feeding of the 5,000.
Mark 6:45 “Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side to Bethsaida, while He Himself was sending the crowd away.”
Of course, they weren’t going to make it to Bethsaida at that time, because of the wind was against them (Mark 6:48), and ended up blowing them so far off course, they ended up landing at Gennesaret.
But Jesus likes to go to Bethsaida for some reason. It’s one of the few places, in fact, He tries to go to get some peace - it’s where He ended up feeding the 5,000, if you recall.
Of course, the confusion doesn’t help that there were at least two places called Bethsaida, but this was likely the same area, the place he keeps trying to go to get some peace.
Now, this story is going to begin a trend in Mark that we’re going to begin to observe - up until this point we have seen Jesus operate openly, in the public’s eye. He has done miracles throughout Galilee, He has operated openly...
But this is the last public miracle Jesus will do - in fact we’ve seen this coming if we’ve been astute readers - Jesus is becoming more and more private in His miracles.
This is definitely the point we begin a Second Act, as some call it, of Mark. Up until this point, Jesus has been public, now His ministry goes more private, more just Jesus and the disciples, and the third act will be His passion as He starts treading towards the cross.
But for now, we are once again in the town of Bethsaida, Jesus and the disciples landed there, and, as I said, again He has a group of people come to Him. They come bearing a blind man.
Now, pretty much every modern English translation says they “brought” the blind man to Jesus, but the actual word is feronsin (φερουσιν) - which means they bore him. They were his crutches. They had to lead him.
The man was blind, after all. He wasn’t going to find his own way to Jesus - and this tells us the severity of his blindness.
He saw nothing, so the crowd must lead him.
And they implore, they beg, they plead with Jesus to touch the man. Now, in some cases they just want Jesus to do just that. To merely touch, to show affection, to bless...
Not here.
The word for touch used is the Greek word aptetai (αψηται) - which means into physical contact, yes, but it can also be translated to bring light to darkness. In some useages it can mean to “kindle a fire”.
This man opened his eyes every day and he saw NOTHING. Just darkness. And they come to Jesus, and they say, in a sense, could you bring light into his world?
This is nothing for Jesus, by the way. John tells us John 1:4-5 “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
John 1:10 “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.”
and later in 1 John
1 John 1:5 “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.”
Since Creation, God has been bringing light into darkness:
Genesis 1:3 “Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.”
This is what God does, and Jesus is God. This is not too big of a thing for Him.
But it is His to do, His light to give, His miracle to perform - so the people come and they ask.
Taking the blind man by the hand, He brought him out of the village; and after spitting on his eyes and laying His hands on him, He asked him, “Do you see anything?”
Taking - the Greek is epilabamenos (επιλαβομενος) which means to catch, or to take hold of - see the man needs help so Jesus takes over helping Him. He is now being led by Jesus.
And He takes the man out of the village - now Luke will refer to Bethsaida as a city in Luke 9:10.
So was it a city or was it a village - well here’s the fascinating thing about this: the answer is both.
The town of Bethsaida had, at one point, been kind of a small town, but Philip the Tetrarch had invested a ton of Roman money into it - he beautified it. He made it a fortified outpost. He built it up into a city.
Philip had seen it’s value - and Josephus tells us that in the time of Jesus it had grown to be somewhat of a bustling Metropolis.
Jesus, therefore, leads the man outside of the town - why? Because He is, as I said, becoming more private with His ministry. With His miracles.
In fact, Jesus is still technically in the Galilean region, and this will be the last miracle He performs in that territory. At least chronologically speaking - Jesus is moving further and further out, away from His base of operation.
So He takes this man out of the town, and after spitting on his eyes - why does He do that?
It’s not some form of process of healing. Jesus isn’t giving us a “magical step-by-step guide to miracles” that involves your saliva here.
We’ve seen Jesus spit while performing a miracle before: back in chapter 7 - in fact that process seems familiar:
Mark 7:33 “Jesus took him aside from the crowd, by himself, and put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting, He touched his tongue with the saliva;”
But again, Jesus isn’t giving us a method here for healing - PLEASE DO NOT SPIT ON YOUR NEIGHBOR AND TELL THEM YOU THOUGHT IT MIGHT MAKE THEM FEEL BETTER.
This man can’t see, so Jesus likely does this with His spit to give the man reassurance that Jesus is about to heal him.
Elsewhere we see Jesus perform a different miracle, spitting into some mud, then making clay and healing a man’s eyes. That’s in John 9:6 “When He had said this, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and applied the clay to his eyes,”
Here, it is done so that the man has some way of sensing Jesus is doing something.
Then Jesus lays His hands on the man, and during this process, either the spit or the hands, we’re not told, the man begins to be healed. So Jesus asks Him, “Do you see anything?”
And he looked up and said, “I see men, for I see them like trees, walking around.”
The man looks up, and says he sees men - some translations say “people” but that Greek word is not neutered, it’s masculine - and the man says these men look like trees.
Well, what does this tell us? Immediately, we understand he was not a man born blind. He knew what trees looked like!
Something has befallen this man, that has caused his blindness. Something has occurred that has taken his vision!
And of all Jesus’ miracles, this is the only one that ever takes place in stages. In all of Jesus’ miracles - and it’s only recorded here in Mark - we never see Jesus ask someone if they’re healed, or “how healed they are”. So why does He do it here?
It’s because as much as this is a healing, it is a lesson for those men who were just in the boat with Jesus.
At one point, they boldly got out of their fishing boats, and followed after Jesus with reckless abandon. They followed their teacher absorbing everything they could.
But somewhere along the way, their hearts had become hard. Somewhere along the way they stopped understanding.
Maybe they didn’t like the fact that Jesus was telling them eventually He’d be killed.
Maybe they were getting impatient that this kingdom He was talking about wasn’t making them rich.
Maybe they were getting tired of the constant travel, of not seeing their families as often as they’d like (They’ll bring that up in chapter 10: Mark 10:28 Peter began to say to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You.”)
But the disciples had been so anxious to see, but lately their focus has been blurred.
Mark says the man “looked up”, and that doesn’t tell us much because if a blind person looks up you don’t know if they can see or not.
The Greek implies he looked up as if to see. It’s the Greek word anablepsas (αναβλεψας) which literally means to look up to receive sight.
It’s the same word Mark will use in chapter 10, in the story of Blind Bartimaeus.
Mark 10:52 “And Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and began following Him on the road.”
He regained his sight, he “anablepsas”.
But his sight was not completely restored, he saw the men walking around as trees.
There are a dozen theories as to why Jesus heals this man in stages. John Calvin said he believed “He did so most probably for the purpose of proving, in the case of this man, that he had full liberty as to his method of proceeding, and was not restricted to a fixed rule.… And so the grace of Christ, which had formerly been poured out suddenly on others, flowed by drops, as it were, on this man.”
And that’s fair, Christ can certainly heal however He likes. He is God, I am not. But I think if we’re not careful, as we look at the context we see the subtle message the disciples would (or at least should) have seen.
The disciples had been given plenty of evidence they should have been able to see, yet they remained blind to who Christ was. Who Christ is.
This man had, at some point, become blind, and now his vision is blurred - it’s better. He has a leg up on where he used to be! Sure! Just as the disciples were privileged to be as close to Christ as they were.
But the focus is still blurred.
Their sin, whether it was hard-heartedness, frustration, impatience, greed - whatever it was had blinded them to the truth of Christ, it had inhibited their ability to trust Him completely.
If our focus becomes inhibited, if we do not keep our eyes on Jesus, if we do not “lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and run with endurance the race set before us (Hebrews 12:1b)
Then we can not be shocked that we miss the point of things - that we miss who He is, what He has done for us, what He will do in us and through us.
I’ve already said in the past couple of weeks, it is at the cross His compassionate provision reaches its greatest point, but If our focus is not on Christ, we have nothing to do with His compassionate provision. His grace. His mercy. We miss it.
Because He is not our focus.
So Our Vision Must Be Made Clear
Then again He laid His hands on his eyes; and he looked intently and was restored, and began to see everything clearly.
Previously, Jesus laid His hands on the man and Mark did not tell us specifically where. But here, he clarifies that Jesus’ hands go to the man’s eyes.
Just as He has been doing with the disciples, Jesus is going to go to the root of the issue - in their case it was their heart, in this man’s case it was his eyes. So Jesus lays his hands on his eyes.
One pastor I read breaks down this passage beautifully. He says, “Three words are used there; three verbs are used there to describe what happened to this man after the second touch. He touched His eyes again. This is the only place in the four gospels where Jesus did a healing in two touches. And every verb that could – every compound verb that could be used to describe seeing is used in this passage – about five of them.
It’s all about sight from every aspect. And the two words for eyes are used. “He spit on his eyes” – Mark uses one word. The second time, “He lays His hands on his eyes,” he uses another word. The first word is ommata, the second is ophthalmous from which you get ophthalmology. There’s a richness here. Every verb and every word for eye is used. And the second touch brings a clinical healing in the most magnanimous way when it says, “And he looked intently,” that’s diablepō, literally to see through, penetrating sight. The fog is gone, to look through. To see accurately would be another way to understand it. (John MacArthur, GTY, Mark 8:22-26)
This is the beauty of Jesus’ touch, isn’t it? That He heals completely. He does nothing halfway.
As I’ve said, this is the only miracle that takes place in all the Gospels where Jesus does not heal instantaneously and completely all at once.
Now, He could have asked the man, “What do you see?” and when the man said, “I see men like trees trees walking around,” Jesus could have said, “Wow, good enough, I guess.”
He could have, as some pastors have taught, said this man didn’t have enough faith for a full healing - where do you see that? It’s not in the text.
Jesus could, as some others have suggested, just said, “Well, I’m not able to finish healing you, my power is limited.” But He doesn’t do that.
Jesus heals this man completely - the reason for doing it in stages is clear when understand what has transpired before this passage, and what follows.
Jesus had just lectured the disciples, asking them, interestingly enough, Mark 8:18a “Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear?”
And if you recall, those words would have stung. They would have cut the disciples to the core. And it’s a good thing it did. Getting cut to the heart is not a bad thing if it’s the word of God that does it.
Remember, after Peter preaches in the book of Acts, when the men of Jerusalem heard his sermon, what happened?
Acts 2:37-38 “Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Christ had, in a sense, provided for them in our text last week, spiritual discipline. Which is Biblical - this is what God does.
Proverbs 3:12 “For whom the Lord loves He reproves, Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.”
Hebrews 12:6 reminds us, “For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives.”
And the disciples received that in the text.
Hebrews 12:11 tells us, “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
And here things begin to click. Having ears to hear - what happened previously in chapter 7, when a crowd brought a man to Jesus? Jesus healed a deaf man - He opened his ears!
Mark 7:35 “And his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was removed, and he began speaking plainly.”
Now, a crowd brings a man to Jesus, and what happens? He began to see everything clearly.
And He sent him to his home, saying, “Do not even enter the village.”
Again, I want to reiterate, this is a turning of the page for Jesus’ ministry. He is becoming more private.
He is trying to keep the news of Himself from spreading. Because the news that spreads from this point will only be half the story.
Back in chapter 6, when He healed the deaf man, Mark 7:33 “Jesus took him aside from the crowd, by himself...” but here what did Jesus do? Go back to verse 23:
Mark 8:23 “Taking the blind man by the hand, He brought him out of the village...”
Remember the Greek word? epilabamenos? He took him so the crowd didn’t have to. Jesus was leading this man away from the crowd. Just Jesus and the disciples are with him.
Now, Jesus has been somewhat secretive about His ministry, He’s told the leper in chapter 1
Mark 1:44 “and He said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.””
Yet even then, Jesus healed him in front of people, as He was going along preaching, teaching, and healing (Mark 1:39).
And, if you remember, it was because of that leper, who didn’t listen...
Mark 1:45 “But he went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the news around, to such an extent that Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city, but stayed out in unpopulated areas; and they were coming to Him from everywhere.”
In Mark’s account, Calvary is coming. The Cross is looming. Jesus wants less and less attention brought to Him as He continues to prepare His disciples - who are now starting to understand what is happening.
And once the story is completed, once the cross is stained with blood and tomb has been empty.
As we will soon find, it has taken the healing of a blind man, the healing of a deaf man, the feeding of 5,000 and 4,000 (and the combined total of both of those was probably closer to 40,000 people), the calming of the storms, all the combined miracles of Jesus’ ministry so far...
Now the disciples will start to have a clear vision of who Christ truly is.
III.
Jesus went out, along with His disciples, to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way He questioned His disciples, saying to them, “Who do people say that I am?”
They told Him, saying, “John the Baptist; and others say Elijah; but others, one of the prophets.”
And He continued by questioning them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said to Him, “You are the Christ.”
And He warned them to tell no one about Him.