Spiritual Eyesight
By Pastor Jim May
After feeding the multitude with 7 seven loaves of bread and two small fish there were 12 baskets of fish and bread left over. But somehow the disciples had left and failed to take anything with them. Thus we find them, a little while later on a boat in the middle of the sea without any food.
Along the way they had crossed paths with a group of Pharisees; men who considered it their sacred duty to prove that Jesus was an imposter and a blasphemer. A good Pharisee would not believe anything unless they could see it with their own eyes. They relied totally upon signs and wonders, not upon faith. Sadly, without exercising faith, we can never understand the things of God for they are hidden from the natural mind.
1 Corinthians 2:14, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
These Pharisees needed a sign before they would believe. “Jesus, we will believe that you are truly from God if you will give us a supernatural sign. Perform for us a miracle right here and now and we will believe.” They didn’t really want a sign and they had no intention of believing that Jesus was the Son of God. Even if Jesus had spoken an elephant into existence and had it float above their heads and speak to them in their Hebrew language, they would not have believed it. They would have simply said that it was a sorcerer’s trick. Their whole purpose was to trick Jesus and to trap him so they could bring an accusation against him.
But Jesus knew their heart and their intentions and he was not into playing games with this bunch of vipers. It grieved the Lord that these men, who were supposed to be among the spiritual leaders of Israel, refused to see him as their Messiah. It was a great disappointment to see the lack of faith in God’s chosen people. All they wanted were, “Signs”. Why would they want signs when the greatest “Sign” of all, the very Son of God stood before them? If they won’t accept Jesus, then they won’t accept anything.
They didn’t want that kind of sign. They wanted an extraordinary miraculous sign; something that only God could do and no magician. They sought a sign like making the sun stand still as it did in the days of Joshua, or the raining of manna from the sky as it did in their journey from Egypt in the time of Moses, of lighting and thunder on a clear day as it did when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and the Law on Mount Sinai, or perhaps the appearance of a perfect rainbow on a clear morning as we see after the flood of Noah’s time.
Jesus wasn’t about to be relegated to the position of a circus side show just to please the Pharisees and Sadducees. He left them standing there, fuming because they couldn’t trap him, and entered into a boat with the disciples to get away.
Do you know some people like that? They are always searching for a sign. A lot of Christians are like Gideon in the Old Testament. They want God to give them a sign before they will make a move. Lord, let the sun shine during a thunderstorm – No wait, that happens anyway. Let’s see, let my yard be the only place where rain falls. No, that might happen naturally. Lord, I know, let my boss walk up to me tomorrow morning and make me the vice-president of the company. I know that if that happens, then I must be in your perfect will.
Many are only convinced of the existence of God if they can see a “miracle”. Millions of people have made the arduous journey to a tiny village in the Bosnia-Herzegovina province of Central Yugoslavia. There they climb to very top of a rugged mountain where many have seen the Virgin Mary appear in the sky and speak to them. It’s called the Miracle of Medugorje. We are people who look for a sign.
Some people take crop circles and designs that seem to appear out of nowhere in the middle of a cornfield to be a “sign”.
Why do we need “signs” when we have Jesus in our heart? That’s the only sign you need. This life is to be a life of faith and not sight.
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:7, "For we walk by faith, not by sight"
Let’s learn to have faith in Jesus, not trust in signs. The devil can also create signs and wonders, but his signs are only lies and they are given but for one purpose – to lead men and women away from the truth of God’s Word and His will.
So Jesus just sighed deeply, turned and walked away. There was no reaching these Pharisees and Sadducees and He knew it. He and the disciples entered into a ship and sailed away.
Along the way Jesus, the quintessential teacher, used this occasion to teach his disciples a valuable lesson.
Mark 8:15, "And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod."
What did Jesus mean by this? The wording is very emphatic. Jesus is trying to make a strong point that these Pharisees and Sadducees were not the role models for people to emulate.
Jesus called their beliefs “leaven”. We all know that leaven is another word for yeast and yeast is nothing more than a single cell fungus that is put into a mixture to cause it to ferment or to rise.
It is used in making of alcoholic beverages because the fungus combines with the other ingredients and releases alcohol and carbon dioxide making it intoxicating and foaming. It is used in the baking of bread where the carbon dioxide that is released causes the bread to swell, or rise. The next time you eat bread just remember that it is baked by using a fungus.
What did the leaven of the Pharisees do? The doctrines that the Pharisees taught were the commandments and inventions of men, the traditions of the elders, free will, and justification by the works of the law. They were all about legalism and strict observance of the Law and not about faith.
The doctrine of the Sadducees taught that there was no resurrection of the dead, nor angels, nor spirits of any kind, good or evil.
Both of these groups tried every way possible to infuse their notions into the minds of men. And when their doctrine, or leaven, was accepted by men, they truly began to act like they had swallowed yeast. They developed an old sour disposition; becoming morose, with no sense of humor at all, extremely solemn and moody. They also became very rigid in their standards of “self-righteousness”, and they swelled up with pride and got all puffed up around people trying to make people think that they were better than everyone else.
The Pharisees were legalistic and condemning of everyone but themselves, and the Sadducees were convinced that Herod, the Roman governor, was the true Messiah of Israel. These were some confused people. They couldn’t help anyone understand anything about God because they knew nothing of God to tell.
Their doctrines were infectious and dangerous to true spirituality. That’s why Jesus is so emphatic about staying away from them.
Do you know some folks who act like they have swallowed yeast? They have a sour disposition. Their look down their nose at every one else because they are convinced that no one is right but them. They get all puffed up when you try to correct an obvious error in their belief system. I’ve met a lot of people like that, and most of them have been inside the church. There is no one harder to talk to about Jesus than a man who is convinced in his own mind that he is right. A closed mind is a hard nut to crack.
If you don’t quite grasp all that is being said, don’t feel too bad. You’re in good company. The disciples didn’t understand either. They thought that Jesus was upset because they had forgotten to bring lunch!
Mark 8:17-18, "… perceive ye not yet, neither understand? have ye your heart yet hardened? Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember?"
Jesus says, “Put on your glasses, turn up your hearing aid and use your brain guys! It’s not that hard to understand if you will just pay close attention. It’s not about fish and bread, it’s about discerning and understanding the things of God.”
The ship finally reached the other shore and they stepped out on the banks in a little town called Bethsaida. Immediately Jesus was recognized as the miracle working man from Galilee and the crowds began to gather. Look at what happens next. You will see that Jesus is still continuing to teach, but this time he uses a miracle as an object lesson.
The disciples weren’t asking for a sign, but a sign was about to be given to them. This would be a sign that might just help them to finally understand.
Mark 8:22 – 25, “And He came to Bethsaida. And they brought a blind man to Him and begged Him to touch him. And He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when He had spat on his eyes and had put His hands on him, He asked Him if he saw anything. And he looked up and said, I see men as trees, walking. And after that He put His hands again on his eyes and made him look up. And he was restored and saw all clearly.
Can you see the lesson yet, or does Jesus need to teach some more? We have some teachers in the church who stand before students every day trying to instill a little bit of wisdom, knowledge and understanding into those thick, dense little heads. It’s not an easy task, especially when the kids you are trying to teach either don’t want to learn or think they know it already. Sometimes you have to use a different approach or a different object lesson to get your point across.
Here we see the blind man. Is he not an example of those blind Pharisees and Saduccees? Is he not an example of a man who is blinded by sin or blinded by his own self-righteousness? He cannot see anything. He has to be taken by the hand and slowly, but gently, watching every step and every move, lest he trips and falls. Jesus took him by the hand and gently led him to a place where they could be alone.
The first thing that we must do before we can truly “see” the things of God the way we should, is to get away from everything and everyone who will distract us and influence us to stay in that blind condition. The unbelief of the crowds and the influence of the religious leaders to reject the truth often kept a lot of people from being set free. We need to get alone with God before we can really hear his Word and understand. And before we can get alone with Him, we have to allow the Holy Spirit to lead us aside, away from the rat race of life, so that we can have a few minutes to truly hear what God has to say.
Jesus then did something that is not usually done – he spit on the blind man’s eyes. The Book of Matthew says that he mixed spit with clay and put it on the man’s eyes. But either way it was strange thing to do.
That’s the second thing that must happen before we can get our spiritual sight. We have to allow God to work in us in his own way. Don’t try to put God in a box and tell him what he has to do, but surrender your will to His will. Allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you and then pay attention. The spit and clay are symbols of God’s water of life acting upon this vessel of clay to bring us back in line with God’s will for our lives. It has to be done through the watering of the Word of God as it works on this body of flesh to help us understand.
For the first time in his life, the blind man could see light. He could see men walking around. His world of total darkness was flooded by light.
When a soul comes to Christ and his spiritual eyes are opened for the first time, that is an exciting time. Suddenly the whole world looks different. He can see and understand things in a whole new light. Suddenly the truth appears behind the lies and deceit and he is able to understand why things happen, and the root cause of many issues that were unclear before. Suddenly the answer seems so easy to understand. But he isn’t there yet. There’s more to the story.
The blind man could see, but his vision wasn’t clear. Men looked like trees, shadows or outlines. Though he could see, he didn’t have clear vision, so Jesus touched his eyes one more time.
This time the blind man could see clearly. Men were no longer trees, but he could see them for what they really were.
I can remember when I first started going to LSU back in 1966. I had gone for a long time not realizing how bad my vision was. I had made good grades all through High School and had very little trouble making the honor role. I would always try to sit close to the front because I could see better but it just never dawned on me that I needed glasses.
Then one day I went to the doctor and got some glasses to correct my vision. I can remember when I first put those glasses on. Suddenly everything had a perfect outline. Trees had definite edges on the limbs. Leaves actually were separated from one another. And people still had two eyes even when they were on the other side of the room.
My vision had been so bad that everything had fuzzy outlines and objects just seemed to overlap one another in a hazy glob. I could see, but I couldn’t see clearly. But what a difference it made with that vision corrected!
Now that I’m getting older, the ability of those glasses to correct my vision is getting worse and things are often running together again. It’s a terrible thing when you can’t bring things into focus and see them as they are.
That’s the way it is in the realm of the Spirit. We cannot see clearly the things of God until God touches our heart and soul and opens our spiritual eyes. We can’t perceive what God is really like until we get to know him better. We can’t understand his Word until the Holy Spirit opens our understanding. We can’t know the things of the Spirit until the Spirit gives us that ability.
How is your spiritual vision this morning? Do you understand the things of God or is much of it a little hazy? Do you have a clear picture of God’s will for your life, or are you wandering around stumbling over everything in sight because your spiritual vision isn’t clear?
God wants you to see him clearly. He wants you to understand His word perfectly. He wants you to walk in the right paths where he can bless you greatly. But none of that can happen until we surrender our will to his will and begin to search for him.
That blind man could have stayed blind by simply refusing to take hold of Jesus’ hand and allowing the Lord to lead him out of town where he could be healed.
Will you take hold of the Lord’s Hand today?
