Seeing Clearly
Mark 8:22-26
Seeing is a strange thing. An infant can see a john deer tractor and not benefit from it. A farmer can see a jar of smashed carrots and not be drawn to it. A doctor can see blurry images on a glass slide and be excited about what it tells him. A preacher can see three words in Greek and be filled with joy for months.
Seeing is more that having eyes to see, but enjoining the physical vision with the proper emotional parts, intelligent parts, and experiential parts to gain the value of the sight. Sometimes we can have eyes and cannot see.
Let's begin our text from Mark 8:22 and drop a few comments along the way.
Mark 8:22 "And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him."
The importance of a text in scripture is always found in the context. This is a rule in Bible study, not just for preachers, but it is important for every Christian. The context of this passage is particularly interesting.
Jesus fed 4000 with a few fish and loaves, the second time he did such this type of miracle. The Pharisees, just watching this, asked Jesus for a sign that He was from God. Jesus said, "No sign will be given to this generation."
Obviously, the Pharisees did not know who Jesus was. They were living in darkness. Blind.
The disciples then got into a boat to go to a different region. Someone noticed that they only brought one loaf of bread for the whole gang. This obviously was an issue, since that appeared to be not enough. Jesus said, "Didn't I feed 5000 with five loaves? How many baskets did we pick up when everyone was fed?"
They answered Him, "Twelve."
Jesus added, "And did we not just feed this 4000 with seven loaves? How many baskets of leftovers did we pick up?"
They replied, "Five".
All Jesus could say was, "You guys just don't get it, do you?" In other words, the disciples yet to understand who Jesus really was. In other words, the Pharisees were blind and could not see anything. The disciples saw, but not clearly.
So when the group arrived at their destiny, someone brought Jesus a blind man. What a great time for a lesson! They begged for Jesus to touch him, and He did.
Mark 8:23-26 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 men, 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." (Prayer)
This man's friends had asked Jesus to touch the man. Jesus touched him and healing was not found in this touch. He led the man by the hand out of the village. Once outside the city limits, Jesus probably spit into His own palm and applied it to the man's eyes. That, or He spit directly into the man's eyes.
Then He asked him, "Do you see anything?"
"I can see, but the men look like trees walking around."
Illus. My wife Laura tells a story about when, as a young girl, she got her first pair of glasses. She looked at the trees and was amazed. They didn't look like green cotton balls on brown and gray posts. She could actually see individual leaves from a distance away.
This man saw men, but couldn't make out much detail. The darkness was lifted. He could see but he was still legally blind. Was he healed? Yes, he could see, but no, what he saw was inaccurate.
So Jesus then touched his eyes and the man could see perfectly. Jesus tells him, "Don't go back to this town, but go directly to your house."
There are some lessons we can learn from this true story of our Savior.
1. Some people just want to come out of the darkness.
Radio preacher Martin Lloyd Jones described these people by saying, “They seem to know enough about Christianity to spoil their enjoyment of the world, and yet they do not know enough to feel happy about themselves... they see, and yet they do not see”.
Howard Hendricks of DTS -- “Millions of Christians live in a sentimental haze of vague piety, with soft organ music trembling in the lovely light from stained-glass windows. Their religion is a pleasant thing of emotional quiver, divorced from the intellect, divorced from the will, and demanding little except lip service to a few harmless platitudes. I suspect that Satan has called off his attempt to convert people to agnosticism. After all, if a person travels far enough away from Christianity, he or she is always in danger of seeing it in perspective and deciding that it is true. It is much safer, from Satan’s point of view, to vaccinate a person with a mild case of Christianity so as to protect him from the real disease.”
What I fear most in my ministry is that people under my ministry will be satisfied with where they are today with Christ.
My desire and prayer for you is that God will grant you a hunger to know Him more, and that your satisfaction for Him will drive you deeper in the Christian life. If you are satisfied with your life, you passion, your dependence on Christ and you love and obedience, you may see, but not clearly.
2. Your ministry and my ministry, can only lift the darkness.
The people pleaded for Jesus to touch the man so he could see. We need to ask God for the wisdom and power to lift the darkness from the lives of those we minister to, but that is as far as we can go. They must seek for truth and clarity for themselves.
There is no evidence up a point in the story that this man had any part in this healing. He was brought to Jesus by others. Others begged for Jesus to heal him. It never indicates that he asked to be healed. Now, the "teacher/healer" was leading him out of town.
The people were not doing wrong. This man may not have been healed if they had not loved him, brought him and prayed for his healing. But there is a point where Jesus must lead those we pray for away from us.
The lesson here, when we pray for others, we need to let go of them. We have to let go in humility and trust in God. That can be scary sometimes.
When we have been the "go to" person, that can be addicting. Pride can easily enter the equation if we are not continually humbly submitting to God. You have been praying for someone, someone you love and care for. Can you pray for them and let them go into God's hand?
Maybe that is what God is calling for you to do today. You can lead them out of the darkness, but they will not see clearly until you let them go.
3. The religious expectations of others can sometimes harm us.
Jesus led him out of town, out of Bethsaida. That wasn't one of Jesus favorite towns.
Luke 10:13-14 "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you.
That was a rather harsh proclamation. He had done many miracles, but the town was unmoved.
For whatever reason, Jesus decided to do this miracle out of town, away from the people. This brings us to an important message to the other end of the spectrum.
Some of you have a mentor in your life, a rock, an anchor, that stabilizing force that holds you together. It seems every family has one; one that keeps us grounded and makes things all right. We depend upon them for spiritual strength, counseling, wisdom and accepting love.
The blind man was like that: dependent upon someone who loved him, led him around and prayed for him. As I stated, that was a very good thing in his life. But there came a time in his life that he had to let go of their hand. He had to take Jesus' hand and walk away from his anchor.
Some of you may be there. Some of you may be lost in life because your rock is gone. That person was removed and now you are drifting. For you, Jesus extends His hand. Trust Him. He wants to be your anchor, your rock, your fortress, your shelter.
Psalm 18:2 The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
He has used others to bring you here, and thank Almighty God for them. But it is time that you deepen your relationship with God to walk on your own. C.S. Lewis said that the Christian life is not like teaching a horse to run faster. It’s surgically attaching wings and teaching it to fly. For you, it's time to fly. It's time to let go of the apron of your mentor and cast yourself into the arms of God.
There is a scary thing about this. Jesus told the man to not go back to his spiritual mentors. "Just go home and depend upon what I am doing in your life."
Are you ready for that real, authentic relationship with Jesus. You will never see clearer until you are.
4. There are times when what God is doing is not satisfying.
After Jesus spit into his eyes, he could see for the first time in a long time. Maybe ever. When I read this, sometimes I get the idea that Jesus asked him, "How's this." Like at the eye exam, the man saw darkness, then men like trees. Jesus asked him, which is better, "This or this."
When I was first being tested for glasses, no matter how bad the doctor made it, I could strain and read the chart. It hurt, but I could focus. But I was young, and now I am old. It took a while for me to learn that I should relax and look at the chart.
The purpose for the glasses was so I would quit squinting and straining to see and read. How many times would we have said, "Oh, yeah, I see. I'm OK. I don't need anything better. Lord, I can handle this now. You can go back to the Middle East where there is a lot of trouble."
For vision, Matthew 11:28-30 could read, "Mat 11:28 Come to me, all who squinting and are straining to see, and I will give you clear vision. Allow my healing, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your spiritual eyes. For vision with my healing is easy, and reading is light."
The message I hope you hear today is that we should have a desire to go deeper into the Christian life.
