These are the Sermon Notes for June 28, 2020. We are now meeting at the church with limited seating and specific procedures and protocols that need to be followed. Read our Returning to Worship plan here. You can still watch our livestream service every Sunday at 9:37 am on our facebook page or watch the livestream recordings any time.
Mark 8:22-26 Only Half-Blind
Good Morning! We are continuing our study in the Gospel of Mark this morning with chapter 8 verses 22-26, page 844 in the pew Bibles.
We are going to be looking at a very interesting and odd event in the ministry of Jesus, the healing of a blind man near the village of Bethsaida. What is unique about this event is that Jesus healed the man in stages, a partial healing and then a complete restoration of his sight.
It’s also important to understand that this event takes place outside a village called Bethsaida. There are two Bethsaida’s around the Sea of Galilee, one on the western side and one on the north eastern side called Bethsaida Julias, and that is where this event takes place.
So let’s look at our text, Mark 8:22-26.
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.”
Let’s Pray.
The Gospels record something like seven blind people were healed by Jesus, this wasn’t the first and it wasn’t the last, but it certainly is the most unique.
We must remember that Jesus was not unaware of the Father’s program for Him here on earth, the things that He did and said during His earthly ministry were strategic, they always had a purpose.
I try very hard to not take these individual accounts from the Gospels and turn them into parables or fables as if they are merely imaginary object lessons. There are certainly lessons for us to learn from these accounts but here Jesus is working to instruct His disciples and point to things that were coming.
You may have heard it said that Jesus holds the offices of prophet, priest, and king.
The prophet declares the Word of the Lord, calling God’s people back to Himself. The prophet puts on display the Word, works, and wonders of the Lord, speaking as the Father’s mouthpiece. That is what Jesus ministry had been up to this point, preaching repentance with power and authority accompanied by signs and wonders.
But Jesus also holds the office of priest, High Priest, offering sacrifice to God on behalf of His people for their sin. The High Priest would bring the blood of the sacrifice and sprinkle it on the Ark of the Covenant inside the Holy of Holies, the innermost part of the Temple in Jerusalem, once a year on the Day of Atonement.
Last week we looked at verses 11-13, when Jesus was pressed for a sign by the Pharisees, Jesus sighed deeply in His spirit because He was accepting the first steps on the path of the Ultimate High Priest, a way of suffering and pain, a way of not merely offering the blood of bulls and rams on the altar but His own blood offered for the sins of the whole world.
Moses held the offices of both prophet and priest, speaking on behalf of God to the people and behalf of the people to God. David served as prophet and king, speaking on behalf of God and ruling over God’s people. But only Jesus could serve as Prophet, Priest and King.
The people of Israel knew these offices even if they didn’t recognize Jesus, they knew who the prophets were, and they knew who the priests were, and they knew who the king was, but they didn’t understand who Jesus was, and neither did the disciples. The disciples were just like this blind man.
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.”
It would be easy to settle for shallow sermonette-type thoughts on the surface:
Some people brought their friend to Jesus for healing. We should bring our friends to Jesus for healing. This is not wrong.
Jesus led the blind man by the hand out of the village. We should trust Jesus to lead us even if we can’t see where He’s taking us. This is not wrong.
Jesus spit on the blind man’s eyes and laid His hands on him. Sometimes Jesus uses different methods to heal people and sometimes we don’t understand them but we can trust Him. This is not wrong.
The man wasn’t completely healed at first, his healing came in stages. Sometimes healing is a process, sometimes it’s gradual, so we should be patient. This is not wrong.
Sometimes Christ’s healing in people’s lives is gradual, sometimes it takes a process. Our part is to reach out our trembling hands to the Savior and trust Him. He will lead us and He will heal us, maybe not physically, maybe not even emotionally, or mentally, but spiritually. Our ultimate healing will come in His eternal kingdom where we will be made like Him free from sin, and pain, and death.
What a wonderful truth!
But it’s not the only truth here in this passage.
Scholars have speculated that the two stage healing of this blind man was somehow due to a lack of faith in the village of Bethsaida or in this man. Both could not be further from the truth. That idea suggests that Jesus was somehow wanting in power, no, this was deliberate, Jesus was up to something.
This man knew what it was to see once upon a time. That is evidenced by his comparison of people to trees walking, but either by disease or some tragedy he was blinded. After Jesus spit on his eyes and laid His hands on him, He asked him, “Do you see anything?”
What the man saw was a foggy, misty, incomplete image of people, they looked like trees walking around to him. You may relate to that if your prescription is strong enough!
But who really should have related to that statement was the disciples, because that’s exactly how they saw Jesus. Their image of Him was foggy, misty, and incomplete. They couldn’t yet comprehend who He was or what He was there to do. In fact their picture wouldn’t be clear until after His resurrection from the dead, after the Holy Spirit was given to them.
They needed a second touch from the Lord to fully comprehend His person and work which they received on the Day of Pentecost.
In a way, this blind man also represents humanity.
In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve walked with God, they saw Him and talked with Him in the sweet fellowship of innocence and holiness.
But then the ultimate tragedy when they disobeyed God and sin entered the world. They were blinded by sin, they could no longer walk with the Father in the Garden in the cool of the day, they could no longer see Him face to face. Sin marred them and forever scarred the human race, and now all the generations that followed share their spiritual blindness.
But then Jesus appeared, bringing hope and healing and forgiveness through faith by God’s grace.
Through His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead He offered healing for the blindness of mankind through a method that didn’t make sense to us, much like spitting on the eyes of a blind man.
He could have healed Him with a word, He could have made it so the man was never blinded, just as He could have prevented mankind from falling from grace, but He didn’t.
He didn’t so that He could display the wonders of the Father and just how great His love is for His creation, for you and me.
For now, we are bound to see things as foggy, as misty, as incomplete.
Through faith in Jesus we are no longer blind but we are not yet complete, we are not yet completely healed. That complete healing will come with Christ’s return as King to gather His church to Himself, when every eye will see Him as He is and every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
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.”
One day we too will see clearly, but you have to ask yourself right now, do I even see partially?
Have I offered my hand and my heart to Jesus for healing and forgiveness and restoration?
If so, do you trust Him as King, does He have complete rule and reign in your life?
I’ll close with a quote from Charles Hodge,
“We as fallen [people], ignorant, guilty, polluted, and helpless, need a Savior who is a prophet to instruct us; a priest to atone and to make intercession for us; and a king to rule over and protect us. And the salvation which we receive at his hands includes all that a prophet, priest, and king in the highest sense of those terms can do. We are enlightened in the knowledge of the truth; we are reconciled unto God by the sacrificial death of his Son; and we are delivered from the power of Satan and introduced into the kingdom of God; all of which supposes that our Redeemer is to us at once prophet, priest, and king.”
Amen.
