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Sep 08, 2024

What the Blind Man Saw

Passage: Mark 8:22-26

Preacher: John Repsold

Series: Gospel of Mark

Keywords: vision, miracles, friendship, blindness, hardness, sight, bethsaida

Summary:

Why would Jesus go to a town that had already, by in large, rejected him? Why would he take the man he intended to heal away from the crowd? What does this man's blindness and miracle have to teach us about friendship, about our own blindness and about what Jesus wants us to see?

Detail:

What the Blind Man Saw

Mark 8:22-26

September 8, 2024

Fellowship Question:  When it comes to your sight, what is or has been most helpful to you in maintaining good vision?

INTRO:  1997 Hallmark movie, What the Deaf Man Saw, staring Mathew Bodine and James Earl Jones.

Story line:  In 1945, a young boy named Sammy arrives in a small Georgia town on a bus from which his mother was abducted and murdered. Alone he sits quietly and everyone becomes convinced that he is deaf and mute. Deciding that silence offers some power and protection, the boy decides to remain mute and just listens to all that is being said around him by people who think that he cannot hear.  The ruse works so well that for twenty years he is custodian to all the town's secrets…until he his called to testify in court and says, “I do,” when asked to swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, so help him God.  The whole town gasps at realizing he has heard everything they’ve been revealing in his presence for the last 20 years. 

            Today’s text in Mark 8 isn’t about “what the deaf man heard;” It’s about “what the blind man saw.”  (Sorry, I just couldn’t pass up the parallels!) 

“Being deprived of one sense can often enrich other senses.”  

  • Blind people know this. Lack of sight often enhances your sense of hearing. 
  • Deafness often increases your ability to observe things through sight.

But this truth extends far beyond just physical senses.   Being deprived of one thing can often bless you with something else. 

  • Growing up in poverty >> stronger desire to work hard to escape it and give your children something different.
  • Experiencing trauma/tragedy/abuse >> greater sensitivity to the needs of others who have or are going through trauma, tragedy or abuse.

While being deprived of something appears, in the moment, to be a tremendous negative, in the long run those deprivations can actually open us up to things people who have never experienced deprivation will never know. 

APP:  What “deficits” or “disabilities” do you or have you experienced that God might want to use to sensitize you to things others may never experience?  Or give you blessings and even miracles that others will never know?  What difficult, life-depriving things has God allowed to happen in your life that are candidates for His miraculous grace? 

            So, this morning, I would like us to see what God wants to say to all of us through the “eyes” of this blind man.  His vision or viewpoint has some really important truths to teach all of us who have deficiencies and disabilities of all kinds—physical, spiritual, relational, emotional, mental, you name it.

Read:  Mark 8:22-26

22 They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”

24 He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”

25 Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26 Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t even go into the village.”

Background:  Bethsaida 

  • Referenced 7 times in all 4 Gospels.
  • Is a compound name meaning “house of fish” or “fishing house.”
  • Was the home, according to John 1:44, the home of Philip, Andrew & Peter.
  • On the north side of the Sea of Galilee. (We’re not sure today whether it was on the east or west side of the inflowing Jordan River.) 
  • It is located very near where the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 took place (Luke 9:10).
  • Sadly, however, it is most frequently referred to because of the general spiritual hardness, unbelief or blindness of its residents: 11 and Luke 10 both recount Jesus’ words, “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.” 
  • It is probably rather intentional, then, that Mark contrasts this miracle of healing a blind man with the spiritual blindness of the city in which it occurred. It is certainly intentional that Jesus went to this city on this occasion to encounter these particular residents despite the rejection of so many people in Bethsaida. 
  • Mark is the only Gospel to contain this particular miracle.
  • It is the only miracle that Jesus did in multiple stages.

APP:  Good News—Even living in a city that is rejecting God does not mean God is unwilling to do miracles, touch lives and make special trips to visit us.  We may never see large swaths of Spokane repent, embrace Jesus and experience miraculous transformation.  But if there is a lesson here it is that even in the most spiritually unresponsive places on this earth, God is more than willing to arrange his schedule, travel the distance, show up in person, and bless the people of faith while judging the people without faith.  

THE CONDITION:  BLINDNESS

For all its faults, modern medicine in the 21st century has left all of us amazingly blessed.  Our automatic mindset is, “If I’m sick or have a physical disability of some kind, the doctor might just be able to help and change that.”  That has not been the experience or mindset of the vast majority of human history.  It wasn’t until the 14th century with the advent of the printing press and books that glasses became widely used.

When it comes to blindness, getting cured was never the mindset for most of human history.  If you were blind, too bad…so sad.  You had to learn to live with it because there were no medical cures, not even glasses, which could help those who either had or were losing their sight.  That’s not true today.  Medicine can cure lots of blindness.  (Just go watch our son-in-law’s movie, Sight, if you doubt that…or talk with your local optometrist/ ophthalmologist.  Nowadays, loss of sight can often be cured or improved.  Not then. 

Q:  How many of us have experienced improved sight through modern medicine? (Raise hands.)

Not so for most of human history…or everyone in Israel at the time of this event.  The result was that a whole lot more people experienced blindness to some degree than do today.  So, Jesus chooses to use a very common condition to demonstrate God’s uncommon compassion, love, heart and power.

            Furthermore, there was a strong spiritual backdrop to the entire issues of blindness.  For any Jew, physical blindness was a reminder of the danger of spiritual blindness.  The O.T. prophet, Isaiah, had borrowed the issue of blindness to challenge the nation about its spiritual darkness/blindness, (cf. Isa. 56:10; 59:10).  Isaiah 59:10-- We grope for the wall like the blind, And we grope as if we had no eyes; We stumble at noonday as at twilight; We are as dead men in desolate places.

And every biblically literate Jews knew that one of Isaiah's prophecies about the Messiah was that He would bring sight to the blind (cf. Isa. 29:18-35:5; 42:7,16,18,19).  Isaiah 35:4-6

4 Say to those who are fearful-hearted,
“Be strong, do not fear!
Behold, your God will come with vengeance,
With the recompense of God;
He will come and save you.”

5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
6 Then the lame shall leap like a deer,
And the tongue of the dumb sing.
For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness,
And streams in the desert.

The Messiah was going to do what was utterly impossible.  God’s presence among his people would make the impossible possible. 

NOTE:  The miracles of Jesus were to point people to the fact that he was fulfilling the prophesied work of the Messiah.  It was meant to draw them into faith. 

That is still the reason God does miracles.  ILL:  doctor who had seen so many medical miracles accomplished with his patients in the name of Jesus that he put his faith in Jesus and became a Christian. 

So that’s a little bit about the PLACE & The CONDITION. 

But what about the PEOPLE: the blind man, his friends, Jesus, and an entire city of people?  For this morning, I would like us to focus mainly on the blind man, his friends, and Jesus.  What did the blind man ‘see’ in both his friends and Jesus that day that we need to ‘see’ every day? 

1.) The blind man’s deficit, need, or disability enabled him to ‘see’ the love of genuine friends in deep and life-changing ways. 

22 They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 

It’s amazing how many times in the Bible it took other people for God to touch one person.  From the Feeding of the 5,000 to the paralytic to the Centurions servant to the raising of Lazarus to this story, God’s way of bringing His power and presence to bear upon people is…other PEOPLE…often US! 

  • Blind people need sighted people to help them.
  • Unbelieving people need believing people to help them.
  • Godless people need god-filled people to help them.

This is the nature of life in a sinful world.  Without saints bringing sinners to Jesus, we’re all hopelessly lost in the darkness. 

            Where would this man have been without “some people” who brought him to Jesus and begged Jesus to touch him?  Those two actions by this man’s friends utterly changed his life.  Notice the two actions:

  • They “brought him to Jesus.”
  • They “begged Jesus to touch him.”

APP:  This is precisely what every one of our spiritually blind family, friends, neighbors, classmates, coworker and strangers need us to do for them:  bring them to Jesus and beg him to touch them. 

            I find it interesting that it wasn’t Philip, Andrew or Peter—the hometown Apostles from Bethsaida—that brought this poor fellow to Jesus.  It wasn’t the “Pastors 12” who took the time, made the effort and physically brought this man to Jesus.  It was several literally no-named believers in Jesus and his power that made such a difference in this man’s life. 

APP:  The same is true today. Most people meet Christ in our culture through average, unnamed Christ-followers.  It’s not priests and pastors who are going to make the biggest difference in most people’s lives.  It’s the Christ-following parents and friends, neighbors and acquaintances of people who are going to be the connecting point between spiritually blind people and Jesus.  It’s YOU!  That’s why we need the compelling love of Jesus to grip us.  We simply need to love people enough to take them by the hand and walk them to Jesus. 

            Of course, the man had to be willing to go.  But most people who have a need and know it are willing to follow the counsel of someone they trust and respect, who knows they have their best interest at heart.  When we’re convinced that Jesus is absolutely the answer to the needs of people we know, we will do everything we can to introduce them to Jesus.  Jesus will do the rest. 

APP:

  • WHO are the spiritually blind around us? [Make a list on your Sermon Notes page of the bulletin…NOW!  Family, neighbors, friends, school or work associates, others.  Take 2 minutes.]
  • HOW are we going to take them by the hand, “bring them to Jesus”? WHAT am I willing to do to enable those I know to encounter Jesus?[Take 2 minutes to jot down a few ways for 1 or 2 of the groups of spiritually-sightless people you know.  Share together the most practical, user-friendly ideas.]
    • Alpha course—go on-line and check it out. I’m happy to start a group that meets monthly to help each other do this in our homes, apartments and neighborhoods.
    • Giving a tract: we have some on “The Grid” on the south wall of the foyer.  Grab a couple and sue them this week.
    • Giving a Bible or N.T….and giving a challenge to read it daily and/or talk about it regularly with you.
    • Asking/offering to pray for them/some need they have.
    • Inviting them to church, a Bible study, your home for dinner.
    • ???

Assignment:  Take this half sheet with those names and ways you can introduce people to Jesus, put it in your Bible or with your prayer list (somewhere you will encounter it regularly), and review it regularly, pray about it regularly and add to it regularly.

[PRAY for God to help us.]

NOTE:  Don’t expect that you will be the one to see the entire process through to the end.  We know from this passage that Jesus took their blind friend aside, away from the crowd, away from the city, and then performed the miracle.  And this will be the way Jesus often works with the people we “show and tell” Jesus.  We must not expect we will always see the miracle when Jesus touches them.  But we are the people they desperately need to draw near to Jesus. 

RECAP: So, the blind man “saw” the love of friends who cared enough to bring him to Jesus and intercede for him.

Now, let’s move to what the blind man saw of JESUS.  He had already seen plenty about what the love of genuine friends looked like.  He’s now about to see what Jesus looks like.  And certainly, that is THE most important person any of us need to “see” as well as help others see in and throughout life. 

What the blind man saw of JESUS:

  1. He “saw” the personal, individual touch of Jesus.

23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village.

What an amazing God we have who will take every one of us “by the hand” and lead us to somewhere in life where we can hear experience His powerful presence!  Everything that happened to this blind man now is in the hands of Jesus.  His friends aren’t doing it.  He’s not doing it.  Jesus is doing it from start to finish.  He's just open to whatever it is that Jesus wants to do with him to heal him.

            If you’re saved…been born again…you know when and where that happened (even if it took a process).  You know how Jesus grabbed your spiritual hand and began to interact with you.  Everyone with some need that Jesus desires to fill needs to know the personal, individual, gentle, kind and powerful touch of God.  That touch may not immediately heal them.  But it is the beginning of what God wants to do in their life. 

APP:  One of the things we’ve been discussing as pastors is how we can get to know more of the ways God did that with each of us in this fellowship.  I never tire of asking you, “So tell me how Jesus first got your attention…grabbed a hold of your life.  How did that miraculous life-changing encounter with Jesus happen?  If you would be willing to share that with all of us in 2-3 minutes at a worship service sometime, let one of the pastors know.  And even if you don’t, we’re going to be coming and asking you some day.

            We all need that initial and continuing personal, palpable touch of God in our lives.  Whatever the need or deficit, be expectant about the touch of Jesus.  Don’t pull away.  Don’t get nervous.  Don’t doubt.  IF you’ve got a need, Jesus has a way to touch you in that need.   

  1. The blind man “saw” Jesus remove him from the crowd—his city, his friends, his familiar surroundings.

Jesus will often do this with us.  The reasons for which Jesus did that with the blind man may be different.  But Jesus often asks us to go with Him away from the crowd. 

  • How many of us needed to separate for a bit from the crowd we were with when we were first touched by Jesus?
  • How many of us has Jesus spoken to when we were alone with Him, not around a bunch of other people?
  • How many of us did Jesus need to take out of our familiar surroundings in order to touch something in our lives that needed healing?
    • My time in language study and Spain.
    • Prison or jail?
    • The wilderness of a personal crisis—divorce, illness, unemployment, loss.

Don’t be afraid when Jesus leads you away from “the crowd.”  Just wait on him.  Trust him.  Listen for his direction.  Do as he says.  And you will find that Jesus has more than enough of whatever you were looking to “the crowd” for than you need. 

  1. The blind man “saw” how unique and surprising Jesus’ methods can be.

23 When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”

This is the only time in the Gospels we see Jesus spitting directly into someone’s face.  He healed the blind man in Jerusalem by making mud out of his spit and putting it on his eyes.  But we have no record of him doing it this way before or after this particular miracle.  Just as every one of us is unique—has unique DNA, unique personality, a unique body, unique speech, unique eyes—so the way Jesus deals with each of us is slightly…and sometimes drastically… unique.

What that can teach us:

  • We shouldn’t demand that God deal with us the way he dealt with anyone else. Don’t covet the way God worked with other people; look for the way He wants to work uniquely with you.
  • We shouldn’t be shocked or offended if he ‘spits in our eye’…i.e. works in our lives in ways that may feel awkward or unexpected.
  • We certainly shouldn’t demand that God work in other people’s lives exactly the same as our experience has been. Let people be unique…and let God be unique with people. 
  1. The blind man saw Jesus use questions to help him.

Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”

When God questions us, it isn’t because he doesn’t know what the answer is or needs more information.  It is often so that we will realize something, be it about ourselves or him or life or others, that he needs us to realize in order to continue doing deeper work that brings more blessings. 

Q:  What are some of the ways God asks questions of you?

  • Difficult people? When someone bothers us a lot, it probably isn’t all about them.  It may be somewhat about what God sees needs change in us.
  • Difficult circumstances? The same circumstances can have very different effects on different people.  Some people may love the job we hate.  They may love the city we have grown weary of.  They may enjoy the routine we despise.  Difficult circumstances can be God’s way of asking us questions about things that need to change in us rather than the circumstance.  “Where we go, there we are!” 
  • This is the role of godly counselors/mentors/sp. directors: to ask the right questions that enable us to be honest about what is going on. 
  • This is why 12-Step work can be so valuable for any of us.
  • This is why prayer needs to be a 2-way street: us telling God what is on our hearts but also Him speaking to us, sometimes questions.
  1. The blind man saw the importance of being honest with God.

Lesson:  we must be honest with God about who we are and what’s going on in life.

24 He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”

What would have happened if this man had not spoken the truth about himself to Jesus? 

  • “Light, glorious light! Thank you SO much.”
  • “Oh, I can see! That’s amazing.  I’m good to go!”

I’m sure he was grateful just to have any sight.  I’m sure that, had Jesus not moved the miracle any further, this man would have been relatively if not completely content.  After all, most people who are severely near-sighted or lose their vision progressively eventually reach the stage he was at of people looking like blobs…trees… blurry images. This was a “normal condition” of sight for many. 

        But God has more for us than “normal.”  He desires to give us ongoing touches of His grace that will lead us into greater clarity, greater vision, greater faith, greater functionality and wholeness. To do that, we need to be honest with ourselves and honest with God.

  1. The blind man saw he needed an additional touch from Jesus.

APP:  We all need deeper ‘healing’ through continue divine touches.

25 Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.

This is the only miracle recorded in the Gospels that required more than one touch of Jesus.  WE know that Jesus had already ‘touched’ this man.  Vs. 23--He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him….”  It wasn’t, as some might think, because Jesus’ divine batteries were low and Jesus needed to give him a second tasering.  I think Jesus wanted to show everyone that His work in our lives is often a process. His work often requires repeated divine touches.  His miracle of transformation will require that he lay his hands on us again and again and again. 

  • Temptation/Sins: This may be why God doesn’t remove some of those persistent and pesky sins that so easily entangle us with just one touch.  Some people are completely delivered from certain sins the moment they are saved.  Some alcoholics never want to touch another drop.  Some smokers never want another cigarette.  Some over-controllers never lose their tempers again or demand that others measure up to their arbitrary standards.  Some workaholics change their schedules and routines immediately and delight in sabbaths and solitude and rest. 

But most of us don’t get the miracle of transformation and sanctification that way.  For most of us it comes through continued and repeated touches from God that bring us into greater and greater spiritual, emotional, mental and physical health. 

Humility calls us to be hungry for additional touches from God’s hand.  That hand is often comforting, encouraging, renewing and refreshing.  But it can also sometimes be heavy and difficult and trying.  Let’s not despise whatever touch God wants to use with us.  And let’s keep hungering for continued experiences of God’s hand on us. 

  1. Lastly, don’t expect life to return to normal when Jesus heals you.

 26 Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t even go into the village.”

Jesus did send the man home, but he sent him with some counter-intuitive and surprising instructions.  Rather than going back to Bethsaida to be a preacher for Jesus, he was told to go back to Bethsaida to be a proof of the power of Jesus.  The people of Bethsaida didn’t need more teaching.  That would just bring more judgment.  They needed more living proof. 

            As with all miracles God does, we can never go back to that old “normal.”  This man had to stop begging.  He had to get a job.  He had to start paying bills.  He had to start caring for others less fortunate than him.  Not all those changes were welcome.  But life had to change.  Now his life needed to be ordered by the touch and teachings of Jesus. 

APP:  If you have experienced a genuine touch of God, don’t expect life to go on as it was before Jesus.  Expect some things to get more wonderful and some things to get more difficult.  That is the nature of obedience to Christ. 

            If you think you are a Christian, but you don’t think God is asking you to change much from what you were like apart from Jesus, you need to seriously question whether or not you’ve actually come to Jesus.  You may have “come to church” or “gotten religion.”  But that’s not the same as being taken by the hand of Jesus, transformed by His touch and power, and sent into a new life with Him. 

CALL to faith in Jesus.

CALL to:

  • Be the kind of friend other blind people need.
  • Be led of Jesus away from the crowd and into continuing experiences with Him.

PRAY

Benediction:  God of sight and miracles, enable us to see where we are blind.  Grant us the humility to be led by others to you.  Take us by the hand and lead us away from the crowd, away from doubt, away from small expectations of You and your work.  Take us back into our homes, our schools, our work places and our neighborhoods to love others enough to be the kinds of true friends that bring them to you.  We will trust you to do all the work they will need to see you.  May we see you this week as you are and in your glory.