Blind, But Now I See

Mark 8.22-30

Introduction 

I love the church calendar. I love how the year is structured to teach us about God and the gospel. Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany teach us the Father sends. Lent, Easter, and Ascension teach us the Son secures. And Pentecost, Trinity, and ordinary time teach us that the Spirit sanctifies. Today is the third Sunday of Lent, which means that we’re preparing for the death and resurrection of Christ in Holy Week. I love this time of year.

This time of year always makes me cringe too. You can set your watch by the specials that will be on the History Channel and the like. These specials are always filled with scholars like Bart Ehrman, Richard Dawkins, and others. And what do all of these programs have in common? They’re asking who was Jesus?

That’s exactly what St. Mark has been doing throughout his Gospel. In fact, when we began this sermon series we noted that Tim Keller helps us to divide the book into two acts, and he did so using the name of the famous London train station: King’s Cross. The first half of the Gospel of Mark is about who Jesus is: the king. Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise to David. He is the final king of Israel and the true king of the world.

And that’s what Israel had been waiting for. What they weren't prepared for was the second half of Mark’s Gospel: the cross. Jesus is the anointed king but he’s also the suffering servant and he is going to die on the cross for our sin. The two acts of this gospel hinge on the sermons of the next two weeks: Peter’s confession and Jesus’ explicit Gospel declaration. The end of Mark 8 is where Jesus goes from veiled teaching to explicit Gospel proclamation. 

The Picture

In many ways this miracle is so similar to what Jesus has done this far in Mark’s Gospel. We’ve see Jesus heal the deaf and a bleeding woman. Other times it simple says Jesus healed crowds. But there’s another way this it is unique. Mark’s not told us specifically about healing a blind person. When we come to any text of Scripture we have questions. Let’s answer two questions that naturally arise from this pericope: (1) why the spit? And (2) why the stages?

Why the Spit?

Why does Jesus spit on the man’s eyes? This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Jesus do something like this. At the end of chapter 7 Jesus healed the deaf man with the speech impediment by touching his tongue. He’s doing a similar thing here, identifying with the broken. This blind man can’t see and Jesus meets him where he is. He brings the saliva to his eyes so the man can feel that there’s going to be a change. Jesus is acting out a cleansing for him to feel. 

We can learn from our Lord here. Part of being incarnational is meeting people where they are. Just as just lowered himself for our redemption, we get in the mud with people. We do this with mercy ministry: we can’t help but think about the coronavirus and this unique time in history. Pastor Kevin and I spent much of this week contacting our elderly members. The church has always been at the forefront of caring for people. If you have a chance google Martin Luther and the black plague and read about how the great reformer thought about ministering in light of the gospel to those who were sick. We also do this in a spiritual way. We trust that the Spirit is sovereign in salvation, but we answer people’s questions, we freely offer them the gospel, we follow the conversation where they take it. Like Jesus, we meet the broken in their brokenness. 

Why the stages?

Why does Christ heal this man in stages? This is the only place in any of the gospels where a miracle of Christ doesn’t work immediately. After Jesus touches him he asks him, “do you see anything?” The man replies, “I see people, but they look like trees, walking.” The English translations clean this up; it’s a bit choppier in Greek. A more wooden translation reads something like, “I see men that like trees I see walking about.” One theologian suggests the syntax may be dicey to reflect the stammering of the man excited at seeing for the first time. Like a kid at Disney World for the first time, he’s all over the place.

But he doesn’t see clearly; people look like trees. What does this mean? Is it like Lord of the Rings where trees are walking around? He’s saying they look like nondescript objects. Some of you can’t identify with this but I can. I had Lasik a couple of years ago but before I did I had bad eyes. When I wasn’t wearing glasses or contacts, unless you were right in front of my face, everything was blurry. I always knew exactly what this text meant because that’s what my sight was like. He could see more than he had before but it wasn’t clear.

And then Jesus touches him again. Then the man opened his eyes and his sight was resorted. He saw everything clearly. Like coming out of Lasik, everything was 20/20. This man went from pitch black, to blurry, to crystal clear. But why didn’t Jesus just restore his sight completely the first time? What’s with the layover in Middle Earth? The answer is in the person of Christ himself.

The Person

Jesus is going to explain the living parable of the blind man by asking two questions; “Who do people say that I am?” The disciples respond, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” Jesus then asks, “But who do you say that I am?” Let’s pause here for a moment to acknowledge that we don’t merely read the Bible with eyes of the modern enlightenment. We know this is not merely history. The Bible is the inspired Word of God and so when the Holy Spirit inspired Mark to write these words it wasn’t simply for the 1st century Greco Roman readers, but the Holy Spirit wrote this for Christ Community Church 2,000 years later. And so this question is posed to us this morning, who do you say that Jesus is?

This is the most important question in history. There is nothing in your life that matters more than how you answer this question. Karl Barth was correct when he said, “Tell me about your Christology and I’ll tell you who you are.” On the last day every single human being will be judged and will spend eternity based upon how they answer this question. Who do you say that Jesus is? Peter’s answer has become known as the good confession. Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” 

The Point

And this brings us to the point. The person of Christ is the answer to the picture Jesus gave in his miracle. Peter’s answer is wrong and it is right. There’s a sense in which Peter is wrong. He’s not wrong in confessing that Jesus is the Christ, but the rest of Mark’s Gospel will make clear that Peter doesn’t understand fully what that means yet. The disciples will continue to struggle with Jesus’ mission. That’s why Peter will rebuke Jesus, as we’ll see in Pastor Kevin’s sermon next week. It’s why he will still deny Jesus three times on Good Friday, and why the disciples will all abandon him in his passion. It’s why they’ll spend Holy Saturday in depression that Jesus is dead. Like the blind man, they’ve seen more then they ever have before, but they still don’t see clearly.

Of course we know even if he doesn’t fully understand, Peter is right. Jesus is the Christ. We won’t focus on this because we’re preaching through Mark and not Matthew, but it is important to note that in Matthew’s account Jesus tells Peter that he can only make this confession because God has revealed it to him. As far as we know, Peter is the first human to ever make this confession. And this is the turning point where Mark’s focus moves from revealing that Jesus is king to revealing that Jesus is going to the cross. Pastor Kevin’s sermon next week is the first time in Mark’s Gospel that Christ speaks openly about his death and resurrection. From this point foreword everything Jesus says and does is moving violently toward Good Friday.

Peter doesn’t see clearly yet, but Jesus will show him what it means to be the Christ. He will show him that the Christ has come to suffer for our sins and die as our substitute. He will show them that the Christ came not only to die but to be raised on the third day. The blind man saw people like trees walking; Jesus will show them that he’s walking toward the tree to be cursed for them.

And the Scripture speaks to us this morning. Some of you are blind like the man who was carried to Jesus. You’re dead in your sins; you have not repented of your sin and trusted in Christ alone. The gospel calls you this morning, open your eyes. See the king in his beauty. If you will cry ut to Jesus, he will save you.

Some of you have fuzzy spiritual vision. Like Peter you know the words Jesus is the Christ, but it’s like nondescript objects. Maybe you were raised in church but it’s all just been blurry. The answer is the same for you. You need Jesus to open your eyes. Ask him to open your eyes.

For those of us who have clear vision, we were blind but now we see, our application is no different. We need Christ. We need to see him. The question that Jesus asks, “But who do you say that I am?” isn’t a one time question. Don’t get me wrong; it’s certainly a one-time question when it comes to your justification. God’s saints persevere. But that perseverance is lived out as we follow Jesus. And so even today who do you say that Jesus is? This is the most important question in history. If you don’t have an answer, regardless of how long you’ve come to church or when you were baptized, you should be concerned.

Hear the gospel, my friends. Jesus is the Christ. He is God’s promised prophet, priest, and king who has come to crush Satan’s head. He’s done that through living, dying, and resurrecting in our place. The Holy Spirit applies that to us through repentance and faith. Jesus will consummate his kingdom when he returns to raise the dead, judge the world, and make all things new. 

Conclusion

As we’re preparing for Easter, so now is Christ in Mark’s Gospel. But unlike the good and tame Jesus presented on the History Channel, Mark’s Jesus may be good, but he’s not tame. He is the King who is going to the cross. I will commend these problematic programs with one thing though. They are asking the right question. It’s the question Christ himself asked and the question we’re all faced with this morning: who do you say that Jesus Christ is?