Some that Are Blind See - Mark 8:22-26
Some that Are Blind See - Mark 8:22-26
By Pastor Lee Hemen
May 2, 2010 AM
There are those in the world, like the Cheshire Cat from Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass,” who actually believe their mad rendition of life is a worthy philosophy to follow. It is a rather odd path to walk:
Alice “began, rather timidly… Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where…” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
“…so long as I get SOMEWHERE,” Alice added as an explanation.
“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.” And, sadly, that is what a lot of folks adhere to for their life’s philosophy. “If only you walk long enough.”
Jesus would declared, “Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Matthew 15:14) Jesus knew that some of those who think they can see spiritually are truly blind guides. However, in today’s passage we find that even some that are blind see. Let’s find out how…
READ: Mark 8:22-26
What defines friendship for you? Is it another person’s compassion for your predicament? Is it their willingness to sacrifice something for you? Perhaps, it is their undeserved love? Whatever defines friendship for you, we discover it portrayed in these verses from Mark’s gospel. Here we see that…
I. Even blind friends bring blind friends to see Jesus! (V. 22)
1. Friends don’t let friends live without Jesus! Sight is a precious thing. I have often thought that if I had to lose one of my senses, I might be willing to lose just about anything except my sight. We find in Scripture that folks often brought their friends who needed healing to Jesus. We find it with those who burrowed through a mud-thatched porch roof in order to lower their paralyzed friend down in front of Jesus. And, now we discover that the friends of an unnamed blind man bring their friend to Jesus. That’s what friends do; they bring their friends to Jesus. The interesting thing is these friends did not bring him because they necessarily believed Jesus was the Messiah, but they evidently did believe Jesus could heal the blind. Perhaps that was enough of a demonstration of faith on their part and on the part of their blind compatriot. Maybe they had the faith and their blind friend needed to discover his. After all, he had to have the faith that Jesus could heal him as well! In reality, we do not even know if they were friends, because it literally states “they brought to him” this blind man. Yet, notice that Mark relates that they “begged Jesus to touch him.” That kind of establishes a concern on their part. How is it then that those in the world can often care more than those who supposedly know God? Far too often those who claim Christ are the ones that are less willing to share their faith or to bring their friends to Jesus. While faith is not by sight, for some, seeing is believing and this may be the only way they would ever come to Jesus. We see in this passage that the spiritually blind can lead a sightless companion to Jesus so he can receive sight. What a gracious thing to do.
EXAMPLE: Hoyt Axton, a country western singer, wrote a song made famous by the old rock band Steppenwolf called “Snow Blind Friend.” It is about a guy who uses his last dollar to buy cocaine (snow). Axton asks the question of the man’s so-called friends in the song, “Did you say you think he’s blind?” He mournfully relates, “Someone should call his parents, a sister or a brother. And they'll come and take him back home on a bus. But he'll always be a problem to his poor and puzzled mother and he'll always be another one of us. He said he wanted heaven but praying was too slow, so he bought a one way ticket on an airline made of snow.” The title of the song is appropriate, because the man is truly blinded by “snow,” his cocaine addiction. All of the man’s friends knew what he was doing, because they were snow blind as well. How can the blind lead the blind? Yet, I know of two men who were on their last “hit,” and one of them decided it was time for them to change. He heard of a revival, a religious meeting, down at the neighborhood church. “Will it help?” the other man asked. “It can’t do us any more harm than this,” his friend replied. And so at his insistence they went and met Jesus that night. They both are now serving as pastors. It is a graphic example of how, sometimes, even blind friends can bring blind friends to Jesus. Can you?
Why is it we are ready to believe some outlandish things, yet not the gospel truth? Like the urban legend of the midget Jehovah’s Witness who was kidnapped while going door-to-door by a special needs boy. He supposedly captured the little guy, locks him in his closet, and runs to tell his mother that he caught a troll. Sorry, but while it may make us smile, it simply is not true. That’s why we should follow Jesus. He is the truth and he always speaks the truth. In fact, we learn that…
II. Jesus is always willing to lead the blind to sight! (Vv. 23-25)
1. Put your hands in the hands of the Man! That’s exactly what the blind man has to do, and we suddenly realize that these lyrics are based on good theology! Like Job, Jesus is “eyes to the blind and feet to the lame.” (Job 29:15) Jesus took the “blind man by the hand and led him outside the village.” And isn’t this a tremendous picture of what our walk with the Lord is to be? In this world we are still blinded by our spiritually blurred vision. Paul writes that “we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror.” (1 Corinthians 13:12) Jesus leads him/us away from his/our old friends, the village, and his/our old way of dependence. He/we now had/have to follow Jesus wherever Jesus decides to lead him/us. Notice that Jesus does not lead him to a nearby alleyway, home, or courtyard. Instead, Jesus takes the blind man out of town and into the open. We see why after Jesus “spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him.” Jesus desired to ascertain the man’s willingness to be healed and his trust in Jesus’ ability to lead. Jesus leads the same with all who walk with him. “Look around, what do you see?” is what Jesus is tacitly asking. The man answers, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” Jesus’ power is not weak; the man’s trust is incomplete. Why would we say that? We immediately read that “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.” There were no distractions of friends, crowds, city streets, or busy market places – only the man and Jesus. His entire life had been one of darkness and now he begins to see dimly at first, then as he totally trusts Jesus, his sight becomes complete! This is how it is with all of us when we begin to allow Jesus to lead us. And, guess what the wonderful truth is? Jesus is always willing to lead the blind to sight! Even you!
EXAMPLE: Vernon Grounds writes about an anthropologist named Oliver Sacks who “In his book An Anthropologist on Mars… tells about a man named Virgil. Blind from early childhood, Virgil underwent surgery decades later and regained the ability to see. But at first, like the blind man healed by Jesus outside Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-26), Virgil had difficulty seeing. Although he could discern movement and color, he couldn’t put images together to make sense of them. For a time, his behavior was still the same as when he was sightless. Sacks comments, ‘One must die as a blind person to be born again as a seeing person. It is the interim, the limbo... that is so terrible.’” We find that his comment echoes Paul’s teaching about burying our old, dead selves to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4-14). It is a powerful spiritual change that may bring a time of difficult adjustment for the new Christian. Ingrained habits and attitudes may hang on like leeches. Grounds wrote that, “To overcome sin, we must remember that it is ‘no longer our master.’ We are ‘dead to sin,’ (v.11), and we are to refuse to let it reign in our lives (v.12). Instead, we are to offer ourselves to God as ‘as those who have been brought from death to life’ (v.13). As we take these steps, our spiritual blindness will become a thing of the past, and we will learn that Jesus is always willing to lead the blind to sight!
Have you ever walked into a closed glass door? I have. Then I had to suffer the comments of those who witnessed my mishap: “What’s the matter with you, are you blind?” “Did you think it was open?” “Don’t worry, there’s a blood smudge now so others won’t do what you just did!” It can be both painful and embarrassing. There are always those who think they are so smart when someone else suffers. In fact, we sort of see this in today’s passage as well. We discover that…
III. Some who think they can see, are still blind! (V. 26)
1. The ability to see obstacles helps one avoid collisions! Jesus does a curious thing. He gives the man a warning. “Jesus sent him home, saying, ‘Don't go into the village.’” Why would Jesus tell him that? Maybe it was for self-preservation for both Jesus and his new follower. The man did not need the ridicule of relatives, the curiosity of cronies, and especially the unwanted notice of the nattering nabobs. Jesus had seen how they would harass both those he had healed and their families. (John 9:18-22) Perhaps Jesus wanted the blind man’s friends to have faith not in what they could see, but in what they had learned concerning Jesus. Remember, Jesus also related that a “wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign.” (Matthew 16:4) Someone who had just received their sight did not need any unnecessary distractions. The same is true for new Christians. However, it could also have been as simple as the fact that Jesus did not need the excessive attention this miracle could have brought him. We find Jesus telling those he had cured not to bring unnecessary attention to the miracles he performed. (Mark 1:44-45; 5:43; 7:36) The KJV translates the verse by saying Jesus “sent him away to his house, saying, ‘Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town.’” We also know that the folks back in Bethsaida were notorious for their unbelief concerning Jesus. It would be like “casting pearls before swine” for the man to go back there. Jesus declared, “Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.” (Luke 10:13) Sadly, Bethsaida was where Peter and Andrew had come from and it would be judged more harshly than the pagan cities of Tyre and Sidon! Why? Simply because some who think they can see, are still blind.
EXAMPLE: C. P. Hia writes for RBC Ministries that “Sanduk Ruit is a Nepalese doctor who has used his scalpel, microscope, and simplified cataract surgery technique to give sight to almost 70,000 people over the past 23 years. The poorest patients who visit his nonprofit eye center in Katmandu pay with just their gratitude.” We know that Jesus healed many of physical blindness during His time on earth. But of greater concern to Him were the spiritually blind. Many of the religious authorities who investigated the healing of the blind man in John 9:13-34 refused to believe that Jesus was not a sinner. This caused Jesus to say, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind” (v.39). Paul wrote of this spiritual blindness when he said, “If our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them” (2 Cor. 4:3-4). Jesus warned the newly restored man to stay away from those who would try to discourage his new found faith, because some who think they can see, are still blind.
Conclusion:
We learned today that: Even blind friends bring blind friends to see Jesus, that Jesus is always willing to lead the blind to sight, and finally that some who think they can see, are still blind.
----
Pastor Lee Hemen has been the outspoken pastor of the same church for 25 years in Vancouver, WA. He writes regularly on spirituality and conservative causes and maintains several web blogs. This article is copyrighted © 2010 by Lee Hemen and is the sole property of Lee Hemen, and may not be used unless you quote the entire article and have my permission. You now have my permission...
By Pastor Lee Hemen
May 2, 2010 AM
There are those in the world, like the Cheshire Cat from Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass,” who actually believe their mad rendition of life is a worthy philosophy to follow. It is a rather odd path to walk:
Alice “began, rather timidly… Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where…” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
“…so long as I get SOMEWHERE,” Alice added as an explanation.
“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.” And, sadly, that is what a lot of folks adhere to for their life’s philosophy. “If only you walk long enough.”
Jesus would declared, “Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Matthew 15:14) Jesus knew that some of those who think they can see spiritually are truly blind guides. However, in today’s passage we find that even some that are blind see. Let’s find out how…
READ: Mark 8:22-26
What defines friendship for you? Is it another person’s compassion for your predicament? Is it their willingness to sacrifice something for you? Perhaps, it is their undeserved love? Whatever defines friendship for you, we discover it portrayed in these verses from Mark’s gospel. Here we see that…
I. Even blind friends bring blind friends to see Jesus! (V. 22)
1. Friends don’t let friends live without Jesus! Sight is a precious thing. I have often thought that if I had to lose one of my senses, I might be willing to lose just about anything except my sight. We find in Scripture that folks often brought their friends who needed healing to Jesus. We find it with those who burrowed through a mud-thatched porch roof in order to lower their paralyzed friend down in front of Jesus. And, now we discover that the friends of an unnamed blind man bring their friend to Jesus. That’s what friends do; they bring their friends to Jesus. The interesting thing is these friends did not bring him because they necessarily believed Jesus was the Messiah, but they evidently did believe Jesus could heal the blind. Perhaps that was enough of a demonstration of faith on their part and on the part of their blind compatriot. Maybe they had the faith and their blind friend needed to discover his. After all, he had to have the faith that Jesus could heal him as well! In reality, we do not even know if they were friends, because it literally states “they brought to him” this blind man. Yet, notice that Mark relates that they “begged Jesus to touch him.” That kind of establishes a concern on their part. How is it then that those in the world can often care more than those who supposedly know God? Far too often those who claim Christ are the ones that are less willing to share their faith or to bring their friends to Jesus. While faith is not by sight, for some, seeing is believing and this may be the only way they would ever come to Jesus. We see in this passage that the spiritually blind can lead a sightless companion to Jesus so he can receive sight. What a gracious thing to do.
EXAMPLE: Hoyt Axton, a country western singer, wrote a song made famous by the old rock band Steppenwolf called “Snow Blind Friend.” It is about a guy who uses his last dollar to buy cocaine (snow). Axton asks the question of the man’s so-called friends in the song, “Did you say you think he’s blind?” He mournfully relates, “Someone should call his parents, a sister or a brother. And they'll come and take him back home on a bus. But he'll always be a problem to his poor and puzzled mother and he'll always be another one of us. He said he wanted heaven but praying was too slow, so he bought a one way ticket on an airline made of snow.” The title of the song is appropriate, because the man is truly blinded by “snow,” his cocaine addiction. All of the man’s friends knew what he was doing, because they were snow blind as well. How can the blind lead the blind? Yet, I know of two men who were on their last “hit,” and one of them decided it was time for them to change. He heard of a revival, a religious meeting, down at the neighborhood church. “Will it help?” the other man asked. “It can’t do us any more harm than this,” his friend replied. And so at his insistence they went and met Jesus that night. They both are now serving as pastors. It is a graphic example of how, sometimes, even blind friends can bring blind friends to Jesus. Can you?
Why is it we are ready to believe some outlandish things, yet not the gospel truth? Like the urban legend of the midget Jehovah’s Witness who was kidnapped while going door-to-door by a special needs boy. He supposedly captured the little guy, locks him in his closet, and runs to tell his mother that he caught a troll. Sorry, but while it may make us smile, it simply is not true. That’s why we should follow Jesus. He is the truth and he always speaks the truth. In fact, we learn that…
II. Jesus is always willing to lead the blind to sight! (Vv. 23-25)
1. Put your hands in the hands of the Man! That’s exactly what the blind man has to do, and we suddenly realize that these lyrics are based on good theology! Like Job, Jesus is “eyes to the blind and feet to the lame.” (Job 29:15) Jesus took the “blind man by the hand and led him outside the village.” And isn’t this a tremendous picture of what our walk with the Lord is to be? In this world we are still blinded by our spiritually blurred vision. Paul writes that “we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror.” (1 Corinthians 13:12) Jesus leads him/us away from his/our old friends, the village, and his/our old way of dependence. He/we now had/have to follow Jesus wherever Jesus decides to lead him/us. Notice that Jesus does not lead him to a nearby alleyway, home, or courtyard. Instead, Jesus takes the blind man out of town and into the open. We see why after Jesus “spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him.” Jesus desired to ascertain the man’s willingness to be healed and his trust in Jesus’ ability to lead. Jesus leads the same with all who walk with him. “Look around, what do you see?” is what Jesus is tacitly asking. The man answers, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” Jesus’ power is not weak; the man’s trust is incomplete. Why would we say that? We immediately read that “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.” There were no distractions of friends, crowds, city streets, or busy market places – only the man and Jesus. His entire life had been one of darkness and now he begins to see dimly at first, then as he totally trusts Jesus, his sight becomes complete! This is how it is with all of us when we begin to allow Jesus to lead us. And, guess what the wonderful truth is? Jesus is always willing to lead the blind to sight! Even you!
EXAMPLE: Vernon Grounds writes about an anthropologist named Oliver Sacks who “In his book An Anthropologist on Mars… tells about a man named Virgil. Blind from early childhood, Virgil underwent surgery decades later and regained the ability to see. But at first, like the blind man healed by Jesus outside Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-26), Virgil had difficulty seeing. Although he could discern movement and color, he couldn’t put images together to make sense of them. For a time, his behavior was still the same as when he was sightless. Sacks comments, ‘One must die as a blind person to be born again as a seeing person. It is the interim, the limbo... that is so terrible.’” We find that his comment echoes Paul’s teaching about burying our old, dead selves to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4-14). It is a powerful spiritual change that may bring a time of difficult adjustment for the new Christian. Ingrained habits and attitudes may hang on like leeches. Grounds wrote that, “To overcome sin, we must remember that it is ‘no longer our master.’ We are ‘dead to sin,’ (v.11), and we are to refuse to let it reign in our lives (v.12). Instead, we are to offer ourselves to God as ‘as those who have been brought from death to life’ (v.13). As we take these steps, our spiritual blindness will become a thing of the past, and we will learn that Jesus is always willing to lead the blind to sight!
Have you ever walked into a closed glass door? I have. Then I had to suffer the comments of those who witnessed my mishap: “What’s the matter with you, are you blind?” “Did you think it was open?” “Don’t worry, there’s a blood smudge now so others won’t do what you just did!” It can be both painful and embarrassing. There are always those who think they are so smart when someone else suffers. In fact, we sort of see this in today’s passage as well. We discover that…
III. Some who think they can see, are still blind! (V. 26)
1. The ability to see obstacles helps one avoid collisions! Jesus does a curious thing. He gives the man a warning. “Jesus sent him home, saying, ‘Don't go into the village.’” Why would Jesus tell him that? Maybe it was for self-preservation for both Jesus and his new follower. The man did not need the ridicule of relatives, the curiosity of cronies, and especially the unwanted notice of the nattering nabobs. Jesus had seen how they would harass both those he had healed and their families. (John 9:18-22) Perhaps Jesus wanted the blind man’s friends to have faith not in what they could see, but in what they had learned concerning Jesus. Remember, Jesus also related that a “wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign.” (Matthew 16:4) Someone who had just received their sight did not need any unnecessary distractions. The same is true for new Christians. However, it could also have been as simple as the fact that Jesus did not need the excessive attention this miracle could have brought him. We find Jesus telling those he had cured not to bring unnecessary attention to the miracles he performed. (Mark 1:44-45; 5:43; 7:36) The KJV translates the verse by saying Jesus “sent him away to his house, saying, ‘Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town.’” We also know that the folks back in Bethsaida were notorious for their unbelief concerning Jesus. It would be like “casting pearls before swine” for the man to go back there. Jesus declared, “Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.” (Luke 10:13) Sadly, Bethsaida was where Peter and Andrew had come from and it would be judged more harshly than the pagan cities of Tyre and Sidon! Why? Simply because some who think they can see, are still blind.
EXAMPLE: C. P. Hia writes for RBC Ministries that “Sanduk Ruit is a Nepalese doctor who has used his scalpel, microscope, and simplified cataract surgery technique to give sight to almost 70,000 people over the past 23 years. The poorest patients who visit his nonprofit eye center in Katmandu pay with just their gratitude.” We know that Jesus healed many of physical blindness during His time on earth. But of greater concern to Him were the spiritually blind. Many of the religious authorities who investigated the healing of the blind man in John 9:13-34 refused to believe that Jesus was not a sinner. This caused Jesus to say, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind” (v.39). Paul wrote of this spiritual blindness when he said, “If our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them” (2 Cor. 4:3-4). Jesus warned the newly restored man to stay away from those who would try to discourage his new found faith, because some who think they can see, are still blind.
Conclusion:
We learned today that: Even blind friends bring blind friends to see Jesus, that Jesus is always willing to lead the blind to sight, and finally that some who think they can see, are still blind.
----
Pastor Lee Hemen has been the outspoken pastor of the same church for 25 years in Vancouver, WA. He writes regularly on spirituality and conservative causes and maintains several web blogs. This article is copyrighted © 2010 by Lee Hemen and is the sole property of Lee Hemen, and may not be used unless you quote the entire article and have my permission. You now have my permission...
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