“Spiritual Blindness
and Spiritual Sight” Mark
SCRIPTURE INTRO: The big question in Mark 1-8 is: Who is Jesus?
In the middle of chapter eight we have the climax of the
first half of the book.
Peter answers the
question: You are the Christ, the son of
the living God.
Right before those
famous words we have a fascinating miracle.
We’re going to read this miracle, and then Peter’s words.
INTRO: Kevin Meherg once
told me about an interesting challenge at his work.
Works at 3M on production line
that make different types of plastic film.
There was a machine on one of these
lines, and the film would go through it—
but something was wrong. It was messing up the film in some way.
In order to fix the problem,
Kevin had to be able to see what the machine was doing wrong.
But this was the challenge—the
machine moved faster than the naked eye.
He couldn’t see what it was doing wrong, even though it was doing it
right
in front of him. If he stopped the machine, it quit doing it.
So how did he solve the problem?
Brought in special, high-speed
German cameras—take 1000s of frames per second.
With the footage from those cameras—able to see what he had been looking
at
but couldn’t see. They turned blurring speed of machine into
slow-motion.
Seeing and understanding
inseparably connected—if we can’t see, can’t understand.
Sometimes we see things, don’t really see them.
Years later we look back and
say: I see things differently now.
Or we say: I can’t believe I saw
things that way back then. I was so
blind.
The Bible uses this language of
seeing and understanding.
It speaks of blindness and sight, darkness and light as a way of
describing
the way we understand realities about ourselves
and God.
That’s what we see in this miracle.
It’s a fascinating miracle because
it is one of the few that Jesus performed in stages.
He doesn’t heal the man all at once, but it takes two touches by Christ.
This was not because the first one
didn’t work.
Jesus could have healed him in an instant.
As we’ve seen over and over—Jesus’ miracles are enacted parables.
He healed the man this way to teach
us things about the nature
of spiritual blindness and spiritual sight.
You remember last week, after the
feeding of the 4,000,
the disciples were in the boat with Jesus.
And what were they getting worked
up about?
They had forgotten to bring bread—just had one loaf for 13 of them.
Jesus wanted to talk about serious matters—danger of unbelief.
But all they could think of was
missing lunch.
There, sitting right in front of them was the Son of God who had just
taken
seven loaves and a few fish and fed thousands
of people.
They could see him, but they
couldn’t see him.
Did not understand who he was and his power to provide all they needed.
Do you remember Jesus’ words to them?
How many baskets of leftovers after
I fed the 5,000 with five loaves? 12
How many baskets of leftovers after I fed the 4,000 with seven
loaves? 7
Do you still not understand? Do
you still not see who I am?
And then we have, in verse 29,
Peter getting it. Who do you say I am?
You are the Christ. The Messiah. The Savior.
But sandwiched between the
disciples’ lack of understanding—
and Peter’s confession when understand starts
to dawn on them—this miracle.
It shows us how we move from
spiritual blindness to spiritual sight.
In your life there are problems and
perplexities.
Things about yourself, other people, God, the world—
you look at, and know something is going on—but
what?
Why am I having this problem in my
life?
Why do I respond to certain situations this way?
What is God doing? Is He doing
anything at all?
You can see but you can’t see. Things are blurry.
How do you gain clear sight and understanding of the deep things?
Jesus tells us how in this miracle.
Three aspects of
moving from spiritual blindness to spiritual sight.
First, spiritual sight comes in stages.
Second, spiritual sight comes in community.
Third, spiritual sight comes in surrender.
Credit where credit is due: Sermon by Dr. Tim Keller.
MP#1 Spiritual
sight comes in stages
In this miracle, it took more than
one touch of Jesus to heal this man.
The restoration of his sight took place in stages—
first he was blind, then he could see men like
trees, then he could see clearly.
And his healing progressed as Jesus
touched him multiple times.
But he did not see clearly at first.
This is a parable of spiritual
sight.
We do not come into the Christian life seeing clearly—vision is blurred.
Over a lifetime of touches by Jesus, we see more and more clearly.
By touches of Jesus, mean that in
different ways, different means
he applies the truth to us, and it sinks in,
and we see a little bit more clearly.
What do you think about Jesus
spitting in this man’s eyes?
Charles Spurgeon, great 19th century Baptist preacher said
that was disgusting.
Then Spurgeon made a tremendous
application—
at times, the truth that Jesus reveals to us
will be very unpleasant—
things he reveals to us about our own
sinfulness and insufficiency.
But just as Jesus spit in the man’s
eyes began enabled him to see a little bit more—
so the truth, even if it is unpleasant, starts
to open our eyes.
And, of course, sometimes the touch
of Jesus is more pleasant—
he lays his hands on the man—that’s comforting
and assuring.
Often, brings the truth in a
comforting way so that we see even more clearly.
But the important point is that we don’t see with perfect clarity
at any point in this life—our spiritual vision
progresses in stages.
Look at Peter in this chapter and
we have a great example of this.
In the boat Jesus asks Peter and disciples: Do you still not understand?
And they don’t. The are still clueless as to who Jesus really is.
Then Peter begins to see and makes
that great confession:
You are the Christ! Peter
sees. His vision is clearer.
But what is the very next thing
Peter says?
When Jesus explains what it means that he is the Christ,
that he is going to have to suffer and
die—Peter rebukes him.
Jesus responds very forcefully and
says: Get behind me Satan.
We realize, that Peter’s vision is still
blurry.
It’s clearer than it was. Knows
Jesus is the Christ.
But doesn’t understand what that
means. Future touches, clearer vision.
Many Christians are controlled by
the idea that the Christian life should be like
Paul’s
and then we are totally changed and see things clearly.
There are some things that happen
instantly in the Christian life—
forgiveness, adoption into the family of God,
justification, new birth.
But spiritual sight and
understanding progresses by stages.
There are long periods where things will be blurry to you.
It’s important that you understand how to handle that.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote a famous
sermon called “Men Like Trees Walking.”
So often he encountered professing Christians who were unhappy and
uncertain.
They just didn’t know where they were in the Christian life.
They looked at their lives and were
depressed by what they saw.
Very little assurance, very little joy, very little
love.
Uncertain about the future. Struggling with guilt. Unable to make progress.
Would come to him and say: What’s wrong with me? Am I a Christian or not?
Lloyd-Jones would read them this
miracle and say:
Stop examining your navel and answer Jesus’ question.
Answer the question he asked the blind man after he spit in his eyes.
“Do you see anything?”
Look at this man. Something had happened to him.
Once totally blind but now he could see some things.
But he wasn’t happy with his blurry vision.
When Jesus asked him if he could
see, said,
Yes, but—it’s not perfect. I wish
it were better.
If he hadn’t
admitted that to Jesus, had said to himself.
This is just me, this is as good as it gets, would have stayed there.
That’s the stance you have to
take. Tell the Lord how imperfect your
vision is.
Be honest with him. Have a holy
dissatisfaction with his work in your life.
Doesn’t do any good to get
despondent and wonder if you really are a Christian,
or if God is really at work in your life, or if
you are ever going to get better.
If God wasn’t at work, you wouldn’t
even be asking these questions.
So the most important thing is not
how blurry vision is—
but are you dissatisfied with your spiritual
sight?
You must come to Jesus and say—You haven’t done enough.
I want to see more about myself, and you. Show me more.
MP#2 Spiritual
sight comes in community
We see something at the beginning
of this miracle that actually see in many—
this man had friends who brought him to
Jesus. Begged Jesus to
touch him.
He was a blind man. How could he
have seen Jesus without his friends?
They brought him to Jesus and put
him into Jesus’ hands.
This is the point—Jesus’ touch
comes in the community of believers.
You cannot sharpen your spiritual sight on your own.
Cannot say—I’m going to go to
church on Sunday, read Bible, pray—
and expect to grow in your understanding of the
ways of God.
You will not get sharper vision if you just tell God about it.
You have to be willing to go to
other believers who can see and say—help me.
Show me. You have to process
these things with friends.
It is through your fellowship with
other believers who say to you—
This is what I have learned, this is what the
Lord did for me.
I when through this illness, this struggle with my children,
in that the Lord taught me this or that.
This is a passage in the Bible or a
Bible story that helped me.
I used to think this, but over years I’ve learned something else.
It is through those kinds of conversations in the church, our sight
sharpened.
But don’t think it’s only with
people whose vision is sharper than yours.
Often it is time spent with
believers whose vision is blurrier than yours.
You are telling them the truths that you have learned—
and those very truths are impressed on your
mind in fresh ways.
Once heard someone tell about a man
he knew, would ride with occasionally,
never wore his seatbelt. If said he should, man would say, Yeah, yeah.
Then, he noticed man was wearing
his seatbelt and asked him why?
I have a friend in a wreck, no seatbelt, went through windshield.
I saw him in the hospital with hundreds of stitches.
So man telling story said: What’s changed?
You always knew could go through windshield in a wreck.
Man said, Yes, I always knew, but when saw friend, it really sunk in.
There is a kind of sight that only
comes in the community of believers.
Reason it is so important to put yourself in places where you can talk.
In our own church—Covenant groups,
Bible studies, informal fellowship.
That is just as important for
sharpening your vision as private time with God.
Christianity is not a philosophy of
life it’s a relationship with Christ.
If it were a philosophy, you could arrive at perfect sight through your
own
private study and analysis.
But because it is a relationship
with Jesus, our sight is sharpened
by relationships with other people who know
Him.
We get to know him better by knowing people who know him.
As we see what he is doing in their
lives—things become more clear.
There is another important
implication from this about life in church.
We should never be impatient with each other.
We get impatient because we look at
fellow, professing believers—
and we say to ourselves—
Can’t he see how immature and
disruptive his behavior is?
Can’t she see how negative her
attitude is?
Can’t they see what poor parenting
decisions they are making?
Can’t they see how unwise their
spending is?
We might even wonder at times if a
person really is a Christian.
Do we need to start with the beginning?
Do we need to pray for their salvation?
Listen, 10 years from now you will
look at yourself as you are now
and you will say—I was so blind then.
Why couldn’t I see how immature I was?
That means that you are blind right
now.
You have foolish, immature, unwise, blurry ways of looking at your life
that you don’t know. Other, more mature Christians see your blindnesses,
and they are patient—we need to be patient with
each other.
One preacher said that when this
man’s vision was blurry—
he would have cut down people and talked to
trunks.
That’s the way some Christians are?
Let’s be patient with one another—
Jesus has called us to live and
grow together in the family of God.
MP#3 Spiritual
sight comes in surrender
What’s the root of your spiritual
blindness?
It’s a craving for self-sufficiency.
Or we might say it’s a desire to be in control of your life.
Your craving for self-sufficiency
or control blinds you to reality—
but you start to see as you surrender to
Christ.
What often happens when a person
addicted to alcohol or drugs
is confronted by friends or family?
He says: I don’t have a problem. Yes, I drink, but I’m in control.
I don’t need help. I can stop any
time I want to stop.
The paradox is that as long as he
claims he is in control—has no control.
But as soon as he admits that he is powerless and needs help from the
outside—
at that point he takes his first step toward
gaining power and control.
As long has he craves
self-sufficiency, he is blind to true condition.
That is a perfect picture of where
we are spiritually.
There is in each one of us a deep root of self-sufficiency.
We want to save ourselves. We
believe that we can save ourselves.
We are blind to the fact that we
are absolutely enslaved to sin and selfishness.
We are blind to the fact that we
can’t change important things about ourselves.
We are blind to the fact that we
can’t handle problems life throws at us.
Here’s why—we are afraid of
admitting that we are not competent enough
to run our own lives. Even as Christians we can have blurry vision.
We know we need Jesus—but he is
just one plank in our program of self-salvation.
He can forgive us for the really bad things, but mostly we just need
a little help and we can run the rest of our
lives in an orderly fashion.
This miracle is in a strategic
place. Right before
Peter’s confession.
Jesus asks Peter: Who do people say that I am?
They say you are John the Baptist, Elijah, one of the prophets.
In other words, for most people, Jesus someone who
tells us how to live.
That’s easy to believe.
It takes no spiritual sight to believe Jesus is here to give us a good
example.
But then Jesus asks: Who do you say that I am?
Peter replies: You are the
Christ.
That means Jesus came not to be an
example and teacher, but to save you.
He didn’t come to show you how to live and die.
He lived the life you should have lived.
He died the death you should have died.
And he wants you to surrender to
him and admit that you are
completely incompetent and powerless to run
your life.
That’s frightening.
The alcoholic doesn’t want to admit
that he is insufficient and out of control—
because that makes him incredibly vulnerable.
He suddenly become dependent on
other people,
and open to their judgments.
And who knows what kinds of
terrible things about himself
he will have to face and admit?
That’s how we are with Jesus.
We’re afraid of what we might have to face if we surrender to him.
We don’t want to see our bitterness
and unforgiveness.
We’ve lived with it so long. Comfortable with our blindness.
If we surrender to Jesus it might mean facing those.
Actually going to people, asking forgiveness—that
would be painful.
We don’t want to see our idols and
our lusts and our compulsive habits.
That will mean giving up things that comfort us,
or perhaps exposing ugly, hidden, humiliating
things.
It’s frightening to think of what
Jesus might make us see and do.
Where do we get the confidence? Confidence comes from Christ himself.
As he immediately tells disciples—being the Christ means suffering and
death.
And what was the heart of that
suffering? Three hours of darkness on
cross.
At the end of which he cried: My
God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Do you see what that is? It is Jesus suffering spiritual darkness.
He was willing to leave the light and be plunged into spiritual
darkness—
so that your spiritual blindness could be cured
forever.
If that is the kind of Savior he
is—no need for you to worry about where he might
lead you, things he might cause you to see
about your life if you surrender to him.
Yes, it might be extremely
uncomfortable—like spit in the eye,
But will also be empowering, as you begin to see things about
who you are, who Christ is, who you are in
Christ, you have never seen before. \
CONC: This is a special day
for churches that follow the church calendar.
If you grew up Lutheran or
Episcopalian, you know this is Pentecost Sunday.
Pentecost is about the coming of the Spirit to empower the church
for world missions.
How did he do that? He opened their eyes to the greatness of the
Gospel.
He enabled them to see something
that their Jewish eyes could not see—
that the Gospel was for all the nations.
Well, the same Spirit is at work in
you life—the Spirit of Christ.
And he is opening your eyes to the greatness of life in him.
So tell the Lord you want to see
more clearly,
tell your Christian friends the same thing,
and
surrender your self-sufficiency to Christ.
And he will touch you again with
his Spirit,
and you will see more wonderful things.