Mark 8:22
Some people brought a blind man to Jesus…
Jesus reputation had spread among the people. Common folks – fishermen, wine makers,
carpenters – were bring their friends who had been born blind, sick, afflicted,
to Jesus so they could be made whole.
The religion of the day had told them, they were not worthy, they were
sinners and God was punishing them.
Jesus was revealing the kingdom of heaven everywhere he went, and people
were begging him for more. These people
had brought their blind friend and wanted desperately for Jesus to help him,
and of course he does, but in a very strange way.
He leads the man out of the village…
Bethsaida was one of the places Jesus did many miracles;
it’s also one of the places that rejected Jesus and his disciples. They had the Kingdom of Heaven presented to
them and most of them still chose the world.
Jesus leads the man away from the people who had brought him. They would not get to see the Kingdom in
action this time. Then Jesus ups the
strange; he spits in the man’s eye.
Spitting in someone’s eye is a universal insult. Nowhere in any culture, ever, has that not
lead to someone getting punched it mouth.
Jesus lays hands on the man (probably had to hold him down). And says “can you see anything now?”
People like trees…
The man begins to get his vision restored. It seems from his statement that he wasn’t
always blind, he knows what tree’s look like, and that they don’t normally walk
around. Jesus hadn’t failed to heal this
man. Jesus is perfect. Jesus shows us two things here, sometimes
healing takes time, he doesn’t always heal everything on the spot. Jesus also doesn’t just heal physical things,
sometime the spiritual and mental damage done by the brokenness of sin takes time. Sometimes it’s a process, and that’s ok. I
think in this case he’d had actually given this man improved vision; spiritual
vision. Jesus talked a lot about trees
in his parables; he used them as illustrations for the kingdom of heaven all
the time. He talked about people being
like branches of the true vine and the ones who didn’t produce good fruit being
cut down and thrown into the fire. He
talked about faith being like a tiny mustard seed that produced a great tree
that birds came to find shelter in. But
here the man see’s people like trees walking around. They’re not doing what trees do. Trees stand and soak up life from the ground
and soak in life from the sun. These
trees are shaking all the fruit off as they move around. They’re scaring all the birds away.
… he saw everything clearly.
Jesus touches the man again and his sight is restored and he
see’s everything clearly. (at a distance and clearly). He saw that the world was different than he
remembered it. He saw things with a
Kingdom of Heaven view. He saw things in
light of grace and mercy. Spit no longer
represented an insult but a expression of mercy. Jesus sent him on his way with kingdom of
heaven outlook.
Who do people say I am?
Jesus heads out with the boys. While walking along, he puts this question to
them. The rumor mill is turning and
everyone is throwing opinions and confused.
So many people don’t know what to make of Jesus. Some have mistaken him JTB or Elijah or some
other prophet. Then he gets a little
personal, “who do you say I am.” Huge
question!
Huge Response! Peter
says, you’re the messiah. Christ, Christos, the anointed one.
Peter really has no idea what he’s saying yet, He doesn’t
know how things are going to go down. He
doesn’t really know what “Son of God” means.
But he knows enough to know that Jesus is the real deal. How could he know this? Of course he’s been with Jesus a lot, he’s
seen the miracles, he’s heard the teaching, and he’s watched Jesus confound the
religious leaders. But so had lots of
the people in Bethsaida, so had lots of people everywhere Jesus went. Why was Simon son of Jonah so convinced?
In Matthew’s record of this little chat we get the
answer. The same thing that had happened
to the blind man in Bethsaida had already happened to Peter to a degree. Jesus tells Peter, you’re blessed because my
Father in Heaven has revealed this to you.
God had opened something up in Simon so he could perceive what was
happening around him as the Kingdom of Heaven come to earth in Jesus. It wasn’t what he’d learned in school or
church or even the things that he’d seen.
It was that he’d encountered Jesus, the kingdom of heaven, he
experienced and God revealed to him what was actually happening. He didn’t know about the cross yet, he didn’t
know about the resurrection, he didn’t know about the promised Holy
Spirit. He had a totally different idea
of what the Messiah was supposed to do.
He wasn’t an expert in the Law.
He was a normal young guy, a fisherman.
The Rock…
Jesus says he will build his church on this rock. Not on Peter’s strength or wisdom or faith or
ideas, which is what some people have come to believe, but on the revelation of
God to Peter about who Jesus is. God
revealed the truth about Jesus to Peter and God reveals the truth about Jesus
to us, and when a bunch of us get together who have seen the reality, even if
it’s only a small bit of the reality of who Jesus is, then that church, that
group of called out people, are an unstoppable force against the gate of hell.
Here’s the keys…
Jesus offers his disciples the keys to heaven and puts them
in charge of what comes to earth from heaven.
You’re in charge. Well, in the
way that you’re now able to hear what God’s plans are, be lead by the Holy
Spirit and have the power to do what he wants you to. Jesus has given you the Holy Spirit, he is
the key to knowing and experiencing and living out the Kingdom of Heaven in
your life. And the best part is, it’s
unstoppable. We can walk into the
kingdom of darkness, empowered by the Holy Spirit and introduce them to Jesus
so he can rescue them. All the false
religion, all the worldly temptations, all the resistance the enemy can muster,
will not prevail against the revelation of Jesus. He wins.
So, who do you say Jesus is, he asks the question to all of
us. If he’s healed your vision so you
see the world from a kingdom of heaven perspective, what are you going to do
with the keys to heaven?
Do what you did the first time your parents gave you the
keys to the car, go for a drive, see what it feels like, be a little bit
adventurous, go tell you friends you’ve got the car, drive slightly dangerously
because you don’t really know what you’re doing yet. Turn the radio up and sing as loud as you can. Stop and get some fuel, and some food, you’ll
need it for the road trip. If you bump into someone and put some scratches on
it, you’ve got good grace based insurance, it’ll get fixed (maybe your dad
would be upset by the dent, but you’re Father in Heaven won’t mind a bit). Buckle up, it’s a crazy ride!
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