Well, good morning.
In a complete departure from our normal practice,
I'm simply going to shout out that the Princeton Tigers won
their second round NCAA tournament game last night,
which has not happened since 1967.
So if you don't know, that's my alma mater.
So, and being up here, we have loved our brothers and sisters from Yale
and pray that you will rejoice with us in this moment.
So, okay.
As I take out my glasses, I have a confession to make.
When I started preaching here 10 years ago,
I printed out my sermons in 12-point font.
They now are printed out in 14- or 16-point font,
depending on the day.
I can now only read meaningfully with glasses.
I can't see the words otherwise.
They are just blurs unless I, you know,
do what my father used to do,
hold the newspaper way back there so he can, yeah.
So, I know that not being able to see clearly
as something that has come upon me later in life.
For some of you, it's been a lifelong condition.
For some of you, vision impairment has deeply impacted your life.
And some of you who cannot see are no longer able to use your eyes
to see the world around you.
I did some research this week.
According to the World Health Organization,
2.2 billion people in the world suffer from some kind of vision impairment.
And it is a tragedy that over a billion of them
do not have the resources for those things to be addressed well.
Thankfully, they're working to make changes in that.
But when we come to the Bible,
the Bible talks of a more widespread problem
than physical blindness as significant as it is.
And that is the problem of spiritual blindness.
The blindness where we cannot,
we do not,
see God rightly.
And the Bible tells us that this is an affliction
that all of us,
apart from his grace,
are afflicted by.
There may be many things,
ways that this expresses itself in our hearts.
We may be confused by the different ideas of God in the world
and not know what is true or right.
We may see God through the lens of our own experience
and only be able to accept him
in the ways that he is understandable to us.
We may be ruled by our hopes and fears
of who God might be or could be
or the expectations that we have of him.
And sometimes we pridefully say
that God must be this or that for us,
for us to see him as well, at all.
Our passage this morning,
as we continue in our series in the Gospel of Mark,
addresses this very topic of spiritual blindness.
And as we look at it together,
we will not only see this blindness exposed,
but we will see Jesus meet us in the midst of it.
So, this is where we're going this morning.
Mark chapter 8.
It's page 792 in your Pew Bible.
If you'd like to look along with me,
I encourage you.
We're going to go ahead and read this passage together.
We're going to pray for God's help,
and then we will look at it together
for a few minutes this morning.
So, Mark 8, starting in verse 11.
The Pharisees came and began to argue with him,
him being Jesus,
seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him.
And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said,
Why does this generation seek a sign?
Truly, I say to you,
no sign will be given to this generation.
And he left them.
He got into the boat again
and went to the other side.
Now, they, that is the disciples,
had forgotten to bring bread,
and they only had one loaf with them in the boat.
And he cautioned them, saying,
Watch out, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees
and the leaven of Herod.
And they began discussing with one another
the fact that they had no bread.
And Jesus, aware of this, said to them,
Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread?
Do you not yet perceive or understand?
Are your hearts hardened?
Having eyes do you not see?
And having ears do you not hear?
And do you not remember?
When I broke the five loaves for the 5,000,
how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?
And they said to him,
Twelve.
And the seven for the 4,000,
how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?
And they said to him,
Seven.
And he said to them,
Do you not yet understand?
And they came to Bethsaida,
and some people brought to him a blind man
and begged him to touch him.
And he took the blind man by the hand
and led him out of the village.
And when he had spit on his eyes
and laid his eyes on him,
he asked him,
Do you see anything?
And he looked up and said,
I see men,
but they look like trees walking.
Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again,
and he opened his eyes,
his sight was restored,
and he saw everything clearly.
And he sent him to his home,
saying,
Do not even enter the village.
Friends, this is God's word.
Let's pray together.
Oh, Lord Jesus,
we do ask for your help this morning.
Lord, for we confess to you our weakness.
Lord, that we do not see you as we ought.
God, we pray that you would open our eyes
to see you in the scripture,
to see you as you have been revealed
in your word.
Lord, to see you in your glory
and majesty and power
and your grace and truth.
Jesus, may you be lifted up
in our midst this morning
through the proclamation of your word.
And may we see you
and respond in worship.
Lord, be my help this morning,
I pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
What I think we will see
in this passage this morning
is this,
that Jesus confronts us
in our spiritual blindness
and comes to restore
our spiritual vision.
So let's look at it together.
Jesus confronts us
in our spiritual blindness.
This is what we see
in the first two parts
of this story
in verses 11 through 21.
And we'll look at them
in sequence.
The first part of the passage,
verses 11 through 13,
is Jesus confronting
the Pharisees.
And the Pharisees
have a spiritual blindness
that is characterized
by a rebellious challenge
to the person of Jesus.
Look at me at verse 11
and you'll see this so clearly.
They came,
they began to argue with him.
They came to test him.
They came to dispute with him.
They did not come to him
to learn,
to understand,
or to hear from him,
but to challenge him
and to contradict him.
They asked for a sign
and you might be thinking
like we might,
that they've got,
you've got to be kidding me.
This is chapter 8 of Mark
and what have we seen
in the first seven chapters of Mark?
Jesus over and over again
doing miracles,
casting out demons,
healing people,
providing bread
when people were hungry,
walking on waters.
What kind of a sign
do you think
they were looking for?
But in fact,
it may be that
they were looking
for a particular kind of sign
because in the Old Testament
it talks about
how prophets
were to be verified
by a particular kind of sign
and in the rabbinic tradition
this sign became
something like
moving the stars,
something so obvious,
so great
that it was undeniable
that anyone who saw it
would be compelled
to believe.
a sign that would overcome
all of their skepticism
and they asked him this
to test him
which means
they didn't really think
he could do it.
They didn't come saying,
hey, Jesus,
if you could just show us this,
we'd really want to believe in you.
They came to him saying,
sure, go ahead.
Show us what you can do.
Reminds me of,
forgive me
because I refer to this a lot,
the musical
Jesus Christ Superstar
caveat,
it is not a faithful portrayal
of Jesus.
It is, however,
a fascinating look
into how
one might see Jesus
through the lens
of different people
apart from the truth
that Jesus is God.
And so you see
near the end of it,
Jesus is brought
before Herod
and it's a great scene
because Herod
has this great swimming pool,
he has like dancing girls
and palm fronds,
it's really a scene
and so he sings
this song,
right?
Jesus,
I am overjoyed
to meet you face to face.
You've been getting
quite a name
all around the place,
healing cripples,
raising from the dead
and now I understand
you're God,
at least that's what
you've said.
Prove to,
so you are the Christ,
you're the great
Jesus Christ,
prove to me
that you're no fool,
walk across my swimming pool.
If you do that for me,
then I'll let you go free.
Come on,
King of the Jews.
This is the spirit
of skepticism,
of doubt
that we see
in these Pharisees
as they came.
But friends,
the kingdom of God
does not work like this.
Fascinatingly,
in the parallel passage
in Matthew,
Jesus says more
to the Pharisees
when he rebukes
their questioning,
when he sighs
at their response,
discouraged
by their unbelief.
Matthew says,
you know,
the only sign
given to this generation
will actually be
the sign of Jonah,
the one who went
into the belly
of the whale
for three days
and then came out again.
And of this,
he was speaking
of his death
and his resurrection.
The only sign
that Jesus will give
is this historical fact
that this man
who walked the earth
died,
was buried,
and then rose again
and appeared
to many.
But recognize
that even that sign,
even the greatest sign,
does not compel belief.
Because the kingdom
of God
does not come
with such power
that it would say,
you must believe this
or you are just stupid.
Right?
The gospel comes,
the kingdom of God
comes to this world
and God gives us
many, many reasons
for us to believe.
But it is not such
that it is intellectually
so compelling
that all people
will resist it
or that all people
will believe it.
the kingdom of God
comes on its own terms
and gives its own evidence.
And so often,
like the Pharisees here,
we set up our own terms
and our own,
we like,
as C.S. Lewis says,
we put God on trial
and say,
prove to me
according to my standards
of evidence
that you are
who you say you are.
Jesus comes
to call people
to belief
and faith,
not irrational faith
that has no basis
nor is it purely
rational faith
that everyone
who is normal thinking
and logical
would have to believe
but a reasoned belief
that involves
trust
and surrender.
And so Jesus challenges
the Pharisees.
His deep sigh
and his rejection
of their challenge
shows that he
confronts
their spiritual blindness.
and in the end
he departs
without responding
more to them.
Friends,
I wonder how much
we are like the Pharisees
in our own hearts.
I wonder how much
we think that Jesus
must answer
our questions
and must meet
our standards
for us to believe
and trust in him.
I wonder if we put him
on experiential trial.
Jesus,
I'll believe in you
if you'll do
what I want
in this circumstance
in the timing
that I want you
to respond
to this.
Do we bring conditions
to believing in Jesus?
Jesus,
I'll believe in you
if you
give me this job,
preserve this relationship,
relationship,
heal this sickness?
Do we put Jesus
to the test
in our hearts
saying,
if you do this,
Jesus,
then I will believe
in you.
Friends,
we ought not
to be unthinking,
but let us
not be those
whose hearts doubt
and are full
of skepticism
and test the Lord
over and over again.
Jesus then turns
from those
outside of his circle,
the Pharisees
and the Herodians,
to those
inside his circle
in the next part
of this story.
Verses 14 and following,
14 to 21,
Jesus sets up
a contrast
between
what Jesus
is talking about
and what the disciples
are talking about.
So now he's talking
to his own people,
right?
And they get in the boat
and Mark sets up
this contrast.
He says,
they got into the boat
and they didn't have
anything to eat.
They had no bread.
And Jesus turns
to them and says,
I want to warn you
about the leaven
of the Pharisees.
Now, leaven
is not the same thing
as yeast,
but it's similar.
Leaven would have been
a portion
of last week's
bread dough
that had yeast
in it
that would be preserved
and then mixed in
with new dough
to give it,
I'm sure someone's
a baker here
could explain this
far better than I could,
to affect it
so that it would
then rise and grow
just like,
in the same way
that we use yeast
nowadays, right?
It becomes activated.
Anyway,
this is how it works.
So Jesus said,
beware
that the unbelief
and the skepticism
of the Pharisees
and Herod
is like a leaven.
It's going to work
its way in
and it's going
to corrupt you
like a mold
or like a spiritual cancer
getting into our lives,
spreading unbelief
and rebellious
testing spirits.
So Jesus says
to his disciples,
be careful
of this attitude.
Look out for this.
And the disciples
completely missed
Jesus' point.
Jesus mentioned leaven.
They think leaven
is what you do
to make bread.
We don't have any bread.
Oh no,
we don't have any bread.
I'm hungry.
What did we do?
They probably started
pointing figures
at one another
knowing the disciples.
John,
why didn't you bring the bread?
I thought you were
going to bring the bread.
Right?
And so this is what
then Jesus does,
responds in verse 17 to
when he says,
what are you doing?
specifically,
why are you discussing
the fact that you
have no bread?
He asked him a series
of questions.
Some of them are rhetorical.
Some of them,
all of them are poignant.
Why are you discussing
the fact that you
have no bread?
That was not what
I was talking about at all.
I was talking about
the spiritual condition
of your heart.
Do you not yet perceive
or understand?
Are your hearts hardened?
Having eyes,
do you not see?
And having ears,
do you not hear?
Don't you remember
what I've done?
When there were
5,000 people
who didn't have bread,
what did I do?
I provided bread.
When there were
4,000 people,
what did I do?
I provided bread.
Do you not yet understand?
Do you not yet understand
who I am?
Notice the weave
that Jesus brings together
as he's confronting
the spiritual blindness
of the disciples.
He says,
you're distracted
by practical needs.
Your hearts are hardened.
And what you can't,
what you're missing
in all of this
is that you are not
looking at me
and seeing me
for who I really am.
If you remembered
who I was,
if you saw who I was,
you wouldn't,
one,
worry about physical bread
because you fed mobs,
you could feed the 12 of us,
but two,
know that
you're about something
much greater
than just physical food.
You're about spiritual life.
Jesus says,
you don't understand
what I've come to do.
And in these phrases,
he's almost surely
picking up
on a concept
that we see
over and over again
in the Old Testament.
James read
from Hebrews earlier
where the writer
of Hebrews
refers to
the nation of Israel
as they're leaving Egypt
in the Exodus
and God does
miraculous signs
and wonders
to provide for them,
to protect them,
and to deliver them.
And yet they get
into the wilderness
and what do they do?
They grumble,
they complain,
they test God.
Years later,
after God brings
his people
into the promised land
as they dwell
in the promised land,
as God provides
for them
and protects them,
and then the people
turn their hearts
away from him.
Jeremiah
preaches near the end
of the northern kingdom
and to the southern kingdom
in its weakness.
Jeremiah 5, 21 and following,
he says this,
hear this,
O foolish and senseless people
who have eyes
but see not,
who have ears
but hear not.
Do you not fear me,
declares the Lord?
Do you not tremble
before me?
I placed the sand
as a boundary
for the sea,
a perpetual barrier
that it cannot pass.
Though the waves toss,
they cannot prevail.
Though they roar,
they cannot pass over it.
But this people
has a stubborn
and rebellious heart.
They have turned aside
and gone away.
They do not say
in their hearts,
let us fear the Lord our God
who gives the rain
in its season,
the autumn rain
and the spring rain,
and keeps for us
the weeks appointed
for the harvest.
Your iniquities
have turned these away
and your sins
have kept good
from you.
When you look
at the broader context
of what Jeremiah
is bringing
as a charge
against the people
of God
who are not
seeing God clearly,
one of the things
you see is that
they had two things
that they were
regularly turning
away from God
to deal with
their practical things.
When they were
threatened politically,
they would turn
to military alliances
rather than trusting
in the Lord.
And when they were
looking for provision
rather than looking
to God,
they turned
to the local gods
who are a bit
like slot machines.
You put in your prayer,
you get the harvest.
You put in the prayer,
you get a baby.
You put in the prayer,
you get rain
when you need it.
And rather than
seeing God clearly
and trusting him,
they turned
and met these
practical needs
in a different way.
And I think
this is why
Jesus reminds them,
don't be like
these generations.
Don't you see
what I've done?
I've fed
5,000 people.
I've fed
4,000 people.
This is pure speculation,
but I'm just going
to throw it out there.
Why 12
and why 7?
I don't think
we ever addressed it.
Maybe because
the feeding
of the 5,000
was to meet
the tribes of Israel,
12 symbolizing that,
and then the 7
is expanding it
to all of creation.
This is consistent
with what we said
about why Jesus,
say God is going
to provide
for everyone
in every need
and every condition.
and in the midst
of it,
the disciples
don't see them.
They're distracted
by their physical,
practical needs,
and rather than
turning to him
in faith,
they turn away.
Friends,
I wonder how much
we are like that
as well.
In our personal lives,
do we pursue
the praise
of this world,
the achievement
or the satisfaction
that we get
in the pleasures
of this world
more than Jesus
and his kingdom?
In our spiritual lives,
do we fall
into the danger
of loving,
measurable success
over faithfulness
in the long run?
In our emotional lives,
do we trust more
in techniques
than we do
in the grace
of Jesus?
In our political lives,
do we choose
the tools of power
over the gospel
of grace?
In our social engagement,
do we trust
in social engineering
over prayer
and mercy?
Now look,
friends,
I set these things up
as dichotomies.
They aren't dichotomies.
All of them,
there is common grace
good in all of the things
that I mentioned,
but at its heart,
what are we trusting in?
What are we looking at?
What are we really thinking
makes the difference?
Do we think
it's these things
or do we think
it's the grace of God
shown in the person
of Jesus?
Because that is what
Jesus wants
the disciples to see.
That is what
Jesus wants us
to see.
He calls us
that our trust
would be truly
and ultimately
in Him.
Because this is
what Mark
is pointing to.
Mark puts
these stories together.
Look,
the gospels
are historical.
They record events.
But if you read them,
it's not rocket science
to see that they've
arranged the stories
at times
in thematic ways.
And I believe
that this is what
has happened here.
because we go
from this
spiritual blindness
to Jesus
healing a blind man.
Jesus and His kingdom
come
to restore
our spiritual vision.
And this is what
we see in the last part
of our passage
this morning.
22 through 26.
It's a remarkable story.
Jesus comes,
they bring Him
a blind man
and His sight
is restored.
I'm not going
to spend a lot
of time
repacking this
because
I would say
very similar things
to what Tom preached
two weeks ago
about Jesus
healing the deaf man.
Why does He touch him?
Why does He do it
in this particular way?
One of the big questions
in this is
why is it a two-step process?
Why does He touch him
and then say,
what do you see?
And then He says,
well, I see people
but they look like trees.
And Jesus touches him again.
And then
you see the fullness
of it in verse 25.
Look with it.
Look with me at it, right?
Jesus laid His hands
on His eyes again
and He opened His eyes
and His sight was restored
and He saw everything clearly.
And it's most likely
this man was not born blind
because he wouldn't have known
what a tree looked like.
So He was actually
being restored to sight
having become blind
for some reason.
Why does Jesus do it
in a two-step process?
Well, there's a lot
of interesting speculation
in the commentaries about this.
But I think that the one
that best explains to me
is that Jesus is simply saying
that even coming to full vision
is a process.
That there is a progressive healing.
At times Jesus provides it
all at once.
But at times He leads people
in a progression of healing.
And that it's meant
to give hope to the disciples.
Even though I've just rebuked you
as being a blind person,
there is still hope for you.
Your sight can be restored
just like this man's sight
can be restored.
For Jesus comes
as the one that the prophet Isaiah
points to in Isaiah 42.6.
God says this of Jesus,
I will give you
as a covenant for the people,
a light for the nations
to open the eyes
that are blind
to bring out
the prisoners
from the dungeon,
from the prison,
those who sit in darkness.
I am the Lord
and that is my name.
My glory I give
to no other
nor my praise
to carved idols.
Behold,
the former things
have come to pass
and new things
I now declare.
Before they spring forth,
I tell you of them.
And Isaiah was looking ahead
from 600 A.D.
or B.C.
about looking ahead
to the coming of Jesus
and saying,
this one will come
and he will fulfill
all of these promises.
He will come
to restore
our spiritual blindness.
And friends,
this is the testimony
of the church
throughout the ages,
is it not?
When Jesus comes,
he opens our eyes
to see him.
He opens our eyes
to see the reality
of our sin
and our need
for forgiveness
and our inability
to do that on our own.
He comes
and he shows us
that he is the one
who is able
to forgive us
and to deliver us
and to save us.
This is my story.
I grew up
going to church,
hearing of Jesus,
reading the Bible passages,
but it never made
any sense to me.
It had no meaning
to me personally.
I couldn't see
what the big deal was.
And then in God's grace,
he brought people
into my life.
He brought the writings
of C.S. Lewis
and as I,
as these things
came together,
God graciously worked
and my eyes were open
and I saw Jesus
for the first time.
And I can remember back
to the summer of 1986
in those couple of weeks
where I saw him clearly
and I understood
who he was
and what he had come for
and I knew I had a choice.
I could harden my heart
and turn away from him
and do it on my own
or I could bow my knee
and believe
and become a follower
of Jesus.
So John Newton
in his famous song
about amazing grace says,
I once was lost,
but now am found.
Was blind,
but now I see.
Friends,
this is the good news
of the gospel
that though we are afflicted
by spiritual blindness
and though we,
even though we would want
to see Jesus,
we struggle to see him,
yet he has come
to meet us in this
to heal us
of our spiritual blindness
and to restore our vision.
First Corinthians,
Paul tells us
that though we see
through a glass dimly now,
one day we will see him.
One day we will see him
in all of his glory
and all of his splendor
and all of his majesty.
we will see him face to face
and we will have
no more questions.
We will just be filled with joy
and we will bow down
and worship.
This is what he calls us to now,
to turn towards him
with that hope
that that day could be ours.
Let's pray together.
Lord, we pray this morning
that you would open our eyes
to see you.
Come and help us.
Lord, for we confess to you
that our hearts
are often hardened
and Lord,
often we hold on
to things so tightly
that we make them conditions
on how we would come to you
and when we would believe in you.
God, I pray that you would
humble us before your greatness.
show us our desperate need
for you, Lord,
to open our eyes
so that we can see you.
God, I pray for us
because we are so often
distracted.
Distracted from seeing you
as you truly are.
Lord, how often our eyes
are set on other things
for our present day
well-being.
Lord, for our salvation even.
Lord, help us to see
that it is in you
and you alone
that we find these things.
Lord, for you are God
who restores sight
to the blind
so that we might see you
and worship you.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.