Spiritual Blindness

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.

Mark 8 · chapter mention

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

Isaiah 8 · chapter mention

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.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.