Beware of Spiritual Blindness (Jake Enns)

Our sermon title this morning is Beware of Spiritual Blindness.

We all know what physical blindness isn't here.

Nobody, I think in this building right now is physically blind.

I think I can say that with pretty much certainty, but I'm

not so sure about spiritually. And I think all of us in some

level, in some way, have a certain amount of spiritual

blindness in our lives, in our hearts.

And I want to say this at the outset, some of this, what I

want to say here this morning may be very uncomfortable.

And some of you may disagree with me.

And that's OK because we don't all see it the same way.

And it may just be that we're have different backgrounds and

opinions. But also maybe we have blindness

at some levels. Blindness of the heart is a very

real thing. We're continuing our sermon

series to the Gospel of Mark this morning.

And from Mark Chapter 1 to the end of Mark chapter 10 covers a

Mark 1 · chapter mention Mark 10 · chapter mention

time span of about three years. That's 36 months of ministry in

the life of Jesus. Roughly speaking.

Jesus did a lot of ministry in that time frame, but only a very

small sliver of that's recorded. The the writer, the apostle John

writes in John 21 verse 25 that Jesus did many things that are

John 21:25

not recorded. A lot of ministry that Jesus did

simply wasn't written down last Sunday.

Joel these recommends mention how important it is out of the

Mark Chapter 9, how we need to have faith to follow and faith

Mark 9 · chapter mention

to follow Jesus means we have to have some form of spiritual

sight. Jesus taught his disciples, he

patiently taught the crowds about God and repentance and

God's Kingdom and all that. And a lot of it just kind of

went over their heads. And we'll see a lot of that this

morning. Spiritual blindness comes in

countless ways, but all of it together has its root in one

main sin and that's the sin of pride.

This morning we want to go through Mark chapter 10 and here

Mark 10 · chapter mention

we find 5 stories. Now each story in itself would

be a full length sermon if we wanted to make it that.

But I decided this last week and I'm not going to do that.

I'm just going to take one main point out of each of these

stories and leave it at that because there's, there's a,

there's a thread that runs through each one of them.

And each of these five stories, we will see spiritual blindness

or spiritual sight demonstrated in one form or another.

So in the first four stories, in Mark chapter 10, we see a common

Mark 10 · chapter mention

thread of how spiritual blindness kept people from

seeing the truth. And in the last story in Mark

Mark 10 · chapter mention

chapter 10, we have a story of a man who had spiritual sight.

In this in this sermon, we will see how Jesus confronted a

number of sin issues that the people of that they live with

due to their blindness. Last Sunday in Mark 9, we heard

how important it is that we allow nothing to draw us away

from God. And if we did pay attention,

which I trust we did, we'll remember how Joel pointed out

the seriousness of sin in our lives, that we must continue the

path of repentance. And I think it would be a fair

question to ask is if I go to a service and if you go to a

service on a Sunday morning, the question was, Are you ready to

repent? No.

Oh, wait a minute. Why am I here then?

Because that's the part of it. We have to be willing to repent

if we're going to grow. That's what repentance is.

And hear Jesus talking to these people and they're not ready.

Well, let's begin reading Mark chapter 10.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

Take your Bibles. Mark 10, verse 1 to 12.

Mark 10:1–12

That's the first story. Then he arose from there and

came to the region of Judea by the other side of the Jordan,

and multitudes gathered to him again, and as he was customed,

he taught them again. The Pharisees came and asked

him, Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?

Testing him? He answered and said to them,

What did Moses command you? They said Moses permitted a man

to write a certificate of divorce and to dismiss her.

And Jesus answered and said to them, Because of the hardness of

your heart, he wrote you this precept.

But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and

female. For this reason a man shall

leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the

two shall become one flesh. So then they are no longer 2,

but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined

together, let not man separate. That's the end of the discussion

with the Pharisees. Let's go on verse 10.

In the house, his disciples asked him again about the same

matter. So he said to them, whoever

divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against

her, meaning his wife. And if a woman divorces her

husband and marries another, she commits adultery and he would

again, the same would be to her husband.

So here we see the spiritual blindness of these Pharisees.

Now, the reason they're testing Jesus is not so much they want

to know about divorce, remarriage.

I don't think that was the that was the key there.

That was what they used, but Jesus used it to teach them.

And so here we see spiritual blindness prevents people from

understanding God's plan for marriage.

So Jesus moving on. And this time it's the crowds

coming to listen. And Timothy Geddert in his

commentary writes this. He says this happened in the

exact location of the region, the area where John the Baptist

had met his faithful end under King Herod.

And you know what John the Baptist did?

John King Herod had taken his brother Phillip's wife, married

her. And John the Baptist told me

it's not right that you have your brother's wife, Phillip.

King Herod throws John in prison and the end Long story short,

John is beheaded for what he did.

Herodias King, Herod's second wife couldn't stand him so and

so the Pharisees asked him, is it lawful for a man to divorce

his wife testing him? What's Jesus going to say?

Because this is a controversial issue.

It's dicey, it's it's difficult. What's Jesus going to say?

And Jesus being a man, we, he was God in human form, but him

being a man, he could have thought, Oh, oh, John got in

trouble in this place for speaking it against Herod.

What should I say? You see, the, the Pharisees,

they came to make Jesus life difficult.

They didn't come here to learn truth.

Actually, they were in the dark. But Jesus responded with a

question and said, what did Moses command you?

And they say in verse 4, Moses permitted to write a certificate

of divorce to dismiss her. And then they quoted Deuteronomy

24, verse one to four. It does say that if a man finds

something unclean or unacceptable and his wife, he

can divorce or write a certificate and then he can

remarry. What's the deal here?

The Pharisees were not marriage focused.

They wanted to to test you to see what Jesus would do with

this, with this principle, with his commandment.

They viewed marriage from a self focused mind of reference and

they wanted to hear from Jesus what he had to say about it,

hoping he would say something that they could find fault with,

trip him up and then get him into trouble.

In that time, as of now, as of as there is now, there were

debates on this. This was a common debate.

There was 2 particular rabbis. One's name was Hilo and the

other was a more conservative guy was Shamay.

Hilo was the was the more liberal guy.

Yeah. If your wife doesn't measure up

to your standards, yeah, you can divorce or just read her

certificate, divorce and you can marry again.

Shamay was more conservative. There had to be good reason to.

And so both based their their ideas on on Deuteronomy.

So the question was not can you do it?

Just how can you do it? That was the question.

That was what the debates and discussions were over.

But then what does Jesus do? What does Jesus do?

He points them back to the order of creation.

In the original design, there was no divorce built in as a

safety net in case things did not go well.

In the original there was no escape mechanism, so to speak,

if things did not work out. And then Jesus says in verse 5,

he says because of the hardness of your heart, He wrote to this

precept. But from the beginning of

creation God made them male and female.

Jesus took them right back to the beginning of time, sent it

enter the world, tarnished everything including marriage,

but that did not erase God's design.

And then he says in verse 9, therefore what God has joined

together, let not man separate. The problem was not marriage.

The problem was the spin the Pharisees given to the teachings

of the law and Jesus corrected them.

Jesus teaching that marriage that God has joined together

should not be separated. So we can clearly see the

difference in how Jesus viewed marriage and how the Pharisees

viewed marriage. In their spiritual blindness

they had constructed different means and ways in which it

wasn't so serious anymore. Jesus stated it was 1 flesh and

now they shared everything. But yet Moses did allow for

divorce in marriage because of sin, because of hardness of

heart. But the Pharisees conversation

ended there and then in the house Jesus together with his

disciples again and they ask him about that matter on divorce.

What what's with that Lord? And then Jesus says something

very profound and he UPS the he UPS the stakes a bit.

He says verse 11. So he said to them, his

disciples, whoever divorces his wife, marries another, commits

adultery against her. And if a woman divorces her

husband and marries another, she commits adultery.

Jesus calls it adultery. What's adultery?

Adultery is the sin of a married person being section involved

with another person, not their spouse.

That's adultery. But wait a minute.

Were they not divorced? Yeah, they were.

So what's he saying? The divorce isn't valid in God's

eyes. It may be legally valid states

on the state's part, but not in God's eyes.

So if the second marriage is adultery, what's he saying?

He's saying that in when If the second marriage is adultery,

then that means he's got he's sinning against somebody else.

It's important to know that when Mark wrote his gospel, he did

not write anything about Jesus giving permission for divorce

and remarriage. But we do find a verse in

Matthew now. We just want to go there very

briefly this morning because I know this is a question in many

people's minds. It's been brought to me so many

times. I'm going to address it in

Matthew 19. Jesus does make an exception.

Let's go through it in Matthew 1918, nineteen verse 8 and 9,

Jesus says it's again the same, the same event, but Matthew

writes it a bit different. He said to them, Moses, because

of the hardness of your hearts permitted you to divorce your

wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except there

it is, except for sexual morality and marries another,

commits adultery and whoever marries her who is divorced

commits adultery. So the question why would

Matthew and Mark and Luke, they write the same passage?

Why would they not write it the exactly the same?

Why would Mark write it differently than Matthew, for

instance? Why did not both record it the

same way? We must remember these writers

were not writing to the same audiences.

Some scholars believe and it's it's, it's safe to assume that

it's true. Matthew emphasized the kingship

and messiahship of Jesus as Lord.

Mark wrote to A to Gentile audience emphasizing Jesus as

the suffering servant. They both had a different theme

or a different thrust in their, in their in their writings.

The Jewish culture was different than Gentile culture.

And here's where many pastors disagree in these passages as to

what they mean and how should we interpret them.

How should we apply them today? In both gospels, both Mark and

Matthew, the Pharisees come to test Jesus.

Jesus points them in both cases to the permanence of marriage.

But what the Pharisees tried to do was capitalize on Moses

allowance for divorce. What I find interesting today is

how many pastors want to capitalize on the exception

clause. Jesus never commanded to

divorce. He did say there's an exception.

Now I will say I'm not sure exactly how to always interpret

this correctly. And I will also say that many of

us here, maybe most of us have family or personally been

involved and been through this difficult time and some people

have divorced and remarried. This not about judgment here,

but what's Scripture teach? That's what this is about.

Jesus simply forbids marriage, remarriage after divorce in Mark

Mark 10:12

chapter 10 verse 12 and Luke chapter 16 verse 18.

Luke 16:18

But in Matthew there's an exception and he says if a man

divorces his wife, marries another, he commits adultery

unless his wife has already committed adultery before he

did, then it's different. In that case, she has committed

adultery against her husband. And some might be listening,

thinking, OK, good, that gives me an out.

Well, let's be careful before I'm saying I'm free to remarry.

Think back to the spiritual blindness that covers this line

of thinking. Notice Jesus does not qualify

his statement on divorce and remarriage.

He simply says whoever marries a divorced woman is committing

adultery the same as Mark does. So where does this all fall?

This is not the scope of the sermon this morning where I want

to end up on, but simply saying that this is a very, very

difficult and challenging passage.

In my own experience, I've had people come to me numerous times

with a question from different people over the years asking my

opinion of divorce and new marriage.

Then I try to find out what are you focusing on before I go and

say I'm going to judge someone who's divorced and married or

does that? That's not, that's not my

thrust. Where's your heart?

Do you want to follow Jesus or your desires?

And it's not the unforgivable sin.

I'll grant that it's not. But it is a violation of the act

of God's creation. And it can be repented of, it

can be redeemed, it can be healed.

And many do. There is grace, but this is not

God's plan and I'm in the way I see it, One of the great issues

of spiritual blindness in the church in the West, in our

times, we tend to view what God created as permanent, as

something that we can dictate, something we can customize to

our own desire, just like the Pharisees did.

And it remains a big blind spot in the church today.

The Pharisees were blind about this.

The disciples want to know more and said, Jesus, give them

something. Well, that's the story of the

Pharisees and the disciples. Let's continue reading.

There's another story, Mark chapter 10, verse 13.

Mark 10:13

Then they brought little children to him, that he may

touch them. But the disciples rebuked those

who brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was

greatly displeased and said to them, Let the little children

come to me, and do not forbid them, for such is the Kingdom of

God. Assuredly I say to you, whoever

does not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child will by no

means enter it. And he took them up in his arms,

laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

You see, first there was the Pharisees who were blind in

their view of God's Word. Here we see the disciples.

They're blind to the importance and value of little people.

Spiritual blindness prevents people from valuing the

vulnerable. We do not find many times that

Jesus got upset, but here he did.

The new, the new Living Translation says Jesus was angry

with his disciples. And guess what?

He was angry in public with his disciples.

You can just imagine the scene here, Jesus doing stuff.

He's talking to people, sharing the gospel, whatever he's doing.

Here come these women with the little ones, toddlers on, on

their on their arms, these little ones.

We'd like to see the master. Oh, no, no, no, no, you don't

have. He's too busy.

He's too busy. Jesus finds out about this here,

sees what's going on, and he makes very short work of his

disciples. He's angry with them.

What are you doing? And then he says, by the way,

guys, the Kingdom of heaven is like these people.

If you can't, if you can't welcome these, then there's

something wrong with you. And he says anybody who doesn't

come into the Kingdom of heaven like a child will not enter the

Kingdom of heaven. This was an area in the lives of

the disciples where they were blind to Jesus mission, Jesus

values. They had not understood or were

not understanding what Jesus was about to Jesus didn't matter.

Older people, young adults, children, everybody's equally

made in God's image. He loves everybody the same.

What does this tell us about how we should value those who are

less able than we are? All children are equal value in

God's eyes and doesn't just refer to children.

It means everybody. You see, it's a great privilege

to help someone who needs us to take time from someone who's

dependent on us, especially children doesn't have to be our

children either. The disciples.

He received a lesson in the value of all people, not just

grown-ups. See the, the disciples, they had

a lot to learn here and we're going to see more of that as as

we go through the sermon here. The Pharisees were blind in the

matters of the legal, legal matters, the, the marriage and

so on that stuff. The disciples were blind and how

they view Jesus taking time for children.

It's a short story, but I can just imagine the disciples being

embarrassed. Uh oh, the masters rebuking us

in front of these mothers. But it happened.

Well, Jesus goes on from there. Now another story, Mark 10 verse

Mark 10:17

17. Now as he was going on on the

road, one came running, knelt before him and asked him, Good

teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?

So Jesus said to him, why do you call me good?

No one's good but the one that is God.

You know the commandments. Do not commit adultery, do not

murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not

defraud, Honor your father and mother.

He answered and said to him, Teacher, all these things I've

kept from my youth. Then Jesus looking at him, loved

him, and said to him, One thing you lack, Go your way, sell what

you have, give to the poor, and you'll have treasure in heaven.

Come, take up your cross and follow me.

But he was sad at this word, and went to his sorrowful for he had

great possessions. Then Jesus looked around and

said to the disciples, How hard it is for those of riches to

enter the Kingdom of God. And the disciples were

astonished at his words. But Jesus answered again and

said to them, Children, How hard it is for those who trust in

riches to enter the Kingdom of God.

It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than

for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.

And they were greatly astonished, saying among

themselves, Who then can be saved?

But Jesus looked at them and said, With men it is impossible,

but not with God, for with God all things are possible.

Then Peter began to say to him, see, we have left all and

followed you. So Jesus answered and said,

assuredly, I say to you, there's no one who has left house or

brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or

lands for my sake in the Gospels who shall not receive a

hundredfold. Now in this time houses and

brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with

persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.

But many who are first will be last, and the last first.

This guy came to Jesus totally good, good intentions.

The desire came running. In fact, he was in a hurry.

He was urgent. He wants to make sure he knows

that he's on the right track. He was rich, but he was a good

guy. But he was blind as well.

Spiritual blindness prevents people from realizing the

dangers of earthly wealth. How many people would we say

today do not want more, bigger, newer?

And I'm not saying it's never justified.

Sometimes we do need something newer or something more we do

once in a while. But what for?

The man comes running, kneels before Jesus, and asks the

question. What's interesting is how Jesus

started this man off with where the man was at.

Gives him a quick rundown of the commandments.

This is what the commandments say.

He says, OK, that's good, I've done all that.

He says you're missing one thing, and the thing that you're

missing is what's holding you. It's your wealth.

He had a lot of stuff. And it's clear in this man's

life, there's an emptiness that needs filling.

There are people in this world who reach a high standard of

wealth totally honesty with honesty, integrity.

They work hard. They they're blessed with

wealth, but they're still empty inside.

And I want to say to anyone who's listening, if you have

wealth and you feel empty, you're blessed.

That's a blessing. Earthly wealth is never intended

or meant to satisfy the soul. If it does, that means your soul

is plugged into the wrong thing. The feeling of emptiness is a

gift from God, which God never intended to satisfy with

material stuff. I'll say this for the person for

whom wealth has become a satisfying thing.

That person is in great trouble. That's total blindness.

For this man to come running to Jesus knowing he needed

something he didn't have, he just wanted to know what it was

that was a good thing. That's God designed.

Take the human body for instance.

What would life be like if you would never know you're thirsty?

You would need water to hydrate your body, but you never know if

you're thirsty. Somebody you have to test

somehow. Oh, it must be thirsty.

I'm getting sick or something. Your body lets you know you need

water. There's a need, there's a,

there's a need for water and you and you drink and your need is

your need is gone and now you're good for a while.

The same holds true spiritually, but this is where the blindness

comes in. Satan tells us, OK, just get

this and you'll be happy again. Well, it may seem that way until

a few days go by and then it's the same old, same old and we

feel as empty as we did before. We can't trust wealth.

The man knew he was not where he needed to be.

He came to Jesus, looks at him, what need, what do I need to do?

And Jesus says, Mark 10/21 one thing you lack, go your way,

sell whatever you have, come, give to the poor and you'll have

treasure in heaven. Come and take up the cross and

follow me. What his response?

But he was sad at his word and went away sorrowful.

Fred. Great possessions.

The very thing he thought he needed or wanted or had to have

for life to be meaningful or purposeful or just to get by was

holding him back. And so it was crowding out.

It was full of that. He needed to empty that.

This is not here to say, sell all you have and give to the

poor. This is not said to everybody.

But in this man's case, he needed to.

And some people to stay today still may need to.

He was missing something, couldn't see what it was.

He was blind, spiritually blind, what his wealth had done to him.

If love of wealth would make people physically blind, how

many blind people would we have today?

Think about that for a second if material wealth would blind us

physically or the desire for it. In this man's case, he wasn't an

evil man, he was just had his priorities mixed up.

He was spiritually blind. The disciples are blown away.

What who can then be saved and God says, Jesus says with man

this is impossible, but with God is possible.

And Peter's quick to chime in and we've left everything.

And Jesus points out that the, the, the permanent blessings are

not here and they are, they come in eternity.

But then there's another story that we come out to story #4

this is perhaps maybe the most difficult one of all, I would

say maybe even more so than than the first one with the divorce

and the marriage case story #4 is where Jesus goes and he

starts talking to disciples about him.

He's going to be arrested and he's going to be killed.

Let's read the story, verse 10, verse 3210, verse 32.

Now they're on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was

going before them, and they were amazed.

As they followed, they were afraid.

Then he took the 12 aside again, began to tell them the things

that would happen to him. Behold, we're going to

Jerusalem. The Son of Man will be betrayed

to the chief priest, to the scribes, and they will condemn

him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles.

They will mock him and scourge him and spit on him and kill

him. On the third day he will rise

again. OK, if you stop there, so far so

good. Now let's get Stacy verse 35.

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him saying,

teach you, we want you to do for us whatever we ask.

And he said to them, What do you want me to do for you?

They said to him, grant us that we may sit one on your right

hand and the other on your left in your glory.

But Jesus said to them, do you not?

You do not know what you're asking.

Are you able to drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the

baptism and baptized with? They said to him, we're able.

So Jesus said to them, you will indeed drink the cup I drink and

with the baptism I'm baptized with.

You'll be baptized. But to sit at my right hand and

on my left is not mine to give, but it's for those who for whom

it's prepared. And when the 10 heard it, they

began to be greatly displeased with James and John.

But Jesus called him to himself and said to them, You know that

those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lorded over

them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.

Yet it shall not be so among you.

But whoever desires to become great among you shall be your

servant. Whoever of you desires to be

first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not

come to be served, but to serve and give his life a ransom for

many. This story is just a jarring

interruption into everything so far that Jesus has been doing.

They were blind in their hearts and minds.

Spiritual blindness prevents people from understanding

Christ's mission. Jesus had explained to his

disciples once before already what was going to happen.

Now they're traveling southward, getting closer to Jerusalem.

He takes them aside and talks them about his upcoming

suffering, and so on. And here we see how badly his

disciples missed the mark and understanding what Jesus was

truly about, He's telling them what's going to happen.

But right on the heels of that conversation, we find the

disciples jockeying for positions of power.

He talked about suffering. They're talking about

promotions. They have no idea.

They completely missed it. He had talked about how this

earthly life would end and he would rise, but they missed it.

Sons of Zebedee, grant us what we want, and we want to sit on

your right and your left. There's a blind as can be.

No idea. They're thinking power, Jesus

thinking serving. He says, can you experience what

I'm going to experience? Yeah, we can do that without

batting an eye. And then the rest of the

disciples, one would think that they would just be happy.

Oh, God, I'm not asking that question.

No. Look at what they're getting

from the Master. They're upset they have an issue

at the 2 for the audacity to request of Christ that position.

And you know what the response from the 10 reveal what's in

their hearts. They didn't ask for positions of

power, but they're sure angry at those who did.

What a mess. 12 disciples. Can you just imagine the the

loud arguing that would have happened?

Jesus calls time out. This is not how it goes, guys.

And then he explains to them the disciples were blind when it

came to the mission of Jesus. How many times do we not do the

exact same thing? All we're serving, we're

participating, we're involved. But sure, it has to go my way.

I want to be in control. I want to be in charge.

My idea is better. I, I deserve this.

I'm entitled to this. I'm entitled to that.

And then when somebody who shouldn't be getting something

doesn't get what they shouldn't be getting, we're glad they

don't get it in the next breath. We want the exact same thing

Jesus says. Even the Son of Man did not come

to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for

many. This is the key verse.

This is the model, this is the template, this is the point of

reference. And when this is solid in one's

life, everything flows from that.

All the rest of it becomes very small, often insignificant and

of low consequence. The 10 needed a lesson and they

got one. The 11, the 12 needed a lesson.

I believe there'd be a lot less stress, tension, conflict, and

division in churches of every member, every participant, every

attendee would come to church with that mindset.

How can I contribute? What can I bring, how can I

serve instead of I hope my needs will be met here.

If they don't treat me this way, I'm out of here.

I deserve this. I deserve that.

Or Jesus keeps on traveling after this event.

Now we come to the fifth story and this is the last one, the

final event or story that took place before Jesus entered

Jerusalem. There's an interesting thing in

the placement of the story in Mark.

If we go back to chapter 8, 22 to 26, there's a story of Jesus

healing a man who's blind. He did it in two stages.

Commentator Timothy Get it, writes the following.

And I don't want to make too much of it, but it's very

interesting, he says. He says Mark has framed this

whole discipleship journey section that we have gone

through the last few Sundays with two miracle stories, both

of them about opening blind eyes.

The first healing of a blind man happens in two stages.

That was chapter 822 to 26. Now this last 1 chapter 1046 to

52, symbolizing that the disciples who could see Jesus as

the Messiah but could not accept the way of the cross are still

in need of another touch. The second one symbolizes what

faithful disciples do when their eyes are truly opened.

They follow Jesus on the way. I do not want to push this

emphasis too much and place too much on these miracles, but I do

agree that Mark did not do this randomly or haphazardly or just

this how the chips fall. This was intentional.

One of the big issues with the people, the religious leaders,

even the disciples, was they could not see what Jesus truly

was about. And oftentimes the miracles that

Jesus did were reflections of where the people's hearts were

and what he wanted them to grasp and comprehend and to respond to

while they come to Jericho. Here's the last story.

Now they came to Jericho. As he went out of Jericho with

his disciples and a great multitude, blind Bartimaeus the

son of Timaeus sat by the road begging.

When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out

and say, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.

Then many warned him to be quiet, but he cried out all the

more. Son of David, have mercy on me.

So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called.

Then they called the blind man, saying to me, Be of good cheer,

Rise, he's calling you. And throwing aside his garment,

he rose and came to Jesus. So Jesus answered and said to

him, What do you want me to do for you?

The blind man said to him, Raboni, that I may receive my

sight. Then Jesus said to him, Go your

way, your faith has made you well.

And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the

road. Here we have a scene of a man

who's not had an encounter with Jesus.

He's just heard of Jesus. Jesus coming by here is it?

He's blind. He can't do a lot for himself

except call out, which he does. He's begging, Oh, it's Jesus

coming by. OK, he yells, Jesus, son of

David, have mercy on me. Timothy Geddert mentions in his

commentary that just like the disciples said, Jesus asked his

disciples, what do you want me to do for you?

Well, I want to sit on your right, on your left.

Jesus asked this man too. What do you want me to do for

you? James and John wanted power,

authority and status and privilege.

The blind man simply wants what he needs rescued from his

blindness. He wanted to be the way he was

supposed to be, but his crying wasn't welcome.

The crowd's trying to shut him up.

He's creating a ruckus. They're trying to shut up.

He just cries it all the more. And all of the arguments that

have been going on with the Pharisees and the disciples and

the rich man, and then again the disciples, here we have this

one, the one who should not have been told to shut up him.

They tell to shut up. Jesus hears it, stands still,

stops walking, calls the man over and is what do you want me

to do for you and the man says Raboni, a title of honor

respectfully says I may receive my sight.

Why is this story included in this passage?

As I mentioned before, it's interesting how Mark frames his

gospel in the story of the healing in eight chapter 8 verse

3022 to now and chapter 10. The last part, friends,

spiritual sight is a must to understand the message of the

gospel. It's not optional.

Whether it's divorce and remarriage, whether it's money,

whether it's how we treat our neighbor, it doesn't matter.

We need spiritual sight. And with the blind man of all

people we can see, even though physically he was blind,

spiritually he could see. He cries for mercy from the one.

We all need to cry mercy from spiritual.

Spiritual sight leads to humility and to trust in Christ.

And that's our final point. Once we see we need Jesus and we

see that need supersedes all other needs, whatever it is.

Maybe there's marriage struggles.

Maybe there's all kinds of marriage breakdowns in our

relationships. Maybe there's all of that stuff

going on. Maybe it's money, maybe it's

jobs, maybe it's it's family. Whatever it is, above all, we

need sight. And only then can we make our

way forward. The Pharisees, they failed,

didn't see God's principles from God's point.

They looked it through a human lens.

The disciples rebuked the mothers for bringing their

children. They're blind as they categorize

people. The rich man could not see past

this earthly wealth. He knew he had a need, but

couldn't see past it. The disciples could not see the

true purpose of Christ's mission.

They're blinded by their personal ambition of blind word

Emmaus. He had sight, a heart open and

receptive, dependent on Christ, begging for mercy.

Where are you and I in these stories?

Can you and I see? Are we spiritually blind?

Where is our focus? Well, there's hope.

Matthew Chapter 7, verse 7 and 8.

Matthew 7:7

Jesus says ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be open to you

for everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds and to him

who knocks, it will be opened. We do not come to God on our

terms, telling Him what we want, what we want to do.

We ask the Lord, what do you want us to do?

Humbly asking Him to make us what He wants us to be.

So do we have spiritual sight? We need it in every aspect of

our lives. So May God bless us with

spiritual sight to see clearly our way through life in our

earthly journey. I want to encourage us.

I don't want you to leave here this morning feeling guilt

riddled. And there's no hope.

No, whatever place you find yourself, there's hope.

There's grace and there's mercy. The best thing we can do is

acknowledge we've sinned. Repent before the Lord, ask Him

to redeem what we messed up, to make it holy and to heal us and

to increase our sight. And if we do so, he'll reveal to

us. If we knock, He'll open.

And if we ask, we'll receive. And by God's grace, as a family

of faithful believers, we can move forward.

Let us pray, Lord, we thank you for your word and the stories

through which you teach us how to live.

The teachings you've left in the Scripture are for us to read, to

listen to, and to learn from, and then to apply to our lives.

May we be faithful, Lord, living out your will on this earth.

We thank you, Jesus. In your name we pray.

Amen.