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Mark 8 verse 22 – 26

There was a time when it was fashionable to try and explain how Jesus did the miracles and healings recorded in the Gospels. This, however, proved a fruitless exercise as the ministry of Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of the living God, empowered perfectly by the Holy Spirit was beyond human understanding, other than that the creator of all things, seen and unseen, had the authority to do exactly as he pleased to fulfil his purpose in the saving of his creation from sin.

A far more useful question to ask is why Jesus did the healings and miracles witnessed by the disciples and the crowds who followed him as he roamed around the Galilee and the hills of Judea.

Mark 8 : 22 – 26

22:  They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.

23:  He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”

24:  He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”

25:  Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26:  Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t go into the village.”

Mark mentions this healing of a blind man only briefly and it is reminiscent of a previous healing of a man who was deaf and unable to speak properly.

Mark 7 : 31 – 37

31:  Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. 32:  There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on the man. 33:  After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. 34:  He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means, “Be opened!”). 35:  At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly. 36:  Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. 37:  People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

Both these miracles are unique to Mark’s gospel and they are the only healings where Jesus uses spittle directly onto the offending organ in the course of his cure. (John 9 : 6 records a similar case where Jesus uses spittle to make mud which he place on the man’s eyes to effect a healing).

In both our cases Jesus takes the men out from the crowd to a place on their own.

Jesus commands them not to tell anyone.    

+          Why did Jesus heal these men? Well Mark doesn’t make an issue of it but he would expect his readers to think, “Ah, yes, Jesus is fulfilling the words of the prophet Isaiah”:

4:  say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.”5:  Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. 6:  Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. (Isaiah 35 : 4 – 6)

For those who were able to understand, Jesus was demonstrating that he was the promised Messiah. In his narrative Mark tells us that the disciples were slow to understand who Jesus was, but for his readers in the churches in Rome, he wanted them to realise that Jesus was the real thing.

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+          We read in Mark 6 : 34 : “When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

Jesus exuded love and grace and was always moved by the suffering he witnessed around him and did what he could to alleviate it. When Jesus was telling the disciples about the final judgement (Matt 25 : 31 – 46) he clearly told them that he expected his people to have compassion on those who are suffering, giving food and drink to those who need them, welcoming and clothing strangers and visiting the sick and those in prison.

We are recipients of God’s love and we must allow that love and grace to flow through us to those in need just as Jesus did. It is the ministry of the church to pray for the healing of those who are suffering and to offer practical help where we can.

+          Jesus gives us the opportunity to see these physical miracles as a metaphor for the spiritual miracle of someone coming into faith in him as their Saviour and Lord. People have to hear and understand the Gospel before being able to say, “Jesus is Lord!” (hallelujah!)

Likewise in the case of the blind man his restored sight was a metaphor for understanding the gospel. ( John Newton “I was blind but now I see!”)

Except in his case at first, after Jesus spat in his eyes and laid hands on them, he only had limited vision being so near sighted that he had to squint to see what he thought were trees walking around. Jesus then laid hands on him again and his sight was fully restored. This, then raises another question!

+          Why did Jesus choose to heal this man in two goes? I have no doubt that if he had wanted to he could have completely healed him straight away. Maybe he wanted to encourage his disciples who were not always successful in their attempts to heal. Or maybe, was Jesus, through Mark, giving us another metaphorical lesson?

This is the challenge to all of us. I have accepted Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord, (hallelujah!) But the Christian life beyond that is a bit of a mystery to me. I am not always obedient to God’s call, in fact I hardly hear his voice at all. I rarely pray or read the Bible although I enjoy the fellowship of God’s people and although I enjoy helping out occasionally, I am loath to commit to anything in time or money.

The writer of Hebrews wrote:

About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. (Hebrews 5 : 12)

We are all God’s children but we can’t remain childish in our faith. We must not be near sighted where God is concerned, he expects us to grow in faith, in love and grace and be fully focussed in his service.  Paul sums this up in his letter to the Ephesians:

11:  It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12:  to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13:  until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. 14:  Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15:  Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. (Ephesians 4 11 – 15)

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Think of it like this:

Scripture tells us that we, as believers are like a healthy  tree: 

He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. (Psalm 1 : 3)

We are firmly rooted in love:

(And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18:  may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19:  and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.) (Eph. 3 : 17 – 19))

Love of God with every fibre of our being.     (Matthew 22 : 37 – 40)

Love of our neighbours as we love ourselves.

Love of one another as believers to the same measure as Jesus loved us. (John 13 : 34 – 35)

We grow through obedience to God’s word:

Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. (John 14 : 23). 

We are then fed and nourished by God’s word, regular prayer, active obedience and  fellowship with God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit and with God’s family of believers.

We will in time bear much fruit.

This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.( John 15 :8) 

It is through our corporate life, empowered by his Holy Spirit, that our love for God and each other matures, as we encourage one another into maturity of faith, giving us the ability to see things clearly. Befriending each other, praying for each other, comforting each other, encouraging each other, cajoling each other until together we attain the whole measure of the fullness of Christ, living fruitful lives both in character and deeds and working together using the gifts given to us through the Holy Spirit to further the kingdom of God.

Prayer

Heavenly Father we come to you in the name of Jesus Christ our Saviour and Lord, and in the power of your Holy Spirit asking that you fill us and equip us again to be mature disciples working together in love to further your kingdom here in Southbourne and wherever you may send us. Amen.


Category: Sermons , The Bridge

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