SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Melissa.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: God, this morning we give you thanks for your presence here again for this wonderful gathering of people, for this meal, for communion, and for your love for us, your embrace of us on the cross while we were yet sinners, you died for us.
SPEAKER_01: And uh yeah, God, this morning, would you help us to be able to see things the way they really are?
SPEAKER_01: And give us eyes to see this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Bless us as we bless our seniors.
SPEAKER_01: Would you also, well, may they feel your blessing over them, and may they feel your approval over them as they go.
SPEAKER_01: Even as they may not fully get it or fully understand yet, how could they?
SPEAKER_01: But I pray that you would continue to awaken them from all the ways in which they're asleep.
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, man, I just pray they would have such a vigor for whatever is next in their life.
SPEAKER_01: And even those who are confused or don't know what's next, give them grace in that.
SPEAKER_01: Help them to see that many of the adults in this room, if not all of us, don't know what's next all the time.
SPEAKER_01: And uh may we all have your grace in our lives in Jesus' name.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You can be seated.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, I love this version.
SPEAKER_01: This is the NRSV, it's the new revised standard version or something like that.
SPEAKER_01: And it says he puts saliva on his eyes as though to just sort of like whitewash it a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: That means he spit on his eyes, which is gross.
SPEAKER_01: But we'll get there in a minute.
SPEAKER_01: Uh man, this is a story about someone who doesn't see.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe at the end of the story he does see.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I want to start with a video, an experiment, if you will.
SPEAKER_01: It was an experiment done years ago.
SPEAKER_01: If you've seen this, don't ruin it for everybody else.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be that person, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Just keep your mouth closed.
SPEAKER_01: But I've got a couple of gift cards to Dunkin' Donuts.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, it's just called Dunkin now because they don't just serve donuts, but uh burning a hole in my pocket, and I got four of them because only one person at the 8 o'clock got it right.
SPEAKER_01: So maybe there's some more folks in this gathering will get it right.
SPEAKER_01: But uh, I want you to watch this.
SPEAKER_01: It's a bunch of people in black t-shirts, a few others in white t-shirts.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna watch those in the white t-shirts passing a basketball back and forth.
SPEAKER_01: Whoever can tell me the number of times the ball goes back and forth will win a Duncan gift card.
SPEAKER_01: Are you with me?
SPEAKER_01: Now it's not all it's not gonna be easy, but count the number of times.
SPEAKER_01: So if I pass it to Emery, it's one.
SPEAKER_01: If Emery passes it to Tina, it's two.
SPEAKER_01: So you're counting the number of passes.
SPEAKER_01: Fair enough.
SPEAKER_01: Here we go.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, I'm gonna I'm gonna give it to like some seniors or younger kids first.
SPEAKER_01: Today's all about the youth.
SPEAKER_01: I saw Leighton's hand first.
SPEAKER_01: How many?
SPEAKER_01: Seventeen close, but I'm gonna give you one for guessing, just because I got a bunch of like that.
SPEAKER_01: They're burning a hole in my pocket.
SPEAKER_01: Um these are$1,000.
SPEAKER_01: I'm kidding, they're$10.
SPEAKER_01: I saw, oh, it was yeah, Joshua.
SPEAKER_01: 13 close.
SPEAKER_01: Any seniors in the house know the answer, Derek?
SPEAKER_01: 15 is the answer! Give Jerry.
SPEAKER_01: There you go, buddy.
SPEAKER_01: Lucas, did you know the answer?
unknown: I said 16.
SPEAKER_01: 16.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you're okay.
SPEAKER_01: Good.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, I like your honesty.
SPEAKER_01: Also, you got a book last week, so you're good.
SPEAKER_01: Uh now.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the question.
SPEAKER_01: Did anybody know which side of the screen the gorilla came from?
SPEAKER_01: Anybody not see the gorilla?
SPEAKER_01: Anyone's like, who's what gorilla?
SPEAKER_01: Tina, you get a gift card for not seeing the gorilla.
SPEAKER_01: How did you miss the gorilla?
SPEAKER_01: Watch closely.
SPEAKER_01: Fifteen, so good job.
SPEAKER_01: Good job, D-Loads.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Tina didn't, so there he is! What?
SPEAKER_01: Be honest, now be honest, who did not see the gorilla?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, now you all raise your hand.
SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_01: You guys are all pretending, oh y'all saw the gorilla.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Uh let me ask you, why didn't you see the gorilla?
SPEAKER_01: Wasn't what?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he wasn't wearing white.
SPEAKER_01: Fair enough.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, one man this morning said because he wasn't in the first edit, you edited him out.
SPEAKER_01: But no, it's not true.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't uh what you were counting, you were distracted, you weren't paying attention, you didn't see the gorilla.
SPEAKER_01: This is a story about Jesus encountering a blind man.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, as a special treat for our seniors, I drew all of my slides this morning.
SPEAKER_01: This is a sermon with drawings.
SPEAKER_01: And feast your eyes, they're gonna you're gonna love this.
SPEAKER_01: This is a special treat.
SPEAKER_01: Uh here we go.
SPEAKER_01: Here's drawing number one.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus encounters a blind man.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't ever say I went to art school, I said I went to theology school.
SPEAKER_01: He's either blind or he's dead.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know which, but in the story he's blind.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know how to draw.
SPEAKER_01: So he encounters a blind man.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this blind man, he does this in the area called Bet Saida.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone say bet sida.
SPEAKER_01: Betsaida is actually two Hebrew words put together.
SPEAKER_01: Bet, everyone say bet means house or sida.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone say sida means fish.
SPEAKER_01: So it's the the place of the house of the fishes.
SPEAKER_01: Or in Minnesota, we actually call this the fish house.
SPEAKER_01: That's my favorite joke all morning, man.
SPEAKER_01: I've been waiting all morning for that one.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, you can go on.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, Bethsida is this place on the north side of the Sea of Galilee, and Jesus encounters a blind man there with his disciples, and the guy can't see, so Jesus spits on his eyes.
SPEAKER_01: You know, like you do when you're healing people.
SPEAKER_01: Just spit on that, not bad, right?
SPEAKER_01: My wife was like, why does he not have any hair?
SPEAKER_01: It's a fair question until you watch the the drawings I did with him with hair.
SPEAKER_01: Nah, it's not gonna work.
SPEAKER_01: I can't draw hair on people, so there he comes.
SPEAKER_01: Bald Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, uh, this is a bold move for Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_01: To spit on this guy's eyes, you know?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, what if it didn't work?
SPEAKER_01: Like, what's your what's your recovery from that?
SPEAKER_01: Like, oh man, I mean, I know it's Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_01: But this is a bold move.
SPEAKER_01: Because if it doesn't work, what do you say?
SPEAKER_01: Like, hey, uh, about that.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think I just spit in your face.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry about that.
SPEAKER_01: A tissue?
SPEAKER_01: You know, there's no way to easily recover from that.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, it doesn't actually work the first time.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, there's this is funny, there was a uh there's a pastor recently, I think it was recently, Ben was showing me this, that he was preaching on this sermon, and he calls a guy up out of the audience and then hawks a loogie into his hand.
SPEAKER_01: It's a true story, and then wipes it in the dude's eyes.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna need a volunteer.
SPEAKER_01: I've got one more gift card.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: That's gross, man.
SPEAKER_01: And that the pastor apologized later, as he should have.
SPEAKER_01: That's a terrible thing.
SPEAKER_01: Why did Jesus do this?
SPEAKER_01: Spitch in the guy's eyes.
SPEAKER_01: And it doesn't seem to work.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, he spits in his eyes, and then he says, Hey, can you see anything?
SPEAKER_01: And the guy's like, I see people, but they look like trees.
SPEAKER_01: I imagine this is what they look like.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know it's a tree because it has a bird in it.
SPEAKER_01: That's a cardinal.
SPEAKER_01: Look at that.
SPEAKER_01: I like that.
SPEAKER_01: And he can't quite fully see.
SPEAKER_01: Then he lays his hands on them again a second time, and then he sees.
SPEAKER_01: What in the world?
SPEAKER_01: This raises all kinds of questions for me as I read this text.
SPEAKER_01: Here they are.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, why does it have to be twice?
SPEAKER_01: Why doesn't he just, I mean, Jesus sometimes will just say the word and the guy is healed.
SPEAKER_01: Why doesn't it work?
SPEAKER_01: Did Jesus fail?
SPEAKER_01: Was he not strong enough or powerful enough?
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't say anything about the man's faith, the guy being prayed for.
SPEAKER_01: So that wasn't it.
SPEAKER_01: What why doesn't it work?
SPEAKER_01: Why does it have to be twice?
SPEAKER_01: Also, why spit?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, let's be honest.
SPEAKER_01: Spit is gross.
SPEAKER_01: Where I come from, if someone spits in your face, that's a reason to go.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus does it.
SPEAKER_01: I kind of like that he does it, but he's a wild man.
SPEAKER_01: Lastly, though, what does this mean?
SPEAKER_01: Like, what in the world is going on here?
SPEAKER_01: What how might we interpret and read this story today?
SPEAKER_01: Are you with me so far?
SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Peter.
SPEAKER_01: So we are in the middle of our series called Story Context Symbol.
SPEAKER_01: I want to give you just basic ways of interpreting any text.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, to ask, what's the story?
SPEAKER_01: What's the story?
SPEAKER_01: That's the story.
SPEAKER_01: They see a blind guy, spits in his eyes, doesn't work, touches him again, second time, then it works, heals him.
SPEAKER_01: Great.
SPEAKER_01: The context, there's all kinds of clues as to how we make how we interpret the story in the context and in the symbol.
SPEAKER_01: Are there any deeper, uh sort of more nuanced, complex ideas beneath the surface, underneath the literal story?
SPEAKER_01: By the way, you know it, this story probably actually literally happened.
SPEAKER_01: I know we're in church, it all literally happened, but like you know it because in a story that you would make up in the ancient world about a hero, you would never have him fail like this.
SPEAKER_01: If the Jews were to write a story about a Messiah, a hero, you would never have the healing take place in stages like this.
SPEAKER_01: It'd be the first time.
SPEAKER_01: So scholars are like, oh, this is a sign as to why the Bible, this story in particular, actually literally happened this way.
SPEAKER_01: Because you would never have written it this way.
SPEAKER_01: You wouldn't have made it up.
SPEAKER_01: So, but beneath the surface, there's all kinds of symbols that provide us a deeper sense of meaning and understanding of the story.
SPEAKER_01: So the context, now, here's where we are.
SPEAKER_01: In the Bible story, in the Bible context, we're in the Jesus story.
SPEAKER_01: Now I know you know this already, but just to remind you, Genesis is the beginning of your Bible over there.
SPEAKER_01: That's the story of creation and Joseph and his beautiful coat and so on.
SPEAKER_01: Then there's the Exodus story, one of the like the pinnacle stories in all the Hebrew Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Then at the very end, you have Revelation, which is a story about the first century church being uh uh oppressed and what's the word, persecuted, and then sort of some allusions to the future, perhaps.
SPEAKER_01: Then Paul writes right in there, also between Paul and Revelation, or somewhere in there, paper was invented in China, I think the second century, you know that?
SPEAKER_01: And then there's Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus, the Jesus stories come to us, again, I know you know this, but in four gospel accounts called Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
SPEAKER_01: And here's here we are.
SPEAKER_01: We're in Mark's gospel.
SPEAKER_01: This is the gospel according to Mark.
SPEAKER_01: Mark is telling you his version of the Jesus story.
SPEAKER_01: Are you with me?
SPEAKER_01: And he does it in a very savvy, particular kind of way.
SPEAKER_01: For example, we're in Mark 8, our story, The Blind Guy, takes place in Mark 8.
SPEAKER_01: The whole first half of Mark, because notice we're right in the middle, smack dab in the middle.
SPEAKER_01: Mark gives you this story, he puts it right there, I think, entirely on purpose.
SPEAKER_01: The whole first half of Mark, the question is posed.
SPEAKER_01: Go home and read it tonight on your own, but the question is asked, who is this Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Who is he?
SPEAKER_01: He shows up on the scene, does all kinds of strange things, and people are asking, who is this guy?
SPEAKER_01: What's he all about?
SPEAKER_01: What's he doing?
SPEAKER_01: And then, of course, you have Mark 8, which is where our story comes in, and of course, the whole thing ends in Mark 16.
SPEAKER_01: Now, you have to understand, too, even deeper into the context.
SPEAKER_01: So we're in the we're in the Jesus story, we're in Mark 8, but watch what happens just before our story and just after our story.
SPEAKER_01: With me so far still?
SPEAKER_01: Good.
SPEAKER_01: Just before the story, right before they meet this blind guy and Beth Sid him, they uh Jesus is talking to them and he criticizes the disciples for not getting and understanding these miracles he just performed.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus performs two big miracles.
SPEAKER_01: He feeds 5,000 people, and there's 12 basketfuls of food left over.
SPEAKER_01: You probably have heard of this.
SPEAKER_01: Then he feeds 4,000 people, and there's seven basketfuls left over.
SPEAKER_01: You probably heard of that one too.
SPEAKER_01: He feeds thousands of people, and then he turns to the disciples and says to them, Don't you guys get it?
SPEAKER_01: Don't you see?
SPEAKER_01: Here's in fact what he says, Do you have eyes but fail to see?
SPEAKER_01: Do you not understand?
SPEAKER_01: And if I'm now like, I don't know, I thought I did.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I thought we got it right up until you yelled at me like that.
SPEAKER_01: Like, what's it get?
SPEAKER_01: He fed thousands of people.
SPEAKER_01: But he's like, No, you don't get it.
SPEAKER_01: There were 12 basketballs left over, seven basketballs left over.
SPEAKER_01: You guys don't see it.
SPEAKER_01: What don't they see?
SPEAKER_01: What don't they get?
SPEAKER_01: Well, the answer according to Jesus is clearly and obviously 12 and 7.
SPEAKER_01: There you go.
SPEAKER_01: Duh.
SPEAKER_01: What is he talking about?
SPEAKER_01: What don't they get?
SPEAKER_01: What's the deal with the 12 and the seven?
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: Mark and Jesus is telling you not just that, hey, after these two miracles, there was a ton of food left over.
SPEAKER_01: He he would have just said that.
SPEAKER_01: He's using numbers that symbolize, point to, give you a deeper meaning of what Jesus is trying to do.
SPEAKER_01: These numbers mean something.
SPEAKER_01: Are you with me so far?
SPEAKER_01: Now, the first one, 12, it comes in Mark 6, just before our story of the blind guide.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus up in a town called Beth Sida.
SPEAKER_01: We just heard about that.
SPEAKER_01: That's where they end up with the blind guy.
SPEAKER_01: So they're in Beth Sida again.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a drawing of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: There's Bethsida, that's the Sea of Galilee on the top.
SPEAKER_01: They're just north of the Sea of Galilee, right on the coast there.
SPEAKER_01: That's the Jordan River coming down, not drawn to scale, mind you.
SPEAKER_01: And then the Dead Sea in the bottom, which now today is actually like two actually separate seas because it's drying up so fast.
SPEAKER_01: There's Jerusalem, and they're in Beth Sida, and they feed 5,000 people, over 5,000.
SPEAKER_01: And when they're done, there's 12 basketfuls left over.
SPEAKER_01: Just so you know, tooch, uh, Elk River is 6,213 miles that way to the west.
SPEAKER_01: 12.
SPEAKER_01: What does 12 mean?
SPEAKER_01: In the Hebrew story, what does 12 symbolize?
SPEAKER_01: The disciples, which that also symbolizes even a good answer, further back symbolizes the 12 tribes of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: Those are all correct answers.
SPEAKER_01: But you're gonna go as far back as you can, the 12 tribes of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, in fulfilling the people's needs, giving them food, is saying to them, I am the Messiah to the Jewish people.
SPEAKER_01: It's beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: Then, just a little bit later, and just before our story in Mark 8, comes the feeding of the 4,000.
SPEAKER_01: They're in a different region.
SPEAKER_01: They go to the south and east.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a drawing of where we are now, in an area called the Decapolis.
SPEAKER_01: You have to know where the Chipotle's are.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just telling you.
SPEAKER_01: First thing I do on a road trip, where's the Chipotle along the route?
SPEAKER_01: Got them.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, this is 2,243 miles away from the London area Chipotle.
SPEAKER_01: One of only three in the UK.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying.
unknown: Gotta know where they are.
SPEAKER_01: Anyhow, the capitalist is to the south and to the east, and it's this Greek pagan area.
SPEAKER_01: They're not in the Jewish area of Israel anymore.
SPEAKER_01: They're in this Greek and pagan area.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus rarely goes here.
SPEAKER_01: And he feeds 4,000 people.
SPEAKER_01: And when they're done, they rally up all the extra food, and there's uh seven basketfuls left over.
SPEAKER_01: Now I know you're thinking, oh, seven is the number of completion or number of perfection, but in this context, in a pagan Gentile area, it's actually a symbol of all the Gentile nations.
SPEAKER_01: There's this obscure passage in the Old Testament where seven also symbolizes the pagan or the uh the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_01: So in this story, Jesus is telling you, in fulfilling their needs, hey, I'm also the Messiah of the Gentile people.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus is the Messiah to the Jews, and he's also the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: Messiah just means Savior, or anointed one, really, but he's the savior.
SPEAKER_01: Anointed one.
SPEAKER_01: He's also Messiah for the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_01: Who's left?
SPEAKER_01: Who else is there?
SPEAKER_01: Nobody! That's everybody.
SPEAKER_01: Who is Jesus the Messiah for?
SPEAKER_01: And who's everyone?
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for patronizing me, I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe it's the other way around.
SPEAKER_01: But either way, everyone.
SPEAKER_01: He's the Messiah for the Jews, for the Gentiles, for men and for women, for young and for old, for those who get it, those who don't get it, those who've heard of Jesus, those who've never heard of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Those who are tall, those who are not as tall.
SPEAKER_01: Those who are quite beautiful, those who are not as beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: Those who are smart, those who are not as smart.
SPEAKER_01: Poke your neighbor and tell which one of those they are.
SPEAKER_01: I'm kidding, don't do that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you, Jesus is the Messiah for the whole world.
SPEAKER_01: For God so loved the world, He sent Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And the disciples, they're standing there and they don't get it.
SPEAKER_01: You might say, they don't see.
SPEAKER_01: They don't see it, they don't understand, they don't get it.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the question: why is Jesus so emphatically trying to help them to get it?
SPEAKER_01: Why does he care?
SPEAKER_01: Because if they don't get it, this whole thing could implode.
SPEAKER_01: They're literally like one, like this one little grouping away from becoming extinct.
SPEAKER_01: If they don't get it, he's pouring his whole life, his heart, his soul, everything into these followers.
SPEAKER_01: If they don't get it, the whole thing dies.
SPEAKER_01: The whole mission dies.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, the reason we want to celebrate our seniors, if you're a senior, raise your hand again.
SPEAKER_01: Look around, raise your hand.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, look around.
SPEAKER_01: If we don't empower them and inspire them and invite them back and include them, we are all one generation away from becoming extinct.
SPEAKER_01: We have to pass on our faith.
SPEAKER_01: I was talking with Leighton.
SPEAKER_01: Where's Leighton?
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to put, yeah, young man over there, he's 12 years old.
SPEAKER_01: We were in my Q and R back here, he's asking all kinds of phenomenal questions.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Don't stop asking these questions.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Don't stop.
SPEAKER_01: And ask them here.
SPEAKER_01: Because if we don't do it in here, your faith will wither.
SPEAKER_01: So keep asking.
SPEAKER_01: My point is, we have to pass on.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus had to make sure that his followers got it, because if not, the whole thing would just disappear.
SPEAKER_01: So uh one guy, his name is uh his last name is Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Plummer, he's a theologian.
SPEAKER_01: Here we go.
SPEAKER_01: I think Robert Plummer, he says this.
SPEAKER_01: That's my second favorite joke of the morning.
SPEAKER_01: Uh he's not actually a plumber, I just wanted you to get the name Plumber.
SPEAKER_01: He says this.
SPEAKER_01: Through at least I think I'm funny.
SPEAKER_01: Uh through this repeated structure, we're reminded that the disciples only have a partial or or malformed understanding of his ministry and what it means to follow him.
SPEAKER_01: They don't get it.
SPEAKER_01: It's only partial, it's sort of malformed.
SPEAKER_01: It's almost like a blind man who has eyes but thinks that people are trees.
SPEAKER_01: They don't see, they don't get it.
SPEAKER_01: Now, that's what happens just before.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus criticizes them for not getting it, not seeing, just after.
SPEAKER_01: Just after our story, the blind guy, Jesus takes the followers to up to Caesarea Philippi and he asks them, Hey, who do you say that I am?
SPEAKER_01: And Peter boldly responds by saying, What?
SPEAKER_01: You're the Christ! Peter finally sees.
SPEAKER_01: He gets it.
SPEAKER_01: It's like his eyes are open.
SPEAKER_01: Peter gets it.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is like, Yes, you got it.
SPEAKER_01: And on you, or on this rock, I'll build my church.
SPEAKER_01: So this whole progression goes like them not getting it.
SPEAKER_01: They don't see.
SPEAKER_01: And then at the end you have Peter who finally sees.
SPEAKER_01: And in the middle is a blind man who begins to see, sort of in stages.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see?
SPEAKER_01: Mark puts it right there very intentionally.
SPEAKER_01: In between these stories about them not getting it and then finally getting it is the story of this blind man.
SPEAKER_01: This story of this blind man is also a story about the disciples themselves.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus uses this man, this blind man, as a mirror to mirror back to the disciples their own journey.
SPEAKER_01: It's the disciples who are blind.
SPEAKER_01: In addition to the blind man, but the disciples are also the blind ones who slowly start to see he's using the blind man's healing to heal the disciples of their own blindness.
SPEAKER_01: See, blindness is a major theme in literature and also in the ancient world and in the gospels.
SPEAKER_01: It's all over the pages of the gospels.
SPEAKER_01: Blindness really is a state or a condition of being unable to see.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I got it.
SPEAKER_01: But there's lots of ways to be blind, right?
SPEAKER_01: Blindness could also mean a lack of perception, a lack of awareness, not the best judgment.
SPEAKER_01: You might physically be able to see, but not be blind in all kinds of other ways.
SPEAKER_01: It could mean ignorance.
SPEAKER_01: There are lots of ways to be blind.
SPEAKER_01: In the ancient world, blindness was very common.
SPEAKER_01: Lots of folks were blind.
SPEAKER_01: And there were lots of causes of blindness.
SPEAKER_01: Some folks were born blind.
SPEAKER_01: They kind of grew blind.
SPEAKER_01: Do you grow blind?
SPEAKER_01: They lost their vision as they got older.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, this guy seemed like he probably was able to see earlier because he knew what trees were.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, oh, they look like trees.
SPEAKER_01: He must have been able to see before.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes trauma can cause blindness, maybe disease.
SPEAKER_01: Not doing your chores will lead you to be blind.
SPEAKER_01: Regular kids, pay attention.
SPEAKER_01: Just kidding.
SPEAKER_01: My kids do all their chores all the time.
SPEAKER_01: Some folks thought that it was divine punishment if you were blind.
SPEAKER_01: And in John 9, Jesus refutes that claim.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Who the disciples say, who sinned?
SPEAKER_01: That he's blind?
SPEAKER_01: Him or his parents?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus' like, none of them.
SPEAKER_01: Other causes of blindness, though, some people are blind because they're immature.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes when you're younger, you're just blind because you just don't see things how they really are.
SPEAKER_01: Case in point.
SPEAKER_01: When you were younger, this is how you often would use toilet paper.
SPEAKER_01: You go to the bathroom, you can envision with me for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: You're in the bathroom, time to use the toilet paper.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe a third?
SPEAKER_01: Half a roll.
SPEAKER_01: And then you do your business.
SPEAKER_01: And parents go like, what on earth are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: And that's like one wipe, you know.
SPEAKER_01: What are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: Are you insane?
SPEAKER_01: And the kid's like, what?
SPEAKER_01: I don't, what's the problem?
SPEAKER_01: Then one day comes and that kid gets older and he buys his own toilet paper.
SPEAKER_01: Oh.
SPEAKER_01: He's got the tweezers out, tweezers and the scissors?
SPEAKER_01: Now he sees.
SPEAKER_01: You know, when you're younger, or when you're older, you're like, I have to buy my own toothpaste?
SPEAKER_01: I always just opened the drawer and there it was.
SPEAKER_01: Not I didn't, I just thought it was magic.
SPEAKER_01: Now I got a bottom, man.
SPEAKER_01: And you see things because you just got more mature.
SPEAKER_01: Other ways of being blind are causes of blindness.
SPEAKER_01: I know the emotional trauma, there's lots of ways, but emotional trauma.
SPEAKER_01: I know a young man whose mom abused him in all kinds of bizarre, horrible, horrifying ways.
SPEAKER_01: And because of this young man grew up and now he's an older man and he just can't see things as they properly are.
SPEAKER_01: He's totally blind.
SPEAKER_01: Part of my role in his life is when I go to visit him and say, hey, you're not seeing this properly.
SPEAKER_01: Here's how you really should think about this.
SPEAKER_01: He can't see it.
SPEAKER_01: How could he?
SPEAKER_01: This trauma he he endured as a young man sort of shaped how he saw or couldn't see.
SPEAKER_01: Others you might know just refuse to see.
SPEAKER_01: Addicts are this way.
SPEAKER_01: You sit an addict down and say, hey, you've got a problem.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes they'll respond by saying, No, I don't.
SPEAKER_01: So you gather their friends and their family in the whole village, and they all come together and like, you have a problem.
SPEAKER_01: No, I don't.
SPEAKER_01: It's a refusal, a willingness to stay blind, to not receive help from others.
SPEAKER_01: It's like an intentional, I want to remain in my blindness, if you will.
SPEAKER_01: So refusal to see the truth.
SPEAKER_01: Also, I think sin is a huge cause of blindness.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a theologian.
SPEAKER_01: So I mean, and by sin, I don't mean like stealing the tic-tacks.
SPEAKER_01: I mean like big capital S sin, systemic sin.
SPEAKER_01: This young man's mom influenced him in a tragic way.
SPEAKER_01: And I bet if you were to rewind to see her parents, how they raised her, you'd see a lot of the same kinds of things.
SPEAKER_01: There is this sin, this brokenness, this inhumanity where we can't.
SPEAKER_01: That impacts all of us in how we see or don't see.
SPEAKER_01: It causes blindness.
SPEAKER_01: Also, our own passions, our own emotions can cause us to be blind.
SPEAKER_01: I'm speaking from uh from experience on this one.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a passionate, emotional guy, and in my past, I can tell you all kinds of stories.
SPEAKER_01: My emotions, I say, I say to myself, my emotions can go in the car with me, but they can't drive.
SPEAKER_01: They have to ride shotgun.
SPEAKER_01: If they drive, my emotions are blind a lot of the times.
SPEAKER_01: They will crash the car, they just will.
SPEAKER_01: So I don't want to like I don't want to remove them, they're a part of me.
SPEAKER_01: But I let them, they have to ride shotgun.
SPEAKER_01: They cannot drive because they cannot see very well.
SPEAKER_01: And they've crashed my car on a number of occasions.
SPEAKER_01: Passions can make us blind.
SPEAKER_01: Mark intentionally puts this story of a blind man getting his vision back right here.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because the whole first half of Mark is asking, who is Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: And he's telling you, he's the one who gives sight to the blind.
SPEAKER_01: He helps blind people to see.
SPEAKER_01: He heals our physical ailments, all of our emotional ailments, all the things.
SPEAKER_01: He's the one who helps us to see.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus in Luke 4 stands up in the synagogue and he's given us a scroll, and here's what he reads The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
SPEAKER_01: That's good news.
SPEAKER_01: He's sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners.
SPEAKER_01: So far, if you're poor and a prisoner, that's good news.
SPEAKER_01: And to help recover and restore the sight of the blind and set the oppressed free and proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he's doing.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus wants to set the blind man free.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus wants to heal the blindness of the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: And he wants to heal you.
SPEAKER_01: And he wants to heal me.
SPEAKER_01: All the things that have caused our blindness, he wants to heal them.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to reverse the causes and restore our humanity.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why spit?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know the answer to that.
SPEAKER_01: But I think it's awesome that at every corner God affirms the material world.
SPEAKER_01: Things like spit and dirt and food and wine and bread and figs.
SPEAKER_01: He's constantly affirming the material world.
SPEAKER_01: In a Greco-Roman influenced society where there's platonic dualism, Jesus affirms the material world, this world.
SPEAKER_01: And when Gnosticism comes onto the scene and sort of becomes rampant, Jesus affirms this world is good.
SPEAKER_01: And he uses spit to prove it.
SPEAKER_01: Mona from this morning said maybe he uses spit because he's the living water, which is actually a next week's sermon, but yeah, maybe that's what it is too.
SPEAKER_01: But why does he do it twice?
SPEAKER_01: Why does he do it twice?
SPEAKER_01: I love this part.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes when you're blind, and maybe every time that you're blind, you don't know you're blind.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, how would you know?
SPEAKER_01: You don't know what you don't know, and you can't see what you can't see.
SPEAKER_01: How could you?
SPEAKER_01: It's like you're in a deep sleep.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, those that think they know everything are often the folks like, you don't know anything.
SPEAKER_01: You really don't have a clue.
SPEAKER_01: Because the more you see, and the more you know, the more you realize I don't know anything.
SPEAKER_01: I don't see much.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I'm so blind.
SPEAKER_01: The more you see, the more you realize how blind you really are.
SPEAKER_01: Some of my some of my friends who like who brag about being so self-aware, they're often the least self-aware people I know.
SPEAKER_01: Because how would they know?
SPEAKER_01: You don't see what you can't see.
SPEAKER_01: It's like being in a deep sleep, and waking up happens gradually.
SPEAKER_01: It happens in stages.
SPEAKER_01: There's a deep blindness.
SPEAKER_01: Growth in all kinds of ways rarely happens overnight.
SPEAKER_01: We're not mushrooms that just spring up.
SPEAKER_01: It happens gradually, in stages.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're here and you're on your journey and you like feel like you're like, ah, just some sort of have grace for yourself.
SPEAKER_01: It's sort of how it works.
SPEAKER_01: It happens in stages.
SPEAKER_01: I got two seniors, we're gonna close this way.
SPEAKER_01: I got two seniors, I think.
SPEAKER_01: Derek, are you first?
SPEAKER_01: So I got Derek and Alyssa, they're gonna read a scripture for me.
SPEAKER_01: This is from 2 Corinthians.
SPEAKER_01: So hear what Paul says to the Corinthians.
SPEAKER_01: My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.
SPEAKER_01: Do you hear that?
SPEAKER_01: Hold that microphone, you can sit down, but hold that microphone.
SPEAKER_01: Where you're weak, the power of God can be made known.
SPEAKER_01: Have grace for yourself.
SPEAKER_01: In all the ways you don't, I just don't get it yet.
SPEAKER_01: I'm fully, I'm not fully there.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're here to be like I'm a you're a skeptic.
SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't believe in a lot of this stuff, Ryan.
SPEAKER_01: My neighbor dragged me here, my mom makes me come.
SPEAKER_01: I get it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just glad you're here.
SPEAKER_01: And my prayer is that you will slowly begin to wake up as though from a deep sleep and begin to see the world the way that it really is.
SPEAKER_01: And that might take years, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: I'm still on that journey.
SPEAKER_01: Have grace for yourself, as Paul writes, because God's power is made manifest or known in weakness.
SPEAKER_01: If you're here today, like I just doubt, right?
SPEAKER_01: I'm a doubter, that's okay.
SPEAKER_01: You're still welcome here.
SPEAKER_01: And as I told Leighton, keep asking questions, wrestle with it.
SPEAKER_01: It's okay.
SPEAKER_01: Your honesty's welcome here.
SPEAKER_01: If you're here and you're a longtime believer, like I've been going to church for decades.
SPEAKER_01: Why have I not figured it out yet?
SPEAKER_01: That's okay.
SPEAKER_01: You're totally normal.
SPEAKER_01: You're like all the rest of us.
SPEAKER_01: And I know because I've talked to all of you.
SPEAKER_01: We're all on the same journey of waking up slowly from this deep sleep.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, lyssa.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, look at the microphone.
SPEAKER_01: This is from 1 Corinthians.
SPEAKER_01: Paul writes this.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, in Corinth is where they made mirrors.
SPEAKER_01: That's where they made mirrors.
SPEAKER_01: And so Paul writes about this using an analogy of a mirror.
SPEAKER_00: For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we'll see face to face.
SPEAKER_00: Now I know only in part, then I will know fully, even as I've been fully known.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Nice job.
SPEAKER_01: Paul writes, hey, for now I only see partially.
SPEAKER_01: That's the way it goes.
SPEAKER_01: As though looking to a mirror, it's dim, it's foggy, it's dirty, I can't see fully.
SPEAKER_01: But one day I will see fully.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, may you know that Jesus is the one who sets the blind people, the oppressed, and the poor free.
SPEAKER_01: He gives sight to the blind.
SPEAKER_01: May we lean into each other, because oftentimes we don't know our own blind spots until a friend says, hey, watch out for that.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's good.
SPEAKER_01: That's what community is for.
SPEAKER_01: Lean into each other.
SPEAKER_01: And this morning, as we sing our song, I want to just ask you to pray.
SPEAKER_01: Because how would you know until someone shows you?
SPEAKER_01: Ask the Spirit, Spirit, please come and show me all the ways, or maybe just one way, in which I'm not seeing things properly.
SPEAKER_01: Restore my sight this morning.
SPEAKER_01: May you know Jesus is the restorer of sight to the blind.
SPEAKER_01: The blind man, the disciples, you, and me.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.