19 - Can You See Me Now?: Mark 8:22-26 - Mike Olynyk, Meadows Church

You're invited!  Come on a journey as we see the sights, smell the smells & experience Jesus' story told by Mark in an immersive way.  Engage in the story as one of the crowd, the disciples or even as a religious leader.  For an even more immersive experience, click the link below to follow along with the PDF media with maps, pictures of historical sites and more.

Meadows Church is a church in the community, for the community, located in Langley, BC.  We want you to know that you're welcome here!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

You're listening to audio from Meadows Church in Langley, BC. For more information about Meadows Church, go to Meadowschurch.ca. If you're just joining us in our Encountering Jesus series, or if you've missed a couple weeks, I want to get you up to speed. So when we last left our fearless hero Jesus, he had just called out the Pharisees for their hypocrisy and their extraneous rules. And then Jesus left Jewish territory on a Gentile world tour through Tyre and Sidon, and he decided not to go back through Jewish territory, and he went around and then into the Decapolis. And here Mark tells of Jesus healing the deaf and the mute man, which we talked about in detail two weeks ago. Matthew's gospel says that he spent three full days with this crowd. And so it wasn't just this one miracle, but he got a chance to eat with them. I mean, he fed them, the 4,000. Jenna talked about that last week. But in the midst of it, he healed and he taught with real authority and he spent time with them. And I just love it. Well, right after that miraculous healing, Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee to the Dalmanutha area, also known as Magdan, shown on the map here. That's Jesus in the boat. And Jesus then he went from this crowd that was so receptive and just loved him to a different kind of crowd experience. Far from attentive, this group is grumpy and jealous and ready to pick a fight. Mark 8, verse 11 says the Pharisees came ready to argue with him and they demanded a sign from him. You see, they wanted a sign from him, and Jesus said, uh-uh. Jesus isn't a circus show. And so he dipped, he got back in the boat, and he went off across the sea again to Beth Seda. This is the town, if you remember, this is the town where Jesus fed another thousands of people, 5,000 Jews, with the boys' lunch in Mark 6. Also, fun fact, it is the location that Peter, Andrew, and Philip were born. And so know that although Peter then moved to Capernaum to live and to work as it was a more on-the-water fishing town, this is where his roots were. And so this is where our story starts. And so let's dig in at Mark 8, verse 22. Oh, here's the ruins of Beth Seda, if you're interested. Well, they came to Beth Seda, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. And when he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, Do you see anything? He looked up and said, I see people. They look like trees walking around. 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. And Jesus sent him home, saying, Don't even go into the village. Well, this is such a short and yet such an amazing passage, an amazing encounter with Jesus. At the crowd's request, Jesus radically changes this man's life forever. It's so good. Now, this series is all about not just reading the Bible, but it's about experiencing it. We want to see the sights, which is why I have the sight of Beth Seda. We want to smell the smells, we want to experience life the way the crowds did, the way the disciples did. And I want you to get a kind of a view of how I go about reading Scripture because I'm not different than anybody else here. We are all capable of digging into the Word of God and getting such truth out of it. And so the question I first ask when I look at it is first, the question we ask every time we get together for discussions around the tables, what stuck out to you? It's very important because I think the Holy Spirit speaks to us through what sticks out to us. What made you curious? What questions do you have? Let's have this curiosity in our minds as we read Scripture. And so as I studied this passage, I discovered so much, and there is so much in just five verses in the next couple chapters as well. And so, is it okay if we go back over it with some curiosity? Does that work for you guys? I'm gonna do it anyway. So they came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. Here is the area of Besseda. Besseda was heavily influenced by Greco-Roman culture to the point where Herod Philip renamed Besseda Julius after the emperor's wife Julia, sucking up, and he built it up to be a Roman city. Now, this is an artist's rendering of what Besseda could have looked like, but the point is that during Jesus' time, this is during Jesus' time, it was either in the process of being built or it was already built to look something like this, with walls and Roman baths. And Jews from Jerusalem would turn their nose up at Jews from northern Galilee, especially Besseda and Caesarea Philippi, which we're gonna look at in a couple weeks. The Jews from Jerusalem saw them as being compromised by Hellenistic Greek ways. But come on, let's be honest here. You don't get taken over by the Greeks and then the Romans and become a vassal state and then suddenly you're not influenced at all. Like you're influenced by those people who have taken you over. I actually had a really cool conversation with one of my atheist friends about this. And he asks something, he says, why, Mike, do all the biblical writers have like these really English names? John, Mark, Matthew. Like, why? Why why isn't it why don't they have Jewish names? Is anybody else curious about that? Well, this is the answer. The answer is that they do have Jewish names, but because the culture is heavily influenced by the Greek and Roman occupation, we refer to them by the Greek names. Heck, the entire New Testament is written in Greek because Greek was the language of the day. So that's why not everybody's name Bartholomew. So they came to this place, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. And as you read through Mark, you'll notice that there's actually two blind men stories in really close succession. In Mark 10, the blind man was annoyingly persistent. We're gonna look at this story in a bunch of weeks. Annoyingly, like, save us, son of God! Like, hear us, we're over here. And Jesus heals them because of their persistence. This story is quite a bit different. In Mark 8, the blind man is brought to Jesus not of his own accord, but by the crowds. And so Jesus took the blind man by the hand and he led him outside the village. And when he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, and we'll stop it there for a second, because are you getting a flashback? You're getting a flashback to Jesus' encounter with the deaf and mute man from two weeks ago? I just love this. I love what Jesus does. He is constantly in a state of looking for relationship approach to things. You see, Jesus walks with him. He actually takes him out of the limelight, out of the city, out of so that he can be with him. You see, Jesus makes time for him and he deeply cares for this man. Now, unlike the previous story, this time he doesn't spit on his finger and then touch the man's tongue with it. No, no, no. This time Jesus does something that in our culture would be offensive. Actually, in many cultures, he spits in the man's face. He spits in the man's eyes. If you were here two weeks ago, yeah, there's some laughing already. We we did a deep dive on what? Spit and saliva, right? And we looked at that and we talked a lot about Greco-Roman culture and healing and saliva. And I do encourage you, our messages are wherever you get your podcast, go check it out if you missed it or if you miss a week of our Jesus series. But two weeks ago we talked extensively about that, so I'm not gonna do that now. I am going to, though, talk about this dude. This is Pliny the Elder. And there's a reason why I'm doing that. He wrote an amazing history in volumes. It's called Natural History. The reason he could do this is because he was a powerful Roman official of the day. He was a contemporary and a friend to the current emperor, where I never can say his name, Vespassian. Oh, I did it. That's awesome. Okay, I did it. Vespassian. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And he's a historical writer that people leaned into. You can look up his writing. It's in volumes called Natural History. And he, this dude, Pliny, recommends people use saliva to heal blindness. It's in his book on natural history. Like he's written volumes of history, and his great advice as the procurator of Rome is that if you're blind, rub some saliva on your eyes. It is so fascinating, the medical lore and the thought of this time in history. So you gotta understand that to a first century Roman and Greek, spitting in someone's face was not offensive like it would be today. Actually, Emperor now I can't say it, Vespassian was actually asked in Alexandria to spit in a blind man's face. This really highlights that we constantly need to know and understand the Bible through the cultural context of the day. And I love it, and I'm a geek, so I hope you love it too, so I can share some of it with you. So Jesus places his hands on the man's eyes, and then he asks, Do you see anything? The man looked up and said, I see people. They look like trees walking around. Kind of like the picture that I'm showing there on the screen. You know what this tells me? Is that the man could describe people as trees, shows that he most likely wasn't born blind. He could describe them as trees. He was either suffering from an accident or, more likely, an eye disease. We should know that eye diseases are so common in the ancient world. The constant dust and the poor hydrine and the extensive and harsh sunlight were all huge factors in eye degeneration. For many, it would cause blindness. Well, once more, Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. And then his eyes were open, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Can I just say that Mark isn't being redundant here? His eyes were open, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. This isn't an accident. He is using something called tricolon. It's a literary device, and by saying this in three different ways, based on the contemporary writers of the day, people would know something. That this man was completely and totally healed by Jesus. It was a profound statement to say it three times in different ways. Well, then Jesus sent him home saying, Don't even go into the village. A better transliterated way of saying it, that's when you take Greek and you translate it directly into English, would be to say, Don't go back into the village on your way home, which shows us that the man didn't live in the village. And maybe shows us more that Jesus didn't want a huge crowd to flock to him from the village. So, well, that's it. We really, did you did you experience those five verses of scripture as we dove together? But I'm still curious about something. We know Jesus heals in unique ways and in all of his healings, right? We've gone through a ton of healings. He has incredible power. I actually feel like it would uh make a really good Dr. Seuss book. Can I try it? I'm gonna try it with you. I know, you're already groaning. Dad jokes. He can heal him in a boat, he can heal him by a moat. He can heal his not nice throat, he can heal him with a goat. He can heal them with a touch, he can heal them without much. He can heal from far away or on his way or by the bay. Thank you.

unknown 14:59

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

Oh man. Jesus heals people though, and he does it in so many ways. So this is the question this guy is asking. Actually, he's not I am. Why does Jesus choose to heal this man in two stages? Is the ailment of this blind man too much for Jesus to heal in one go? Or more directly, does Jesus lack the power to instantly heal this man? Because on a first reading, it could seem like that. But you gotta remember, he is the King of kings and the Lord of Lords. He was there when the heavens and the earth was made, and Mark throughout his whole gospel. He is trying to get across that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God. Jesus rose three people from the dead, four if you count himself. It does not get more powerful than that. Yet for some reason he can't snap his fingers and heal this dude. Anyone questioning that? It's okay to question because when we do, we get to dig in and we learn some things. Can I first say though that I do not believe that Jesus lacked the power to heal him instantly? That's not the way I know Jesus. That's not the way I read my Bible. But to answer this question, I think there are a couple of possibilities in play. And I love that we are around tables, and then after our closing worship song, we're gonna get back around tables and discuss it because you get to discuss these possibilities. And so I'm gonna mention four of them, and one or all of them could be a possibility, and you can discuss it around the tables. I love discussing our faith like this. I want to share these ideas, and then in a big picture, I'm gonna share one final thought, which will lead into a time of reflection. Okay? So here's the first reason that Jesus may have healed this person in two stages. The most straightforward answer is that Jesus only healed as much as the blind man's faith allowed. Throughout Mark, there are numerous times where Jesus could not heal in villages because why? Because they lacked the faith for him to heal. It does not say that he doesn't have the power. What it says is that there is something there that you need to have faith to be healed. And so Jesus partially heals him, and they go, Can you see? Jesus knows his faith level. The drum up of faith is now as he he can see tree like people helps him to get the faith for a full healing. That's a possibility. The second one, maybe Jesus was showing that there is no equation, there's no rule of practice for his healings. I mean, it seems like everyone has the five best ways to get better at. You know what I'm saying? Like you look on Instagram and it's like seven ways to make your life better, eight things that you can eat that'll help you lose weight or whatever, right? And we're always trying to find that quick fixed solution that has an equation. And Jesus doesn't have a formula, he is the formula, he's the Messiah. Third, and I don't know if I'm into this explanation, but you can discuss it around tables. Some have said that Jesus' two-stage healing was pointing to the healing practices of the day and then calling them insufficient. And so the Greco-Roman spit healing thing, he tried, didn't try, he put it on to show that it is him that heals. It's actually by his touch that heals, and not the spitting in the face. That could be another possibility, not on my top three, but I'll mention it anyway. There's one more big thought, and we're gonna close on this uh with some reflection afterwards. Where are my English majors in the crowd? I know one because I'm married to her, and then there's Sylvie over there too. Awesome. The the literature geeks can can really tune in here because Mark is one of the gospel writers who actually includes this story. He's the only one. This two-stage healing encounter. And you see, most commentators I read agree that Mark puts a literary Easter egg into his writing, and people, contemporaries of that day, would have caught it and they would have gone, aha, I see what he's doing there. You see, first Jesus, even before this story, before the blind man's story, Jesus calls out the disciples for being blind. In Mark 8, verse 17. Let's check it out. And the context behind this, Pastor Jenna mentioned last time Jesus was talking about the yeast of the Pharisees. And they start talking about bread, not understanding, and then it leads to this. And Jesus says, Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? These are the disciples. Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don't you remember? So after this, Mark then chooses to use two distinct encounters with blind people. And the literary term for that is called inclusio or enveloping or bracketing. And it's used, particularly in oral cultures like this, to draw attention to that section that he's orating, that he's sharing. So Mark brackets the two blind man story from Mark 8 to Mark 10. And what's more is that Mark hammers hold the point with one more literary device, and I'm almost done for those of you who don't like the literary side of things. Just hang in there. He uses something called a rule of three to show that he's super smart. No, yeah, he doesn't do it because he's super smart. He shows it to show that Jesus is the Messiah, that he is constantly discipling his crew, and that they aren't quite getting it. There's an envelope. You have the blind man, we're gonna call him Bill, Mark 8. And then after that, three times Jesus predicts his death and resurrection over the next three chapters. And each time, the very next verse is followed by the disciples' misunderstanding. Jesus or being selfish. The first is Peter, and this one's crazy. We're going to look at this in a couple of weeks. Peter actually rebukes Jesus. He takes him aside and he reprimands him for saying that he's going to die and rise from the dead. Crazy. The next encounter, again, after Jesus says that he's going to die and rise from the dead, is they're caught arguing over who is the greatest. And then the third one takes the cake. Because James and John have the audacity to ask Jesus if they can sit on his right and left side in heaven and rule in heaven with Jesus. So you see the pattern of three? You have Jesus predicts his death and resurrection, the disciples mess up, and then after that, each foible, then Jesus has a time of teaching. And then Mark tidies it all up by having the second blind man story there, which he heals instantly. See, through contextual literary devices, Mark here is showing that the disciples don't truly get it. That they are starting to understand. They can see the blurry trees, unlike the Pharisees, by the way. But that they're still blind. And they're following alongside Jesus. You see what I love about this is that Jesus shows so much patience with the disciples. He goes, come, come and see. Look what I'm doing. Come be a part of it. No, you're not getting it yet. Okay? Teach, teach, teach. How about now? How about now? How about now? And in the process, Jesus walks alongside them and he unveils their eyes to see him clearly. What I love about that is that it mimics our journey with God. Much like disciples, we don't have it all figured out yet. And as we connect with God and each other, as we dig into Scripture, as we serve this community together, Jesus is in the process of unveiling our eyes so that we can see clearly. You see, Jesus never gives up on us. He has so much patience and love. And he walks alongside our doubts and our cultural blinders and those times, friends, that we actually push away God through our sin. We choose to push him away and to do it ourselves. And Jesus died on that cross. And he rose from the dead. And he longs for our eyes to be fully open to see him and to own that we are a beautiful masterpiece of him. That our purpose to do amazing things for the kingdom. I invite Ajay back up for a closing song. And I just hope this is encouraging for you. I invite you to close your eyes. It talks in Scripture about how when we draw near to God, He draws near to us. We even see it in the stories where the faith of the one who needs healing is the part that helps in the healing. And so as we come before a God that loves you, what do you need to bring before Him? We're going to sing a song that talks about the beautiful name of Jesus. What do you need to connect with God on? Is there unforgiveness that you need to say, man, I messed up? And I ask for your forgiveness because I want to walk in your ways. Or maybe you're at the point where you can now see the blurry tree people. And you want more. And to show you more of who He is. Let's pray, God, I thank you so much for your patience. For your love for each of us. That as we gain more and more faith, you reveal more and more about our identity in you and who you are. God, would you sit here with each of us? Would you show us more of who you are and for who you created us to be. God, you're welcome here. Come, Holy Spirit. Amen. We're so glad you chose to join us today. To find out more about Meadows Church and how you can get involved, connect with a pastor or how you can partner with us in ministry. Go to Meadowschurch.ca