Are You So Blind?

          Being blind to spiritual truth is a tricky thing.  No one wants to admit to their blindness, yet we are all quick to see it in others.  In a passage illustrating the reality of just how spiritually blind we all are, Jesus asked his disciples a probing question.

          Mark 8:29, “‘But you,’” He asked them again, ‘who do you say that I am?’  Peter answered Him, ‘You are the Messiah!’”

          The miracle right before this exchange is quite unique as it appears that Jesus’ healing power doesn’t work as advertised.  It appears to take two applications of Jesus’ healing power to disseminate this man’s blindness.

          Mark is illustrating for us the realities of spiritual blindness that plague us all.  Placing this passage in the context of the whole chapter, we see in verses 1-8 that the disciples don’t see Jesus clearly.  Verses 11-21 reveal also the blindness of the Pharisees and religious leaders to the magnitude of who Jesus is. 

          Verse 21, “And He said to them, ‘Don’t you understand yet?’”

          Mark puts this healing miracle right in the middle of these two groups of people who fail to understand who Jesus is.  And after this strange demonstration of power by Jesus, Peter finally begins to get it.  Therefore the scholars see this account as more than just a miracle, but also a parable.

          Jesus didn’t do cookie cutter healings.  Sometimes he puts spit on the eyes or ears.  Sometimes he says something, and sometimes he says nothing at all.  Sometimes he does it from a distance with only a thought.  So when Jesus does something special in his miracle process, we are seeing special teaching moments. 

Here we see Jesus teaching us that no one will be able to see who Jesus really is without divine intervention.  This chapter demonstrates the spiritual blindness of the disciples and the religious leaders, and that covers everyone. 

          The Bible doesn’t divide people up into good and bad.  There’s no good people who see and love and live the truth, while the bad people are blind to the truth and resist the truth.  But rather Jesus’ friends as well as his enemies suffer from the inability to see spiritual truth. 

          The commentators agree that this passage is trying to show that it takes more than one touch from Jesus to cure spiritual blindness.  The inability to see spiritual truth is pervasive and deeply entrenched in every human heart.  Therefore the remedy comes in stages with multiple touches from the Lord.  In other words, the cure for our spiritual blindness is a process of revealing and illumination. 

          Yet, even when our spiritual sight is cleared up enough to see who Jesus really is and to have a relationship with him, our sight is still not clear enough to actually live the life Christ would have us live.  This blindness is so deep in our hearts that is doesn’t clear up all at once.

          Now if we believe what the scripture is illustrating for us about spiritual blindness, then we have no grounds for being impatient or feeling superior to those who don’t spiritually see as well as we do.  We have no reason to look down our nose at those who don’t believe like we do or as much as we do.  We should never get irritable with them or impatient with them. 

          And yet when we feel so sure of something, our heart naturally wants to say, “You’re a fool for being so blind to the truth.”  But if spiritual sight is ultimately a gift from God, then we have no grounds for superiority.  In fact, forgetting that our sight is given to us by God is a kind of blindness itself.  The paradox is that you know your spiritual sight is clearing up when you recognize just how unclear it is.

          I look at myself ten years ago and see how foolish I was in one respect or another.  And yet I will do the same thing ten more years from now.  In other words, I’m foolish to some degree right now, even though I won’t see it clearly until later looking back on it.  Therefore how in the world can we look at someone else and say, "You fool."

          Jesus actually has a place in the Sermon on the Mount where he talks about how evil it is to curse people in our heart and call them a fool.  To do so testifies of one’s ignorance about the Bible’s teaching regarding the gift of spiritual sight.  So if you believe and see with a degree of clarity, don't be grumpy with people who don’t see as clearly yet. 

          Christianity is not a religion in the sense of merely doing observances and practices.  True Christianity that changes you is where a relationship with Jesus is established.  And like all relationships, if the other person doesn’t allow you to see who they are, then you’re not having a real relationship.  You don’t just start doing all the right practices, but you have to come to Jesus and ask to see him more clearly and to see what is in his heart for you. 

          I’ve always known it was healthy to drink lots of water, but for years I mostly drank Dr. Pepper and coffee.  But then I had a bout of kidney stones, incapacitating me for three weeks.  Now I drink water.  I knew what could happen, but in another sense I didn’t know. 

          Similarly, there is no one who begins to see spiritually who doesn’t look back and say, “In one sense I knew better, but I didn’t really see.  I had heard that a hundred times, but one day it suddenly became real.”  This is process of seeing Jesus and then seeing more of Jesus.

          Verse 24-25, “Spitting on his eyes and laying His hands on him, He asked him, ‘Do you see anything?’  He looked up and said, ‘I see people—they look to me like trees walking.’  Again Jesus placed His hands on the man’s eyes, and he saw distinctly.  He was cured and could see everything clearly.” 

It is clear that Jesus heals the man in stages, showing us that our spiritual blindness is remedied by a whole long process.  We can often become discouraged by Paul’s conversion experience as he seems to go from new believer to mature believer almost overnight.  But there’s another Apostle with a different conversion experience.  We see in this passage that Peter gets some clarity to his spiritual sight, but then almost immediately Jesus rebukes him because his sight isn’t completely clear yet.  And at some point Peter crosses over from death to life, ceasing to trust in himself and beginning to trust in Christ.  But it’s almost impossible to say exactly when it happens.

          If we spend all our time looking at Paul’s conversion, we can get filled with self-doubts quickly.  Therefore we should look at this story and ask, “Was the man healed or not?”  Yes, he was healed, but not until he admitted that he only saw people walking around like trees.  And Jesus touched him again. 

          So instead of being filled with self-doubts, maybe you should be more dissatisfied with your level of spiritual sight.  Then you could come to Jesus seeking to know him more.  Or instead of expecting everyone to mature instantly like Paul appears to, you could come to Jesus for even more clarity of sight.  And as a result, you would stop cutting people down who look like trees and then talking to them as if they were stumps. 

          So if you don’t drastically change like Paul, don’t think that Jesus isn't working in your life at all.  Because you are not capable of being dissatisfied with your spiritual sight unless God has already cleared it up some.

          Verse 22, “Then they came to Bethsaida. They brought a blind man to Him and begged Him to touch him.”

On his own, it doesn't appear this blind man would have found Jesus.  But his friends, who could see Jesus, brought him.  We like to keep our weakness private, and we certainly hate admitting we may be wrong.  And when someone asks if we see correctly, we tend to tell them to mind their own business.  But you have to spend time with people who see more clearly than you.  I value my time at seminary immensely.  The professors were wonderful, but I dare say that the best learning came when friends and I gathered together to process our theology. 

          Verse 29, “And He strictly warned them to tell no one about Him.”

          Jesus knows eventually that word of his power will get to the Roman and Jewish authorities, and they will have to kill him.  Every time Jesus uses his redemptive power, he is putting nails in his own coffin. 

Mark 15:33-34, “When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.  And at three Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lemá sabachtháni?’ which is translated, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’”
          There was an absolute darkness on the cross, but it was only a physical representation of the spiritual darkness into which Jesus was plunged.  Why?  Because Jesus was willing to be plunged into the darkness of God’s wrath that we may know the light of God's love.

          If this moves you, then you will begin to stop worrying about whose criticizing you or disagreeing with you.  If this moves you, then you will look down your nose less and up to God more.  If this moves you, then you will feel less superior to those who see less, and less threatened by those who try to help you see more.  If this moves you, then you will want to sacrifice for others and live for Christ, no longer consumed about what’s in it for you or how comfortable you are.  If this moves you, and you feel yourself really beginning to change, then it’s because God is graciously adding clarity to your spiritual sight.