We have moved 10 times in our
married life and we have made 5 pastoral transitions. In many of these major
life shifts there has been a significant amount of instability which has often
resulted in worry. The most difficult ones were the two pastoral transitions
when there were several months between churches, once 4 months and the other
time 7 months. We worried about our ability, about whether we would ever find
another position and we were concerned about where we would live.
Each time we have made a
transition, things have worked out rather well. Not only have we always had
enough, and been blessed to serve congregations that were a joy to serve, but
God has also given us so many extra blessings. Like the time when we bought a
house with shrubs in front, which Carla had hoped for or like the time when we
could live on a river, which I really enjoyed.
In spite of all these blessings
that we have always experienced even though we worried, it seems that every time
something new comes into our life we again wonder, “Will God care for us?” “How
is He going to care for us this time?” God has given us so much reason to trust
Him and yet we struggle to live in confident faith.
Do you ever worry about the future?
Do you ever fear circumstances? What are you afraid of right now? What do you
think Jesus is doing about it? Do you think Jesus is doing anything? Why do you
doubt that He is doing anything?
We have
often heard young people tell stories of what happens to them at camp. They
tell about how they have grown in faith when they were at camp. Because of the
concentration and the prayer, amazing spiritual victories often take place at
camp. God’s presence is so great and many commit themselves to living by faith
and to being faithful. On the last day of camp they are filled with a powerful
sense of how great God is and how they want to follow God when they get home.
But after camp it doesn’t take long and life gets in the way and routine and
temptations happen and pretty soon they aren’t so confident in God any more.
Where is our faith? Why can’t we remember? Why does doubt come?
The disciples of Jesus had a
similar experience. They had been in the presence of Jesus and saw Him do all
kinds of amazing things and teach wonderful truths. It was like being at camp
all the time, but there were still times when they weren’t all that confident
about Jesus. There were times when they were not aware of His love or His
power. There were times when they struggled with worry and fear.
This morning we will look at the
stories in Mark 7:31-8:26
in order to think about these things and be encouraged that God is at work
building us up in faith and helping us to see Him at work. I hope that these
words encourage you in whatever is causing you to worry and doubt.
I. Spiritual Blindness
The key phrase in these verses is Mark 8:17 , 18 where Jesus asked the
disciples, “Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18 Do
you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and fail to hear?” Why did
Jesus ask this question? How was it answered?
A. Feeding 4000 People
In these verses, Jesus did a lot of
traveling. We read, in 7:31, that he was in Tyre
and that he went up to Sidon and then down to
the Sea of Galilee and crossed it several
times. The story in Mark
7:31-37 took place in an area that was inhabited mostly by
Gentiles, so the audience was likely mostly not Jewish. He had been with this
crowd, teaching and doing miracles for 3 days and He realized that the people
were likely running out of food and getting hungry. He perceived that their
hunger was serious. It is interesting that they were so interested in Jesus
that they were willing to stay in a remote place to listen to him and willing
to undergo some hardship to hear Him.
The story reminds us of a similar
miracle story in Mark 6:30-44
where Jesus fed 5000. Once again it is the compassion of Jesus which prompts
him to recognize their need and desire to feed them. Once again the disciples
do not possess the resources needed to feed such a crowd. Once again the
disciples witnessed an amazing miracle prompted by Jesus’ compassion.
The stories look similar, and some
have suggested that they refer to the same event, but there are enough
differences between the two stories to help us realize that they are two
different stories which happened on two different occasions. In the first story
there were 5 loaves of bread available and in the second 7. In the first story
there were 2 fish and in the second, a few fish are mentioned. In the first
story 5000 people were fed and in the second, 4000. In the first story 12
baskets remained and in the second 7. The most significant difference is that
the first story happened in a Jewish area and the second in a Gentile area and
it seems that the purpose of including both stories is to show that God
provides for both Jews and Gentiles. Geddert comments, “As early as Augustine
of Hippo, interpreters of Mark’s Gospel have seen the two feedings in Mark as
for Jews and Gentiles…The first shows how God fulfills Israel’s hopes; the
second shows how God also intends to give grace to the Gentiles.”
The text
says in Mark 8:8 that
“they ate and were filled.” Through this experience the disciples once again
saw God at work and realized the power and provision of God through Jesus and
also the compassion of Jesus.
Following
the feeding, Jesus left in a boat to go to the other side of the lake.
B. Conflict with the Pharisees
As He came to the other side, he
met some Pharisees. They had one purpose. They did not want to know Him or
listen to Him, they wanted to test Him. Their attitude was one of challenge.
Jesus was deeply moved by their obstinate unbelief. They had seen so much, but
remained blind to the truth about Jesus. Because of their attitude, Jesus
refused to respond to them and left and crossed the Sea of
Galilee again.
The problem
with their attitude was that they wanted proof that would be strong enough to
change their unbelieving minds. It doesn’t work that way. Jesus demonstrates
God’s power and teaches God's truth, but understanding does not come to those
who demand a sign, but to those who have faith and insight.
C. Can You Hear? Can You See?
When they got back into the boat,
we have a rather interesting interchange between Jesus and the disciples. It is
a puzzling conversation, but in the end it reveals their hearts and invites us
to examine our hearts.
We are told at the beginning of the
story that the disciples had forgotten to stow provisions aboard the boat and
that all they had along was one loaf of bread.
While this was a matter of concern
weighing on the minds of the disciples, Jesus was talking about something else.
He began to talk about the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod. The
disciples responded to each other referring to that which had been on their
minds. They were concerned that they didn’t have enough bread. It seems as if
their worries were so great that they didn’t have the capacity to think about
anything else or to hear what Jesus was talking about.
What was Jesus talking about when
he mentioned the yeast of the Pharisees and Herod? Yeast is something that
influences. When it is put in dough, it permeates the entire lump of dough. In Mark 6:14 we read that, Herod
had heard about the miracles of Jesus and speculated that John the Baptist had
been raised. He did not realize the divine source of Jesus' power or position
nor inquire more about who Jesus was. The Pharisees had seen the power of Jesus
and should have recognized its origin, but refused to do so. Both of them were
unbelieving. They did not accept Jesus and they did not respond in faith. Such
unbelief, if permitted to enter into one’s heart, permeates and has an
influence which destroys faith. Jesus was warning the disciples that they
should not be unbelieving, like the Pharisees and Herod.
But they didn’t get it. They were
confused about what Jesus was talking about. They were worried and in their
worry they expressed unbelief. It was not the same kind of unbelief as the
Pharisees, but it was unbelief nevertheless and that is why Jesus was warning
them. It is in this context that Jesus raised the question we find in Mark 8:17 , 18 when He asked, “Are your
hearts hardened? Do you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and fail
to hear?” Of course He was not talking about physical blindness or deafness. He
was talking about spiritual blindness and the spiritual inability to hear God.
This is imagery which occurs in other places in the Bible as well. In Isaiah 6:9 we read, "Go and
say to this people: ‘Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but
do not understand.’ Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears, and
shut their eyes, so that they may not look with their eyes, and listen with
their ears, and comprehend with their minds, and turn and be healed."
In both
passages, the inability to see what God has done and to understand His work are
attributed to hard hearts. Their hearts were so hard that they did not remember
what Jesus had done in the past. Jesus refers to both feeding miracles and
questions them about what was left over. In spite of what they had seen, they
had not understood the compassion or the power of Jesus.
As we
listen in on the conversation which Jesus has with the disciples, we should not
get too comfortable because the question is also asked of us. Are our hearts
hard? Do we fail to remember what God has done? Do we fail to see what God is
doing? Do we have eyes, but fail to see and ears but fail to hear?
But there
is an encouraging word in this section. Jesus asks, “Do you not yet
understand?”" The implication of “not yet” is that one day they will. It
functions as a word of hope and a promise that one day they will get it and
they will understand.
But how will they see? How will we
ever hear and understand? How will we ever believe? How will we ever walk with
confidence? This story is so real to us because we understand so well the
struggle of the disciples. We have all been there. We have all wrestled with
unbelief. We have all seen God at work in the past, but often experience doubt
in the present. It may not have been bread, but in some way we have seen God
provide and change lives and do great things. The greatest act of God is that
of which Paul reminds us in Romans
8:32 , “He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for
all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?” But we don’t
remember that God did not spare His own Son. So we live with unbelief. We
worry. We fret. We doubt. Our hearts are hard. Not hard in the rebellious way
of the Pharisees, but hard in the sense that God’s grace and truth do not
penetrate deeply. We are insensitive to the work of God all around us and so we
too have eyes, but do not see and ears but do not hear.
II. Jesus Makes the Deaf Hear
Seeing and hearing are an important
connecting point in the stories in this section. We have observed how the
disciples failed to see and hear. But there are two stories surrounding this
story that also have to do with seeing and hearing. If you look carefully at Mark 7:31-8:26 , you will
see how many times seeing and hearing are mentioned. In Mark 7 deafness and ears are
mentioned in verses 32, 33 and 35. In Mark
8 , eyes and ears are mentioned in verse 17, as we have just seen.
Then in Mark 8:21-26
eyes and seeing and sight restored are mentioned. We should not think that this
is coincidental. It is quite deliberate and Mark has put these stories together
for the purpose of teaching important truths.
The disciples all had good hearing
in a physical sense, but as we have seen, they turned out to be quite deaf to
the work of God and to trust in God.
The lesson is declared by the
people in Mark 7:37 , “He
has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”
Jesus is able to make the deaf person hear again. And we should not think that
Jesus is only able to make the person who is physically deaf hear again. He is
able to make the person who does not hear God hear again. This is a promise for
all of us who struggle with unbelief. It is a word of hope for all of us who
wrestle with doubt and who don’t get how God is working. Jesus is the one who
can open our deaf ears to hear Him speak to us and to be able to understand
what He is doing. How thankful I am for the promise that Jesus is the one who
can open our ears. The one who has conquered, the one who is seated on the
throne, the one who has loved us sacrificially, the one who has promised
abundant life, the one who will reign for all eternity can open our ears. He
can help us to hear and understand and to know what God is doing so that we can
put our trust in Him. So this becomes an encouragement to trust in Him, to know
that He can help us hear. My prayer is that Jesus will open my ears.
III. Jesus Heals In Stages
The final story in the section,
found in Mark 8:21-26 ,
is also obviously connected with this whole section. This time seeing is
mentioned. The unusual methods in which Jesus spit on the man’s eyes ties it to
the story in Mark 7:31-37 .
Except for John 9 where
Jesus used spit to make mud to put on a man’s eyes, these are the only two
stories in the NT where spitting is involved,. These clues make it clear that
we need to connect all these stories together. So what is the connection
between these stories and what is the lesson in this last story?
It connects with the previous story
because it is a story of healing blindness. Once again we see that Jesus is
able to heal the blind. Once again we are reminded that Jesus can make us see spiritually.
But there is another unique thing
about this story in that it involves a two stage miracle. Jesus healed the
blind man, but it happened in two stages. The first time Jesus spit on the
man’s eyes and put his hands on them. When He did, the man was able to see, but
not clearly, not completely. We read his response in Mark 8:24 , “I see people; they
look like trees walking around.” There was a seeing, but it was not a clear
seeing. When Jesus put His hands on the man a second time, we read that his
eyes were opened and he “saw everything clearly.” Why this two stage healing?
Because it reflects a reality in the world of spiritual understanding. The
disciples had eyes, but they did not see. But remember that we said that “not
yet” implied that they would yet understand and see? The disciples had realized
a lot of things about Jesus. They had the beginnings of perception, but it was
incomplete. In the very next part of Mark we have the first announcement of the
death of Jesus. In that text, Peter clearly declared about Jesus, “You are the
Christ.” But in the very next breath Peter rebuked Jesus and could not perceive
that the way to victory was the way of suffering and death. In the weeks that
followed, this confusion continued. They saw, but they didn’t see. They caught
on to some things, but they missed others. Following the resurrection, their
eyes were opened a little more and on the day of Pentecost, a little more. In
fact, until the day of Pentecost they were in a bit of a fog, “seeing people
walking around like trees.” But even after Pentecost, their seeing would not be
complete as we see when Peter and Paul argued about what it meant to follow
Jesus. But complete seeing will come. I Corinthians 13:12 says, "Now we see but a poor
reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part;
then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."
Last week I was speaking with
someone from the congregation about the message. His comment was, why do we not
understand? Why do we need to be constantly reminded about the truths we should
remember? Well to that frustration, this text promises that we will yet know. It
is helpful to know that it is not unusual that our seeing will be incomplete
now. The disciples struggled to see clearly and so do we. But that knowledge is
not intended to make us complacent. Behind the acknowledgement that sometimes
seeing takes time and that there are stages of perception, there is the
overwhelming truth that Jesus opens blind eyes. Not just physically blind eyes,
but spiritually blind eyes. It is the touch of Jesus that will make us see
clearly. In addition, there is the reality that sometimes seeing takes more
than one stage before we fully understand.
Conclusion
If you come to Jesus challenging
Him to prove Himself, you will be disappointed. Just like Jesus did not answer
the Pharisees, He will not respond to an unbelieving challenge.
If you come to Jesus expecting that
He will give you whatever you want, you will be disappointed. He is sovereign
and knows far better what is good for us and has eternal things in mind, not
our temporal wishes. Although He often blesses us in many ways, He is not a
cosmic Santa Claus.
If you come to Jesus with humble
confidence in His power and His love, you will never be disappointed. You will
trust His sovereignty, His compassion, His power and His love.
All of us
at various points in life seem to be deaf to this truth about God and blind to
all that He has done and can do.
The word of
hope to us this morning is to know that Jesus heals deaf ears and blind eyes.
The word of encouragement is to be patient with ourselves and patient with
others knowing that we are all on a journey. The word of challenge for us is to
keep looking to Jesus and trusting Him to bring the complete healing of our
spiritual eyes and ears.
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