Mark 8:22-30 - Opening eyes physically and spiritually

After a discussion with his disciples where they still didn't understand who he was, Jesus starts healing blind people in more ways than one... 

Mark 8:22-30

'Messiah' means 'God's chosen one' and was the one promised all through the Old Testament scriptures who would come and rescue God's people from all their troubles.  There was a lot of history behind this title.  People who saw Jesus' miracles and heard him teach started to wonder if he could be the one but not many were certain of it yet.  Even Jesus' closest friends - the 12 disciples - couldn't quite see the truth.

Jesus heals another man in a very similar way to the one at the end of the last chapter (Mark 7:31-37).  He takes him away from the crowd and touches the man where he needs healing - in this case - his eyes.  Surely, this healing would have been ringing bells with the disciples.  Another reminder of Jesus' supernatural power to heal and in such a personal and compassionate way.

As well as healing the blind man's sight, Jesus seems to be teaching the disciples something in the way that he does it.  He heals the man in two stages and lets the man tell him how well he can see before healing him completely.  Jesus is allowing the man to tell him how he sees things and to trust him to see things as he should.  It's just like what he's been doing with the disciples - patiently showing them more and more as they trust him.  After this, he sends the man away from the town.  Jesus seems to be delaying the crowds here, probably because he's wants some time to talk to his disciples about what they can see.

Jesus starts by asking about the rumours about who people think he might be but he then gets to the heart of the matter when he asks, 'But what about you?  Who do you say I am?' (v29).  Peter gets it right - 'You are the Messiah'!  At last, one of them gets it!  Spiritual eyes have been opened to the truth that Jesus is the rescuer - God's chosen one - the one all of Israel's history had been longing for.
    
This recognition of Jesus as the Messiah was a huge deal but the truth about Jesus is even bigger than this in at least two ways worth mentioning very briefly here.  First, Jesus wasn't just God's chosen one but he was God himself!  Another title given to Jesus was 'Emmanuel', which means 'God with us' (Matthew 1:23).  Second, Jesus hadn't just come to rescue Jews but anyone and everyone who would see the truth and trust him, including you and me today (John 3:16)!

So what about you?  Who do you say Jesus is?  Maybe it still seems like blurry shapes to you.  Either way, let's keep going - into the second half of Mark's account of Jesus so we can get the whole story!

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Mark 8:1-21 - Miracle meal and missing the point

In chapter eight, things really start to move along as we see Jesus opening his disciples' eyes to who he really is and starting to teach more about what following him really looks like and about his death.

In this section of the chapter, we see Jesus doing a massive public miracle and then challenging his disciples' small understanding of who he is.

Mark 8:1-21

Jesus is God and therefore has no problem doing miracles whenever the time is right.  And this is definitely a miracle.  Seven loaves and a few fish would not have gone very far among four thousand very hungry people.  They weren't stingy portions either.  Mark says that 'everyone ate and was satisfied' (v8).  And if that wasn't enough, there were seven basketfuls of leftovers too (v8).

The Pharisees who questioned Jesus really didn't get it.  Asking for a sign after the massive public miracle Jesus had just done?  Really?  How blind could they be?

And then there's this misunderstanding in the boat where even Jesus' disciples are missing something.  Jesus passes comment about the 'yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod' and the disciples don't understand him.  They wrongly assume he must be on about the fact that they've only brought one loaf of bread with them and that he must be concerned about that.  Kind of a dumb thing to assume after the miracle Jesus has just done!

Jesus calls them on it by asking them if their hearts are hardened (v17).  When people are confronted with the truth about Jesus and they act and talk like it's not there, a hard heart is usually the problem.  It's a stubbornness of the person's will but also a blindness that they can't really help.  What's needed is a willingness to see the truth but at the same time they need their spiritual eyes opening so they can see it clearly.  We'll see more of this later in this chapter.

For now, it's enough to point out that Jesus is patiently challenging the disciples' hard hearts and slow minds.  It's like he's saying, 'Do you really still not get who I am after all the miracles you've seen and been involved in?  Come on guys!  Stop thinking so small!  The truth is bigger and you've seen it but you're not admitting it yet!'

The disciples' conversation showed how little they understood Jesus.  It's the same today.  People's conversations sooner or later show how much they really understand about Jesus.  And today, Jesus still patiently challenges us and wants to enlarge our understanding of him because the truth is still bigger than we have seen or admitted so far.  We need to learn more about Jesus, learn more from Jesus and ask God to open our eyes to the truth!

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Mark 7:31-37 - Ephphatha!

Jesus heals a man who can't hear and can hardly speak and he does this in what seems like a very weird and disgusting way...

Mark 7:31-37

Before we consider why Jesus did this miracle in the way that he did, we should make sure we don't forget that it's a miracle he's doing.  Before this man met Jesus, he was completely deaf and could hardly talk and after his encounter with Jesus, his hearing and speech is completely restored.  On one level, it doesn't even matter how Jesus did it.  The fact is - he did!  Jesus has the power to heal.  He could have made the man eat a magic banana or pulled his beard off if he wanted to.  It wouldn't have mattered.  Jesus heals people!  Let's not miss that!  The people in verse 37 certainly didn't and we shouldn't either.

Having said that, it is interesting how Jesus chooses to heal this man.  Some say that Jesus took the man away from the crowds to prevent embarrassment (or shock when he got his hearing back), that he stuck his fingers in the man's ears to sensitively communicate what he was about to do and used spit in the same way.  The word 'Ephphatha' means 'be opened' and is very easy to lip read.  Jesus was valuing this man as a person and communicating with him in the way that would have been best understood.  Jesus' actions here are far from disgusting or weird but sensitive, natural, compassionate and effective. 

We can draw great encouragement and confidence from the fact that Jesus has the power to heal and that he understands our personal situation completely.

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Mark 7:24-30 - To the dogs

If I walked up to a girl and called her a dog, I'd most likely get a slap in the face!  But in this next encounter that Mark shows us, Jesus gets away with it!  What's really going on here?

Mark 7:24-30

So is Jesus really adding insult to injury by not only turning her down but calling her a dog too?  I don't think so.  There's a lot more going on than we might realise...

A quick biblical history lesson... All the way through the Bible, God had been dealing especially with the Jews because he chose to make Israel his special people.  It's not that they were any better than the other nations but he wanted to bless them so they might be a blessing to the whole world.  This was the plan all through the Old Testament part of the Bible since Genesis 12.  As it turned out, Israel weren't particularly obedient and so there wasn't much blessing to be shared with the world and instead, things went steadily downhill.  God knew this would be the case and had something bigger in mind all along - Jesus!  So when Jesus finally does turn up, it shouldn't be surprising that he gives the Jews first dibs on his kingdom, since they have been God's chosen nation for ages.  Jesus' kingdom is for the gentiles (non-Jews) too but he's starting with the Jews first in order to honour the commitment God made to them in the Old Testament.  God's plan had always been far bigger than the nation of Israel but it did start with them and so that's why Jesus starts with them.

So when Jesus is initially reluctant to help the gentile woman at this point, it's not because he doesn't love her but simply because he's not on that part of the plan yet.

In verse 28 we see the woman's impressive response.  It's impressive because she knows she deserves nothing from Jesus and yet she has such strong faith that she asks anyway out of desperation and the hope that Jesus will have mercy on her.  It also shows that she knows Jesus can help if he wants to.  She has faith in who Jesus is, what he can do and faith enough to plead for mercy from him.  She sees things pretty clearly and Jesus loves this so much that he jumps ahead with the plan and helps her anyway, even though she's a gentile.  It's a glimpse of the fact that Jesus' kingdom is for everyone and it's this kind of faith that he's looking for.

When you don't understand God's timing or his plans, what kind of faith do you have?  Are you someone who decides God must be dead, or wrong, or unloving?  Or are you the kind of person who realises we're all undeserving and the best option is to acknowledge God and beg for mercy?

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Questions to consider...
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  • Why do people use Facebook?  Why do you (if you do)?
  • How do friendships go deep?  How deep are your friendships?
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  • Are face-to-face friends better than online friends?  Why/why not? 
  • Check out 3 John 1:14.  What do you think it means?

Mark 7:1-23 - Religion sucks!

How do you react to the idea of religious rules and traditions?  I have to say I'm not a fan!  I'm all for helpful habits and routines that do people good but the idea of having a tradition or a rule that simply exists because it always has, really grates with me.  Why keep doing something unless it's actually helpful?  And why keep avoiding something unless it's still unhelpful?  When people start thinking that their repeated actions have value just because they're repeated, I can't stand it!  When people think like this (and it can be atheists as well as theists), there's no good or bad - only repetition.  Unthinking creatures of habit who think they're fine as they are or worse, better than everyone else.  Yuck!

Mark 7:1-23

The Pharisees and teachers of the law were self-righteous creatures of habit who made loads of nit-picky little religious rules and regulations about almost everything to make themselves feel superior and to exclude those who didn't do the same (v3-4).  Jesus hates it!

Jesus has been miraculously healing the sick, feeding hungry people, driving out demons, walking on water and teaching with amazing authority.  What would your question be when you met him?  How corrupt and distracted would you have to be to ask him why he hasn't washed his hands before eating his lunch?  This is what the Pharisees did and it showed how far from God they really were (v5-7).

Jesus knows the Pharisees are hypocrites and verse 8 is at the heart of their problem: 'You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.'  The Pharisees have twisted and adapted God's rules in order to do whatever they like and not feel bad.  Jesus tells them, 'You nullify the word of God by your tradition' (v12).  

After this, Jesus teaches the people something about tradition by explaining that the heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart.  It's not about clothes or hand-washing or diet or prayers or Bible study or church-going or meditation or education or psychology or anything else that people try in order to fix themselves.  There's nothing wrong with any of these disciplines but they can't hide or solve the problem of our selfish, evil desires.  Someone once suggested that piling up good deeds as a basis for our peace of mind is like spraying cologne on a corpse.  If we're dead inside, no amount of discipline will ultimately help us.  Jesus is so not about religion! 

And what about this human heart problem that Jesus has left hanging?  Maybe that's what Jesus wanted people to ask about.  And he's probably got something better in mind than simply another set of religious rules.  We need a better solution than that!

Are you missing the point of Jesus?  If you've been reading about him in Mark's account, you've read some pretty incredible things.  What's your reaction?  Do you carry on as you are?  I hope you're asking better questions than the Pharisees!

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