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READ: Mark 8:22
CHALLENGE: Believe in Christ for Restoration
Mark 8:22 – They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.
Bethsaida is a fishing village on the northeast corner of the Sea of Galilee where the Jordan River flows into the lake. It was the hometown of three of the 12 apostles, Peter, Andrew, and Phillip. The name Bethsaida means house of fisherman which is appropriate considering what that town was known for.
This is also the town where he fed the 5,000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish. He restores a man’s sight back to normal and there are times when we need things restored in our lives! We need renewal or a spiritual rebuild and Christ can do that. How?
- BELIEVE THAT CHRIST RESTORES
An important aspect of what the passage is driving at is that we need to come to Christ. He’s at the center of healing and at the center of restoration work in our lives.
I have had flaring tooth and jaw pain and it’s unfortunate but I knew that I needed to see the dentist. And he’s already sending me to a specialist. But I know where to go when I’m having those problems.
For spiritual needs we know where to turn! So, for salvation, we come to Christ. We are spiritual beings and when things are broken there, we come to Christ. For the wisdom and love and patience and help, we come to Christ. I constantly need Jesus in my life. And again, that’s at the heart of what I see here. Christ is the one we turn to.
- Restores Those Who Come Through Faith
The friends and blind man knew that Jesus equals hope. You come to Jesus because you believe that he can help you fix your spiritual maladies and give you strength and forgive you. Jesus also said, “All things are possible for those who believe” and that we can move mountains through faith.
We bring the hard things to God believing that he can handle them – this has always been part of faith. This is an excellent thing to remember for all of us, me included. God, you’ve got this. I believe in you. Jesus, you can help to provide as we seek you.
Paul in talking about both abundance and poverty said, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. There is something about having Christ in your life that helps you to have a better life.
John 15 talks about Christ being the vine and us being the branches. John 15:4 – Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. When we’re in Christ, our life is fruitful. Apart from Christ, our lives are fruitless. Good things happen when I’m believing. When I’m putting my mind on spiritual things. When I’m connected to Christ.
Christ is the answer, so it is with faith and optimism that they approach Jesus with their blind friend in tow. Out of all the places they could turn, there’s one person who can actually make a difference.
We have a program, every Tuesday night, called Celebrate Recovery. It’s a 12 step recovery program that is Christ centered. Why? We believe that God helps those we bring to Christ. As Jesus said, “All you who are weary, come to me and I will give you rest”.
- Restores for Those Who Pray Hard
There is a specific concern for this man who is blind so they begged Jesus. This does not sound like a soft talk whisper thing. Pleading sounds intense. It’s also a present tense verb which indicates a continual action through a period of time. They’re pounding at the door! And when you have deep and serious issues, you will pound at heaven’s gates. The deep concern can’t help but come out of your mouth.
The word means “to summon, to plead”. To summon is to call on someone for help. And the reason you call on them is because you know that you can’t do it yourself. My grandson asks for many things. He wants to get into as tree swing but he cannot reach it. He wanted his Power Wheels jeep, but couldn’t get it. He cannot open every door. He cannot reach everything he would like. His life is one of dependence.
Even this man will later be led by the hand by Jesus himself and that shows his reliance on the Lord. Are we not all in that place of dependence on God? I remember when I was younger, I couldn’t understand the prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread”. The reason was because we have so much to eat in this country that it didn’t make sense to pray such a prayer. But over time, I came to understand it better. It’s not about the food it’s about daily dependence on the LORD. There’s always some daily need that we have.
This blind man is in a place of dependence on others. And that’s us when it comes to spiritual things. We are dependent upon God. For what? For salvation for starters. We cannot work our way to heaven. For answers to prayer. For wisdom. For strength. For family.
Prayer is leaning on God and pleading. What are we willing to pray hard about? Family? Friends? Finances? For me, I’m praying about the search. We’re at square one right now and looking for the right fit for Eagleville. To me, we have to be reliant on God and how he directs.
In order to really pray, it takes dedication. Even when my heart truly desires to seek God, I need to make the time and create some space for reflection. I need some quiet time to think and seek. spiritual life and spiritual things require effort.
- Restores Even If You’re Not Sure What to Ask
They ask him to touch him. Does the precise wording matter? Probably not. He does touch him but it’s with spit. Then he touches his eyes.
But what if it’s not the exact right way to say the prayer? What if you’re not sure what to say? I imagine they could have asked for healing. Or said, “Open his eyes” or “restore his sight”. God can decipher the communication gaps. I think of the verse where we’re told not to babble on like the pagans. We don’t need to because God already knows what we need before we ask. If he already knows what we need, he knows how to accomplish it as well.
I’m a guy, I don’t always communicate what I want perfectly. I sometimes point. I sometimes can’t find the right word. Sometimes my ADHD brain forgets what I was going to say. Perhaps there are times when we don’t even know what we truly need. God does and I’m thankful for that. Perhaps I have a gist of it, but God has it precisely.
Listen to these powerful words in Romans 8:26-27 – In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
We do not know what we ought to pray for but the Spirit does! We may pray imperfectly but God fills in the blanks. The man needs to be restored and Jesus is about to do that. So, if you need healing in your marriage – come to Christ. If you need healing for addiction, come to Christ. If you need healing for anger, come to Christ. Christ has to be a component of life. He’s central. Ask and even if it’s not a perfect ask, God knows your heart.
(trans.) So we come to Christ and then we look for progress.
B. LOOK FOR PROGRESS
Vv23-25 – He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything? 24 He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” 25 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.
- Progress Takes Time
I understand that this miracle happens quickly in the scope of time but let’s track it. Some changes are instant while some changes happen progressively over time.
Let’s note the progression here and reflect on that a bit. He takes his hand, right? Jesus led him outside the village. That means they potentially walked down several streets or blocks, but the man was not healed right then. They went outside the village, perhaps to a field or stream or the sea. But there were steps taken, right? There was a flow of activity that led to healing.
Jesus spit directly on the man’s eyes and some ancients talk about that as there could be grime in eyes. However, I don’t remember that being part of the friend’s prayer at all. Jesus put his hands on him, apparently on his eyes. He asked, “Do you see anything”? He said that he saw people and they looked like trees walking around. He started with blurry vision as he couldn’t see clearly. That was the first go around but he wasn’t totally healed yet. Howbeit, he was making amazing progress.
Once again, Jesus put his hands on his eyes. His eyes were then opened and he saw clearly. I see the progression. You start out being led by friends, then by Jesus, then you see partially, then you see clearly. Are you making progress toward restoration?
Let’s talk real life for a moment. I’ve worked with people who cold turkey quit everything bad at once. They were instantly different. I’ve worked with others who just wouldn’t initially give up what was holding them back. That could be an alcoholic toying with drinking daily no matter how many relationships got broken. One time I was working with a person who was smoking pot. I met with them regularly, but it was a progression of coming to clarity about the topic, rather than an instant change.
I’d be hearing things like, “If God didn’t want me to smoke it, why did he make it grow?” To which I responded, God made poison ivy, you don’t smoke that, do you?
Think how bad that logic is. If God didn’t want me to eat every mushroom, why are the mushrooms growing? I don’t know man. I would highly recommend not eating every mushroom you get your hands on. But eventually the man gave it up. But it took him time to see it and you have to work at making progress in your walk.
Granted, sin can be difficult to walk away from. It may be difficult to have a clear vision of what in the world it is we’ve been doing. But when God opens our eyes, we can see it clearly and that’s life changing! Denial is a powerful force and that’s why clear vision as to right and wrong is so important.
Having your spiritual sight back is profound. When you’re in denial you have a million excuses. You justify it. You defend it. It’s like in the Bible where the call the right wrong and the wrong right. You think it’s OK. We need God to do a work.
And let’s let God to be God. I highly doubt the friends were there telling Jesus what to do. No, don’t spit on him like that. No, man, we thought touch his forehead and say some words. Well, you need to let God be God and He knows best how to get hold of people. It not MY job to open your eyes. I need to let God be God rather than play Holy Spirit
Let’s look for progress. I can think of things that I truly became aware of and once I did and, I moved away from it. There are other things that I’ve made progress on. Other positive patterns, I’d still like to incorporate into life. The key is to see it and then work to make appropriate changes.
God said that the one who began a good work will complete it. This gives us the idea that we don’t have it down perfectly yet. It’s going to take time. He continues to work on us. My mother used to have a plaque on her desk that read, “Be patient, God isn’t finished with me yet”.
We may not be perfect, but we should be making progress.
- Progress Toward Restoration
It says that his sight was restored and that’s what our spirituality is about. It’s about restoration. You’re putting it back to how it should be. When you’re restoring something, you’re fixing it. You’re trying to bring it back to how God intended. Eyes are made to see and Christ was getting him back to where he should have been.
I’ve often thought that the point of Christianity is to get us back to the Garden of Eden. That day of purity and a walk with God. Back to where we weren’t tainted.
If they restored the temple in the Old Testament, it meant that they repaired it but it also meant that they took out what wasn’t supposed to be there. If there were false gods. If there were evil people. If they were worshipping something else, they removed it.
This man had something that was blocking his vision and that had to be removed! That could be true in family relationships as well. The restoration is getting rid of patterns that are worshipping other things rather than focusing on your spouse let’s say. Whatever is blocking loyalty and love or precluding you from being all in. Jesus can restore your marriage. Restore your attitude. Restore your joy. By the way, there is actually the prayer, “restore to me the joy of my salvation”. But that means that blockages are removed!
I love that old hymn, Amazing Grace. Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I’m found. Was blind, but now I see! Restoration!
C. DON’T GO BACK
V26 – Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t even go into the village.”
That’s such an interesting statement. Don’t go into the village. They won’t believe him even if he tells them. This place has already resisted the miraculous and doesn’t believe. It could be that Jesus does not need one more plug but on the other hand, it’s not like everyone doesn’t already know what Jesus is capable of doing. That ship has sailed.
If he went into a village would they dissuade him from the miracle. Would his family be kicked out of the synagogue? I’m not sure. However, looking at the entire meaning behind restoration, I would agree that it means that you can’t go back to the past ways of life.
- Avoid the Old Patterns
2 Corinthians 5:17 – Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
Everyone in Christ is a new creation. The old has gone and the new has come. And when that old has gone, that means that your patterns have changed.
There are times when you realize that something you did was dumb. Don’t go back. If there is temptation, don’t go there. It’s the worst possible thing for you.
Changing patterns of behavior would mean changing places you’ve gone. Responses you’ve had. People you’ve hung with. If something has damaged you and your marriage, give it up. I remember a man called me for a drug house and he owed money. He asked me to bring him money. That was a hard no. But he knew better. He knew it was that last place he should have been.
Immorality. Addiction. Gambling. Anger. Whatever is behind us, leave it there!
1 Corinthians 15:33 – Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”
Bad company corrupts good morals. What things have slowed you down? What takes away from spiritual vitality? What can you do to stay away from those things? You can’t go back.
- Make a Decision
I’ve had that conversation with people and some will never leave the darkness. They could be healed but they prefer the comfort of sin. My brother was an alcoholic and I asked him about it. I said, do you ever have a drink? He said, “Bill, it’s never done anything good for me so the answer is no”.
You make a decision that is independent of others. You make a decision because that’s what you believe. Bethsaida was not known as a believing town. Luke 10:13 – “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
So, it’s not a town that has accepted Jesus Christ even though it was where Jesus began his ministry. The goodness of God was spurned in some ways. When you believe, don’t worry about how other people will take that. We’re not worried about what the world is going to say.
What decisions have you made to follow Jesus Christ? What good have you done?
It could be a decision to begin attending church. It could be a decision to spend more time with your spouse. To really make that difference in your life.
Believe that Christ Restores
Look for Progress
Don’t go back