On the Road to Jersusalem

You know, if I would have been thinking straight earlier last week, I would have asked that we could sing “Amazing Grace” right before the sermon. Do you all know the first verse? Well let’s sing it!
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.
What does it mean, that I was once blind, but now I see? _________________
It’s a metaphor, isn’t it? We’re talking about a spiritual blindness, one that prevents us from seeing who we really are (sinners in need of grace). It prevents us from seeing the world as it truly is (fallen, lost, and condemned), and it prevents us from seeing—truly seeing—Jesus Christ.
As we head into the second act in our study of Mark, we’re going to meet two men who were literally once blind, but when they met Jesus they could finally see. But though they have a true, physical blindness Mark also wants to use their story to show how we can often have a spiritual blindness when it comes to Christ, as well. Get out your Bibles and turn to the Gospel of Mark, chapter eight, verse twenty-two.
Mark 8:22 22 “They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.” Now the “they” are Jesus and His disciples. As in the first section of Mark’s gospel, they’re still pretty much sticking to the area around the Sea of Galilee, but in this second section we’re going to see a shift in purpose and discussion. Jesus is on the road to Jerusalem, and His main focus has changed from ministry to the masses. He’s now going to focus primarily on teaching the disciples why He came.
Mark 8:23 23 “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?” Take note of two things: One, Jesus is leading the man outside the village. He’s leading him to a more private, secluded space. He’s getting away from the crowds. This is a bit different than what He’s done before. Before this Jesus has been pretty public about His preaching. When He’s done miracles, they’ve typically been seen by a large number of people. But this is different; it asks us to take notice.
The second thing to notice is that Jesus does a healing in two steps. First is a partial healing, “Do you see anything?” Followed by a complete restoration of the blind man’s sight. This is very different than anything else we’ve seen before in Mark, and again, because it is so different, it wakes us up and says, “Pay attention! Something big, something important coming up!”
“Do you see anything?” Mark 8:24 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.
He saw everything clearly. Let’s take the obvious meaning first. Jesus has a heart filled with compassion for people. He wants to see people be everything that they were created to be. Even more than that, He desires that everyone come to have a saving faith in Him. And so Jesus displays His power and compassion and fulfills the Father’s will by healing this man, and in so doing draws the man to the Father through Himself.
That’s what’s right there on the surface. That’s the obvious stuff. But below the surface, beneath the words themselves, I’m want to ask, “Why is Mark telling me this story?” Why did Mark choose this story to tell? Does it serve some greater purpose? The answer is yes.
Beneath the surface, Mark is showing us that while a little understanding is good, it is better to understand Christ’s work fully. To see everything clearly is to fully understand Christ and His mission. And we cannot understand Christ apart from the cross.
In order to get Mark’s point, we’re going to take a look at several stories in chapters 8-10, and with each story we’ll ask, “Do the people in this story see everything clearly?” In other words, do the people in this story that Mark tells us about Jesus’ life and ministry fully understand what it means that Jesus is the Christ, the very savior of the world? Let’s find out.
Immediately after that healing, chapter eight, Jesus takes His disciples around to some villages and as they travel He asks them, “Who do people say I am?” The responses are interesting: John the Baptist, Elijah, maybe one of the prophets of the Old Testament. But then Jesus asks, “And who do you say that I am?” That gets right down to it, doesn’t it? It doesn’t matter much what other folks think about Jesus, it’s really what me, as an individual, believe to be true about Him.
Peter gives a very good answer: “You are the Christ!” The “Christ” is the Messiah, the Anointed One of God, the long-promised Savior. Peter says, in effect, that while everybody else is willing to say that yes, Jesus is pretty amazing and all that, they are still blind about Jesus and who He really is. Peter says, “They may say you’re a man, but I say you are nothing less than the fulfillment of God’s promise to send a savior.” That’s pretty dang good. It’s clear that Peter’s not “blind” any more.
But what’s our question? “Does Peter see everything clearly?” Right after Peter says, “You are the Christ” Jesus begins to teach the disciples what it means to be the Christ. Mark 8:31, 31 “He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.”
Even though Peter claims to understand Jesus, it is clear he doesn’t, because he stands up and tries to rebuke Jesus. “No, Jesus . . . you don’t understand! You are the Christ! These things can’t happen to you!” Peter doesn’t see clearly. He can’t connect “Christ” and “cross,” because he doesn’t have the things of God in mind, but the things of men.
Chapter nine, verse two. Jesus takes three disciples—Peter, James, and John—to the top of a mountain. There they see an astounding sight. Jesus is revealed in His glory; He becomes blindingly white. And to top it off, two of the most prominent Old Testament prophets show up and began talking with Jesus. Again, Peter thinks he understands. This is what it means to be the Christ, to have great power and glory. And so he says, “Lord, let’s stay right here. We’ll build a couple-three shrines for you and Moses and Elijah and we’ll settle in. Your ministry can carry on right here.”
Does they see everything clearly? Peter wants to stop and stay on the mountaintop, stay where everything is good and free from pain and suffering . . . but the Transfiguration ends and Jesus leads them back down. And on the way He warns Peter, James, and John not to tell anyone until after He has risen from the dead. And in one of the most hilarious verses in the whole gospel, Mark tells us in verse ten that they keep the matter to themselves, discussing what “rising from the dead” meant!
I mean, really! “What does ‘rising from the dead’ mean?” Duhhhhh! “Gee, Jesus said that we should have pancakes for breakfast . . . I wonder what that means?” Well, what do you suppose it means! “Rising from the dead” means He’s . . . going . . . to . . . rise . . . from . . . the . . . dead! But see, it’s still something that they can’t wrap their minds around; they don’t see clearly. They can’t, not yet, because they don’t yet fully understand that “Christ” and “cross” are inseparable. But soon they will.
Chapter nine, verse thirty. Jesus has just cast a demon out from a child. It’s one of my favorite portions of Scripture, and so I’m kind of depressed that we don’t have time to talk about it, but it’s not really where I’m headed. Right after that display of Jesus’ power and authority, He is again alone with His disciples, and again teaches them that that, Mark 9:31 "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise."
Now, by this time you’d think they’d take Jesus at His word. You’d think they’d put their full trust in Him and believe. But can they? Do they see clearly? No . . . not yet. Mark 9:32 “32 But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.”
The second act of Mark concludes when we meet Bartimaeus. In chapter ten verse forty-six blind Bartimaeus is by the roadside where he sits, every day, making a living by begging. And finally, just like it was throughout the first act of Mark, there is again an entire crowd with Jesus. No more private teaching for just His disciples, the time has come for public revelation of Jesus’ ministry.
Bartimaeus probably overhears some people talking, and hears that it is none other than Jesus Himself coming down the road. And Bartimaeus shouts out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
“Son of David”—that’s a distinctly messianic title. It comes from 2 Samuel 7:11-13, when God Himself promised to King David, “'The LORD declares to you that the LORD himself will establish a house for you: 12 When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” For Bartimaeus to call Jesus the “Son of David” is to say exactly what Peter said in chapter eight: “You are the Christ. You are the promised one of God, who will reign forever. You are the savior.”
Now, understand this: Bartimaeus hasn’t been with Jesus for three years. He hasn’t had the benefit of being able to see Jesus in action, he hasn’t sat at Jesus’ feet and absorbed His teachings. But still he has the faith to say, “Jesus, you are my savior. I do not have anything to offer you, but take mercy upon me. Heal my blindness, take away my infirmities, and I will follow you wherever you go.”
Mark 10:50-52 51 "What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked him. The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see." 52 "Go," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.
The road to where? The very next verse shows that they went to Jerusalem, the place where all that Jesus has predicted about His suffering and death will come true. Bartimaeus can now see with his eyes, but it is the disciples who, in Jerusalem, will finally be able to “see” what it means that Jesus is the Christ. Like Bartimaeus, they will be able to see everything clearly.
We began in chapter eight by meeting a blind man whom chose to illustrate a point. By healing that blind man in two steps, taking him from blindness to a fuzzy, skewed eyesight to being able to see everything clearly, Jesus helps us to understand that we cannot “see” without Him. By teaching His disciples that to be the Christ meant that He must suffer, He shows us that to call Him Jesus Christ is to say that we understand that “Christ” and “cross” are two words we can never separate.
Do you see everything clearly? Do we have troubles in this life? Yes. But it is impossible to understand Christ unless we understand the cross. The cross—the bloody, ugly cross—the cross is the place where our sin and salvation meet. That is Jesus’ ministry; to take our sins away, to nail them to the cross, and to redeem us from a life of poor, partial spiritual sight into a living, fully restored sight focused solely upon Jesus, the Christ. Apart from Him and His cross, nothing will ever make sense, we will never be able to see clearly.
Jesus, Son of David . . . have mercy on us. We want to see.