Bethsaida Mark 8:22-26
Continuing our journey through Mark this morning we see the Holy Spirit placed this account of restoring a man’s eyesight right after Jesus discusses a spiritual truth using the example of yeast in bread. Last week we heard how followers of Jesus need to beware of those things and people that interfere with our faith, if we don’t false beliefs can affect the entirety of our faith just as yeast affects the whole dough.
Today’s reading continues this lesson at the beginning and then tells us about what to avoid once you accept Jesus as your savior. “They came to Bethsaida and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to heal him.” (Mark 8:22)
We know God sends the Holy Spirit into the world to lead people to the truth but we also know each person has the freedom to chose to accept the truth of Jesus or not to. All this is true however we are not a solitary tree blowing in the wind. We are part of the great whole of creation. We pray to God. We pray for healing, for peace, for strength. And each week we petition God to continue to save the lost. We may pray for God to lead a loved on to Christ. We do this out of love and concern for their eternal soul. Never shortchange the power of your prayers.
These people brought a blind man to Jesus because Jesus is his only hope of healing. We pray God leads others to Christ because we know Christ is their only hope of salvation. Verse 23, “He took the blind man by the hand…” This man listened to the others and allowed himself to be brought to Jesus. When we talk to others about Christ it is their choice to listen or not but if they do listen and they do allow you to introduce them to Christ, Jesus will reach out and touch their lives just as he reached out and took the blind man’s hand.
Again verse 23, “He reached out and took the blind man’s hand and led him outside the village.” Why leave the village? What can this show us?
Bethsaida is the birthplace of the disciples Peter, Phillip, and Andrew. It was a place of several of Jesus miracles, and yet the people didn’t turn to God. Jesus says in Matthew 11:231, “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 in sackcloth and ashes.” Bethsaida represents those who have heard the Gospel, those who understood God’s plan of salvation, and then reject it.
This one verse, Mark 8:23 shows us two things. This man’s encounter with Jesus changed his life in a dramatic way. For us to have Jesus’ miracle of salvation affect our lives in a dramatic way we must leave behind our Bethsaida. We must walk with Jesus away from those people, those habits, those contradictory beliefs that would blind us to Jesus truth. We must avoid people who try to tell us our faith is silly and a waste of time. We must try to stop those habits that come between us and God. We may have the habit of going out on Saturday night and then sleeping in on Sunday morning. We need to change that to the habit of adjusting our schedules so we attend church. We must stop infusing Christianity with other belief systems that water it down or those that tell us we just have to try to live a good life and don’t need Jesus at all.
Second, this man came to see Jesus as his healer and he was led away from Bethsaida by him. None of us are going to be able to avoid all the trappings of life that can interfere with our faith, but when we acknowledge who Jesus is and we commit to being his follower he will lead you away from those trappings. This may not happen overnight but as you mature in faith you will find you naturally avoid those people, places and things that come between you and God.
I have a question for you, how do you tell if someone is a Christian or not? If you’re having a casual conversation you may never know. So what if you just ask them? They may say yes, they may say no.
After Jesus works on this man’s eyes he asks him if he sees anything; verse 24, “He looked up and said, ‘I see people; they look like trees walking around.’” Jesus is working in this man’s life, restoring his sight and it’s still hard for him to distinguish men from trees. When we choose Christ he starts working in our life. Rather than sight he restores our relationship with God the Father. But this man shows us that we may still have difficulty distinguishing correct doctrine from false doctrine or godly people from others. The hardest can be when people present themselves as knowledgeable in God when they really have another agenda. Several weeks ago I mentioned the minister who said he would pray for you to receive a thousand miracles, all you had to do was send him a thousand dollars. Another minister told his congregation God wanted him to have a private jet and they should send him money for it and he would pray for them. People sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to them.
If a minister wants you to pay for him to pray for you; walk away. If I ask you for anything it will be to support our church and work not to buy me a car or a plane. Ministers have the same fallibilities as anyone else, we’re not perfect; but our motivations should be examined and scrutinized. Mark 9:42, “But whoever causes one who believes in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone around his neck and to be drowned in the sea.” This is a warning as to the kind of punishment a teacher of the Word will receive if he leads people to false belief or sinful behavior. I take this warning very seriously.
In our scripture Jesus works on this man’s eyes a second time. Verse 25, “Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.” When we follow Jesus, especially in the beginning; we can be discouraged by all the contradictory information that comes our way. If you drink alcohol you’re not following Jesus, you can drink but keep it in moderation; baptism as a child, baptism as an adult; there are almost as many interpretations of scriptures as there are people reading them.
I pray every time I sit down to work on a message; I ask God to lead me. I have come to believe that if you keep to your faith, if you ask for the Holy Spirit to teach you, if you look to scripture and I don’t mean to find a part of a verse that confirms a preconceived belief, but read the entire scripture and then what comes before and after it to understand what it’s true meaning is; if you keep Jesus at the center of your life, then like Jesus kept working on this man’s eyes, Jesus will continue to work in your life. Like Jesus restored this man’s sight and he saw things clearly, Jesus will work in you to open your eyes so you will see things clearly. You will understand scripture and you will see God in your life.
So, we have Jesus restore this man’s sight. And then Jesus tells him something that seems odd; Verse 26, “Jesus sent him home saying ‘Don’t even go into the village.’” This man can now see, the village is where his friends are, it’s where the shops are, it’s the commerce center of the entire area; Why not go there? What’s behind this? It has to do with what Bethsaida represents, unrepentant sin.
This man was changed by Jesus physically but such a healing as this must also change one spiritually. Going into Bethsaida would not remove his restored sight but it may very well have reduced the spiritual impact of his meeting with Jesus. When we accept Jesus we are blessed with salvation. This is no trivial thing. Jesus warns us about not continuing in associating with people, places, activities and habits that come between us and God. Like the man would not lose his sight we would not lose our salvation. But like this man would lose the impact of his meeting with Jesus, by not avoiding situations that are sinful for us we miss the full blessing God wants to give us. We can lose how immense the miracle of our salvation is to us. Jesus doesn’t just want you to gain salvation he wants you to feel all the joy and amazement of that miracle in your life.
Today I want to say again how much I love going through scripture. Today’s scripture recounts Jesus restoring a man’s sight. That by itself is a miracle that should be told about. But buried beneath this short encounter are layers of meaning to be unpacked.
This short encounter shows us that our prayers are powerful. It shows us that opportunities to know Christ are presented to each of us and it’s up to us to decide if we will accept Jesus or not. We see that in order to fully follow Jesus we must work at leaving people, places and habits that interfere with our faith. We must be diligent, it may not always to be easy to tell the difference between a true person of God with God as their motivation and one with their own agenda. It may not always be easy to tell the difference between good doctrine and bad but when in doubt go to the source, the Bible. And when you do, read more than one scripture verse or a piece of a verse, read enough to see the meaning that is there.
Stay with Jesus, stay in faith and things will become easier as you mature in faith. And last, when you commit to Christ work at avoiding habits, places and people that will pull you away from God. By doing this you will see the depth of the miracle of forgiveness and salvation in your life. By doing this you will enjoy the fullness of God’s blessings.
1 Timothy 6:20, “…guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge…(God’s ) grace be with you all.”
Amen