Do you see ANYTHING?

 

Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Your law.  --Psalm 119:18

Have you ever participated in a Progressive Dinner?  Some may call it a Round Robin.  Another name for it might be Safari Supper, named for a children's TV dinner marketed in the United States by Libby's in 1970.  It is a dinner party with successive courses prepared and eaten at the residences of different hosts.  It can be a great way to introduce a new Pastor to the families of the church, or for the Pastor and several prominent families of the church to have new members get acquainted with them in a different way.  Ideally, the host families would live close together to cut down on travel time.  Presumably, it would allow people to mingle and meet different folks at each location, instead of sitting next to the same person for an entire meal.

A Progressive Dinner is less about the food than it is getting to know people more intimately.  When you see someone up close, and spend time with them over an appetizer, a main course, a dessert, or a coffee, you tend to see them in a different light.  When we see people for who they really are, our perceptions about them change, and our eyes are opened toward them--we can more clearly see their dreams, their desires, and their damage so that we can better meet their needs.

In our Bible study today, Mark opens up a new line of thinking about sight, because over the next two chapters it is apparent that the disciples are spiritually blind, unable to see what is right in front of their eyes.  I hope this becomes clearer to you as we go on.  For now, let's look at Mark 8:22-26.

And they came to Bethsaida.  And some people brought to Him a blind man and begged Him to touch him.  And He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when He had spit on his eyes and laid His hands on him, He asked him, "Do you see anything?"  And he looked up and said, "I see people, but they look like trees, walking."  Then Jesus laid His hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.  And He sent him to his home, saying, "Do not even enter the village."

This is the only account of a progressive healing in the Gospels, and it is only found in the book of Mark.  Why is it here, and what does it mean?  Was Jesus having an off day?  Was He unable to completely heal the man the first time?  Or was the man's faith too small?  I don't think any of that is true.  I do believe, however, that it is here for a reason, as God does not reveal anything in Scripture without a purpose.

Come away with Me

This passage ties in with the healing of the man both deaf and mute that we read about in Mark 7:31-37.  In both stories Jesus led the man away from the crowds by themselves.  I think this symbolizes God's dealings with His people throughout Scripture.  The man Abraham was called out and removed from the Chaldees in Genesis 12, so that He could show him great and mighty things, and make of him a new nation, called to be separate and apart.  God called Moses to lead the descendants of Abraham out of slavery and bondage in Egypt in Exodus 3 so that they would no longer be called slaves of Egypt but servants of the most high God.  In the New Testament, Jesus called the 12 disciples away from their homes and careers to focus on His teaching so that through them the entire world would know of Him.

The passage in Mark 8 also parallels the Mark 7 healing of the deaf mute in that Jesus spat at the man.  Whether there was an expelling of saliva or just a puff of air, it symbolizes and involves the very breath of God breathed on these men to deliver them from their sickness.  In this case, it took a second physical touch to seal the deal.  In the same way, Jesus did not waste His breath in teaching the disciples that he would be arrested and tried, be crucified, die and be buried, and three days later would rise from the dead.  Even though they did not understand when He told them (over and over again, as we will see as we study chapters 9 and 10 of Mark), we know that after His resurrection Jesus not only appeared to the disciples, but He touched them, and then their eyes were opened. (see Luke 24:45-49).

It clearly took a progression of events and words for the disciples to finally understand completely, but it all started when they were called to come away with Jesus.  Jesus' calling comes not in a crowd or multitude of people, but intimately, one-on-one, away from the noise of the World.  Only then can we begin to get to know Him.

Not an incomplete revelation, but an imperfect perception

I have always been terribly nearsighted.  Before I started school, when I was around age 4 or 5, my parents took me to an ophthalmologist who put me in glasses.  I remember going outside the optometrist's office after picking up my first pair, and exclaiming, "Look!  The trees have leaves!!"  My perception up to that point had been a blurry image of green supported by a blurry brown trunk.  I knew what leaves were because I had seen them up close before; but now, after being fitted with eyeglasses, I was able to discern each leafy shape from a distance.

When Jesus first spat on the man's eyes, He asked, "Do you see anything?"  The man did not say, "Yes, Lord, I see perfectly."  He knew from prior experience that what he was seeing was not clear--men do not look like trees that can walk.  Instead, he was honest with Jesus, admitting that he could only see shapes and vague outlines.  In our spiritual walk, we should always be willing to humbly admit that what we see may not bee what God sees.  We should not lord it over fellow believers whose spiritual vision may be more or less clear than our own.  Instead, we should do as the Bereans did in Acts 17:11, "they received the Word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were true."

We should not follow any spiritual leader with a "new vision from God" without first examining the Scripture daily to see if it is true.  Similarly, whenever we ourselves believe we have found a new spiritual insight, we should measure it against Scripture to verify it.  This is another reason we should heed Hebrews 10:24-25, "And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near."  Not everyone in your church's small group will be able to see at the same level of clarity, but as iron sharpens iron (Proverbs 27:17), we should be able to help each other discern spiritual truth.  If one of us believes that men look like trees, walking, we should remind ourselves (and them) that this is not indicative of clear sight, and that we should continue to sharpen our focus until that Day when we see Him face to face.

Do not go back

Jesus' final admonition to this man, after He had touched him for the second time and given him a clear vision, was not to go back to the village.  He was told to go home a different way, because he was a different man.  Where before he was known as a blind man, now he could see.  The crowd in the village may have still identified him as a blind man, and may have continued treating him with contempt, or pity, or ignorance.  Unaware of his life-changing experience, they may have continued to throw up roadblocks in his path.  They may have maliciously laughed at him if he stumbled, as that is the way of the world.

When we are called out of a life of sin, the last thing we should do is go back to that life, to those sins.  If we go back to old friends who engage in old habits, we tend to go back and identify with the old friends and take up the old habits out of which we were called, because we are not strong.  We should not follow the crowd, but go out a different way, blazing a new trail of holiness and obedience to Him.  We should find new friends on the new path, those with the same vision, and the same destination.  "Enter by the narrow gate.  For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter it are many.  For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few." (Matthew 7:13-14).  Happy is the man who finds one of the few on the narrow way, and makes a companion of him, for "though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him--a threefold cord is not quickly broken." (Lamentations 4:12).

This is the true meaning of progressive Christianity--not the theology of changing the meaning of Scripture to keep up with the times, but for each and every Christian to progress from blindness to perceiving and recognizing the Light, and then to follow that Light until all things come into focus.  Jesus calls us to participate in a Progressive Dinner, of sorts, until at last we dine with Him at the marriage supper of the Lamb.