Jesus develops the perception of His disciples Mark 8vv1-30
In the study of Mark's gospel we bear in mind that he was a failed servant now writing about a Perfect Servant and he possibly sees the training of the disciples by Jesus as an indication of why he failed. He presents his material in a very ordered and deliberate way such that we can grasp the need for the gradual development of our spiritual understanding. If in chapter 7 he presented the healing of the deaf mute to illustrate the hardness of hearing both in the nation and in the disciples, here now in chapter 8 he presents the healing of the blind man to illustrate their dimness of perception. It becomes clear in the gospel records that not only are the disciples of Christ being prepared for service on earth, they are being readied for service in the great future kingdom. For us lesser servants to follow in the footsteps of the Perfect Servant it is necessary to slowly but surely take in all His ways. The verses can be summarised in the following way:
- In verses 1 - 9 we have dimness of perception.
- In verses 10 - 21 we have wrong perception.
- In verses 22 - 26 we have gradual perception.
- In verses 27 - 30 we have fullness of perception.
In training these apostles for future service, Jesus uses repetition because of how dim we human beings are in spiritual matters. He repeats the miracle of the feeding of thousands; He crosses again the sea of Galilee; He confronts again the unbelieving Pharisees; He performs another miracle of healing; and He moves His disciples from Galilee to the Gentile region of Caesarea Philippi. A survey of all these actions and journeys is simply repetition of what has been experienced before, yet now he wishes to take them onto a higher plain. This could be seen as the disciples higher education. One thing is outstanding is His patience and determination to educate them fully, the Divine teacher demonstrating by word and deed the things of God. Now seated in the glory of heaven our Lord is still patiently and expertly leading His people as stated in Ephesians 1vv17-18 "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that ye may know......"
The dimness of the disciples perception in the feeding of the multitude verses 1-9. It is surprising how soon the disciples missed the impact of the feeding of the 5000 in chapter 6, yet in reality it is recorded that only a few hours later "they considered not the miracles of the loaves and fishes, for their heart was hardened." We only need ask ourselves when faced with a new situation how soon we forget the wonders our God has performed in the past. The dimness of our perception is staggering because we are in the main earthbound. Here is a perfect example of the insensitivity of the human mind to the things of God. A very great multitude were following Jesus, even to the exclusion of eating food! (When last did people go without food to seek spiritual and bodily healing?). Many had come from far and had little chance of finding food quickly. Jesus said "I have compassion on the multitude...." always thinking of the needs of others. Despite all they had witnessed before, the disciples were still seeing the situation from a purely earthly point of view. If we are honest that is just the same with us, yet when we see this recorded on the page of holy scripture we are truly surprised and that is because we are as spiritually dim as they! The disciples, when faced with a new situation reacted with the same unbelief as before and the Lord , graciously, instructed them in the way of faith. He simply asked the what they had....He will use what we have. The lack of our resources is no barrier to Him working, He needs not our resources, only our faith. Previously He fed 5000 with five loaves and two fishes. Now He feeds 4000 with seven loaves and a few fishes. The lesson is clear, His ability to provide is independent of the level of our contribution! Less produced more, more produced less, but always enough to meet the need. He takes our little and multiplies it; our little in His hand can achieve great things.
The wrong perception of both believers and unbelievers alike verses 10-21. This is in two parts, the sceptical error of the Pharisees, and the misunderstanding of the disciples. The disciples were just ordinary people who had been reared to venerate the Pharisees and Jesus had to adjust their thinking. The Pharisees who enjoyed a reputation of godliness in Israel saw Jesus as a threat to their perceived position in society. In typical style of elitist charlatans they ignored the evidence of their own ears and eyes, demanding of Jesus a sign, questioning His authority. The two sections of these verses end with a somewhat frustrated question by Jesus as He sighed in His spirit at the hardness of the human heart: verses 11-13 "Why doth this generation seek after a sign?" and verses 14-21 of His disciples "How is it that ye don't understand?" Why would anyone require any more evidence of who He was.....in the words of the song by Mark Lowry...."the blind see, the deaf hear, the dead live again; the lame leap, the dumb speak the praises of the Lamb. Mary did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?....did you know that your baby boy will one day rule the nations?....did you know that He is heaven's perfect Lamb, that the child who sleeps within your arms is the great I AM?" The Pharisees didn't know, neither yet did His disciples....do we??
He sounds a warning to His disciples "Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod." Leaven in holy scripture almost always denotes evil, the puffing up of the human mind out of touch with God. Certainly in this context Jesus is warning His followers not to allow even a small amount to pervade their thinking because it has the nature of corrupting the whole. He refers in Matthew 16v6 to the leaven of the Sadducees... what do these things mean for us today?
The Pharisees were the fundamentalists and their error was hypocrisy. They bound heavy burdens on others but did not practice them. The Sadducees were the liberals and their error was false doctrine, they did not believe in the afterlife or unseen spirits whether angel or demon (Acts 23v8). The Herodians were followers of Herod whose doctrine was pragmatism, achieving power by political means, essentially compromising right for gain. The Pharisees added to God's word, the Sadducees took away from God's word, the Herodians disregarded God's word. Theses were three very powerful sects in Israel and Jesus warned that their teaching and their ways were leaven, corrupt, with a corrupting influence on true spiritual life. We have all three shades with us today masquerading as teachers of good things and it takes true spiritual perception to distinguish between truth and error. What Jesus is teaching His disciples here is that He and He alone is the truth and He has amply demonstrated this in mighty power if only they could perceive it.
The gradual perception of the blind man verses22-26 There is no indication here that the disciples were present at the healing of the blind man, but for sure they knew about it and the lesson is clear. Jesus could have healed the man's sight immediately, as he did elsewhere, but He is illustrating to men with dim spiritual vision that sometimes full vision only comes gradually. The scene is in Bethsaida, a place upon which Jesus has proclaimed a curse for their faithlessness (Matthew 11vv20-22). He separates the blind man from the city, leading him out of it. Because God has condemned a city doesn't mean individuals there cannot have faith. Those who asked Jesus did as well as the blind man. He used spittle to soften the eyelids and laid His hands on him. He asked him if he saw anything...here we have personal contact between the Lord and the needy man. He said he saw men as trees walking, so this man had seen before, and had become blind, we know not for how long. Jesus touched him again and made him look up and he was restored to full sight and saw clearly. What was it that restored his full sight?....it was faith in Jesus word and looking up to Him. This is true today, that only faith in Jesus word and looking up to Him will fully open our eyes. The man was forbidden to go into the town to tell them for Jesus had pronounced the curse. He will not force Himself on those who do not want Him. The bible describes the spiritual condition of people as blind, or more accurately blinded (2 Corinthians 4v4). There are situations where even professing believers are said to be blind (2 Peter 1v9). The only answer to this blindness is Christ who is the light of the world and who can dispel all darkness. If we are to see clearly whether in initial opening of our eyes, or the increasing of spiritual perception He is the only answer and He alone can turn our night to day, can bring us from darkness to light just as He did in the original creation, (2 Corinthians 4v6).
Fulness of perception verses 27-30 He removes the group from Bethsaida and comes to Caesarea Philippi, a city largely occupied by the Roman army. Situated some twenty five miles north of the sea of Galilee at the foot of Mount Hermon it became a place of great significance in early church history. There is the now famous confession of Peter that Jesus was the Messiah; The prediction of the church was first made; the transfiguration of Christ took place; and the Apostle Paul was first held captive pending his appeal to Rome. It is here that the full perception of who He was first dawned upon the disciples. Removed briefly from the toxic air of religious Israel He asked them who they thought He was. He did this by asking who men thought He was. It was a fair question because miraculous things had happened which demanded an opinion. The answer was varied, most acknowledging Him as a prophet, but the full blaze glory of His person finally dawned on these worshippers...there was in the face of all the facts only one possibility, Peter the spokesman said "Thou art the Christ" the long promised anointed of God, no less than the One in whom all the promises would be fulfilled... "the coming One" now come standing before them, living out the reality of the Divine emissary. These humble fishermen now knew more than the elite of Israel and had the key of knowledge to all the future of mankind. They still had much to learn but what they saw that day was greater than even any of the prophets (apart from John the Baptist ) understood. Slowly but surely they had come to know that their leader was none less than "the seed of the woman" who would bruise the serpent's head. It was not His wish for this to be publicised for this realisation must come through the exercise of faith and not by public clamour. Such precious Divine revelations are not for everyone, only for those ready to receive it. These chapters are full of instances where Jesus discouraged public awareness of who He was (chapter 7v36; chapter 8v26, and now chapter8v30.) That perception would only grow as it can with us.... thus Peter enjoins us in his second epistle chapter 3v18 "Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."
The wrong perception of both believers and unbelievers alike verses 10-21. This is in two parts, the sceptical error of the Pharisees, and the misunderstanding of the disciples. The disciples were just ordinary people who had been reared to venerate the Pharisees and Jesus had to adjust their thinking. The Pharisees who enjoyed a reputation of godliness in Israel saw Jesus as a threat to their perceived position in society. In typical style of elitist charlatans they ignored the evidence of their own ears and eyes, demanding of Jesus a sign, questioning His authority. The two sections of these verses end with a somewhat frustrated question by Jesus as He sighed in His spirit at the hardness of the human heart: verses 11-13 "Why doth this generation seek after a sign?" and verses 14-21 of His disciples "How is it that ye don't understand?" Why would anyone require any more evidence of who He was.....in the words of the song by Mark Lowry...."the blind see, the deaf hear, the dead live again; the lame leap, the dumb speak the praises of the Lamb. Mary did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?....did you know that your baby boy will one day rule the nations?....did you know that He is heaven's perfect Lamb, that the child who sleeps within your arms is the great I AM?" The Pharisees didn't know, neither yet did His disciples....do we??
He sounds a warning to His disciples "Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod." Leaven in holy scripture almost always denotes evil, the puffing up of the human mind out of touch with God. Certainly in this context Jesus is warning His followers not to allow even a small amount to pervade their thinking because it has the nature of corrupting the whole. He refers in Matthew 16v6 to the leaven of the Sadducees... what do these things mean for us today?
The Pharisees were the fundamentalists and their error was hypocrisy. They bound heavy burdens on others but did not practice them. The Sadducees were the liberals and their error was false doctrine, they did not believe in the afterlife or unseen spirits whether angel or demon (Acts 23v8). The Herodians were followers of Herod whose doctrine was pragmatism, achieving power by political means, essentially compromising right for gain. The Pharisees added to God's word, the Sadducees took away from God's word, the Herodians disregarded God's word. Theses were three very powerful sects in Israel and Jesus warned that their teaching and their ways were leaven, corrupt, with a corrupting influence on true spiritual life. We have all three shades with us today masquerading as teachers of good things and it takes true spiritual perception to distinguish between truth and error. What Jesus is teaching His disciples here is that He and He alone is the truth and He has amply demonstrated this in mighty power if only they could perceive it.
The gradual perception of the blind man verses22-26 There is no indication here that the disciples were present at the healing of the blind man, but for sure they knew about it and the lesson is clear. Jesus could have healed the man's sight immediately, as he did elsewhere, but He is illustrating to men with dim spiritual vision that sometimes full vision only comes gradually. The scene is in Bethsaida, a place upon which Jesus has proclaimed a curse for their faithlessness (Matthew 11vv20-22). He separates the blind man from the city, leading him out of it. Because God has condemned a city doesn't mean individuals there cannot have faith. Those who asked Jesus did as well as the blind man. He used spittle to soften the eyelids and laid His hands on him. He asked him if he saw anything...here we have personal contact between the Lord and the needy man. He said he saw men as trees walking, so this man had seen before, and had become blind, we know not for how long. Jesus touched him again and made him look up and he was restored to full sight and saw clearly. What was it that restored his full sight?....it was faith in Jesus word and looking up to Him. This is true today, that only faith in Jesus word and looking up to Him will fully open our eyes. The man was forbidden to go into the town to tell them for Jesus had pronounced the curse. He will not force Himself on those who do not want Him. The bible describes the spiritual condition of people as blind, or more accurately blinded (2 Corinthians 4v4). There are situations where even professing believers are said to be blind (2 Peter 1v9). The only answer to this blindness is Christ who is the light of the world and who can dispel all darkness. If we are to see clearly whether in initial opening of our eyes, or the increasing of spiritual perception He is the only answer and He alone can turn our night to day, can bring us from darkness to light just as He did in the original creation, (2 Corinthians 4v6).
Fulness of perception verses 27-30 He removes the group from Bethsaida and comes to Caesarea Philippi, a city largely occupied by the Roman army. Situated some twenty five miles north of the sea of Galilee at the foot of Mount Hermon it became a place of great significance in early church history. There is the now famous confession of Peter that Jesus was the Messiah; The prediction of the church was first made; the transfiguration of Christ took place; and the Apostle Paul was first held captive pending his appeal to Rome. It is here that the full perception of who He was first dawned upon the disciples. Removed briefly from the toxic air of religious Israel He asked them who they thought He was. He did this by asking who men thought He was. It was a fair question because miraculous things had happened which demanded an opinion. The answer was varied, most acknowledging Him as a prophet, but the full blaze glory of His person finally dawned on these worshippers...there was in the face of all the facts only one possibility, Peter the spokesman said "Thou art the Christ" the long promised anointed of God, no less than the One in whom all the promises would be fulfilled... "the coming One" now come standing before them, living out the reality of the Divine emissary. These humble fishermen now knew more than the elite of Israel and had the key of knowledge to all the future of mankind. They still had much to learn but what they saw that day was greater than even any of the prophets (apart from John the Baptist ) understood. Slowly but surely they had come to know that their leader was none less than "the seed of the woman" who would bruise the serpent's head. It was not His wish for this to be publicised for this realisation must come through the exercise of faith and not by public clamour. Such precious Divine revelations are not for everyone, only for those ready to receive it. These chapters are full of instances where Jesus discouraged public awareness of who He was (chapter 7v36; chapter 8v26, and now chapter8v30.) That perception would only grow as it can with us.... thus Peter enjoins us in his second epistle chapter 3v18 "Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."
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