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The Good News of Jesus

04/19/2009 - Enough!, Mark 8:22-26

This morning we come to a turning point in the gospel of Mark. If you have a Bible meet me at Mark 8:22. If Mark's gospel was a two volume set then today we'd be finishing up volume one. And so it's a good time for us to look back and see where we've been before we join Jesus on the long, steady climb that will take us up the mountain to Jerusalem and then finally up Skull Hill to the cross.

All along Jesus has been proclaiming the good news that the kingdom of God is near. That was his central message. In fact, the very first words out of his mouth recorded in Mark 1:15 are, "The time has come. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!"

It was the same message that John the Baptist had been proclaiming before Jesus arrived on the scene. And in Luke 3 when the people asked John what they should repent of he said, "Greed and injustice. If any body has two shirts he should share one with those who don't have any shirt to wear. And if anyone has extra food he should do the same."

To the tax collectors he said, "Stop ripping people off! Don't collect anymore taxes than you should." To the soldiers he said, "Stop intimidating people. Don't extort money and falsely accuse them. And be content with your pay."

Greed and injustice are what the people needed to repent of when Jesus came. And not a whole lot has changed in 2,000 years. Greed and injustice are still things that we need to repent of. God wants us to open our eyes and open mouths and open our wallets to help the poor and the oppressed in our midst.

Greed is what we need to repent of as a nation. It's been a huge factor in the collapse of our economy. And it's easy for us to point fingers at the greedy CEO's and the hefty bonuses and the mismanaged corporations we hear about on the news. But we all have to examine our hearts when it comes to how we view our money and how we steward our resources and how generous we're going to be to those in need.

This week I read some portions of John Bogle's new book called Enough. True Measures of Money, Business, and Life. Some of you know the name John Bogle, some of you may have worked for him. He's the founder and former CEO of Vanguard. And he's very concerned about the greed that drives this country which I found interesting coming from the founder of one of our nation's most successful investment firms.

At one point he says, "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." I love that. That's actually a quote from Neil Postman. "It's easy to fall into the trap of measuring our lives by the accumulation of material things. What you have may come and go, but who you are, your character, that will endure."

In the introduction to his book he tells the story of a party that was given by a billionaire on a place called Shelter Island. And the legendary author Kurt Vonnegut was there along with his friend Joseph Heller who wrote the best selling book Catch 22. And at one point Vonnegut turned to his friend and said, "This guy makes more money in one day than you've made your whole life off the royalties from your book." And Heller said, "Yes that's true. But I have something he will never have … enough."

Enough. Somewhere along the line we all have to decide what is enough? "Be content with your pay." That's what John the Baptist told those who wanted to know how to repent. And when we're content with what we have we have more than the richest person in world who isn't because we have enough.

So Jesus came proclaiming that same message, announcing the same good news of the kingdom, the kingdom that Israel had been waiting for and hoping for and praying for for almost a thousand years. They longed for the good old days when Israel ruled the world under the reign of King David and then King Solomon, the days when they, not the Romans, were the superpower on this planet. That was the Messianic hope to bring Israel back to world prominence again.

But they were going to need to repent and change not only their behavior, but their ideas of what that kingdom was all about. Israel had a very well defined image of what the kingdom of God was supposed to look like. And they had a profile of what the Messiah was supposed to look like too.

And much of that idea is recorded in the Apocrypha books, the "hidden books," that were written after the Old Testament was completed and before the New Testament was begun, during the 400 years before Jesus. The Apocrypha books are not considered to be inspired by God the same way the Scriptures are, but they do contain a lot of good historical information and they help us understand the mindset of the people of Israel when Jesus came.

The Messiah which means "anointed one" would be a king because kings were anointed with oil. He would be a descendant of King David, a great, super-human figure who would crash into history and remake the world in such a way that would vindicate God's people. All the wrongs that had been done to the Jewish people over the centuries would be made right. Messiah would be the hero of God's great story, the superman that Israel had been waiting for.

And when Messiah came the nations, the Gentiles, would align themselves together to attack him. There would be a showdown and the nations of the world would join forces and try to destroy this champion of God in one great bloody battle.

But instead of destroying the Messiah, Messiah would destroy them. In fact, he would be the most destructive conqueror in all of history, smashing his enemies in to complete oblivion.

And after doing that he would purify and complete renovate the city of Jerusalem and make it his capital. And Jewish people would come back to Palestine from all over the world to be gathered into that new Jerusalem. Palestine would be the center of the world and all the nations would be subject to Messiah.

And finally there would come a new age of peace and prosperity and goodness that would last forever. Even dead Israelites would be raised up from the dead to share in this brand new world. That was the image of the kingdom of God that the people had when Jesus came. That was the profile of the Messiah that they were waiting for.

William Barclay in his commentary has this to say, "It was a grim picture. Israel would rejoice to see her enemies destroyed and in hell. These are the Messianic ideas that were in the minds of people when Jesus came. They were violent, nationalistic, destructive, vengeful. True, they ended in the perfect reign of God, but they came to it through a bath of blood and a career of conquest. Now think of Jesus set against a background like that. No wonder he had to re-educate his disciples in the meaning of Messiahship. And no wonder they crucified him in the end as a heretic. There was no room for a cross in their view of the kingdom and there was little room for suffering love in a picture like that."

That's what Jesus was up against. That's why in spite of his miracles it was hard for the Jewish people to buy in to him being the Messiah. He just didn't fit the profile. Instead of coming to destroy his enemies he kept saying things like, "Love your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who persecute you. If you're forced to carry a Roman backpack one mile, carry it two. If you're slapped on the right cheek, offer the left one as well." That doesn't sound like a Messiah looking for a showdown!

That's why the Jewish people got so angry when Jesus reached out in love to Gentiles and when he touched them and healed them and fed them and drove demons out of them. They were the people that Messiah was supposed to crush. And he's telling us to love them?

But Jesus didn't see a distinction between Jew and Gentile because his kingdom was not going to be just a Jewish kingdom. That wouldn't be big enough. His kingdom was going to be open to anybody and everybody, Jew and Gentiles like most of us. That's been God's dream all along.

"It's the song of the redeemed rising from the African plain. It's the song of the forgiven drowning out the Amazon rain. It's the song of Asian believers filled with God's holy fire. It's every tribe, every tongue, every nation singing glory, glory hallelujah he reigns." All are included in God's kingdom.

And so Jesus was out to erase the age old distinctions that had kept Jews and Gentiles separate for centuries. He said, "It's not about the menu anymore. It's not about what you eat that makes you clean or unclean. It's not about what goes into your stomach. It's about what comes out of your heart. That's what defiles you." And in saying that Jesus declared all foods clean.

And that's when he knew he better get out of town. And so he left Israel and went right into Gentile territory in the region of Tyre and Sidon. That's where he healed the Canaanite woman and was so impressed by her faith. And scholars think he spent months up there just hanging out with the Twelve getting ready for the final few months of his life, the final push to Jerusalem and the cross.

And when he returned he came back to the area called Decapolis, which means "Ten Cities." And as Matt taught us a few weeks ago, there he fed four thousand Gentiles this time and then he warned his disciples about the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.

Leaven stood for these false ideas of the kingdom that were being promoted by Herod and by the Pharisees. They were ideas completely in conflict with Jesus' view of the kingdom. The leaven of Herod was the view that the kingdom was going to come by power and by might. And the leaven of the Pharisees was the belief that the kingdom would only be open to the best and to the brightest Jewish people like them. And so Jesus says to the Twelve, "Be on your guard against these false views of the kingdom. It's not like that." Time was running out and Jesus was hoping and praying that would get it before it was too late. But this was a huge shift for them in their understanding of Messiah and his coming kingdom.

And so he leaves the Decapolis and gets into a boat and lands at Bethsaida, "Fishtown," literally "the house of fish," where three of the disciples were from, Philip, Peter and his brother Andrew. And there Jesus does a very symbolic miracle that I think relates to everything we just talked about.

Look at Mark 8:22, They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.

Healing the blind was the most common miracle that Jesus performed, probably because blindness was so common in the Middle East at that time. The intensity of the sun, the lack of hygiene and medical treatment made eye disease very common back then as it still is today in underdeveloped countries. And so there were a lot of blind men and women and children too. So this blind man is brought to Jesus and they beg him to touch him.

Look at verse 23, So he took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village.

I love that image. That would make a great picture. Jesus gently taking this man's hand and slowly walking him out of the village saying, "Come on. You'll be alright. Watch your step. Over here. Follow me. I want to get you away from all these people."

And then Jesus spits again. That would be a good picture too! Only this time he doesn't spit on the ground like he did when he healed the man who was deaf mute. This time he spits on the man's eyes and he doesn't even have a chance to duck. Never saw it coming! In that culture saliva was believed to have healing power. And so Jesus uses a substance the man would understand.

Look again at verse 23, When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, "Do you see anything?" ²⁴He looked up and said, "I see people; they look like trees walking around." ²⁵Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.

This is the only miracle that Jesus ever did in stages. It's like it didn't take the first time. He spits on the man's eyes and puts his hand on him and asks if he can see anything. And the man says he can. But he can't see clearly. He sees people, but they look like trees walking around. That's probably what some of us see when we take off our glasses. "What's that tree up there on the stage?!" Everything is blurry.

But then Jesus puts his hands on the man's eyes and they're fully opened and his vision is 20/20 and he can see everything clearly. That's how I felt when I had laser surgery on my eyes a few years ago. I couldn't believe it! The closest thing to a medical miracle I've ever experienced.

And he can't believe it either. And the first thing he sees is not an eye chart and with a big E on it. The first thing he sees is the face of Jesus smiling, maybe even laughing at his response. And he'll remember that the rest of his life. The first person I saw was Jesus which is probably why Jesus took him away from the crowd so he could just focus on him. But then he sends him home and tells him not to go back into town.

Look at verse 26, Jesus sent him home, saying, "Don't even go into the village."

It's another wonderful miracle of Jesus healing power that shows his tenderness and compassion like we've come to expect and like we've seen so many times before. But it's a symbolic miracle too because it is done in stages. And I think it's intended to reflect the gradual opening of the disciple's eyes to the truth about who Jesus is and what Jesus came to do. They've been blind to it, but now their eyes are starting to open and this is a turning point in Mark's gospel.

The blind man who gradually receives his sight and the disciples who gradually receive their insight are put together back to back in the gospel of Mark. And just like Jesus takes the blind man away from the village to make things clear to him so in the very next passage Jesus is going to take the disciples away from the crowds to make things clear to them. The blind man sees people, but they look like trees walking around. The crowds see Jesus, but they really don't see who he is. He's blurry to them. But next week, with a second touch, he's going to open the eyes of the disciples and at least for a brief moment they're going to have 20/20 vision when it comes to seeing who Jesus really is. And he's going to say to them what he said to this blind man. "Keep this between us. Don't tell anyone" because Jesus knows that it's already reached a point where his identity has become a matter of life and death.

But I think this miracle is symbolic for another reason too. It reminds us that our faith journey is a process and transformation is a process and God is gradually opening our eyes to the things in our lives that he wants to change, that he wants to work on, areas where we have to repent and get on board with his kingdom agenda. That's the process of discipleship or spiritual growth or walking with Jesus or whatever image you want to put on it. And it doesn't end it just keeps going if we are allowing the Spirit room to work in our lives.

And just like Jesus was patient with the disciples he's patient with us. And just like Jesus got frustrated with the disciples there are times I'm sure that he gets frustrated with us. But he won't give up. And in the end he accomplished his good work in each of his disciples. And as we saw last week each one of them, except for Judas, was willing to die for Messiah at the end of their lives. They weren't willing to kill for him, but they were willing to die for him and all but the apostle John did.

So take heart. God is at work in you and God is at work in me. And he's in it for the long haul. I love how the apostle Paul puts it when he writes these words in Philippians 1:6, Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Agreed!

FOR MORE INFORMATION about Valley View Community Church, feel free to contact us at info@valleyviewseek.org or call 610.631.2707.