Mark 2

Have you ever thought about what it would be like to be blind? Could you imagine what it would be like doing ordinary, day-to-day activities, perhaps relying on other people.

There was a lady called Helen Keller who was born in 1880 in Alabama in U.S.A. At 18 months old, following an illness, she lost not just her sight but her hearing as well. Imagine living your whole life with these disabilities. However, despite all of this she became a best-selling author and a great example of courage and achievement in the face of adversity. On one occasion she said these words, “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”

As an individual or as a church we must take care not to have sight (physical sight) but no vision. You may be saying what does that mean to have vision? To have spiritual vision is different to mission. Mission is the over-arching goal in a church or as an individual which, to me, is simply said by Matthew 28, which is Jesus’ commission to us, “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

That is our Mission. However, our spiritual vision is our roadmap of what we are doing as a church or as an individual to reach that Goal. Let me put it this way. If you were on a football team and you all had the goal of winning the game (mission) that would be great. But if the coach didn’t tell you that you had to score any goals or what net you had to kick the ball towards and for all the team to work together to reach that goal then you would never, as a team, get anywhere near winning.

This is what Helen Keller is saying, you can have that mission, and everyone knows what that is. But without that vision and clear roadmap as a church to get there, it is worse than being blind. Otherwise, we will go all in different directions and not end up getting to the end goal which is to spread the gospel to all people. It is also spiritual Vision to have faith and listen to Jesus, to be able to allow Him to guide you in what He wants from you as a church or as an individual.

There are many ways in which that vision can be enacted in a church or as an individual. We need God’s help and guidance to know what the vision is through prayer and the Holy Spirit. By listening to this we can find out what this vision is for all of us.

In the passage we just read from Mark 8, Jesus talks to His Disciples and warns them to watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. Leaven is not merely yeast but a small amount of dough left over from a previous batch of bread which can be added to make new bread. Today, many people still use this way of baking bread, called sourdough starters. This is how bread was leavened in the ancient world, a small lump from the old batch could make a new lump of dough rise and puff up. The work of the leaven in the bread was considered as an illustration of pride and ultimately sin. The presence of a little of the old can corrupt the larger amount of the new.

Take heed, we are in the world but not of the world. A little amount of corruption can affect much, Jesus is warning against this in this passage. These verses are implying that Jesus’ disciples, as well as us, are at risk of the same defiling attitudes that have led the Pharisees and Herod astray. Jesus warns the disciples of this, but they are so caught up on other things they ignore Jesus’ warning.

Mark Chapter 8 verse 17 speaks of the blindness of the Disciples. Jesus asks why they are concentrating on the physical bread and tells them that they have ‘eyes but fail to see and ears but fail to hear’. They were beside Him when He fed the 4,000 and had all that food left over. However, they forgot so quickly and didn’t think to put their trust in the Lord Jesus for all their needs, which He can supply in abundance. Are we sometimes like the disciples, so caught up in day to day things that we don’t take notice of Jesus and what He says?

Jesus says to his disciples in verse 17 ‘Do you not yet perceive or understand?’ He rebukes them as He knew they had the capacity to understand but they hadn’t applied themselves. They were following but not growing. We need to make sure that we are growing in Jesus, not just merely attending on a Sunday. We need to fix our eyes on Him and apply ourselves to grow in grace.

2 Peter 3:18 says, “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” The disciples couldn’t apply what Jesus was saying spiritually; they only thought about their stomachs. We have all been there. They thought about bread for the stomach not bread for the soul.

But if we did listen and see what He wants us to do, then we can fulfil that. It’s an attitude that we must learn to master. If we listen to Jesus, we can find out exactly what He wants from us as individuals and as a church.

The second verse of the hymn Be Thou My Vision, reads:
‘I ever with thee, and thou with me, Lord;
thou my great Father, and I thy true son;
thou in me dwelling, and I with thee one.’

If we have God with us and dwelling within us, God will guide us on the path He has set out for us for now and evermore.

In Mark Chapter 2, where Jesus heals the Paralytic, I wonder if you noticed the 4 characters? They all had different reactions to Jesus and this miracle.

These Characters were:

1. Teachers of the Law – thinking Jesus is blaspheming. How can he do that? Forgive Sins? He’s not God! (6-7)
2. Crowd – Amazed! Never seen anything like this! Praised God (12b)
3. 4 Friends – Had a huge faith – They Stopped at nothing to get their friend to Jesus. (4)
4. Paralysed Man – Got up and walked! (12a)

As we look deeper into this passage, let me ask 2 questions:

1. How did each character respond to Jesus?
2. Did they have true spiritual vision like we spoke about earlier?

Teachers of the Law— How did they respond to Jesus?

Firstly, they didn’t respond well to Jesus at all. They rejected him and hurled insults at Him. They accused him of ‘blaspheming’. But the major thing to remember here is that these teachers of the law were eyewitnesses of this account. Not that they heard about it and didn’t believe, they were right there in the house. Rhey were firsthand eyewitnesses and yet they still rejected what happened. Were they Blind? Well, the answer to that is simply Yes. They looked but didn’t see! Or didn’t want to see for that matter.

Someone once said to me, ‘The mind is like an umbrella they both work best when they’re ope.’ These teachers had their minds shut to everything other than what they deemed as important.

So did the teachers of the law display true spiritual vision. Well, the answer is no to this question. They followed traditions and they had put these in the way of their relationship with God.

I think that we have to be careful that tradition doesn’t get in the way of our relationship with God. We should be guided by the Holy Spirit and open our eyes to what the Lord is guiding us to do. We also need to be very careful to not end up in the same trap as the teachers of the law – that we have done things in church for so long, we carry on doing it just because we have always done it. Then we close our eyes to what is actually happening in front of us or to God’s guidance and miss an opportunity to be blessed by God or to spread the gospel.

Crowd — How Did they Respond to Jesus?

They saw this miracle happen right in front of them and rejoiced. They seem to have responded correctly to Jesus and this miracle. They rejoiced and said ’We have never seen anything like this!’

However, under the surface the question still, is whether they actually followed Jesus or if they just liked watching miracles and went along to see it but didn’t go any further. Are we sometimes like this, where we go to Jesus, maybe on a Sunday and say all the right things and worship God, but then don’t do anything else. I know I certainly get this way at times.

So Did the crowd have true spiritual vision? Well, that is questionable. As they praised God, did they have any vision to then go out and spread the gospel amongst all nations. They realised it was something they had never seen before, but I don’t think it went any further than that.

The paralysed Man — How Did He Respond to Jesus?

There is how he responded before the miracle. He responded with faith to Jesus and did everything that was asked. He didn’t question anything, he just did it. Do we do all that Jesus says or asks? What would we do in that situation? What was the reward for doing everything Jesus asked? He was blessed and healed, and I imagine overjoyed. He is no longer paralysed and His sins were forgiven.

Did he display true spiritual vision? Yes, I think when Jesus says In verse 5, ‘When Jesus saw their faith’ He meant all of them. They all persevered and headed towards the goal to get to Jesus.

The Fourth Characters are the Four Friends of the paralysed man. Without his 4 friends having faith, he would have got nowhere close to Jesus.

The 4 friends had loving faith, practising faith, undeniable willingness to go any lengths for the sake of their friend and that their belief was that Jesus was worth every effort. How did they react to Jesus? They reacted to Jesus before the event. Their faith was so strong they let nothing get in their way. Not even a huge crowd that blocked every entrance to where Jesus was in the house. Not even a roof got in the way of getting to Jesus.

So did these friends display true spiritual vision? Definitely. They had a goal (mission) to bring this man to Jesus to be healed. They believed wholeheartedly that Jesus was the only one who could do so. Their vision was to try every way to get to Jesus to get the man healed. However, there was a difference between these friends and the teachers of the Law. They didn’t even need to see the miracle. They believed as they reacted before everything took place. However, the leaders didn’t believe, or didn’t want to believe, even when they saw the miracle. The friends were open-minded and let their faith in God guide them to who can help, the only one who can help – Jesus.

The other thing to say is that there is a cost to following Jesus. The first cost we see is to the person who opened their house to Jesus. We don’t know who this person was. There is one thing for sure, he ended up getting a roof repair after opening his home to Jesus! Do we think of what the cost is opening our home to Jesus?

But is Jesus really worth all that effort that these friends went to? Should we put as much effort in? It does seem like a lot of work. Jesus performed a miracle in front of their eyes and healed their friend. I think that would be well worth it, don’t you?

Jesus Talks about the cost of following Him. He says, ‘Take up your cross and follow me.

Follow me and become fishers of men.” Following Jesus, is not without consequence and certainly requires a lot of effort on our behalf.But think of it this way:Is it worth a man to inherit the world but lose his soul?

So, what to do next? Well first you need to think who are you going to act like? Which one of the 4 characters? Are you going to act like the crowd, where we are rejoicing with seeing the miracle but once it’s over they didn’t go much further, they actually just liked watching miracles.

Are you going to act like the teachers of the law? Reject Jesus, be so caught up with your own agendas that you miss the miracle happening before your very eyes and be completely blind to Jesus.

Or are you going to be more like the 4 friends and the Paralysed Man who broke down every barrier and jumped over every hurdle to get to Jesus.

Remember what Helen Keller said at the beginning?“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”

In this case the 4 friends, they had a mission to get this man to Jesus. Although their roadmap (vision) changed, they couldn’t get through the crowd, they thought, ‘So let’s go through the roof.’ They didn’t let things like that get in the way or deter their faith to be guided to Jesus – unlike the teachers of the law who let things get in the way and were spiritually blind. Or the disciples who

were concentrating so hard on the menial day to day things that they were blind and forget what Jesus had done for them. He can do immeasurably more than what we can ask for and provide abundantly for all of our needs.

Let us take the example of the 4 friends and the paralysed man into our lives. Let us trust in the Lord Jesus and have faith in Him that He will lead and guide us in the right ways. Let us not have our own agendas or traditions which get in the way of listening or seeing Gods vision for us as individuals and as a church. There may be speed bumps in the way (just as the 4 friends had), but If we are true to our faith, despite any speed bumps or blockers that are put in the way, and if we have true spiritual vision, the Lord will Guide us in the path ahead and towards the goal of making disciples of all nations and having more people come to know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. He will be with us always until the very end of the age.