Brought In To Focus

Mark 8:22-26, 8:27-9:8

Every couple of years, I have to go get a prescription for new glasses. The optometrist has to test my eyes, to see which lenses will give me the best focus for my eyes to see clearly.

Mark, the writer of the 2nd gospel, being the masterful writer that he is, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God brings his audience’s eyes into the best focus possible in chapter 8:22 – 26, as Jesus heals a blind man at Bethsaida. It is clear from the text, that the blind man “saw everything clearly” after Jesus had healed his eyes…and that Jesus’ own disciples did not yet see as they ought to. (Mark 8:18-21).

Jesus, through Mark, is leading  his audience to the very same place: a place for their eyes to be opened not only by Jesus, but to see who Jesus really is…..and therefore, what that entails for them. The two are inseparable.

In order to do this, Christ must ask them two fundamental questions in 8:27-30, “Who do people say that I am?………But who do you say that I am?”.Here, we find what some scholars have referred to as the beginning of the Gospel of Mark. That is to say, that Mark 1:1 – 8:30 was a long introduction leading up to this pivotal point where Jesus discloses who He is, who God the father says He is and what it means for Him to be the Son of God.

Jesus Christ has been revealed to be the Son of God through his unparalleled ministry of miracles and exorcisms in the previous chapters; however here, the narrative takes a sharp turn as Jesus, through the Spirit of God is saying to His audience and to us “who do people say that I am?…..But who do you say that I am?”.

The answers to these two questions never changes. We are the ones who change. 

We either, through death to self through the power of the cross of Christ,  answer back to Jesus, “you are the risen Christ and my only hope in this world, come what may”; or like Peter in vs 33, we will automatically become the adversary of Jesus Christ by our rebuke of Jesus and His embrace of the cross as the Suffering Son of God.

There are only two kinds of people in this world: Those who are being saved, and those who are perishing. There is no in-between. This is the reality That God lives in all the time, we do well  to join Him there, for it is the place where He sees His Son and all the glory that is in Him.

In verses 8:31 – 9:8, God through His grace, is going to reveal and confirm who His Son really is: The suffering Son of God who is the apocalyptic Son of Man, the bearer of the rule and reign of God almighty. 

This is a treasure to behold, and desperately needed for Mark’s audience, who are suffering on account of Jesus. Their hearts need encouragement and strength. God knows exactly what they need: To see Jesus much, much more clearly. For it is the  revelation of God through Christ, which will make them brave.Nothing has changed from then to now. It is work of the Spirit of Christ in us, through suffering with Jesus, which glorifies Jesus and therefore makes us increasingly more brave to preach he Gospel, which saves souls no matter what color or class they are.

Much like the blind man, the disciples, Mark’s audience and most of all us 2021 who follow Jesus in a world that hates God, need desperately to see Jesus ever more clearly.

Thanks be to God, this is exactly what God wants to do: give us more and more of Himself in Christ.

“He is inexhaustible.” – Nicholas Alford