Sermon Series: Getting to Know Jesus 

The Christ and The Cross 

Mark 8:22-33 

PSBC - June 2, 2002

In a nutshell: The blind man was healed in two steps to introduce us to the great truth that we must understand-following Jesus includes the Christ and the cross.

I. Introduction

A. Grandpa Rietveld

One of the things I remember most about my Grandpa Rietveld was that he seemed to have a pithy phrase or "saying" to fit just about any situation. In fact, after he died, it wasn't uncommon to hear my dad or mom say something like, "Your Grandpa Rietveld always said…"

Well, two of the phrases I remember him using the most were: -If you throw it away, it's gone. -A job done half is never done well.

Friends, we lived by the philosophy of that first phrase. On the farm, we never threw anything away. We'd buy containers just to hold all the stuff we never threw away. We saved everything from scrap steel, to scrap wood, to old motor oil, to old horse harnesses. Everything was saved!

But it's grandpa's second phrase that always comes to my mind whenever I studied the passage we're going to look at this morning. "A job done half is never done well." If you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Mark 8…

Mark 8:22-26 22 They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, "Do you see anything?" 24 He looked up and said, "I see people; they look like trees walking around." 25 Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26 Jesus sent him home, saying, "Don't go into the village."

B. Transition

From the first time I heard this story in Sunday School as a child, I thought the reason Jesus didn't heal this man completely the first time, was that He didn't give it His all. He hadn't followed my Grandpa Rietveld's advice. After all, if He had, He wouldn't have had to do it a second time to get it right!

Well, that's a simplistic way of thinking. But it does leave us with a question. Why out of all of Jesus' miracles did this one have to be completed in two stages? I mean, did Jesus goof up? Or is there something deeper to the two stages of this miracle?

In our study this morning, we're going to see that the two stages of this miracle were not because of a goof up. But because it would help Jesus teach us about who He is. In fact, this miracle represents a turning point in Jesus' revelation of why He came to earth as a human. And that purpose is critical to our understanding what it means to be a Christian.

II. The Healing of the Blind Man

A. The Miracle

The setting of this incident takes place right after the miracle of the feeding of the 4000, and the ensuing confrontation with the Pharisees.

Jesus and His disciples sailed from Dalmanutha on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee to the northeast shore of the lake, to a small town called Bethsaida. When they landed, Jesus' fame for healing people, had already preceded Him. That's why the townspeople brought a man to Jesus who was blind. They begged Jesus to touch this blind beggar and restore his sight.

As Jesus always did with people who were hurting, He took compassion on this man. But at the same time, He also wanted to use it as a teaching opportunity with His disciples. That's why Mark is very careful to point out that Jesus didn't perform this miracle in front of the whole town. Instead, we're told that Jesus led the beggar outside the town, and with just His disciples around Him, spit into the man's eyes and put His hands on him, and asked him if he could see yet.

At that point, the man opened his eyes, but something strange happened. Unlike all of Jesus' other miracles, the healing didn't "take" all the way. The man couldn't see clearly. He said he saw people, but they didn't look like people-they looked like trees, walking.

So, once more Jesus put His hands on the man's eyes, and this time Mark tells us that his sight was completely restored, and he saw things clearly.

Then Jesus speaks a stern warning to the man-"Don't go into the village." Why not? Well, based on what is to follow, we can surmise that Jesus didn't want a huge crowd around Him and His disciples. He wanted to be alone with them. In fact, from this point on, as we study this gospel of Mark, we'll see that Jesus avoids the crowds, so He can concentrate on teaching the disciples.

B. The Significance of the 2 Stages of the Miracle

So, let's go back to the miracle. Why was it done in two stages? I'll tell you-it's really very simple. It was to get the disciples thinking about the number 2. It was to get the disciples ready to receive a two-stage teaching from Jesus that would revolutionize their ideas about what it meant to follow Him.

You see, from this point on, Jesus begins to make His final journey to Jerusalem. That would be the place where He would ultimately meet His death on the cross. And He wanted His disciples to understand, and make sense out of that death.

For us this morning, the significance of this miracle is to help us understand the two parts of following Jesus. Following Jesus involves two key elements-it involves following the Christ, and following the Cross. One without the other makes Christianity about as effective as the L.A. Lakers without Kobe Bryant or Shaquille O'Neil.

Let's take a look at these two elements as they were taught by Jesus to His disciples…

III. The Two Elements of Christianity

A. The Christ

Mark 8:27-30 27 Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, "Who do people say I am?" 28 They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets." 29 "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Peter answered, "You are the Christ." 30 Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

They've left the village of Bethsaida, and are now walking up to the north end of the Sea of Galilee toward the area near the town of Caesarea Philippi. To give you a frame of reference, it is in the mountains above this city that later (as we'll see in chapter 9) Jesus would be Transfigured, somewhere near Mount Herman. So, they are heading toward that destination. And they are talking together as they walk.

"Guys, what's the skinny going around about me?" Jesus asks.

"Well, some say you're John the Baptist come back from the dead to haunt Old Herod. Other say you're Elijah, based on Malachi 4:5, which says, 'See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes.' And still others say you're a J.A.P.-Just Another Prophet."

"But what about you?" Jesus asks. And Peter, who is just beginning to emerge as the spokesman for the group, says, "You are the Christ."

Now, Christ isn't Jesus' last name. Christ is a Greek word that is the equivalent of the Hebrew word Messiah. They both mean…"The Anointed One".

In the Hebrew culture, only two people received anointing-the High priest, who interceded between God and the people; and the King, who ruled the people on God's behalf.

So, I want you to understand the full impact of what Peter was saying. When he said, "You are the Christ," he was saying that Jesus was the ruler and the chief intercessor that God had promised, and that Israel had been anticipating for many, many years.

And indeed that's who Jesus was. Jesus is a king. He rules a kingdom which all four of the gospel writers refer to as the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven. This is not an earthly kingdom with walls and borders. This is a spiritual kingdom. This is a kingdom that has no end. This is a kingdom that is more powerful than any kingdom that had ever existed, or that ever would exist. Jesus is the king to whom all kings will someday bow.

But add to that the fact that Jesus is also the ultimate high priest. He intercedes not just on Israel's behalf, but on the behalf of all people, regardless of their race or heritage. It is in His name that we pray. We do that because only He is qualified to enter the Holy of Holies-the presence of God. Because He is the only one who is perfect and without sin.

Friends, that is what Peter was saying when he called Jesus, the Christ! And Jesus said, "Keep it to your selves for right now. Don't tell anyone, yet." Why? Because if they didn't, then the same thing that happened with the feeding of the 5000 and the 4000 would happen. And the same thing that happened when He healed someone, would happen all over again-Jesus would be mobbed-No one would let Him alone-and He'd never have a chance to teach His disciples the second element involved in following Him. That one is a little tougher. That one is going to take a lot of time.

B. The Cross

Mark 8:31 31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.

The construction of this sentence in the Greek carries with it the idea that Jesus' teaching was going to be going on for a long period of time. In other words, it was such a new concept, that it was going to take a lot of reinforcing and understanding, before the disciples would finally "get it". Jesus was teaching the crucial second element to being a Christian. It's not enough to have a Christ. For Jesus' mission to be completely effective, His followers must also understand the cross.

The cross represented submission. The cross represented death. The cross represented shame and humility. And this was such a hard concept for the disciples to grasp. Look at the reaction in the next verse…

Mark 8:32 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

"Don't talk like that Jesus. Don't talk about suffering and death. You are a king. You are a high priest. You're an important guy. Important guys don't go to the cross."

And this my friends is the natural reaction of human beings to the cross. I'll accept Jesus as the Christ, or the Messiah. I'll accept Him as King. I'll accept Him as high priest. But the cross? No way. Don't talk like that! The easy part is the glory "stuff" of King and High Priest. But the hard part is the submission, the humility, and the obedience of the cross.

Look at what Jesus says to Peter…

Mark 8:33 33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."

This was such an important issue, that Jesus had to deal with it swiftly and publicly. Refusal to accept the cross is not from God. It is from Satan, himself. There is no other way of putting it. So He rebukes Peter in front of all the disciples.

So, what's so important about the cross?

Let me share with you briefly the 4 most important things the cross means…

1. First of all, the cross means an end to self-sufficiency. The cross of Jesus points out that you and I are incapable of securing or assisting our own salvation. And that's not something most human beings want to hear.

Illustration: Let me share something with you from one of my favorite people in church history. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the man known around the world as the "prince of preachers" back in the late 1800's died in a war. However, this war was not fought with guns and bullets. And it was not fought for some piece of ground, or some political ideology. This was a war that was fought in the church, over this very issue of self-sufficiency.

The war was known as the Down-Grade Controversy. The issue was that leaders in Spurgeon's denomination in England, the Baptist Union, wanted to move away from the Biblical preaching of the cross that the Bible teaches, and that Spurgeon had been preaching for years. The leaders of the denomination felt that if pastors taught that a person is sinful, and utterly and hopelessly lost for eternity without a Savior, they would be perceived as "old fashioned". And this would offend people. They felt that if pastors would minimize the sinfulness of people, then more people would come to church.

Spurgeon wouldn't tolerate this kind of thinking. So he preached and wrote a series of articles in the 1880's that became known as the Down-Grade Articles. In these messages, Spurgeon wanted to teach his congregation and his denomination about the dangers of moving away from teaching about the cross. He suggested that this Biblical truth is like the pinnacle of a steep, slippery mountain. One step in the wrong direction, and you'll find yourself on the down-grade, rolling down the mountain.

Once a church or an individual Christian gets on the down-grade, Spurgeon said, momentum takes over. Recovery is unusual and the only thing that will repair the situation is spiritual revival.

In the process of this war with the leaders of his denomination, Spurgeon wound up resigning from the Baptist Union, he was publicly censured, and the strain of this fight is what many feel led to his untimely death. That denomination continued on a path from evangelicalism to liberalism. Leaders eventually denied the deity of Christ. And after World War One, the Baptist Union lost much of its membership and influence in England.

In one of the last sermons he preached, Spurgeon said this… (front of "This Week")

When the doctrines of grace and the glorious atoning sacrifice are not set clearly before men's minds, so that they may feel their power, all sorts of evils follow. It is terrible to me that this dreadful blight should come upon our churches; for the hesitating are driven to destruction, the weak are staggered, and even the strong are perplexed. (from A Sermon for the Time Present, by C. H. Spurgeon, October 30, 1887)

Friends, this is what happens when human beings think they are self-sufficient, and choose to neglect the cross. All sorts of evils follow. The cross is there to remind us that we are not self-sufficient! And when we deny the power of the cross, we are on the "down-grade."

2. The second thing the cross means is an end to the power of Satan and Hell. Paul writes…

Ephesians 6:12 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Peter writes…

1 Peter 5:8 8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

But try to explain this concept of the devil and hell to people who don't have a relationship with Jesus. Try to explain the realm of the spiritual to someone who isn't spiritually minded. You'll get laughed at, or get dismissed, or be ignored. Many of the non-believers we know, don't have a clue that a spiritual world exists, where the forces of God are at war with the forces of Satan. That's why Paul wrote…

1 Corinthians 1:18 18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

The power of the cross is power that comes against a specific power. It is the power of God against the power of evil. And the prize is the souls of human beings.

3. The third thing the cross means is that this world and the things of this world are temporary.

If you would read through Paul's second letter to the Corinthian church, you'd see a major theme coming up time after time in his writing. He basically says that time, and space, and things as we know them…, are only temporary. Therefore, temporary things are not something on which to base eternal decisions. The one who dies with the most toys does not win! The cross points this out. Followers of the cross realize that the accumulation of wealth and things, is not what life is all about.

But taking that position, runs us straight into a collision course with our present culture. The philosophy of today says that it's important to accumulate things. Because things equal wealth; wealth equals happiness; happiness equals fulfillment; and personal fulfillment is the highest thing a person can achieve. The foundational belief system of most non-believers in 2002, puts me and my fulfillment at the center of my existence. But the cross says, "No! A personal relationship with God must be at the center, for real and eternal fulfillment to take place."

4. Finally, Jesus will teach His disciples that the cross means an end to despair. You see, Jesus didn't stay on the cross. He will constantly remind His disciples as they travel to Jerusalem that three days after the cross, He will rise from the dead. Death cannot contain Jesus. Death has no more victory.

You see, death is viewed as the ultimate enemy by most human beings. But followers of the cross have a hope that is sure. Life forever, life that will not end in death, life that is far better than the best that earth has to offer… is just on the other side. Paul says…

Philippians 1:21 21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

The cross says that life with God in heaven is better than anything that earth could ever provide.

IV. Conclusion

Friends, I want you to understand this key concept this morning-it's why the blind man was healed in two stages. It is to open our eyes to a great truth. To understand our Christian faith, we must understand there are two essential parts of following Jesus-the Christ and the Cross.

With only the Christ, we see dimly and with distortion. But with the Cross we see fully, clearly and understand our eternal destiny.

Do you struggle with not completely understanding faith in Jesus? Does it seem no different to you than what the Mormons believe, or the Jehovah Witnesses believe? Does it seem no different, for the most part, than what a "good Muslim" believes? Is religion a frustration to you rather than a joy? Do you think religion lacks relevance to the struggles you face and that come in the course of everyday living?

Well, it could be that that's because you haven't fully grasped the cross part of the Christian faith. You may be rebelling against the truth of the Cross.

(Plan of salvation)