This is the second time I have preached a sermon with this title and on Mark and Isaiah texts. The sermons were fairly different, except for the biblical study aspect and the Tom Long quote and commentary on those quotes. If I preached the sermon a third time, I would start with the last part of this sermon and make it the focal point of the sermon. Working through why it took Jesus two tries to heal the man's blindness seems a like the most important point in the text from Mark.
Tonight at a dinner, someone asked me if I had thought about using illustrations from All the Light We Cannot See by Anothing Doerr. I have read that book, and would have had lots of connections to this sermon. Maybe next time!
As noted in the sermon, we commissioned a Stephen Minister, which included anointing her. That, of course, was a live illustration of "touch."
We continue our preaching series, “Touched by God” in which we read different biblical stories in which people are touched.
Mark 8: 22-26 They came to Bethsaida. Some people[a] brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. 23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village; and when he had put saliva on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Can you see anything?” 24 And the man[b] looked up and said, “I can see people, but they look like trees, walking.” 25 Then Jesus[c] laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26 Then he sent him away to his home, saying, “Do not even go into the village.”
“More Than a Healing Touch” Mark 8: 22-26; St. Andrew, Denton; May 21, 2017
Introduction: I had a conversation at college with a blind student. He started telling me some off the crazy things that had happened to him.
A blind person tells this story on himself. It seems he was driving through campus one night with a friend giving him instructions about where to turn, etc. They got pulled over by the campus police.
When the police officer approached the car, the blind man asks why the officer pulled them over. “you were driving without your headlights on?” he was old.
The officer proceeded to ask for a license. The blind driver then tells passenger to give officer his license.
Officer says no, he needs license of driver.
“I don’t have one.”
“Why?” asks the officer.
“Because I'm blind, which by the way, means I don't need lights on to drive at night.”
The officer somehow agrees and sends them on their way, once the passenger has taken over the driving.
The blind man was not driving at night in the Gospel of Mark. In fact, a blind living in Jesus' time was totally dependent on others. She needed someone to hold her hand as she walked. No raised bumps on the sidewalk or crosswalk signals that ding.
Presumably, the blind man needed the touch of his friends’ hands to guide his on his way to meet Jesus.
And what do they want? they want Jesus to touch him.
Jesus touches the blind man as he takes him by hand and leads him away from the crowd.
Then Jesus touches his eyes not once, but twice, as he heals him of his blindness.
Jesus offers his a healing touch and something more.
Move 1: Background to the story.
a. This story is unique to Mark’s gospel.
1. Not found in any of the other three gospels.
2. some biblical scholars suggest we read Mark's gospel as a journey, with each section separated by the place where the action occurs.
3. The journey is headed to Jerusalem, where Jesus will be crucified and then resurrected.
b. If we were reading the Gospel of Mark as different stops on the journey, this is the last section before arrival in Jerusalem.
1. The section begins with the first verse we read that notes that they were in Bethsaida.
2. The section finishes a couple of chapters later when they move on to Jerusalem.
3. The section will begin with the healing of the blind man that we read this morning, and the section will finish with the healing of Bartimaeus, another blind man.
4. IN between, is another healing story – this time a young boy who cannot speak.
5. The section also includes Peter's confession of Jesus as the Messiah.
6. The transfiguration of Jesus.
7. Jesus telling them a couple of times that he must die and then be resurrected.
8. The story of the rich young man who wants to follow Jesus.
9. And several other comments from Jesus about how difficult it will be to follow him.
10. In summary, the final section before Jerusalem is book-ended by the unnamed blind man first and then Bartimaeus at the end being made to see, with the stories in between about the disciples mostly not being able to see what Jesus is trying to tell them about being his disciples.
11. Do you get the irony? Jesus can heal the blind, but he's having trouble making his disciples see who he is (I referenced The Interpreter's Bible's notes on this passage for background to the sermon).
b. This passage also makes it clear that the prophet Isaiah's words about the coming Messiah are fulfilled in Christ.
1. The prophet Isaiah had described the day when the Messiah comes as a day when “the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;” (Isaiah 35:5-6, NRSV)
2. After this section in Mark, it is clear, or at least it should be clear, that the one about whom Isaiah prophesied has arrived.
c. If we were to title this section of the Gospel of mark, we might call it “What you need to know about Jesus, the Messiah, before he goes to Jerusalem to die for you.”
Move 2: One really important thing we need to know is that Jesus brings more than a healing touch
a. Tom Long, professor of preaching at Candler School of Theology, notes that 'sermons preached from the Gospel of mark these days tend to be far too timid."
1. He suggests that we do not acknowledge the "warrior" role Jesus has in Mark as he does battle with the powers of death that "hold humanity captive" (Journal for Preachers, "Whose Work? Whose Healing?" Volume XXXVIII, Number 4, Pentecost 2015, 31).
3. Long also argues that all the "strange bits" in the healing stories in Mark are important because they remind us that "Jesus is not just doing a good deed...but instead making apocalyptic warfare on the reign of death that holds sway over him and over us all" (Journal for Preachers, "Whose Work? Whose Healing?" Volume XXXVIII, Number 4, Pentecost 2015, 33).
b. Jesus has come to do more than heal the blind.
1. Jesus has come to do more than make the mute speak.
2. Jesus has come to take on sin and death for us as he redeems us and the world.
3. We are singing "there Is a Balm in Gilead" as the hymn after the sermon. It's melody and soothing sound suggest a soft touch;
4. but the words, "to make the wounded whole" and to "heal the sin-sick soul" speak to the power of God to transform lives in the face of sin and death.
5. Not a minor healing, but a major transformation.
6. In other words, the healing touch comes with the punch of the one who does battle with evil to save us.
7. the healing touch not only heals physically, but offers us a new way of life.
c. I recently read about John merrick, who you might know by his other name, “the Elephant Man.”
1. He died in London in 1890 at the age of 26 after suffering with neurofibromatosis.
2. “Nodes extended from his head like a giant mass of dough. A hunk of bone protruded like a pink stump from his mouth. From his back hung sack-like bags of flesh covered by a kind of cauliflower skin.”
3. When Frederick Treves, a senior surgeon and lecturer at London Hospital found Merrick, Merrick was being used as a circus freak.
4. for the last four years of Merrick’s life, he had a permanent home in hospital room.
5. Merrick tells the story of a young woman coming into his room, wishing him good morning, and shaking his hand.
6. He burst into tears. she was the first woman he could remember touching his hand (taken from a suggested sermon for Stephen Minister commissioning as found in pamphlet “Commission Stephen Leaders and Stephen Ministers,” 32)
7. the touch that was more than a healing touch.
8. His neurofibromatosis did not go away with the woman’s touch, but his life changed.
d. We commission a Stephen Minister this morning.
1. As you now, Stephen ministers are people trained to work with those who are struggling in the moment.
2. Sometimes Stephen Ministers lay on hands as they pray for a person.
3. Sometimes it may be for physical healing.
4. Every time, the touch and the prayers are for the power of Jesus to be present, a power that offers new life and hope.
5. More than a healing touch.
Move 3: Welcome to following Jesus, who offers more than a healing touch.
a. I find it curious that Jesus had to rub the eyes twice. What is that about?
1. It seems implausible that Jesus could not do the healing in one shot.
2. Maybe it was to make the point that the blind man has more than some eye irritation that anyone could heal; Jesus had healed a completely blind person.
3. Maybe it's an indicator of how hard it is to cure blindness, which might also be a metaphor for how hard it is for the disciples to see what Jesus is trying to show them.
4. That seems to fit with this section in Mark.
5. Peter makes the confession that Jesus is the messiah, and then when Jesus talks about dying, Peter no longer gets it.
6. The rich young ruler is ready to follow Jesus, until he sees how hard it would be to sell his possessions and follow Jesus.
7. The vision to be a disciple of Christ is not easily attained because discipleship is about transformation into a new reality.
b. John Howard Griffin, Scattered Shadows, describes what it is like to regain sight after being blind for ten years.
1. An accomplished pianist, he lost his sight in accident while serving in the Army Air Corps. In 1946.
2. Almost ten years later he regained his sight.
3. Very difficult to adjust to seeing again.
4. Physically it is hard. The eyes have to be retrained. Like the blind man who at first saw people as trees.
5. Mentally, it is exhaustive as well. The new possibilities for what he could do with his regained vision were overwhelming to him.
c. Jesus' disciples face that challenge just as we do.
1. To see Jesus as the one who offers us new life.
2. to live into that transformation.
d. . What I like about it taking Jesus two tries at helping the blind man retain his vision is the reminder that Jesus will not stop working on us, until we see him for who he is.
1. If it is not clear to us in this moment, Jesus will touch us again.
2. And again.
Conclusion: Jesus comes with more than a healing touch.
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