Gospel of Mark: Jesus foretells His death and resurrection

Jesus foretells His death and resurrection

Text: 8:22 – 10:52

Outline:

A. 8:22-26, Jesus heals a blind man @ Bethsaida

 B. 8:27-30, Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ

  C. 8:31 – 9: 13, 1^st Foretelling of Jesus' death and resurrection + Transfiguration

   D. 9:14-29, Father with demon possessed son

    E. 9:30-50, 2^nd Foretelling of Jesus' death and resurrection + Who is greater?

   D'. 10:1-31, Family issues: divorce, little children, and rich YOUNG man

  C'. 10:32-34, 3^rd Foretelling of Jesus' death and resurrection

 B'. 10:35-45, James and John ask for positions at the throne of resurrected Christ

A'. 10:46-52, Healing of blind man – Bartimaeus (son of Timaeus) @ Jericho

Comments: Since we have this long passage, I will divide it into three blocks. First we are going to talk about healing of the blind men. Then I will show the progression of Jesus' foretelling of His fate and the response He got from His disciples. Third, we will address some family issues. Transfiguration we will save for the next time – it is too important...

Advent Readings: Luke 18

Luke 18

Out this chapter I prefer to say a couple words about the very last section. In verses 35 to 43 we find a story of a blind beggar being healed by Jesus. The story has many layers. One relates to the very famous Christian hymn, Amazing Grace. The first stanza ends with the words: “was blind but now I see!” (LSB 744:1). It relates to the story of conversion of the author – John Newton – but in connection with the text in front of us.

For sure, using the eyesight is a great gift and a privilege God provided for us in His creative powers. Psychologists believe that we acquire up to 80% of the information via eyes. Therefore, we should not be surprised that the beggar is so eager to get it (or get it back, Luke doesn’t specify that he was blind from birth, so it is possible he used to see before). He hears about Jesus, and it changes everything. He wants to reach out to the Messianic king and be healed (note that he calls Jesus – Son of David, true Solomon). ESV says that he “cried out” (Lk. 18:38). The Greek verb means something even stronger: shout for help or shout in tumultuous way (Strong’s, G994). He badly looks for Jesus’ attention. When others tried to stop the beggar, he cried even more. More that shouting for help…

Then Jesus came near. The phrase “came near” has very deep liturgical roots. In Leviticus 1:1-2 we are introduced to theology of the sacrifices. The sacrifices in English mean that a worshiper should give up something for a favor of the divine. In Hebrew though, the word Korban means “to draw or to come near.” Yet here the roles are reversed – it is not the worshiper who comes near (he doesn’t really know where to go to), it is Jesus who comes near. What a great sign of mercy! He is the One who approaches the needy one. The plot thickens…

The plot thickens even more when the beggar dares to answer to Jesus’ enquiry: “Lord, let ME recover MY sight” (Lk. 18:41). Listen carefully what he really says: he wants to be the one who will find the way out… But he is blind! Yet, Jesus allows him to be the responsible one. Don’t take me wrong, I’m not saying that the nameless beggar healed himself with assistance of Jesus. No-no, as usual we should confess nothing but SDG – Soli Deo Gloria, Glory belongs to God alone. At the same time, Jesus responds to his request with very encouraging words: “recover your sight, your faith has made you well” (Lk. 18:42). Recover stands in imperative. It is a command, you, don’t stand doing nothing, go ahead and recover your sight!

He recovered his sight, followed Jesus, and all the people gave praise to God. If it would be a movie there would be a sign “happy end” or “he lived happily ever after” here. But I want to continue for a little while. As I said in the beginning, the gift of sight is a great privilege. By no means I want to underestimate the difficulties of a blind person, but Judean society of the Second Temple was a very generous one, the people had a well-developed system of “social services.” But from now on the beggar cannot rely on the generosity of others. He had to be responsible for his own life: his actions, words, and conduct… That’s why I see that Jesus not simply heals him, but “boosts” his sense of responsibility. From the very beginning the beggar phrases everything in a way that he is “in charge” so to speak. And the Son of David lets him have it. And leads him on to the ultimate responsibility – following the Lord, singing praises to God, sharing the Good News with those who didn’t hear the story yet!

CONVERSION of SAUL

CONVERSION of SAUL

The Passage: Acts 9:1-22

Structure:

I. Intro, 9:1-2, people brought in chains to Jerusalem

  a. 9:3-4, call to Saul

    b. 9:5-7, response of Saul

      c. 9:8, open eyes, but can’t see

        d. 9:9, not seeing, not eating, not drinking 

  a’. 9:10-12, Call to Ananias

    b’. 9:13-16, Response of Ananias

      c’. 9:17-18, Saul regains his eyesight

        d’. 9:19-20, eating and recovery of strength 

I’. 9:21-22, Saul should be brought in chains to the high priest  

Historical and geographical context:

Damascus is about 200 miles north of Jerusalem. Saul got an appointment to the high priest asking him for the letters to the synagogues at Damascus. Apparently, the high priest had authority over the distant synagogues. The request of letters and reception of Saul by high-priest shows his high-profile position in the Jewish religious-political society.    

Theology:

Theology of the Way. Saul wants to capture those who belong to “the way”. On the way to Damascus, he meets Jesus who is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). When Ananias came to Saul, he mentions Jesus who appeared to Saul on the road (ESV). The meaning of the road is a double entendre – the road which you came (meaning the Royal highway, between Jerusalem and Damascus) and the way of life that led to the persecution of Jesus and the Church (cp. Ps. 1:6).       

Persecution of the Church is the persecution of Jesus. Saul was like a dragon – breathing threats and murder (cp. Rev. 12:1-6). He was looking for the ones who would belong to the way, both men and women (very egalitarian). Later Ananias acknowledges to the Lord that Saul is famous for doing evil to the saints at Jerusalem (9:13). Yet, when Jesus meets him on the road, He claims that Saul persecutes Him personally (9:5). No wonder that St. Paul (former Saul) develops an idea of body of Christ – the Church (cp. 1 Cor. 12).   

Personal meeting with Jesus Christ. The persecution of the Church was based on Saul’s zeal for God. He was doing an evil thing but was not an evil man. Fighting for the honor of God’s congregation, he was granted the personal meeting with Jesus. And the Lord Jesus comes to him as a judge – the blinding light of condemnation. Yet, this condemnation, producing godly grief, was guiding him to repentance (cp. 2 Cor. 7:10-11).      

Creation theology. Saul, being blinded, not eating, and not drinking, is de-created. After his three days in the darkness (cp. Jonah and Jesus in the tomb) Saul was re-created as a disciple. The recreation began with “light” – re-gaining the ability to see, then like the earth he goes under the water being baptized. What followed light is eating and drinking – coming into filling stage. As Biblical creation paradigm suggests, filling is followed by enlightenment, which was realized by the preaching of the Gospel in the Damascus synagogues (cp. Gen 1:1-2, Acts 9:17-22).    

Theology of names. If you remember in chapter 5 there were Ananias and Saphira. They offended the Holy Spirit by hiding a portion of the sale price for their real estate. Regardless of name’s meaning – favorite of the Lord – Ananias of chapter 5 misused the favoritism in a wrong way. This story presents a good Ananias. The one who used favor and mercy of the Lord in a proper faithful way.   

Other themes:

Personal Pauline reflections on blindness. It is possible that St. Paul refers to his partially recovered eyesight when he mentions in 2nd letter to Corinthians (12:5-9). The reasoning is based on his adherence to the teaching of walking by faith and not by sight (2 Cor.5:7). For St. Paul the importance of hearing over seeing is also supported by Rom 10:17 – faith comes from hearing.

LSB 720:
We walk by faith and not by sight,

No gracious words we hear

From Him who spoke as none e’re spoke,

But we believe Him near.