Chapter # 8 Paragraph # 4 Study # 1
September 20, 2022
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
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Thesis:  Jesus' entrance into Bethsaida was not for "blessing" to a "blind" city, but was for "the giving of sight" to a blind man.

Introduction:  In our last study, we considered Jesus' "Why?" question to The Twelve because they are so focused upon "physical bread for physical bodies" that they basically blow off His insistent warning regarding the powerful temptation to use God's enablements to promote themselves. Jesus makes "status lust" such a powerful "leaven" that if the disciples do not pay attention to His warning and make it a priority to "see" their danger, they will be made useless as disciples. The "little leaven" that "leavens the entire lump" is like Kryptonite to Superman...just being near it would render him helpless to be what he was supposed to be.

This evening we are going to move into the next paragraph of Mark's record. It is about Jesus giving sight to a blind man in two stages.

• I. The "Problem" Of "Bethsaida".
  • A. Mark, again, reverts to the use of the present tense of his main verb in his introduction to this record; the anomaly of a present tense in a historical narrative.
    • 1. The main verb (erchomai) is used by Mark in 83 of his texts.
    • 2. But, only in 12 of them is the verb a present tense.
    • 3. This means that we are supposed to pay careful attention to what is being written.
  • B. The "problem" is that Mark only refers to "Bethsaida" twice in his entire record, and there is little on the surface to tell us why he refers to it at all.
    • 1. His first use was in 6:45 where we are told that Jesus told His disciples to go there; but they disembarked at Gennesaret instead (6:53).
    • 2. This second, and final, use in 8:22 has a special emphasis upon Jesus and The Twelve entering into the village, only to refuse to allow the people there to witness His restoration of sight to a blind man.
      • a. When they brought the blind man to Him, He took him "out of the village".
      • b. After He had restored his sight, after twin cycles of the same process, He told the man to go to his home and "Do not even enter the village".
    • 3. Therefore, we are left to only one recourse: look intently (8:25).
      • a. The first place to "look": context.
        • 1) In the prior context, the issue is the total disorientation of the disciples because they are involved with "a hardened heart" (8:17) that is preventing them from "seeing" though they have eyes, and from "hearing" though they have ears, and "remembering" though it seems impossible that they could "forget".
        • 2) In the following context, the issue is Jesus asking the disciples, "Who do people say that I am?"
          • a) The answers all indicate a serious level of misunderstanding.
          • b) We could say that the answers reveal a profound "blindness".
      • b. Putting the previous and following contexts into the record of the restoration of sight to the blind man.
        • 1) When we put the prior context into play, we can "see" that Bethsaida is full of people who are "blind", and, by implication, dominated by the disaster of the dangerous leaven: they are Jesus' illustration of what happens when people persist in "hardened hearts" (an intensification of His warning to The Twelve).
        • 2) When we put the following context into play, we can "see" that the heart issue of Jesus' words and works was to enable people to "see" Who He is -- and they are blind to the meaning of His words and works.
      • c. Given the contribution of these contexts, we can "see" 1) that Jesus is becoming disinterested in helping people "see"; and 2) that the "blindness" is the outworking of the "leaven".
        • 1) There is an extreme danger in deliberately persisting in "the leaven": Jesus just might give up making any attempt to "deliver" [Note: Matthew 11:12 and Luke 10:13 after Luke 9:10].
        • 2) The "hardened heart" syndrome that is involved throughout the larger context, strongly supports the concept of "leaven's incremental dominion" over a person.
        • 3) The ability to "see" requires, not only a deliberate rejection of the "leaven", but also a careful intention to "look intently".

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This is article #342.
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