Mark 8:22–30
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Man, it's so good to be back here in this pulpit looking out on so many unfamiliar faces and unfamiliar faces. It's striking to see the growth that the Lord has given you here at Third Avenue, and I bring you greetings from your own daughter, Church, River City Baptist in Richmond, Virginia. We're doing well. As Greg mentioned, we just passed the three-year mark. So we are in full-fledged toddlerhood, and the Lord is being kind to us.
It's been just a little over two years since I had the chance to worship with you on a Sunday morning. Two years is a long time. A lot has changed in my life. I have more gray hairs. That's not just because of church planning. It's also because I have more children. Almost a year ago, last April, we became a family of seven as Megan and I welcomed identical twin boys into the world, Henry and Hudson. They have brought so much life and joy to our family, but of course, it's also a lot to handle. They, as I mentioned, are identical, very identical, which means that Megan and I can tell them apart most of the time. Our daughters, Nora and Juliet, can tell them apart basically all of the time. And our eight-year-old son, on the other hand, he barely cares enough to look up from his Pokemon cards to tell the difference.
He'll just say to me something like, Dad, Dad, that guy need you. Speaking of my children, Juliet, as I said, we're a new church, and so we're meeting in a gym, we're bringing in the trailer, we're doing set-up and tear-down every week. Juliet's memory of Third Avenue, by contrast, is that this is a very fancy place.
Of course, Greg usually wears a tie when he preaches. I don't. there was a Sunday morning not too long ago when she noticed that dad was a little stressed out trying to figure out at the last minute what to wear and I hear her pipe up from the other room and just go dad yes all my kids sound the exact same sorry dad just wear a tuxedo like Greg Gilbert so you've you've influenced my children very much but in all seriousness this is the church where Megan and I grew up together as a married couple it's where we built a family it's where I learned to pastor it's where I learned to preach I will forever be indebted to you all we love you very much, and Megan sends her greetings. Well, in an article for The New Yorker titled, To See and Not See, neurologist Oliver Sacks tells the story of a patient of his who lost his eyesight
as a kid, but managed through a surgical operation to regain his sight at the age of 50. But Dr. Sachs and this man, under the pseudonym Virgil, they discovered something that they weren't expecting. They discovered that having the physical capacity for sight is not the same thing as seeing. Virgil's first experiences with regained vision were disorienting. He could make out colors and movements, but he struggled to arrange them into a coherent picture.
Even though the operation had been a physical success, and over time he did learn to identify various objects, his behaviors, his habits, were still those of a blind man. Reflecting on this unexpected struggle in his patient, Dr. Sachs wrote, quote, one must die as a blind person to be born again as a seeing person. It is the interim, the limbo, that is so terrible. And our passage this morning brings us directly into this interim, this unsettling period between the habits of blindness and the gift of true sight. If you have a copy of God's word, please turn with me to Mark chapter 8. Mark chapter 8, you can find it on page 844 of the read Bibles. It's always important to situate ourselves in light of the context, but it's especially so here because Mark's artistry, his literary genius is on full display. And if we miss
it, we'll miss actually what he's up to, not just as a writer, but the meaning that he's embedded in the structure. See, Mark's gospel is separated into basically two major parts. The first half, chapters 1 to 8, answering the question, who is Jesus? And the second half, chapters 9 to 16, answering what has he come to do? And our passage this morning is the hinge point between the two halves. It's the great continental divide in the book. And some have also observed that the two plus chapters here in the middle form their own section or at least a distinct subsection in the book. And it goes actually from where we're beginning in chapter 8 verse 22 all the way through the end of chapter 10 because it's a section bookended by two healings of a blind man.
The first, which we'll see this morning, and the second at the end of chapter 10, when Bartimaeus receives his sight. Now, what's the significance of all this? Well, Mark is showing through two healings of physical blindness the disciples' need and our need to be healed of spiritual blindness. In the first eight chapters, such blindness has been on full display. We've seen there's blindness in the religious leaders, in the crowds, in Jesus' own family, even in his disciples. In fact, the scene immediately before this one, Jesus was on a boat with the disciples and he issued a rebuke. You can see it there in verse 18. Do you have eyes but fail to see? Do you have eyes but still fail to see and ears but fail to hear. So the bookends in Mark 8 22 and following and
then at the end of chapter 10 the bookends are about literal blindness but the stories in the middle are about an even deeper kind which means that the journey to Jerusalem is going to be a struggle for sight. Listen as I read the passage, Mark 8, 22 to 30. And they came to Bethsaida, and some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. And when he'd spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, do you see anything? And he looked up and said, I see people, but they look like trees walking.
Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again, and he opened his eyes. His sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. And he sent him home, saying, Do not even enter the village. And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way, he asked his disciples, Who do people say that I am? and they told him John the Baptist and others say Elijah and others one of the prophets and he asked them but who do you say that I am? Peter answered him you are the Christ and he strictly charged them to tell no one about him. I as Greg does like to give a main idea sentence, the main idea of the passage, which is therefore the main idea of the message, and here's what I think is the main idea of Mark 8, 22 to 30. Through his healing touch, Jesus the Christ
gives spiritual sight, but it rarely happens all at once. Through his healing touch, Jesus the Christ gives spiritual sight, but it rarely happens all at once. We're going to see this main idea fleshed out in two scenes. First, a puzzling miracle. We'll see that in verses 22 to 25. And second, a pivotal confession. That's verses 26 to 30.
A puzzling miracle and a pivotal confession. First, a puzzling miracle. Verse 22, and they came to Bethsaida, and some people brought to Jesus a blind man and begged him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. So by the time we get to verse 23 here, it's just Jesus, probably the disciples, and this disabled man. He puts spittle on the man's eyes and then asks, do you see anything? This is the only time actually in all the gospels when Jesus asks a question like this. Usually he heals someone and immediately issues an instruction, not says, hey, how did it go? It's kind of the question you'd expect a doctor to ask about the success or not of his or her operation. But Jesus has a reason for the question.
Remember what he just asked the disciples in verse 18 that I pointed you to. Do you have eyes but fail to see? What for the blind man is a miracle is for the disciples a parable, an enacted parable. Do you see yet? Jesus asks. Verse 24, the man looked up and said, I see people, but it looks like an old VHS tape. Kids, you can ask your parents what that is after church. No, the man says, I see people. He's probably referring to the disciples, but he says, I see people, but they look like trees walking. This poor man is destitute and desperate for sight. He's desperate for nothing more in his life than sight. And Jesus hasn't fully given it to him yet. Now, this is a pretty
big distraction. This is a towering distraction. We need to confront it. I mean, what happened? This is, after all, the only miracle in the Gospels that unfolds in stages. So is this the equivalent of Jesus just finally hitting a foul ball and needing to step up to the plate again to try over? Well, no. As I said, this miracle is an enacted parable. The partial healing is an object lesson about the disciples' partial understanding. Verse 25, then Jesus laid his hands on the man's eyes again, and he opened his eyes. His sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. The first eight chapters of Mark's gospel have featured miracle after miracle. In chapter one, Jesus casts out a demon, heals Peter's mother-in-law, and cleanses a leper.
In chapter 2, he heals a paralytic. In chapter 3, he heals a man with a withered hand. Chapter 5, he drives out a legion of demons, heals a bleeding woman, raises a synagogue ruler's daughter. Chapter 7, he heals a Gentile woman's daughter, as well as a deaf and mute man. And it's just worth pausing and asking the question, what are we supposed to make of a story like this in a scientific age? I mean, it's the kind of thing we expect to hear in church.
But you realize how a story like this lands on the ears of the average person on the street, in your workplace, in your neighborhood. This kind of thing can sound so primitive to modern ears. I mean, are we really to believe that Jesus was just walking around the first century world suspending the natural order? Suspending the natural order. Well, no, not exactly. You see, when Jesus heals people like this blind man, he's not just doing a kind of first century magic trick, parlor trick.
No, he's actually previewing something. He's previewing the world to come in miniature. Have you ever thought about that? That means that miracles are not so much suspending the natural order as they are restoring it to the way things once were before sin invaded and ruined everything and to the way things one day will be when Jesus returns to make all things new. Some of you will be familiar with the name Fanny Crosby. She was born in 1820, and over the course of her life, she wrote a staggering 9,000 hymns. If you want to feel lazy this morning, there you go. And she, interestingly, despite how prolific of a hymn writer she was, she was blind. And one day, a pastor said to her, and I trust he was a well-meaning gentleman, he said, I think it a great pity that the master
did not give you sight when he showered so many other gifts upon you. Fanny responded, do you know that if I could have made one petition at birth, it would have been that I be born blind? Because when I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior. And in 1915, that wish came true when she died and saw his smiling face.
And when this blind man's sight was restored, the first thing he would have detected would have been the Savior's smiling face. Three applications I want to think about with you briefly before we move on to Peter's confession. First of all, we just have to acknowledge that this is a really strange scene. I mean, yes, as I said, Jesus was previewing the world to come. Yes, he was showing his disciples something about their own journey, their own struggle for sight.
But why this way? Why do it in a way that could be so confusing, so easily misunderstood? Well, of course we don't know. We don't always know what Jesus is up to in the moment. But brothers and sisters, we must fight to believe that there's purpose. That there's purpose to everything he does, even when it looks inexplicable and unnecessary.
Sometimes we beg Jesus to act at once. This morning, there are many of you who are begging Jesus to act in some way, and you don't understand why he hasn't yet. We beg Jesus to act at once, and guess what he does? He takes his sweet time. He works through stages, only leaving us with a fuzzy picture. But brothers and sisters, Jesus is God, which means of course he's going to do things differently than we would. One of the lessons we have to accept and internalize is that there are going to be all kinds of things in your life that happen that you don't understand, all kinds of things that fit into God's mind that by definition don't fit into yours. But you realize that the alternative would actually be scary. If you understood everything that God was doing, he wouldn't be God. He would
be you. If you understood everything he was up to, then you would not be reckoning with deity. You would just be reckoning with a cosmic projection of yourself. As one person put it, a God who is small enough to be understood is not big enough to be worshipped. Second, this story should foster humility in us because if you're here this morning and you see Jesus, not perfectly, but you see him truly as beautiful and satisfying and all-sufficient and worthy of the songs that we've sung to him, that is only because he opened your eyes.
And therefore, it should foster not just humility but also patience with others who don't yet see. John Newton was a slave trader when God opened his eyes to the horror of his sin and the gift of amazing grace. In fact, I just realized this morning that this is the 300th anniversary of when John Newton was born. And earlier, we sang the words he wrote, I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind.
was blind, but now I see. And later in life, in one of his letters, Newton is most famous for Amazing Grace, the song Amazing Grace. But in his day, he was best known for being a prolific letter writer. And I would encourage you to get a hold of John Newton's letters and use them in your devotional times. Maybe read one letter a day alongside God's word. They are immensely rich with wisdom and counsel and encouragement.
In one of these letters later in his life, Newton was reflecting on the implications of being given the gift of sight. And he offered this illustration. A company of travelers fall into a pit. One of them gets a passerby to draw him out. Now, he should not be angry with the rest for falling in, nor because they are not yet out, as he is. He did not pull himself out.
Instead, therefore, of reproaching them down in the pit, he should show them pity. A man truly illuminated will no more despise others than a blind man, after his own eyes were opened, would take a stick and beat every blind person he met. Brothers and sisters, is it obvious in the way you talk to nonbelievers, even in the way you talk about nonbelievers, that you remember what it was like to be lost too?
Or do you tend to speak as if you're really quite aghast that anyone could be so blind? What energizes you more, scolding the people you see still down in the pit or laboring to gently and patiently reach in and pull them out? A passage like this should encourage you in your evangelism as you wait for the healing touch of Jesus in people's lives. Just because he's not moving as quickly as you'd prefer, just because he's not moving as quickly as you'd prefer with that neighbor or that colleague or that wayward child doesn't mean he's not at work.
Be patient with people, even with yourself, knowing that God is always up to more than you can see. Application three, I want to speak to you children and teens directly, especially if you don't feel like you really see yet. You may believe in Jesus, You may be able to perceive some kind of spiritual reality, but it all just looks kind of fuzzy.
Especially when you compare yourself to those around you at church, it can seem like maybe you're really not staring at a clear picture. You don't know what you're looking at. You know what you're supposed to be seeing, but you're struggling to. Here's my suggestion. If you want to be more captivated by Jesus, if you want to be more enthralled with him, if you want to see him in his beauty, in his glory, here's what you need to do. Well, ask yourself the question, how do you get to know, how do you grow to enjoy any kind of person?
And the answer is simply, you spend time with them. You spend time getting to know them. And the more time you spend with Jesus, the more you'll grow to see him for who he is. And the more you do that, the more captivated and enthralled you'll become. Well, how do you spend time with Jesus? Again, it's not complicated. It starts with reading your Bible. And when you read it, you can pray the words of Psalm 119, 18. Lord, open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your word.
In other words, you can talk to the author directly. And you can ask him to unblind you so that you can see the beauty staring at you in your face. Another thing that I would challenge you to do is to talk about the sermons you hear with your parents. I mean, when they ask you, what did you think of the sermon today? Don't just mumble, it was good. Give them more.
share with them, it doesn't have to be, you know, a five-minute reflection, but share with them what, maybe just one thing that you think God was maybe trying to teach you, one thing that you understood for the first time, maybe something you didn't understand and would like some clarity about. And then, this is going to really shock your parents, kids, then ask them, then ask them, what did you think? How did it help you? Involve your parents, kids, teens, involve your parents in your own walk with Christ. I realize that could seem really awkward or uncomfortable, but it's only awkward and uncomfortable because you haven't tried it yet.
Involve your parents. I mean, how much do you actually know about your own parents' spiritual journey? You realize they're walking the same road you're trying to walk. They're just farther along if they've been following Jesus for some time. Do you know your parents' testimonies? Like, would you be able to at least give me the high points of how God saved your mom or dad and how he's worked in their life since. If you want to grow in your ability to see Jesus, you've got to start taking ownership for your spiritual life. And by the way, if you're here and you're a young person, maybe a college student, and what I just said feels foreign to you, maybe it even stings a little bit because you don't have godly parents, start praying now that the Lord would prepare you to one day be the kind of parent who could share a compelling testimony with your own kids. Well, how does the story end? Verse 26, and Jesus sent him to his home saying,
don't even enter the village. Jesus is not after publicity. At this stage in his ministry, he does not want misconceptions floating out there about the nature of his mission or his ministry. First, he wants his identity to be grasped, which leads to the second point, a pivotal confession. A pivotal confession. Look there at verse 27. And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi.
So here we are in largely Gentile territory, about 25 miles north of Galilee. And as they're walking along, Jesus poses a question to his disciples. Who do people say I am? He's not asking what his family members think. They already know that. He's not asking what the religious establishment thinks of him. They already know that. He's asking, hey, guys, what's the word on the street? And notice his focus in this question is not on his reputation.
It's not just, hey, what is the world out there saying about me? No, the focus is on his identity. Who? Who do people say I am? By this point in Mark's gospel, the question, this basic question, has already surfaced several times. In chapter 2, after Jesus forgave the paralytic sins, the Pharisees were aghast. Who can forgive sins but God alone? Chapter 4, after he silenced the storm, the disciples were bewildered. Who is this?
Who is this with us on the boat? Even the winds and the waves obey him. Chapter 6, the people he grew up with in Nazareth said, where did this man get these things? Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son? We have him pegged. He's not going to exceed our expectations. Yawn. Everyone has been trying to peg him, to explain him, to figure out who he is. And ironically, do you know who the only ones through eight long chapters to get it right have been? The only ones to recognize who he is? The demons. Chapter one, I know who you are, the Holy One of God. Chapter three, you are the Son of God. Chapter five, what do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? See, in Jesus, the light of heaven and earth, the light of heaven has invaded the darkness of earth. And because of that, because of this clash, the satanic powers
have been put on notice. But human beings, meanwhile, keep coming to the wrong conclusions. Verse 28, and the disciples told him, some say you're John the Baptist, and others say Elijah, and others one of the prophets. In other words, Jesus, you're in really good company. These are favorable ratings in the polls. Your preaching is reminding people of John the Baptist.
Your miracles are evoking associations with Elijah. The authority of your words makes people think of some of our nation's greatest prophets. I mean, have you ever, before I studied this passage, I never read it quite like that. I'd always read the answer and thought, well, there's a letdown, there's a wrong answer, and that's only because we know what the right answer is. But think about who they're saying he is. This is massive. Have you ever considered the fact that people, there was something so extraordinary about Jesus that even those who rejected him had to grasp for these exalted explanations, these supernatural associations just to explain him.
They had to reach for something. There were no like ordinary Joe explanations of Jesus floating around. Everyone had some kind of exalted explanation. And if you're not following Jesus this morning, I want to challenge you right at this point. The disciples right here on this dusty road are reporting all kinds of high and lofty opinions about Jesus. High and lofty perspectives about Jesus and every single one of them is too low.
It's not enough, friend, to have an opinion about Jesus, even a really, really high opinion, if that opinion is still too low. Louisville is filled with people that have no problem with Jesus. They even kind of like him. The average person on the street who's headed to an eternity apart from God because of their sin. They really have no problem with having Jesus as part of their life.
They respect him, maybe even revere him, maybe even pray to him, maybe even show up at church. sometimes, like you have this morning, so long as he doesn't interfere too much with their life. They're fine with Jesus as long as he lets them remain in charge. In other words, they're kind of fine with Jesus being a part of their life the way we're fine with an app being a part of our phone, a part of our life. I mean, think about an app. It's convenient, easily accessible. Maybe you even have it on the home screen. It's right there if you need it, but it's also really easy to ignore. But that is a way of treating Jesus that in no way will satisfy the justice of God. That's a way of treating Jesus in which you're coming to him on your terms, not his. You're trying to manage him, not the reverse. You've just relegated him. If he's
kind of like an app in your life, you've just relegated him to a useful but ignorable, a useful but ignorable part of your life. And if that's what you've done, friend, then you just don't yet understand who he really is. Because Christianity, this is the most important thing you could hear this morning, Christianity is not just about adding Jesus to your life. It's about submitting your life to his. It's not just adding Jesus to your story. It's coming to him and saying, Jesus, I want to live and submit to your story. I believe who you are, that you lived and died and rose in the place of people like me who have spent my life, who have tried building my life on things other than you. I've tried finding satisfaction and joy in other things, and that's offensive to you, and I deserve to be judged forever. But I believe that you live the perfect life
in my place. You died on the cross to exhaust the justice and the wrath of God in my place, and three days later, you vacated your tomb so that I could have confidence that if I simply turn from my sin and put my trust in you, that I will one day be with you forevermore in a new heavens, in a new earth, and I will see the king in his beauty. So Jesus is walking with his disciples on the road here. They're reporting that people think really highly of him, and then he stops, And he makes eye contact with them, and it's kind of like he just says, your turn.
What do you have to say? Verse 29, and he asked them, but who do you say that I am? Peter answered, you are the Christ. Ding, ding, ding. For the first time in Mark's gospel, someone other than an evil spirit rightly recognizes Jesus for who he is. This word Christ appears nine times in Mark's gospel, but this is actually only the second. The first was the very opening verse of the book.
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Peter and the disciples finally, right here on this road in Caesarea Philippi, they see Jesus as stepping into prophetic expectation that had stretched back thousands of years. Ever since the first gospel promise in Genesis 3.15, that one future male descendant from Eve's line would crush the serpent's head. And through the promise to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12, that that same future descendant would mediate blessing to all the families of the earth.
And through the promise to David in 2 Samuel 7 that on the throne of Israel will sit not just one of Eve's descendants, not just one of Abraham's descendants, but even more specifically, one of David's descendants forever. See, if you read the prophets of the Old Testament, they're constantly promising David's arrival. David's coming, David's coming, David's coming. But you realize at the time of their writing, David was a corpse.
He was rotting away in some grave. But there's this refrain that a David is coming, is coming. An anointed one, a Messiah, a king. I want to just show you two places where we hear this note of royal anticipation. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter 9. Isaiah 9, starting in verse 2. Isaiah is writing this 700 years before Jesus arrives on the scene.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. Now, how is this going to happen? How is this light going to pierce the darkness? Here's how, verse 6. It'll put you in the Christmas spirit. For to us, a child is born. To us, a son is given. And the government shall be upon his shoulder. And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end. on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. And then let's hear from one more heavy hitter, this time Jeremiah, Jeremiah 33. Just the next book, Jeremiah 33, verse 14. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord.
Jeremiah 33, 14, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah in those days. And at that time, I will cause a righteous branch to spring up for David and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. And it's as if centuries later on this road in Caesarea Philippi Peter speaking for the disciples looks at Jesus and says that's you we believe that's you they finally saw clearly even if for a moment while the Pharisees and Jesus family and the crowds and the people on the street are still fumbling around in the dark and the same is true today remember I said it is not enough to have a really high opinion of Jesus.
Muslims have a high opinion of Jesus. They believe he's one of the greatest prophets, but not the Christ. Hindus believe he was a divine being, but not the Christ. Buddhists believe he was an unusually enlightened man, but not the Christ. Most secular people believe he was a great teacher, An example, but not the Christ. Nominal Christians, that means Christians in name only, believe he's a really, really convenient Savior, but an inconvenient Lord, an inconvenient Christ.
You will never in your life, friend, answer a more decisive question than this. Your eternal destiny hangs on how you respond to those simple words from a first century Galilean carpenter who managed to go into the grave and come out the other side. And he looks at you this morning and he says, who do you say that I am? When I teach River City's membership class, I start by establishing that shared fellowship, which we all want. We all want community. We all want to be a family. We all want fellowship, but I say that shared fellowship is only as deep as shared belief. Now, it's the same for you at third. You are able to, in fact, it's kind of healthy to disagree about all kinds of things, less important things in the Christian life, but you've come together, third, with one shared answer, one shared answer to this primary question. You agree with Peter, with the
disciples and with Mark, Jesus is not merely a prophet or an enlightened man or a teacher or an example or a guru or a life coach or an app to make your life a little better. He is the Christ, the son of the living God and the king and savior of the world. Verse 30, and Jesus strictly charged them to tell no one about him. Despite this flash of insight, the disciples know just enough to be dangerous. Kind of like some of you seminarians, you know just enough Greek to be dangerous.
Sorry if that was lacking in agape love. So a very insider baseball joke. It's the kinds of things I can say in Louisville, not Richmond. That's called contextualization. The disciples here in this passage, they understand just enough about Jesus to be dangerous, meaning they get the really important first half, that he's the Christ, the son of the living God, but what they don't yet understand. In fact, what's repulsive to them is this idea that he's also going to have to suffer and die. In other words, just like the man in the previous scene, this is why I'm preaching these two little stories together? Because just like the blind man in the previous scene, they are still partially blind. Well, I mentioned at the outset that chapter 8 represents the great hinge point of Mark's gospel. And as we conclude, it's worth reflecting on this once again.
One commentator provides this helpful summary. Quote, Peter's confession stands at roughly the midpoint of Mark and like a continental divide separates the gospel into two major watersheds. In the first half, Jesus crisscrosses the Sea of Galilee without apparent purpose. But after Peter's confession, he is staunchly on the way to Jerusalem. The first half of Mark is a journey outward in which Jesus casts broadly.
The second half is a journey inward to the source, to Jerusalem and the temple. Both halves of the gospel conclude with confessions of Christ. And both are associated with Roman Gentiles. The first is Peter's tentative confession at the Roman stronghold of Caesarea Philippi. The second is the full confession of the Roman centurion at the cross that Jesus is the Son of God. Both confessions, here in chapter 8 and the Roman centurion at Calvary, both confessions teach that Jesus' true identity is revealed only through suffering.
And that those who are called to follow Jesus must be prepared to participate in this suffering. And speaking of his suffering, on the cross, Jesus was banished into the darkness. I mean, if you think about coming to see him for who he is, being born again, the Holy Spirit invading your life and turning the lights off, it was as if at the cross, the lights were turned off in the cosmos.
You remember the scene when, to put you in the Christmas spirit one more time, the shepherds out in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks. What did they get to experience? Brightness at midnight. but at his death, it's darkness at noon. And that's because on the cross, Jesus was banished into the darkness because that's where we deserve to go. That's where we deserve to be. He was banished into the darkness so that you, through faith, could be welcomed into the light. And even now, 2,000 years later, as we walk with Jesus on the way, we don't see perfectly. We don't have to see perfectly in this life, but we can know that the healing work has begun and what God begins, he finishes. What he begins, he will be faithful to complete at the day of Christ Jesus until that day when our eyes close in death and then they open to behold his smiling face. Let's pray.
Father, we praise you that you are so patient with us when we struggle to see you for who you are. Lord, we confess that you're patient with us when we are impatient with others, when we don't understand your timeline, we don't understand your ways, we don't understand why you seem to be taking your sweet time with people we love when we long for them to see. Lord, we pray that you would help us to trust your heart, trust your character, trust your plan, and to look forward to the day when you will split the skies and return to make all things new and we will behold you, the King, the Christ, in your beauty. And it's in your name we pray. Amen.