LMF Mark the Gospel #2: Context

There’s this episode in Mark’s gospel which you might find particularly puzzling. Here it is in chapter 8:
And they came to Bethsaida. And they brought a blind man to Jesus and implored Him to touch him. Taking the blind man by the hand, He brought him out of the village; and after spitting on his eyes and laying His hands on him, He asked him, “Do you see anything?” And he looked up and said, “I see men, for I see them like trees, walking around.” Then again He laid His hands on his eyes, and he looked intently and was restored, and began to see everything clearly.
Ok. Besides the spit and trees, which are odd enough, what’s the deal with this two-part healing? In Mark, Jesus can raise the dead and overpower a legion of demons. But he botches this man’s healing on the first try? What’s the point?
This is a problem in reading Mark’s gospel. Short pithy episodes like this form the bulk of the narrative and can often seem quite random. As if Mark is simply stringing together every amazing Jesus story he knows. Jesus did this and then he did this and then he did this. Our modern bibles actually encourage us to read Mark this way, chapter and verse divisions and section titles break down the text, causing us to consider these stories in isolation. But these episodes are from random. They’re skillfully arranged.
You’ve heard the mantra in real estate, right? “location, location, location.” Well in interpretation, it’s “context, context context”
The location of Mark’s stories actually tells us a great deal about their meaning.
Look at the episode just before this two-part healing.
In the two previous chapters, Jesus spent a great deal of time privately training his disciples. On their first mission, he instructed them to carry no bread. Then he showed them how they could feed 5,000 and yet again 4000 with a few loaves of bread. And now he finds them totally misunderstanding his figurative teaching about the leaven of the Pharisees, wondering if they should have brought bread.
He tears into them. Are you so stupid?
“Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see and having ears do you not hear?” Do you not yet understand?”
You see that? Jesus has just linked blindness with a lack of understanding. Encountering a blind man in the very next story is not by accident. His blindness illustrates the disciples lack of understanding. And his partial healing their partially opened eyes.
Look at this. The disciples actually get something right in the following episode. Jesus asks them, the one question everyone’s been wondering, “Who do you think I am” “You are the Christ” The King! Peter says.
They see it! But a faulty vision persists.
When Jesus next tells them that He, the Christ, is going to be rejected and killed, Peter rebukes him. That’s not at all what he meant by his answer. The student is now correcting the teacher. We find this sort of blind pride again a chapter later. When Jesus tells the disciples again that he’s going to be killed, they immediately start arguing with one another about which of them is the greatest. And still it persists a chapter after that. This time, to make sure they don’t miss the point, Jesus not only tells them that he’s going to be killed, but mocked, spit upon, and whipped too. To which James and John respond by asking if they can have the seats closest to his throne.
You can just see the dumbstruck expression on Jesus' face. “You don’t know what you are asking for,” Jesus says.
Not at all.
They’re stupid. They don’t see. Though they can see that Jesus is the Christ they don’t at all understand what that means. They persist in thinking that being close to Jesus will somehow make them great in the eyes of the world.
We find this pattern repeated three times in Mark 8-10. Jesus predicts his death and the disciples express some ironic pride. Which in turn leads Jesus to correct them through a paradoxical teaching. Up is down and down is up. To save your life is to lose and to lose your life is to save it. To to be first, you must be last. And to be first, you must be the slave of all. To be the Christ, the King, Jesus must suffer and die and for them to be his disciples they must live out that same heartbreaking contradiction.
What’s interesting is that it's after the third time, Jesus once again encounters a blind man. The only other blind man in Mark’s gospel. And he cries out something akin to Peter’s earlier confession, calling Jesus “Son of David” heir to the royal throne. This blind man gets it. This time, when Jesus heals the man, there’s no spit. Jesus doesn’t even have to touch him to get him to see.

[@robynari7677]

Thank you JESUS for having your son make these videos... thank you so much for obeying GOD and posting this.. you are doing great work for the KINGdom..thank you!

[@youthnation1]

Thank you +Amber Robin! The next episode should be out by tomorrow.

[@jesus4vt]

7 years later - such an insightful message and caution to humble ourselves before the Lord Jesus so he can open they eyes of our heart so we can receive our sight (HIS REVELATION) of His Powerful, Living and Life Changing WORD!

[@willwiens8890]

thanks for putting these together. Studying Mark with the Sr. Adults at our church and these videos help get us out of the minutia of individual stories and see the bigger picture of the Gospel.

[@youthnation1]

You’re most welcome! Thanks for the comment :)

[@whatifgaming1661]

Rest in peace now.

[@erajad]

Helpful -- except for calling the disciples "stupid". Put yourself in their shoes. They have no categories to understand what's happening to them. They're bewildered; Jesus is patient. They aren't "stupid", they're deeply disoriented and confused, and understandably so, because that's the goal -- or at least the necessary corollary of where Jesus is ultimately taking them. (And cf. Matthew 28:17.)

[@youthnation1]

I don't think I've said anything that Mark doesn't intended for us to see. It's a harsh depiction. What else would call someone who was shown hot to do something and then needed to be shown again a few minutes later. And then still was wondering about what you showed them a few seconds after that. We're not talking history here as much as the way Mark tells his story. And in the story the disciples are depicted as a dimwitted bunch. They're unable to see what is so clearly set before them. But that's part of Mark's intent. He wants his audience to see themselves in this depiction of the disciples. Like the disciples in the story, they too have abandoned Christ's call to leave everything and follow him. We sympathize with the disciples because we see their failure in ourselves. Mark intends for Jesus' rebuke to them to be a rebuke to us.

[@erajad]

There's nothing to suggest that Mark portrays the disciples as dimwitted, foolish, stupid, or anything of the sort. There is no rebuke here. Jesus is fully ready, able, and willing to rebuke, and when he does, there's no mistaking it. There is none of that here. Modern interpreters have foreshortened the narrative, and have the benefit of 20/20 (ha! if only) hindsight. BUT -- yes, Mark wants his readers to see themselves in this depiction, but as those who (like the disciples!) are coming to see who this Jesus really is. It isn't all taken in in a moment. (Did you check the Matthew reference?) There is far more pastoral, theological, and evangelistic mileage in reading *with* Mark's narrative, than importing categories foreign to his story. (But I have a feeling we'll have to agree to disagree! And all this isn't to take away from an otherwise finely done video. For which, thanks!)

[@youthnation1]

I really appreciate that. I don't expect to change your mind either. And that's alright. I just wanted to point you to the rebuke. Mark 8:17-19 "Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don't you remember? When I broke the five loves and the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?" Jesus doesn't say the word "stupid" but the tone here is certainly sarcastic. He's implying it. Why ask the question? Jesus is insinuated the answer. They have eyes and ears and yet they can't see or hear. They should be able to understand and yet they don't. Matthew is much easier on the disciples as is Luke. That's one of the reasons why I think Matthew and Luke adapted Mark kzbin.info/www/bejne/i3LOY2uDj7KWoNU

[@erajad]

Yes - stern, true. Not sure about sarcastic! Try reading it in a different tone of voice; it still works! There's a similar exasperation on Jesus' part in Gesthemane, too -- towards the end of Mark 14. Exasperation, but also a clear sense of Jesus' compassionate understanding for the disciple's limitations. My sense is that these episodes are more similar that the "stupid/tore into them" characterization. Anyway! Grateful the for exchange.

[@jesus4vt]

We all could use more humility in not allowing our hearts be offended at the word used in this teaching: "Stupid", when Jesus himself proclaims stronger words directed at his Disciples. Words such as: PERVERSE, UNBELIEVING, DULL, EVIL, BLIND, SLOW of UNDERSTANDING, HARD HEARTED and FOOLISH, (Foolish translated to modern English equals STUPID.). You can find each of these words that JESUS spoke to his Disciples alone - right there in each of the four (4) Gospels. Remember, along with the religious people & leaders of his time, many of his other disicples stopped following him because they were offended at his teachings. God Bless You!