Mark 8:22-26 Sermon
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Have kids play trash can basketball. If they miss, have them put on a pair of blurry safety glasses. If they miss again, they have to put on a blindfold. If they make it without either, they get candy, or if they make it with one of the handicaps, they get to remove it.
Ask kids to recap the last two sermons. Highlight Jesus’ healing of the deaf and mute man, and how this reflects God’s coming to deliver his people, and how His disciples showed that they had not received healing from Jesus because of their lack of understanding of His works.
Have a student read . Re-read the passage.
The Symbolic Healing
The Symbolic Healing
So after showing how thick headed His disciples were, Jesus continues on His ministry and arrives at Bethsaida. As we’ve seen before, a group of people, who likely have heard everything that Jesus had done (because remember, the people he healed before refused to keep quiet as He told them?), bring to Jesus a blind man. Similar to the last healing that Jesus did, Jesus takes the hand of the blind man and leads him away from the village. Jesus spits on the mans eyes and put his hands on the man. For the first, and only time in the accounts of Jesus’ healing ministry, we see that this man is not fully healed at the first touch. Rather, Jesus spits on the man’s eyes, and then asks the man if he sees anything. The man replies that he sees men who look like trees walking around. So Jesus puts his hands on the man’s eyes again, and when the man opened his eyes, Mark tells us that he saw everything clearly.
Again, Jesus gives the man a command to not even go into the village, and this time we don’t see anything about the man disobeying Jesus.
But after this, Jesus and the disciples continue on their way, and Jesus asks them a question. Who do people say that I am? What’s the general consensus? They give him three answers that we’ve seen before. Do you remember where we saw them (Story of John the Baptist being beheaded)?
First, some say he’s John the Baptist
Throw ball at trash can and miss
Second, some say he’s Elijah
Throw ball at trash can and miss
Finally, some say he’s one of the prophets
Throw ball at trash can and miss
But what about you? He asks them, who do you say that I am? Peter says “You are the Christ”.
Throw ball at trash can and make it
So we finally have a winner! Here in Mark’s gospel, Jesus doesn’t commend Peter, He simply tells them not to tell anyone about him, which means they are correct. But it seems like Peter’s shooting with full vision now, doesn’t it? But the story isn’t over.
Peter makes this confession that Jesus is the Christ, the king of Israel, the Son of God come in the flesh, Jesus confirms it, and the disciples are probably pretty excited now, right? But Jesus begins to tell them what this actually means. Because, alot like the guys in the wilderness that Jesus fed, who probably thought Jesus was going to wage war on Rome and set Israel free, Jesus’ disciples probably think that at this point, Jesus is going to fix all of Israel’s problems. But, as we know, this isn’t what Jesus came to do. Jesus tells them “Listen guys, I’m going to have to suffer. The elders are going to reject me, the priests, and the scribes will reject me. This isn’t going to end well for me. In fact, I’m going to die. But, I’m going to be raised from the dead after three days.
But this doesn’t set well with Peter. Peter probably expects Jesus to be a triumphant, victorious king, rather than a humble servant - something Peter seems to think quite often about Jesus. So Peter takes Jesus off to the side and gets onto him for saying things like this - which is kind of odd in itself isn’t it? Hey Jesus you’re this big important king, so I’m gonna tell you what’s up, don’t be talking about yourself like that!
So far, up to this point, it looks like Peter’s been shooting with full vision right? But after Peter does this, it’s pretty apparent that at best, he’s shooting with blurry vision and got lucky, but Peter is probably shooting blind.
So Jesus takes him and rebukes him - he says “Get behind me, Satan! You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”