Jerusalem Road

²² When they arrived at Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man to Jesus, and they begged Him to touch the man and heal him. ²³ Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. Then, spitting on the man’s eyes, He laid His hands on him and asked, “Can you see anything now?” ²⁴ The man looked around. “Yes,” he said, “I see people, but I cannot see them very clearly. They look like trees walking around.” ²⁵ Then Jesus placed His hands on the man’s eyes again, and his eyes were opened. His sight was completely restored, and he could see everything clearly. ²⁶ Jesus sent him away, saying, “Do not go back into the village on your way home.” Mark 8:22-26 (NLT)

Mark 8:22 through Mark 10:52 is commonly called the middle section or midpoint of Mark’s Gospel. This section represents a turning point not only in Mark’s Gospel but also in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. This central section traces Jesus’ final journey from Caesarea Phillip in the north to Bethany and Bethpage to the threshold of Jerusalem (Mark 11:1). After the middle section, Mark’s Gospel moves very quickly to Jesus’ last week in Jerusalem, which take up a third of the Mark’s Gospel. That is why many biblical commentaries call Mark’s Gospel a story of the Cross with a long introduction.

⁵¹ As the time drew near for Him to ascend to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. Luke 9:51 (NLT)

First, the middle section reveals a dramatic geographical shift in Jesus’ ministry. Some biblical commentaries call this middle section the “travel narrative.” This section outlines Jesus’ final journey to the Holy City of Jerusalem. Jesus purposely sets His eyes towards Jerusalem where He would sacrificially die for sins of the world (Luke 9:51; Luke 13:22; see also Isaiah 50:7). Up until the middle section, Jesus’ public ministry had been in the Galilean territory – northern Israel. Now, Jesus’ ministry focus shifts toward Jerusalem. Depending on which Synoptic Gospel (collectively Matthew, Mark, and Luke) one is reading, the length of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem varies. Matthew and Mark’s account of Jesus’ journey from Galilee to Jerusalem is condensed and ends at Matthew 21:1 and Mark 11:1 upon Jesus’ arrival at Jerusalem for His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem that begins Passion Week, Jesus’ final week on earth. However, Luke’s Gospel describes Jesus’ long and extended travel narrative “to Jerusalem.”  In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus’ journey from northern Israel into Jerusalem starts at Luke 9:51 and lasts until Luke 19:27. Almost half of Luke’s Gospel focuses on Jesus’ final journey to Jerusalem. One way Mark’s Gospel discusses Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem is the reference to “in the road,” “on the way,” “way,” or “on the road of Jerusalem” (see Mark 8:27; Mark 9:33–34; Mark 10:17, 32, 46, 52).  

Second, the middle section reveals a shift in Jesus’ audience as He moves towards Jerusalem. Up until this middle section, Jesus’ primary audience had been the common crowds or people of the land. Often, Jesus compassionately ministered to the needs of the poor, the sick, and the needy (e.g. see Matthew 4:23-25; Matthew 9:35-36; Matthew 14:14; Matthew 15:22; Matthew 20:34; Mark 1:41; Mark 6:34; Mark 8:2; Acts 10:37-38). The disciples had been with Jesus throughout His Galilean ministry. Yet now, Jesus shifts His focus from the crowd to His disciples as He prepares His followers to continue His ministry of compassion, hope, and mercy after His return to heaven. During His final journey to Jerusalem, Jesus continued to minister to the people’s needs and provide miracles (Luke 13:22). However, Jesus’ primary ministry focus shifts towards preparing His faithful followers (disciples) for His departure to heaven and the continuation of His ministry with His disciples through the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:29; John 14:16-18. John 20:22; Acts 2:4, 17-22, 33, 38). The disciples would need the Holy Spirit’s help to continue Jesus’ ministry.

Third, Mark’s middle section reveals a shift in Jesus’ teaching. Up to this point, Jesus’s primary teaching was on the Kingdom of God (e.g., Mark 1:14-15). Now, Jesus focuses His teaching onto discipleship and He interrelates His teaching on the Kingdom of God with the importance of discipleship (faithfully and obediently following God). In fact, Mark’s Gospel contains the riches materials on discipleship in all the four Gospels. Mark helps his readers understand how to be a good disciple of Jesus. Jesus teaches that discipleship embodies not only glory but also service, loving others, suffering, rejection, obedience, and even death.

Finally, the most traumatic shift in the middle section is Jesus’ revelation of His identity (see Matthew 16:13-26; Mark 8:27-30; Luke 9:18-20). Up until this point, Jesus concealed His identity as Messiah and God’s Son. The few people that knew Jesus’ identity were the demonic spirits or the people that received a miracle from Jesus. The demons knew Jesus has the “Holy One of God” (Mark 1:24-25, 34; Mark 3:11-12; Luke 4:34). Before the middle section, Jesus often invoked the “Messianic Secret” and avoided any discussion of His identity (e.g. see Matthew 8:3-4; Matthew 9:29-31; Matthew 12:15-16; Matthew 16:20; Matthew 17:9; Mark 1:23-25, 34, 44; Mark 3:11-12; Mark 5:42-43; Mark 7:36; Mark 8:29-30; Mark 9:9; Luke 4:41; Luke 8:56; Luke 9:21; John 6:15). On several occasions prior to the middle section, Jesus warned His disciples and others to keep silent about who He was and what He had done (e.g., see Mark 1:34, 44, Mark 3:12; Mark 5:43; Mark 7:36). In the middle section, Jesus freely and openly discusses His identity as Messiah and God’s Son. For the first time, Jesus openly spoke about His coming death in Jerusalem at the hands of religious leaders (Mark 8:31-9:1; see also Matthew 16:21-28; Luke 9:22-27). However, Jesus’ disciples have a different understanding of Jesus’ role as Messiah. The disciples saw that Jesus was the Messiah but not a Messiah who must suffer and deny Himself to save the world of their sins. As one reads this sections, everyone will see that Jesus’ disciples were slow to learn the true meaning of discipleship. Yet, Jesus never abandoned His disciples and continued to faithful teach them about the Kingdom of God and the true meaning of discipleship.

Mark’s middle section begins and ends as a “frame” that frames Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem. One part of the frame begins at Mark 8:22-26 and the second part of the frame ends at Mark 10:46-52. Both stories deal with blindness and blindness is the common thread. Mark is using these two stories on blindness to represents the disciples’ blindness to Jesus and His mission. The irony is that Jesus’ disciples did not know they were blind. Jesus’ ministry during His journey from northern Israel to Jerusalem aims to heal also the disciples’ blindness about God’s Kingdom, Jesus’ identity, and their role as Jesus’ disciples. Similarly, although the disciples’ spiritual vision is not yet 20/20, they will eventually come to see who Jesus is!

The first part of the frame begins at Mark 8:22-26. Some people brought a blind man to Jesus and begged Jesus to touch and heal the blind man (Mark 8:22). Jesus would soon reward their faith and the blind man’s faith in Him! Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village (Mark 8:23). Once outside the village, Jesus applies salvia upon his eyes, and laid His healing hands over the blind man’s eyes (Mark 8:23). Jesus employed a similar healing technique to heal the deafness and dumbness of a Gentile in the Decapolis (Mark 7:32–35). Then, Jesus asked the man, “Can you see anything now?” (Mark 8:23, TLB).  The man looked around and said, “Yes, I see men! But I cannot see them very clearly; they look like tree trunks walking around!” (Mark 8:24, TLB). The man’s vision was still blurred, limited, and not fully healed. The fact that the man recognized men and trees suggests that he had not been born blind but had become blinded possibly by accident or disease. Next, Jesus placed His hands over the man’s eyes again and he saw everything clearly (Mark 8:25). Jesus healed the blind man completely! Mark 8:22-26 provides the only time in the four Gospels where Jesus heals a person in two phases. This second laying on of hands is unique in the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ healing ministry. The story ends with Jesus telling the healed man to keep his healing a secret – Messianic Secret (Mark 8:26).

Many biblical scholars argue that Mark 8:22-26 is an unusual but intentional miracle. Most of Jesus’ supernatural acts occurred instantly in a single word or touch (e.g., Matthew 8:14-17; Mark 1:29-34; Luke 4:38-41). In the miracle found at Mark 8:22-26, Jesus had to heal the blind man in two phases and not instantly. Jesus’ healing by phases was quite rare. Thus, many scholars argue that Mark is using this two-part healing story to paint a spiritual portrait of Jesus disciples’ blindness and the gradual understanding of the disciples (see Mark 8:18, 21). Only Mark has this two-part healing as this two-part healing connect with the opening of the disciples’ spiritual eyes in Mark 8:27-38.

The gradual accomplishment of this miracle paralleled the gradual growth of the disciples' understanding of Jesus’ mission as Messiah and God’s Son. While the disciples occasionally demonstrated partial understanding of Jesus and His mission, they never fully grasp Jesus’ mission until God removed their spiritual blindness after Jesus’ death and resurrection. The disciples had begun to see but remained spiritually blind (e.g., see Mark 8:16–18) until God touches them again at Jesus’ resurrection (see Mark 9:9). The ability to see, both physically and spiritually, is a gift of God, not of human ability. Like the healed man, a disciples full healing comes by from the repeated healing touch of Jesus.

The man’s healing exemplifies the situation of the disciples, who moved through stages of healing in Mark’s Gospel, from non-understanding (Mark 8:17-21), to misunderstanding (Mark 8:29-33), to complete understanding (Mark 15:39). The first “healing touch” of Jesus’ disciples came on the road to Caesarea Philippi (Mark 8:27) when Peter correctly declared that Jesus is Messiah and the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16; Luke 9:20). The disciples’ vision will be no longer blind, but their vision will remain imperfect and blurred, for they did not under the meaning of Messiahship. Only at the Cross and Jesus’ resurrection will Jesus’ disciple, like the man at Bethsaida, see “everything clearly.”

Jesus had already been hard on the Twelve and they look even worse in this mid-section. However, the disciples are still with Jesus and Jesus never abandoned His disciples. Essentially, the disciples’ vision is blurred. Even after Jesus’ revelation as Messiah and Son of God (Mark 8:27-30), Jesus’ disciples still had only partial sight, in that they do not understand the kind of Messiah Jesus truly was (Mark 8:29). After Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples’ visual healing would be complete for Jesus’ finished work on the Cross fully healed their vision to understand Jesus’ full character as Messiah and God’s Son!

⁴⁶ Then they reached Jericho, and as Jesus and His disciples left town, a large crowd followed Him. A blind beggar named Bartimaeus (son of Timaeus) was sitting beside the road. ⁴⁷ When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus of Nazareth was nearby, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” ⁴⁸ “Be quiet!” many of the people yelled at him. But he only shouted louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” ⁴⁹ When Jesus heard him, he stopped and said, “Tell him to come here.” So they called the blind man. “Cheer up,” they said. “Come on, He’s calling you!” ⁵⁰ Bartimaeus threw aside his coat, jumped up, and came to Jesus. ⁵¹ “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked. “My Rabbi,” the blind man said, “I want to see!” ⁵² And Jesus said to him, “Go, for your faith has healed you.” Instantly the man could see, and he followed Jesus down the road (on the way). Mark 10:46-52 (NLT)

The last part of the frame begins at 10:46-52. Jesus and His disciples reached Jericho on His way to Jerusalem (Mark 10:32, 46). Later as Jesus and His disciples left town, a great crowd was following. A blind beggar named Bartimaeus (the son of Timaeus) was sitting beside the road as Jesus was traveling towards Jerusalem (Mark 10:32, 46). When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus from Nazareth was near, he began to shout out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Mark 10:47, TLB). Many of the people yelled at the blind man to “Be quiet!” (Mark 10:48). However, the blind man only shout even louder, again and again, “O Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Mark 10:48, TLB). The man was desperate for Jesus’ healing and mercy! When Jesus heard the blind man shouting, He stopped there in the road and said, “Tell him to come here” (Mark 10:49). Jesus never turns away anyone that faithfully seeks Him! So, Jesus’ disciples called the blind man and said, “You lucky fellow . . . . Come on, He is calling you!” (Mark 10:49, TLB). Bartimaeus threw aside his coat, jumped up, and came immediately to Jesus (Mark 10:50). Then, Jesus asked the man, “What do you want Me to do for you?” (Mark 10:51). The blind man said to Jesus, “O Teacher . . . I want to see!” (Mark 10:51, TLB). Jesus said to the man, “All right, it is done. Your faith has healed you.” (Mark 10:52, TLB). Instantly, Jesus healed the man of his blindness, and the man could see! The healed man began to follow Jesus on the journey to Jerusalem (Mark 10:52).

The distinguishing feature of Bartimaeus verses Jesus’ disciple was that Bartimaeus recognized his own blindness and his need for Jesus! Jesus’ disciples are just as blind as Bartimaeus, but they do not recognize their spiritual blindness. Jesus’ disciples needed the same divine miracle of God through faith in Jesus as Bartimaeus received.

Reference

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