Mark's account of blind Bartimaeus leaving Jericho, read and compared with Luke's account
46 They came to Jericho. As he went out from Jericho, with his disciples and a great multitude, the son of Timaeus, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the road.
47 When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out, and say, “Jesus, you son of David, have mercy on me!”
48 Many rebuked him, that he should be quiet, but he cried out much more, “You son of David, have mercy on me!”
49 Jesus stood still, and said, “Call him.” They called the blind man, saying to him, “Cheer up! Get up. He is calling you!”
50 He, casting away his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.
51 Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “Rabboni, that I may see again.”
52 Jesus said to him, “Go your way. Your faith has made you well.” Immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus on the way.
Pharisees testing Jesus on divorce, read in detail alongside Mark's account
1 When Jesus had finished these words, he departed from Galilee, and came into the borders of Judea beyond the Jordan.
2 Great multitudes followed him, and he healed them there.
3 Pharisees came to him, testing him, and saying, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?”
4 He answered, “Haven’t you read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female,
5 and said, ‘For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall be joined to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh?’
6 So that they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, don’t let man tear apart.”
7 They asked him, “Why then did Moses command us to give her a bill of divorce, and divorce her?”
8 He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it has not been so.
9 I tell you that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries her when she is divorced commits adultery.”
10 His disciples said to him, “If this is the case of the man with his wife, it is not expedient to marry.”
11 But he said to them, “Not all men can receive this saying, but those to whom it is given.
12 For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven’s sake. He who is able to receive it, let him receive it.”
Pharisees testing Jesus on divorce, read and compared with Matthew's account
1 He arose from there and came into the borders of Judea and beyond the Jordan. Multitudes came together to him again. As he usually did, he was again teaching them.
2 Pharisees came to him testing him, and asked him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”
3 He answered, “What did Moses command you?”
4 They said, “Moses allowed a certificate of divorce to be written, and to divorce her.”
5 But Jesus said to them, “For your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment.
6 But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female.
7 For this cause a man will leave his father and mother, and will join to his wife,
8 and the two will become one flesh, so that they are no longer two, but one flesh.
9 What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”
10 In the house, his disciples asked him again about the same matter.
11 He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife, and marries another, commits adultery against her.
12 If a woman herself divorces her husband, and marries another, she commits adultery.”
God made them male and female, and it was not good for man to be alone, quoted by Jesus in the divorce discussion
1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
1:2 The earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep and God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.
1:3 God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
1:4 God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness.
1:5 God called the light “day”, and the darkness he called “night”. There was evening and there was morning, the first day.
1:6 God said, “Let there be an expanse in the middle of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.”
1:7 God made the expanse, and divided the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so.
1:8 God called the expanse “sky”. There was evening and there was morning, a second day.
1:9 God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so.
1:10 God called the dry land “earth”, and the gathering together of the waters he called “seas”. God saw that it was good.
1:11 God said, “Let the earth yield grass, herbs yielding seeds, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with their seeds in it, on the earth”; and it was so.
1:12 The earth yielded grass, herbs yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, with their seeds in it, after their kind; and God saw that it was good.
1:13 There was evening and there was morning, a third day.
1:14 God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs to mark seasons, days, and years;
1:15 and let them be for lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth”; and it was so.
1:16 God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He also made the stars.
1:17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light to the earth,
1:18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good.
1:19 There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
1:20 God said, “Let the waters abound with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the sky.”
1:21 God created the large sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed, after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind. God saw that it was good.
1:22 God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
1:23 There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
1:24 God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures after their kind, livestock, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind”; and it was so.
1:25 God made the animals of the earth after their kind, and the livestock after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind. God saw that it was good.
1:26 God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
1:27 God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.
1:28 God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
1:29 God said, “Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree, which bears fruit yielding seed. It will be your food.
1:30 To every animal of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food;” and it was so.
1:31 God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.
2:1 The heavens, the earth, and all their vast array were finished.
2:2 On the seventh day God finished his work which he had done; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done.
2:3 God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy, because he rested in it from all his work of creation which he had done.
2:4 This is the history of the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that Yahweh God made the earth and the heavens.
2:5 No plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up; for Yahweh God had not caused it to rain on the earth. There was not a man to till the ground,
2:6 but a mist went up from the earth, and watered the whole surface of the ground.
2:7 Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
2:8 Yahweh God planted a garden eastward, in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
2:9 Out of the ground Yahweh God made every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
2:10 A river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it was parted, and became the source of four rivers.
2:11 The name of the first is Pishon: it flows through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
2:12 and the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and onyx stone are also there.
2:13 The name of the second river is Gihon. It is the same river that flows through the whole land of Cush.
2:14 The name of the third river is Hiddekel. This is the one which flows in front of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.
2:15 Yahweh God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it.
2:16 Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden;
2:17 but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good…
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
This message was about the lens we bring to reading Scripture. The pastor worked through the healing of Bartimaeus as told in Luke, Mark, and Matthew, and then took up the hard teaching on divorce in Matthew 19 and Mark 10. The thread running through all of it was a simple question: do you believe God is good and that He loves you?
What was said
the pastor opened with the idea of hermeneutics, the interpretive lens through which a person reads a text. He used two physical images: oxidized headlight lenses that have to be polished clear so the light can shine through, and reading glasses that correct vision so you can see what is actually there. His point was that we all bring a lens to Scripture, whether we know it or not, and that lens shapes everything we see.
He walked through the story of blind Bartimaeus as told in Luke, then Mark, then Matthew. Luke has Jesus approaching Jericho; Mark and Matthew have him leaving. Matthew counts two blind men where the others name only Bartimaeus. A person reading with a hermeneutic of skepticism can use those differences to dismiss the whole account. But the pastor noted that the ancient city and the more recently built Herodian city of Jericho were two distinct places, and that a reasonable explanation exists for the apparent geography problem. More to the point, he said, the differences never touch the actual point of the story: a person used the senses he had, cried out to God for what he was lacking, and was made whole.
He then described an email exchange with a traveler who had been given permission to camp on the church grounds for one night, and who responded to every offer of help with escalating hostility and eventually sent a bitter letter. The pastor was careful to name likely mental illness as a factor, and he said he did not share the story for anyone to feel sorry for him. He shared it because the man's response illustrated a hermeneutic of doubt in action: he arrived expecting to be rejected, read every action through that lens, and could not receive what was actually being offered, including a hotel room with a bed and a shower.
From there he moved to the text he had skipped weeks earlier: the Pharisees testing Jesus on divorce, in Matthew 19 and Mark 10. He noted that the Pharisees were themselves an example of a bad hermeneutic. They knew the Old Testament better than anyone and still could not see who Jesus was, because they were not approaching Him with goodwill. They asked what Moses commanded, but when Jesus pressed them they admitted Moses only permitted a certificate of divorce as a concession to hardness of heart.
Jesus answered them by going back before Moses, to creation. The pastor read His words: "Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female," and, "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh... what God has joined together, no person is to separate." The hard teaching, the pastor said, was never meant to be a checklist for judging others. It was meant to soften your own heart before you enter a marriage, and to keep it soft while you are in one.
He closed by returning to the question of hermeneutics directly. He said he has spoken with people who feel condemned every single time they open the Bible, and that this comes from approaching it as a law to accomplish rather than as a word from a God who loves them. Jesus fulfilled the law because He was the only one who could. The goal, the pastor said, is not to get rid of a guilty feeling through self-justification or through tearing the text apart. The goal is to trust that God is willing to atone for actual guilt if we will bring it to Him with a humble heart.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
The pastor used the image of yellowed, oxidized headlight lenses to introduce the idea of hermeneutics, the lens through which we read scripture. What lenses do you think you bring to the Bible, and where did those lenses come from?
The three Gospel accounts of blind Bartimaeus differ in details like whether Jesus was approaching or leaving Jericho, and whether one or two blind men were healed. How do you personally tend to respond when you notice differences like that in scripture, and how does that response affect what you take away from the text?
Speaker 1Good morning, everybody. How are you? Wow, it's kind of quiet in here. Doing alright? Well, maybe we'll sing a few more in, but if you would, stand with me.
We're going to sing the solid rock to begin with. Glad that you're here this morning. Hymn number five twenty six. We keep the hymnals up here upfront. If you want a hymnal, you're welcome to it.
Other than that, we'll just sing off the wall. How about that?
Speaker 2Righteousness. I dare not trust my sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. In Christ, solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. When darkness seems to veil his face, I rest on his unchanging grace in every high and stormy gale.
My anchor holds within the veil. On Christ, the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand. When he shall come at trumpet sound, oh may I then in him be found sand. Amen. How about make me a blessing?
Speaker 1This is kind of a it's a roller skating song. It's a it's a lilting rhythm song. Six is that six four? Six four. Yeah.
I miss Scott Humphrey on songs like this. He always sways like this.
Speaker 2Out in the highways and byways of life, many are weary and sad. Carry the sunshine where darkness is right, making the sorrowing blessed. Make me a blessing. Make me a blessing Give as was given to you in your need. Love as the master loves you.
Be to the helpless a helper indeed Amen.
Speaker 1Y'all can have a seat. Have a few announcements. And here they are. If you would like to get involved in a Bible study or in a small group, there is a bulletin board out there that I can see from right here. Right out there in the vestibule.
And it has a lot of different groups that are meeting that are open to having new members. And if you would like to, you can get in touch with the leaders of those and connect with them. That's one way. You can call us and we will try to help you. This little raccoon is announcing middle school and high school youth group.
Middle school youth group meets Sundays three to five. They start out in the Fellowship Hall. Mike and JJ get a meal ready for them, and they have games, and it's a fun time to be together. And then they talk about stuff that matters. High school is on Thursday night, 06:30 to eight.
It's on Broadway on the that would be the east side of the road, near Farm Bureau across the street from Whole Grocer in that area is the Tribe Ministry Center. Tribe is another church in town, and we are having sort of a compiled youth group from all of the churches, high school, Thursday, 06/30 to eight. If you don't know where that is, we can get you the information, or we can even take you there if we need to. Awana clubs. Awana is back in full swing.
We have three weeks under our belts, and it's a really good time. Tomorrow night, 05:45 to six starting 05:45 ish, 06:00 here, Awana's clubs. We'll start out right here in this room, and tomorrow night is Sparks Parents Night. So if you're a parent at one of the Sparks, you can come in and experience Awana for yourself. Follow the Sparks around the church.
The Spark kindergartens and the Spark first and second graders and wander around station to station. The kids will love it, and I think you will too. So that's happening tomorrow night, 05:45. If there's anything else that we might have forgotten or needs to be communicated, we'll communicate it through the church announcement emails, and you can sign up for those yourself at first b jackson dot org, or you can let us know, and we will sign you up. Is there anything I'm missing?
Hey. There's a hand. Yes. I see that hand. Okay.
There is food sitting on the counter in the kitchen. Grapes, and there's lots of good stuff. Lots of good stuff. Somebody donated it. It's all good stuff.
If you would like to, please. Even if you wouldn't like to, please, just go ahead. Take it. Move it on down the line. That would be great.
Would you stand with us and we will keep on praising the Lord together. Come Holy Spirit. Lord God, come Holy Spirit. We've got one more. Open our eyes, Lord.
Speaker 2Us to open our eyes lord we want to see Jesus
Speaker 1Amen. Y'all can have a seat and I'm going invite the ushers to come forward. And this is a worship through giving time or the operatory time. Would you pray with me? God, I thank you for this beautiful morning, beautiful fall morning that we have come into your house to sing praises to your name.
Lord, we love you, and we're thankful for you. We want to be beacons of light, Lord. We want to be reflecting your light and your goodness and your glory into this community around us. And extend into the very uttermost parts, Lord. Would you do your will and your way among us?
Would you direct us as to what it is that we should be giving, Lord? Financially is one thing. Intellectually is another. Connections we need to make, conversations we need to have. Direct us, Lord.
Show us what it is that you'd have us to give. And then, Lord, would you multiply all of that in Jesus' name to do his will, your will to the very uttermost parts. Amen. Yes. But I don't think I've ever noticed it before, but the some money spilled out of the offering plate right there.
I guess it's probably the usher that put it in, but it was just sitting right there. And I thought, that's going to be distracting, so I'm going to take it in there to the office. All right. Well, here we are. The next slide, Nick.
Checking our lenses. So this week, this week, you all know that I work on junk all the time, right? I'm always working all the time, Nick says. I was trying to polish up some lenses that used to be that headlights on cars and marker lights and everything were actually made of glass. And you didn't have to polish those because glass usually sticks.
It stays that way for a long time. But plastic ones now will oxidize and they get pitted and they get yellow and you just get to the point where it's like glaucoma, you just can't see through them. And so checking your lenses, I was trying to shine some up this week And I kept on and kept on, used different products and sandpaper and all kinds of stuff to get them to work. Because I was trying to restore them to clarity so that the light could shine through them. Right?
So that sounded like, oh, preacher's analogies. Here we go. But that's the point, is to get the headlights out there, you got to have clear lenses. That's one thing. The other is checking your lenses.
I have gotten to the point where I can read this fine from right here. If it gets closer than that, I need these. So, checking your lenses, corrective lenses to see it properly as you should see it. And in biblical studies, the term hermeneutics means the interpretive lens through which you see a text. So hermeneutics are important.
Hermeneutics matter. If you go into the text with the hermeneutic of skepticism, you are gonna find all kinds of apparent contradictions. If you go in with a hermeneutic of doubt that why should I think that this is good? Why should I think that God is good? You're gonna find things doubtful.
But if you go into it with a hermeneutic of goodwill, that God is good, that the text is true, and that it is beautiful, He's unified. Those things are transcendent. If we go in and approach the text with humility and believe, Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so, then we're more apt to see what it is that God is communicating to us with great clarity. So that is what I am gonna be talking about. Now, I'll give you fair warning.
Normally, what you see on me behind me in the screen is scripture, period. It's almost always that or some little illustration or picture that points to it. And I skip to the next one, and it's scripture. And you'll see that at the beginning today, and you'll see that at the end today. But between I'm gonna ramble a little bit.
Is that okay with you? It did not go the direction I planned for it to go this morning in the first service. I'm still smarting from that a little bit, but I still think it's important because this is important. Checking your lenses is important. How is it that we're seeing scripture?
Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. That's a hermeneutic of goodwill. I am weak, but you are strong. That's a hermeneutic of goodwill. We all know what it's like to fail.
We all know what it's like to fall short, sin. And we know, because the Bible tells us so, that forgiveness is offered. And we can live in forgiveness. And once we have experienced the forgiveness that God has given us, it is an example to us, just as God in Christ has forgiven you to be forgiven others. So it can make for a great relational church if we will check our lenses and see.
This is the text. Now, last week, in our we didn't really do a harmony of the gospels last week. Last week, I took Luke, and I just covered this story in Luke. And I told you I'd come back to Matthew and Mark because we've been doing a harmony of gospel study. This is what leads me to my discussion of hermeneutics.
Luke, this is it. This is the story we got last week. Now as Jesus was approaching Jericho approaching Jericho, a man who was blind was sitting by the road begging. But when he heard a crowd going by, he began inquiring what this was. Now we know from time frame that Jesus is heading up to Jericho from Jericho up towards Jerusalem, and he would be crucified outside the city wall of Jerusalem within a week or two.
It's close. It's very close. And so in Luke, this instance, blind Bartimaeus and Zacchaeus, which I covered both last week, is kind of a culmination of Jesus' ministry up to the crucifixion. They told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by, and he called out saying, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Those who led the way were sternly telling him to be quiet.
But he kept crying out all the more. Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stopped and commanded him that he be brought to him. And when he came near him, he asked him, what do you want for me to do? Now, this is interesting.
I mentioned the Chiastic construction last week that said, don't hinder the children. Have them come to me. And then for the rich young ruler, come follow me. Lay aside all that hinders you. And this is, there was a crowd that was hindering him from coming, and Jesus cleared out the way.
Bring him to me. And then he said to him, what do you want me to do for you? And he said, Lord, I want to regain my sight. And Jesus said to him, regain your sight. Anableppo, look up.
Your faith has made you well. And immediately, he regained his sight and began following him, glorifying God. When all the people saw it, they gave praise to God. That was last week's message, or half of last week's message. And this was the application point that I I put up on the last slide.
Actually, in this service, I just said it during a prayer. I didn't put it on the last slide. But sometimes we need to just use the senses that we have. This guy could hear. He heard what was going on, and he had a voice.
And he called out, and when he was sternly admonished, he called out even louder, son of David, have mercy on me. Then he called out to God, and he called out to him for what he was lacking. He wanted to be made whole and Jesus made him whole. So that was the point. Now, if you're looking at this in Mark, Luke does not tell us who the guy was.
And Mark starts off and says, and then they come to Jericho. That little asterisk is a historical present. Now they come to Jericho instead of they came to Jericho. Now now they come to Jericho. It's a rhetorical device to get you into the story.
They come to Jericho and later as we he was leaving Jericho with his disciples in a large crowd. Now Luke said he was approaching Jericho, and Mark says he's leaving Jericho. Both of them said there's a large crowd. Is this enough right there for you to go, can't believe this nonsense? They don't know whether he's coming or going.
Scrap it all. I don't believe the Old Testament or the New Testament because of this. That's not a hermeneutic of goodwill. The point of that first story is right here. Right?
That's the point from Luke. And then let's read Mark. Let's give him a chance. And they came to Jericho. And later as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a large crowd, a beggar who was blind named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus.
Actually, bar means son of, so Bartimaeus pretty much says son of Timaeus. He was sitting by the road. And when he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began because he was listening, like I said, using the faculties that he had. He began to cry out and say, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Many were sternly telling him to be quiet, but he kept crying out all the more, son of David, have mercy on me.
Same story. Now, the approaching or leaving, Mark is from a Jewish background. Most people believe Mark is telling Peter's story. Okay? So Peter's dictating the John Mark, the one that Paul of Barnabas fought over.
Remember that guy? So Mark from a Jewish background. And Matthew, we'll get to that in a minute. Matthew also from a Jewish background. Luke was a Hellenist.
He's a Greek physician, Gentile. Many were sternly telling him to be quiet, but he kept crying out all the more, son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stopped and said, call him here, commanded him. So they called the man who was blind, saying to him, take her. Stand up.
He's calling you. Now they had just sternly told him to be quiet, but now that Jesus is saying, no. Bring him over here. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. He's calling he's calling you. And throwing off his cloak, he jumped up, and he came to Jesus. And replying to him, Jesus said, what do you want for me to do for you? And the man who was blind said to him, Rabbi, sign of respect.
Master, teacher, I want to regain my sight. And Jesus said to him, Go, your faith has made you well. And immediately, he regained his sight, he began following him on the road. So that's Mark's story. And what's the point of that story?
Sometimes, we need to just use the senses that we have, then call out to God for what we're lacking to be made whole. Now, the approach in versus leaving. Matthew, when we get to Matthew, it says, as they were leaving Jericho. So Matthew and Mark both say as they're leaving Jericho. And Luke, the Hellenistic physician Gentile, says as they're approaching Jericho.
I forgot to put the maps in. Sorry. But the Northern city Of Jericho and the Southern city Of Jericho are two different places. The Northern city Of Jericho is the one that Jewish folks would think back to where they walked around the walls and the walls came a tumbling down. And Herodian Jericho was built recently.
It's the new town. It's the big city. And that's the place where Jesus could both be leaving the Jewish understanding of Jericho and walking into the Hellenistic understanding of Jericho at the same time. That's pretty reasonable, if you know that. If you go into it with a hermeneutic of goodwill, you can see, I don't know what approaching and leaving, what's the difference there.
It doesn't really matter. What's the point of the story? You can get the point of the story without knowing that. But there's a reasonable explanation for it. Apparent contradictions can be overcome if you're looking with the right lenses.
Now, if you have a hermeneutic of skepticism or a hermeneutic of doubt, it will be very difficult for you to see those things. There's another hermeneutic you can have, and that is one that the pharisees tended towards. They wanted for everything that was written to make them look good, and that's not why it was written. As they were leaving Jericho let's let Matthew tell a story. As as they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed him.
That him is Jesus, capital h. And two people who were blind. Uh-oh. Two people who were blind. Sitting by the road, same posture, hearing that Jesus was passing by, same faculties exercise, cried out, Lord, have mercy on us, son of David.
There are two of them instead of one of them in Matthew's version. But the crowd sternly warned them to be quiet, them to be quiet. Yet, they cried out all the more, Lord, son of David, messianic title, have mercy on us. And Jesus stopped and called them and said, what do you want for me to do for you? And they said to him, lord, we want our eyes to be opened.
What we're looking for is to see clearly. That's what we want. And moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes. This is how he says that it did it in Matthew. So that's a new detail.
He had said, your faith has made you whole. It doesn't mention whether you touch him, but that doesn't mean he didn't touch him. Matthew says, Jesus touched their eyes and immediately they regained their sight, and they followed him. Followed him. He's heading up to Jerusalem for the crucifixion.
I've told you last week, it's like heading from first b up to the top of the pass. It's a long walk and uphill, a difficult journey. What's the point of that story? The point of that story is sometimes we need to just use the senses we have, then call out to God for what we're lacking to be made whole. So that, I think what's my hermeneutic?
If I'm hung up on the differences in the story and I go, this can't be trusted. I miss the point of the story. I am far enough removed from the text. It's good. The text is good.
There's more evidence for Jesus that are here for any of the Roman emperors. Right? There's plenty of evidence for Jesus, plenty of manuscript, plenty of evidence. But if I'm looking into it and I'm picking it apart and nitpicking it, and I'm doing so to tear down the authority of God's word, then I'm missing the point. And I'm tearing it up for other people, honestly.
If you have a hermeneutic of goodwill, you're more likely to come away transformed. If I trust that the text was given by a loving God for my good, then I'm more likely to adhere to what it says. At least say, God, would you transform my hard heart? Would you work in my life? I'm laying this down because you've told me to because you care about me.
If you've got a hermeneutic of goodwill, you trust that God cares about you. And I mean, it's all throughout the New Testament. First Peter says for us to be casting our cares on him because he cares for us. Right? If we are looking for a reason not to listen to what the Bible says, we will find it.
I have an email that I shared in the first service that I I hesitate to share it again because I think that my point was completely missed, and that was on me. It was of a guy who came. He actually sent a messenger ahead of him and got permission from me to be able to stay here for a night. I'm gonna paraphrase this time. Okay.
He got permission by way of his messenger be able to stay here for a night. He's moving across the country, just kind of wandering across the country from east to west. He's going to the Pacific. And he had some folks that had put him up in a campground come to me and say, hey. Could he stay here for a night?
And I said, yes. Of course. The building is open. He could stay out here on the green space. He was asking to stay with a tent.
And so, yeah, he could stay out there. Listen, for tonight, tomorrow we have a kids club that's meeting. It would be better if he was not here because we don't know him. And we're gonna have 60 something kids here and 40 something volunteers. It's just not gonna be a good time to have a guy hanging around out here.
And so yes, he could stay for the night. That's what they asked for. That's what he was asking for. When he got here the next day, I was not here. We help people all the time, by the way.
Y'all know that. Right? They come in. We give people a place to stay. Occasionally, church acts as a sanctuary where they're able to get out of the cold and stay in here at night.
We usually try to know about that, but we still offer that. I told him he can use the kitchen and use the bathroom. He can be here and stay in his tent like he asked for. And then the next day when he got here, he said he didn't know when he was leaving, and he kinda got into a back and forth immediately. Now this fellow had obviously had bad experiences with churches before because he immediately took offense.
And after that, there was nothing that the staff could say to convince him otherwise. He did not have a hermeneutic of goodwill. He had a hermeneutic of doubt. He had sent his messenger ahead and gotten permission for one thing. And then when he asked for more, it was actually too much.
So we countered and said, hey. How about a night in a hotel here? A shower, a bed, somebody camping? It sounds like a great thing. But he absolutely rejected it and then wrote me the most scathing email I have gotten in the last two weeks anyway.
No. No. No. I'm just joking. I'm joke.
I'm joking. Totally joking. That's a joke. I don't usually get emails like this, but it was just ugliness, ugliness, ugliness. And I don't want for y'all to pity me because I understand that this guy just missed it.
I get that. It was hard to receive the letter, and so I thought, oh my goodness. Maybe I could adjust this guy's lenses. I said, hey. We help people all the time.
This is what we do. He said, take with all we are loving God and loving people off of your site and off your website because that's not what you do. And I was like, but it is what we do. Here, these are the things that we're doing. We offered you night in a hotel, And he answered back with more vitriol.
Now the problem was, first of all, probably mental illness, and I recognize that. Second, though, the problem was what he expected when he came in was that we were going to reject him. And we didn't reject him. We offered him an alternative solution that was better than his way, to our eyes at least, and he rejected that out of hand and then went to just maybe I will close with the closing. Can I do that?
Nope. Diane didn't tell me I couldn't do it. I just I left and feel like I had not made the point this morning because so many people were praying for poor pitiful me. I'm I'm okay. I'm alright.
His close was, save the excuses. You're obviously listening to the evil one, and so is that other guy. He never offered me this, that, or the other thing. By your response, I can tell evil has gripped you. I won't pray for you because I'm not two faced and will say exactly what you ought to hear.
You know you're wrong. Don't ever contact me again With that nonsense response, you are a sorry excuse to God's service. Keep up your programs and all you brag about, and fill your time pacifying the fact that you're a sad man who makes excuses. Pathetic. Now I said mental illness.
This is why so many people were praying for me after the first service. I I my point is, if you go in expecting to be rejected by God, that's what you're gonna see. But keep reading. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ. He's sending you a lifeline.
He's sending you a savior. What is your hermeneutic? Is God good? Is he true? Is he beautiful?
And does he love me? He does. That's what the Bible affirms. If you go in with a hermeneutic of skepticism or hermeneutic of doubt and by all means, I think you should have a skeptical understanding when you're watching the news. Right?
I think you should have some skepticism when you're watching one side or the other in a political rally. I think you ought to be skeptical of that. But when you're reading the scripture and you lay down and say, God, I believe that you love me, I want for you to communicate your message of good for me. Will you transform my life? Will you allow me to resist temptation and the evil one by your word?
Will you fill me with the forgiveness and the mercy and the grace and the goodness by the spirit of God so that I may share that with others? He'll do it. He will do it. So the next text I skipped about a month ago. I skipped it.
It was before the children. It was before the rich young ruler. It was before Bartimaeus and Zacchaeus, and it is Matthew 19 and Mark 10. So Matthew 19 and Mark 10, and this is where it goes. And this is a hard teaching.
It's a hard teaching at the time, and it was a hard teaching. When I hid it in scripture, it was a hard one. And I needed I wanna start up, and I wanted to get to those children. But I'm coming back because I want for you to understand that God loves you, and he is extending his grace and favor towards you in even the hardest of teachings. So when Jesus had finished these words, he left Galilee, came into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan, that's Perea, and large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.
Is God good? Yes. He's healing people. He's teaching large crowds of people. For Mark, setting out from there, Jesus went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan.
That's Perea. Crowds gathered to him again. And as he was accustomed, he wants more began to teach him. And Matthew says he was healing, teaching also. And Mark emphasizes that he was teaching.
He was doing both. Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing him. What hermeneutic do they have? It's not a hermeneutic of goodwill. They don't want for him to be the Messiah.
They don't want for him to steal their thunder. They don't want for him to be who it is that he is showing himself to be. They're not using messianic titles for him. They're not using the faculties that they have. They knew the Old Testament better than anybody else.
They should have been able to see that this was the guy. Some pharisees came to Jesus testing him and asking, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all? Or and Mark, and some pharisees came up to Jesus testing him. Both of them said they were testing him. They were like, does this pass the sniff test?
Does this make me look good? Am I a good little boy by doing everything Moses said? Or what? If we can get him to go against the law of Moses, we've got him and we can cancel him and he'll be behind us, and we don't have to worry about him anymore. Some pharisees came up to Jesus testing him and began questioning him whether it was lawful for a man to divorce his wife.
And he answered them, and they said to them, well, what did Moses command you? When they said, Moses permitted. Is that the same thing? What did Moses command? And it says, well, Moses permitted a to write a certificate of divorce.
Gotta do the paperwork, but, yes, you can do it. What can you get away with? That's what they were interested in. And what he was saying was what was the command? What did Moses command you?
They said, Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce, send his wife away. But Jesus said to them, because of your hardness of heart, he wrote this commandment. Let's go on forward to see what Matthew says. And he answered, have you not read that he who created them, that's a circumlocution for God, from the beginning, he made them male and female. I thought I might I thought that might get an amen in this service.
Yeah. From the beginning, he made them male and female. And humility before the text says, this is the way that it is. This is out of the lips of Jesus. It's not just the Old Testament saying it.
This is Jesus saying it compassionately. He answered and said, have you not read that he who created them, he's paying attention to the scripture, and he knows it's for our good. He made them male and female and said, for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. He literally made them fit together to be one. So they're no longer two, but they are one flesh.
Therefore, what God has joined together, no person is to separate. Isn't that neat? That's not just weddings. That's actually in the Bible. Therefore, what God has joined together, no person is to separate.
They said to him, why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away? Well, Moses didn't he didn't command you to divorce. He just said, if you're going to, you need to do it in an orderly fashion. They said to him, why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away? And he said to them, because of your hardness of heart, Moses permitted you to divorce.
It's a concession because of a hard heart. And he actually says to them, because of your hardness of heart. They, in testing him, already were showing that they had a hard heart. Their heart was not soft before the text. Their heart was not soft before the master.
Their heart was hard, and they were trying to trick him. Because of your hardness of heart, Moses permitted you to divorce your wives. But from the beginning, it has not been this way. And I say to you well, let me go back. You know when God was creating stuff in Genesis, it says he made this and it was good.
And he made this and it was good. He made this and it was good. You know the first time when it says something was not good? For man to be alone. Yeah.
It was not good for man to be alone. That's a that is something. Now, he's gonna go on and teach further on that too. But I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality and marries another woman, commits adultery. What does Mark say?
Jesus said to him, Because of your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment. Hardness of heart is what it's really about. There are times when people are married, and one of them has an extremely soft heart, and one of them has an extremely hard heart. And there's nothing that the soft hearted person can do except for the quiet witness of a loving spouse. Right?
That's the best they can do. And sometimes, they cannot cure the hardness of the heart of the other person. And so, God has made an orderly way for it to end. It's heartbreaking, especially since God uses marriage as his metaphor of how Christ loves the church. But from the beginning of creation, God created them male and female.
Not just Matthew, Mark agrees. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and the two shall become one flesh, so they're no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no person is to separate. That is biblical. The disciples said to him this is funny because it's the Pharisees who are testing him, and then they get back where it's just the disciples and Jesus.
And they go, good grief, Jesus. That was a tough one. If the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it's better not to get married in the first place. If you're gonna be stuck, that's what they're saying. That's hard.
Really hard and really harsh. But he said to him, not all men can accept this statement, but only those to whom it has been given. Not with you there. In the house of disciples, again, began questioning him about this and said he said to them, whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. And if she herself divorces her husband and marries another man, then she is committing adultery.
Now, let me say right here, it's not the unforgivable sin. It's not the unforgivable sin. It is heart wrenching. And the teaching of Jesus before you go into a marriage on this should give you a very, very high standard, and it should soften your heart. Because at some point, you're going to do something that hurts you, hurts the other person.
And is there a way forward without a soft heart? Jesus is saying that they're not. Matthew, there are eunuchs who are born that way from their mother's wombs. There are some issues that are genetic and different. There are eunuchs who are born that way from their mother's womb, and there are eunuchs who are made eunuchs by people.
We see the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts that comes to Christ and is saved and baptized. I mentioned him a couple weeks ago. And there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. They've chosen celibacy and singleness for their allegiance and obedience to the kingdom of heaven. One who's able to accept this, let him accept it.
Paul says it's a gift. If you're able to do that, to go ahead that way, it freed him up to be able to minister the way that he needed to. Jesus did not marry. There are lots of things in this little text right here. But I wanna get back at what is your hermeneutic?
Are you looking at this and saying, well, I haven't done that. I haven't done that. I haven't done that. Wouldn't do that. I am righteous.
Or am I or am I saying, Lord God, forgive me. My heart was hard towards that person. Lord, I did not consider that I have not been moved with compassion to do what I could to help that person. Would you show me how I can help them and how I can help me? Soften my heart towards those in need, Lord.
Give me grace so that I can share it. Are you trusting that God loves you? That makes all the difference in the world. I have had people that have come to me and said, every time that I read the Bible, every single time I read the Bible, all I feel is condemned, just condemned. I said, do you feel that God loves you?
He says, well, all I've ever been taught is that I need to be this way, this way, this way, this way. I said, God loves you. He's extending forgiveness for all of the past. He's extending sanctification for all that's in front of you. Do you believe that God loves you?
Because he does, the Bible affirms that. If you go at it as a list of I have to accomplish this law, you are going to fail. Jesus fulfilled the law. He's the only one who could. Are you trusting that God loves you?
And are you trusting that he can and that he will transform your life or our lives if we're humble? If we will humble ourselves before him. Because he will. Jesus loves me. This I know, for the Bible tells me so.
Have the audacity to believe that that's true. Have the humility to lay it out before him, to see if the text will direct you towards what it is that God wants to transform in your life. If you're looking at it and going, I'm holy. I'm holy. They're unholy.
And you go after the unholy them instead of the unholiness in you. That's a problem. Test me, Lord. God also says, test me and see if I don't open up the doors of heaven. Humble yourself before the Lord, and he can do amazing things.
God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. I finished 10 earlier because I didn't read that email. I believe God loves people, and he's willing to overlook their flaws and failures. Not just overlook them, to nail them to the cross, to get rid of them. The goal of much psychotherapy is to get rid of a guilty feeling, but the goal of God is to get rid of actual guilt.
The guilty feeling subsides when the guilt is gone. He is willing to atone for their flaws and failures if they will just trust him, if we will just trust him. Would you stand with me and I'll invite Judy forward, and we're going to sing whatever she starts playing. Have thine own way. Perfect.
Speaker 2Have thine own way, Lord. Have thine own way. Thou art the potter. I am the clay. Mold me and make me after thy will.
While I am waiting yielded and still. Have thine own way, Lord. Have thine own way. Help me, I pray. Power all power surely is thine.
Touch me and heal me. Absolute sway, fill with thy spirit till all shall see Christ only always living
Speaker 1in me. Amen. For our benediction today, it's from Psalm one forty three ten. It is a prayer, an earnest prayer. Lord, teach me to do your will for you are my God.
May your good spirit lead me on level ground. God almighty, I I wanna declare that collectively we are trusting you. Lord, I trust you to send me anybody who doesn't trust you. Lord, would you please help us help one another to trust in the good heart of a loving God? Will not my savior do what is right?
God, would you show us your way and allow us the grace and the spirit, the gumption, and the will to do it. In Jesus' name, amen.
