10 Do You See Anything? (Mark 8:11-26)

Speaker: Welcome to Wednesday in the Word with Krisan Marotta. This is the tenth lesson in the series Questions Jesus Asked. Several questions by Jesus revolve around sight, culminating with Jesus asking a blind man if he sees anything. Mark chapter 8, verses 11 through 26. Krisan Marotta: We are in Mark chapter 8 today, and this is going to be hang on to your seats, we are going to cover a lot of ground today. As you know, in this series, we've been going through Mark, stopping at the places where Jesus asks a question, and we are up to the turning point in the book. And then at the end of chapter 8, he switches themes a little bit, and there's a second theme for the end of the book. So the first eight chapters, he is pointing out that this is the ruler who came to serve. So this is the servant of God. And we've been, most of the questions and things we've been talking about are who Jesus is. What's going to happen? You'll notice if you look down at 831, it says Jesus began to teach them that he must suffer many things and be killed and rise again. From that point forward, the nature of the book shifts, and he begins to emphasize that this is the servant who came to die for us. So this is the one who came to give his life as a ransom for many. And this is the kind of the climax, the turning point that leads up to that change. So I there's a whole lot leading up to it, and I didn't want to leave any of it out so you can get the full force of the climax. So we are going to spend most of the time in 11, 8, chapter 11 through 26, but I'm going to backtrack up into seven just to make, just to bring in the context so you can see how Mark builds to this kind of climax. So we have three scenes today in 11 through 26, and they all revolve around seeing. They all have this theme of do you understand? Or do you see or perceive? So in the first one, Jesus is talking to the Pharisees. They're trying to question them, and he responds to them, basically, why do you seek a sign? What could you see that would possibly convince you? Then in the second scene, he's challenging his own disciples, and he seems almost impatient with them saying, Do you have eyes but fail to see? He's trying to teach them this lesson about spiritual bread, and they're worried about physical bread, and he's saying, Do you still not understand? Do you still not get the point of all this? And then the the third scene culminates with Jesus and the blind men, where he heals him in stages and he asks, Do you see anything? And again, there's kind of this theme of do you understand? Do you get it? So that's all three of these encounters have to do with blindness, but really spiritual blindness. Do you failing to perceive, failing to understand? So before we look back, look at those, back up into Mark 7 for a minute. This section doesn't have a question in it, but it it so builds to the context I didn't want to leave it out. So look at Mark 7, verse we're going to start in verse 24. Then Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyree. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it. Yet he could not keep his presence a secret. In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek born in Cyrene Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter. First let the children eat all they want, he told her, for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs. Yes, Lord, she replied, but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs. Then he told her, For such a reply you may go, the demon has left your daughter. She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon was gone. Matthew records the same incident in his gospel in chapter fifteen. He adds a little bit of other detail. He says, A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him crying out, Lord Son of David, have mercy on me, and then making her request. So he adds that, Lord Son of David, have mercy on me. And then he makes it clear in Jesus' response when he responds to her, he says, Woman, you have great faith. Your request is granted. So what I want to point out to you is we're getting, this is the second time Jesus has encountered an unnamed woman who is coming to him looking for some kind of healing. The first one was the woman who touched his cloak and her bleeding stopped. But this time the woman is a Gentile. She's from the Syrophoenician race, she probably doesn't speak Hebrew, and she is so she has no claims on the promises of Israel, but she's desperate, and she comes and throws herself at his feet. And in Matthew's account, he says, he records her words as Lord, son of David, have mercy on me, which is an incredibly kind of revealing address, because her address to him is distinctly Jewish, even though she's a Gentile. Think about what she says, Lord, which basically is acknowledging his rule over or his right to be a master or a king. Then she says, Son of David, which was an acknowledge of his messiahship, of being God's chosen one, and then have mercy on me, which is I have nowhere to go, I can't, I have this need, you're the only one who can fill it. I don't deserve it, but I'm begging for your your mercy. So that's an incredible kind of statement of faith she approaches him with. And then Jesus his response seems harsh at first. It seems like how could he turn around to her and say, you know, basically no and you know, let the children eat first. Well, I think what's going on here is if you think about all the healings that we've seen so far that have been recorded, they all have a spiritual significance. We've never given a healing where it's just a work of power. In every instance, Jesus pulls out a spiritual lesson, and I think he wants to do the same here. So to just grant her request without teaching her anything spiritual or anything about salvation or the kingdom of God would be out of character for him. And he doesn't want to just be, you know, this wonder worker, this miracle worker. There's a point to his healings. And that's, I think, what he's drawing out of her. So he teaches her. He says, first let the children eat all they want, for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs. Now, that sounds like a racial slur to us. In our modern ears, we think, ooh, he's comparing her to the dogs. What that's how can he do that? Um, this is not a racial slur. The term he uses is the term for pets, or the term for house dogs. So this is not a uh like the stray dogs on the street, but this would be the pet dogs of the family. So he's making a comparison between the children of the household and the pets of the household. And most of us treat our pets as, you know, this honored member of the family and very beloved, and no matter how much we love them, though, we don't elevate them above the children. And that's the comparison he's making. He's saying there are children of the household and there are pets of the household, and children have a different status. And but it's not like she doesn't belong, they're in the household. So when he's and then he says, Let the children be satisfied, which interestingly enough is the same word that he used in the feeding of the 5,000 that everyone ate and was satisfied, and there were twelve basketfuls left over. So you see where he's going. Now, I think her response is brilliant, where she says, Um, yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table eat the children's bread, because she doesn't argue back, she doesn't claim her rights, she doesn't complain that God went to the Jews first and then to the Gentiles. She doesn't try to prove that she's worthy in any way or demand a favor. Instead, she says, I granted, I am unworthy, I'm not a child, I'm not a member of the race of Abraham, I have no claim to the promise, but you are Lord, you are the Savior, where else do we turn? And she, I think what she's learned from his teaching is even the house dogs or the pets belong to the master too. So the children sitting at the table are served first, but the pets under the table are still taken care of. They both belong to the master, and that's what she's appealing to him. That's the basis for it. Um and he recognizes that as a statement of faith, and now the miracle is not just a work of power, it's a testimony to the fact that he is the Messiah, and the Gentiles are part of the household. And that's the lesson he's trying to teach, not only her, but the disciples. So that's why I want to bring that in, because that's what he's building to here. So Mark implies that she has faith. Matthew says it outright, and when he says, Jesus answered, woman, you have great faith, your request is granted. Then there's another scene which I'm going to skip briefly, where he heals a deaf man. And without going into too much detail, I think the point of that is if he doesn't open our ears, we can't hear and understand. It follows the same theme he's looking at of do you see and not understand? Only here it's in Mark 7 through 31 through 37, he heals a deaf man, and the idea is now we can hear and obey. This is foreshadowing the promise that God will write the law on our hearts, and that he can open our ears to hear, he will open our hearts so that we can hear and obey. Then we get to another I told you we're gonna fly through this. We get to another miraculous feeding, and this one I'm gonna spend more time on because it's so interesting. This is Mark 8, starting in 8 verse 1. During those days another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said, I have compassion for these people. They have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance. His disciples answered, but where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them? How many loaves do you have? Jesus asked. Now you would think this would ring a bell with the disciples. They have to go, hmm, something's about to happen here. Seven, they replied. He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. When he had taken the seven loaves and given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples to set before the people, and they did so. They had a few small fish as well. He gave thanks for them also and told the disciples to distribute them. The people ate and were satisfied, and afterwards the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. About four thousand men were present. Now, at first glance it looks like he's repeated the same miracle that we saw with the feeding of the five thousand, but there are some really significant differences that I want to point out to you. First, he is back in the region where he healed the Garrison demoniac. So remember this was when they crossed over by boat and they got to the graveyard and the man came running down who was possessed by the legion of demons. He is now back in this same region. And you'll recall at the end of that miracle, uh the people asked him to leave. They didn't want him to stay and teach them. Now there's this huge crowd gathered to hear him. So I assume the man who was healed has had a significant effect. So this is a predominantly Gentile region, and the eaters are different. They are described as a flock instead of a large crowd. Some who are from far away, suggesting that they are this heterogeneous mix of people who've come from a great distance. The Israelites are described as gathering in groups of fifties and hundreds, which was typical how they are do they do that. This crowd, it says they just flop on the ground, which is something that would have been a term used to describe a mixed race or a mixed group of people. The baskets are different as well. The word used for baskets, Jews carried these round baskets, and it was a typical kind of basket they used. This is a different kind of basket. It's a flat mat with a handle on each end that you would bring the handles up together, and that was the kind of basket the Gentiles used. It would have been the type that Paul was lowered over the wall in. It's this big flat thing that you can pick up both handles. So, and then the most significant difference, the one Jesus points out later, is when he fed the five thousand, there were twelve baskets left over, suggesting the twelve tribes of Israel. When for this feeding there are seven, which is the number of the heathen tribes. So let me just quote for you, Deuteronomy 7.1. When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations, and then you can count them here the Hittites, Gergeshites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you. So seven becomes the number of the Gentiles. Again, in Acts 13, 16, standing up, Paul motioned with his hand and said, Men of Israel, you Gentiles who worship God, listen to me. The God of Is of the people of Israel chose our fathers. He made the people prosper during their stay in Egypt. With mighty power, he led them out of that country. He endured their conduct for forty years in the desert. He overthrew seven nations in Canaan and gave their land to the people as his inheritance. So now we've got this number seven that typically has come to refer to the Gentiles, and there are seven loaves of bread and seven baskets left over. And what's the difference in this feast? Is this not a feast for Israel, this is a feast for the Gentiles. Jesus has now invited all the nations. So the inclusion of the Gentiles, I think, was foreshadowed by the woman who asked for her daughter to be healed. Well, she was a Greek, and Jesus says, you know, first the children have to be fed, foreshadowing, but she was still fed. She was her request for mercy was still granted. Now he repeats this feeding of loaves and bread, but the he repeats it for a Gentile audience. And I think that's why the disciples don't get it. When he says, How many loaves do you have? and they say, Seven, and appear not to know what's coming, they wouldn't expect them to do anything for these people. These are the Gentiles. Why would he miraculously feed them the way he fed the Jews? These are not his people. This is the Jewish Messiah, the son of David. So they don't see this feeding coming because they don't expect Jesus to multiply whatever meager food is found for a Gentile crowd. And that's part of what Jesus is trying to teach them. That there is one Messiah, but he is a Messiah for all people. He is the bread of life that will feed not only the Jews, but also the Gentiles. And just like the woman, there are children of the household, pets of the household, but the pets belong to the master too, and they will come to the table and be fed. So it's interesting. There are three feasts in Jesus' ministry. The first one, the feeding of the five thousand, is for a Jewish population. The second one, the feeding of the four thousand, is a Gentile population, and he's going to close his ministry with yet another feast, which, if you think about it, the Last Supper communion, which will be each one is foreshadowing the next. Okay, so that is the context for what the passage we're going to look at today and concentrate on. But I wanted to bring out to you that he's trying to teach them that the Gentiles are part of the Messianic feast. They will come to the table and be fed. So keep that in mind as he asks these questions. Do you see and not understand? So now we're all of that was preamble, but good preamble, don't you think? So now we're going to look at 8, 11 through 26, where we're really going to spend our time. And again, there are three scenes in here. The first one is 11 through 13, where he's confronting the Pharisees. The second one is 14 through 21, where he's in the boat with his disciples, and then the third one, 22 to the end, where he heals the blind man. So let's start there. I'm going to mark 8, well, back up to 9. Having sent them away, so that's the crowd he just fed, he got into the boat with the disciples and went to the region of Dumb, however you say that, Dhammonta? The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus, to test him. They asked him for a sign from heaven. He signed deeply and said, Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to it. Then he left them and got back in the boat and crossed to the other side. So the Pharisees are trying to challenge him. The word question that's used here has an argumentative connotation. It's a debating kind of question. This is not the question a child might ask a parent seeking to know this is an adversary would ask this kind of question trying to trip you up. So the atmosphere is one of testing. And they say basically, show us a sign, prove to us who you are, which if you think about it is pretty amazing considering what we've just seen about Jesus. We've seen these two miraculous feedings, we've seen him cast demons out of people, we've seen him heal two different women, one Jewish, one Gentile. He's raised a child from the dead, he's healed the deaf, the lame, and the mute, and now they come and say, Okay, show us a sign. I mean, this is like going up to Moses after he parts the Red Sea and saying, Okay, now show us something really big. You know? They're just like, and he's grieved by their question. He says, Look, you're you're not gonna get it, you're not gonna get a sign. And I think the point of his answer is no matter what I do, you won't be persuaded. That if you have a heart like the Pharisees, no matter what sign is given to you, you will not see it because your eyes are closed, your ears are closed, your heart is closed, you aren't gonna get it. There is nothing that they can see that will persuade them that this is the Messiah. And that's how he answers. Psalm 19 says you're probably familiar with this. The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech, night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. And God tells us we have enough evidence in creation to know that God is out there, that he exists. He speaks of himself everywhere, and it goes into every um no speech, no language, no corner of the world is not without that knowledge. And yet Jesus says, if you're not ready to hear it, you won't hear it. If you if your hearts are closed, you will not see what God is doing even when he's standing right in front of you. So nothing he does will persuade them that he is who he says he is, so he's not even going to go there. He says, I'm not gonna give you a sign. So again, the issue is do you see and understand? And for the Pharisees, they see and their hearts are closed, so they don't understand. See, the signs signify something. It they are miraculous and dramatic, but they point to something else. And they're not that's what's really important, the thing that they're pointing to. It's like um like a freeway sign. It's only useful if you obey it, you know. I mean, if you see the freeway sign and you stop to marvel about its paint and its geometry and how nicely it's placed and everything, and you drive off in the wrong direction, you've missed the point. The point is this is the way to turn, this is the way to go. And that's what Jesus is saying. The sign is testifying something about who he is and what he came to do, and that's what they need to see, not the sign itself. Um you'll recall the story Jesus tells about Abraham and Lazarus, this is in Luke 16, where the rich man dies and he wants to go back and warn his brothers that there is life after death, and they say, and he's talking to Abraham, and Abraham says, They have Moses and the prophets, let them listen to them. And then let concludes with if they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced, even if someone raises from the dead. So the point of that is if um even an empty tomb will not persuade someone who is determined not to be persuaded. Okay. And Matthew records the same instant, he gives a little more detail in it. This is in Matthew 16. The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven. He replied, When evening comes, you say it will be fair weather for the sky is red, and in the morning, today it will be stormy for the sky is red and overcast. You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the time. And then again he refuses to give them a sign. But I think what that adds is they knew how to interpret the weather because of their livelihood dependent on it. This was an agriculture society, and they needed to know what the weather was going to do to manage their crops and their business. So they all became experts in interpreting the weather. And Jesus is saying, You've become experts at interpreting the weather, but you're missing the spiritual signs. You've closed your hearts to God. You don't see what He's doing, even when He's acting right in your midst. So you again, you see, but you don't understand. Okay, let's move on to the next scene and make sure we get through them all. Um now this is Jesus and the disciples sitting in the boat, and they're crossing the Sea of Galilee. 814. The disciples had forgotten to bring bread except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. Now, just as an aside, who but a bunch of men could go off and leave seven baskets of bread on the seashore? I mean, that's just always struck me. Here they have seven baskets of bread, and they get in the boat and they go, Oh, we only brought one piece of bread. It's like oh, anyway. You know, if the women had been with them, all those baskets would have been gathered. Up carefully in the boat. But anyway, not the point. Sorry. 8.14. The disciples had forgotten to bring bread except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. Be careful, Jesus warned them. Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod. They discussed this with one another and said, It is because we have no bread. Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them, Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but failed to hear? And don't you remember, when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up? Twelve, they replied. And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up? And they answered, seven. And he said to them, Do you still not understand? Now, just to give them credit, if I'd been there, I would have had to say, Well, give me about twenty hours of study and then I'll get it. At the moment, no, I don't get it. So they um Jesus begins this encounter with one of his warnings, his watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod. In hearing the word yeast, the disciples say, Oh, bread. Hmm. Yeah, we had seven baskets on the shore and we left them behind. What were we thinking? All we have is one little loaf of bread. And Jesus says, No, I'm not talking about the physical bread. Don't you get it? And the words here are all words for seeing. The be careful is the word to see or to stare at, to kind of pay attention to. The watch out is a word for perception again, it's using your eyes. And he's saying, watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees are Herod. So what's this point? Well, yeast was the ingredient in bread that gave it its character. And it's often used in the Bible as a metaphor for the invisible power of sin. That just as yeast mixes into the bread and permeates through the entire loaf and defines it, so a little heresy or a little sin will mix into the whole person and define the person. So that's frequently the metaphor he's using with yeast. So what was the yeast of the Pharisees? Well, the thing that defined to them was legalism. They were very intent on keeping all the law, outwardly at least, to the last jot and tittle and the last, you know, have all their uh T's crossed and I's dotted, and they were going to prove that they were going to get there on their own. They were going to do this themselves. So the the yeast of the Pharisees would be legalism. The Herodians, on the other hand, loved worldly power and comfort. They had been seduced by materialism. And so they kind of sidled up to Rome and and tried to get on Rome's good side to make their lives easier and to maintain their comfortable lifestyle. So on the one hand, he's saying, watch out for that pride and self-righteousness, that kind of legalism of the Pharisees, and on the other hand, the Herodians, watch out by being seduced by materialism and the comforts of this life. And his he starts this teaching with, be alert, be careful lest you slip up on either side. And they are concerned about lunch. So he goes back to square one. He says in 819, when I broke the five loves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls did you pick up? Twelve. And when I broke the seven, how many? And he says, seven. And he says, Do you still not understand? Well, I think the point he's getting at is the twelve baskets were symbolic of the Messianic feast, that these were the twelve tribes of Israel who had been invited to the table. The seven baskets symbolize the seven Gentile nations who had now also been invited to the feast. And the miracle is that Jesus feeds them both. That this is the one love, the one Messiah, the bread of life, if you will, that is being poured out for both Jews and Gentiles. And now he's sitting with them in the boat and he's saying, Don't you get it? The point is not that I can feed you here and now. The point is I have come to laid my life down for you to invite you to this messianic feast, not only the Jews, but also the Gentiles. So, in case they don't get it, he performs one more miracle, and this is the third scene, 822. They came to Betheda, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes, he put his hands on him. Jesus asked, Do you see anything? He looked up and said, I see people. They look like trees walking around. Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Jesus sent them home, saying, Don't go into the village. Now of all the healings that we've seen so far, I think this one is the most curious. Because it appears like it doesn't work. It appears like he does it once and whoops, something didn't happen right, and the man is given partial sight, and then there's a second work that gives him clear sight. But we've seen that Jesus is always doing things for a purpose, so I don't think that's the purpose. I think there's something spiritual lesson behind it. Also notice that it says a group of people brought this blind man to Jesus, but he pulls the blind man away from the crowd and takes him out of the village just with him and the disciples. And he interacts with him in a very personal and intimate way. Um we have seen him heal without even a touch. We have healed him s seen him speak, and it's so. And in the last one we saw with the um the Greek woman who was c asking healing for his daughter or her daughter, Jesus wasn't even in the same room or in the same village with her. She was someplace else. So he could have healed this man without touching him, and yet there's a lot of intimate touch and personal uh contact here in this healing. I think that's significant too. The use of saliva would have been an intimate gesture. Now, I know to our ears, knowing what we know about germs, we all go, oh, how could he do that? But at the time, saliva was believed to have medicinal value. And it was considered um, I don't know why, but it was considered to have some kind of medical value, and sharing your saliva was a personal gesture, it was an act of intimacy. So for when Jesus spits into this man's eyes, the man would have received it as an act of compassion, even though to our years today we think, ooh, that's kind of gross. But um in their culture, it would have been considered a gesture of intimacy. There's another case uh that's recorded in John 9 where he heals a blind man by spitting into the mud and making clay and applying clay to the man's eyes, but in this one, he spits directly into the man's eyes, which it would have been seen as a further kind of a real act of compassion. So what you see here is this scene of intimacy where Jesus pulls him apart, he physically touches him, he touches him again, he deals with his eyes, he talks to him, and there's this kind of loving interaction, and I think everything in it is symbolic. And remember the disciples are watching, they're paying attention. So what is he telling them? In the first scene, he challenges the Pharisees, he says, Look, you can't see what God is doing because your hearts are closed, and there's nothing I can do that will that will convince you because you are determined not to be convinced. Then in the second scene, he challenges the disciples to not look at what's in this world here and now, not be focused on the, you know, lunch or the petty things, but to focus on what Jesus is doing eternally and saying, Do you still not get it? And now we have the scene where he heals a man, he doesn't quite get it, and Jesus persists until he's healed again. And I think the symbolism of that is he won't leave us in our dull understanding. So he will do for us what we can't do for ourselves. Left to ourselves, we would all be like the Pharisees and not get it. Or we would be like the um the deaf man that uh we kind of skipped over where we would we just couldn't hear and obey, and he's saying, I will come to you lovingly, intimately, personally, and I will teach you until you understand, and I will stay at it until you get it. He won't leave them blind and confused. He won't leave them with partial sight like the blind man. He will continue until they see clearly, until they see and understand. And I think that's what's going on here. The disciples are beginning to see who Jesus is, but they don't yet understand what he came to do. They are beginning to understand that he's the Messiah, but they don't yet understand that he's gonna lay down his life, that he's gonna be killed and rise again. So they have some understanding, like the blind man, like when he says, I see tree men like trees walking, it's kind of blurred vision. But Jesus is gonna stick with them until they see clearly. Um so they see but they don't understand, they have ears but they fail to hear, but they will, because Jesus is going to open them for him, he's going to unite them. So I think part of the lessons he's teaching them is Jews and Gentiles are both coming to this feast, and they don't quite understand that yet. And the second thing is this is all going to be brought about by his death. If you skip down to the end of the chapter, there's the section we're going to look at next week, which is Peter's Confession, and then in 831 it says he begins to teach them that the the I don't have it directly in front of me, but it's something like he will the Son of Man will suffer many things and be killed and then rise again. That's the first time that theme is introduced in this gospel. So he's just now beginning to teach them that they're beginning to get that he's the Messiah. Now he's gonna start explaining him to them, here's what the Messiah came to do, came to die for you, to lay down his life and be resurrected. And they don't get it yet. So we'll see next week as we look at Peter's confession. He knows Jesus is the Christ, but when Jesus says, I'm gonna suffer, Peter says, No, wait, no, that's not in the plan. Um and Jesus says, No, you don't, you don't get it yet. It is in the plan. So I think the lesson for us is the point of hope is we all have fuzzy thinking somewhere. We all have places where we hear and we don't get it, or we see but we don't understand, or we want to have faith, but our faith isn't strong enough. And at least part of this lesson is that is our state apart from God, but he will not leave us there. He will come to us and teach us and take us by the hand and work with us until we get it. Uh and let us ask questions, let us speak, draw us out until we understand fully and clearly. And for most of us, that will be in the next age. We will there will be, as Paul says, we're like children looking through a glass darkly right now, but there will be a day when we see clearly. So that's our hope, to believe the gospel, to have our lives changed by it. And I think that's the same thing Paul prayed in Ephesians at the end of chapter one. He says, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. It's the same idea that the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened, so that we would know the hope of our calling, that we will be forgiven and given grace and made holy and perfect, and the riches of the glory of his inheritance, again, that we have that place in the kingdom of God, that we will be saved completely from our sins. That was Ephesians 1.18. And that's what I think Jesus is all pointing to. We're beginning to get it, but they don't have it yet. And now as the book shifts a little bit at the at the end of chapter 8 into focusing on his service and his uh coming death, that that's the lesson they have to start to get. Speaker: Thank you for listening to Wednesday in the Word. For notes and study questions related to this message, please visit our website, wednesdayintheword.com. Thank you for being with us, and we hope you'll join us again.