When Jesus Makes Us Uncomfortable

There are times that Jesus does things that make us uncomfortable. He works in ways that challenge our preconceived notions about how we think He should show up, work, or move. However, when we read Mark 8:22-26, the Lord often is working more deeply, He is refining us, testing us, and asking us to trust Him. 

As Jesus took the blind man out of the village and healed him, so He often calls us apart, does deep work, and uses unconventional ways to bring restoration and healing in our lives. My prayer is that you and I would be encouraged by this encounter with Jesus and that it would help us go deeper with Him...trusting that while things might be uncomfortable, painful, or even confusing - Jesus is worthy of our love and endurance. And we will see our heart and sight restored in a way we never could have anticipated.  

Scriptures Referenced:

• Mark 8:22-26
• Mark 8
• Romans 8:28
• Genesis 50:20
• Acts 3
• Philippians 4

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Transcript

0:06

Hey everyone, welcome to a brand new episode of Honey from the Rock. I am so glad you're here and thank you for coming back and listening, even though there was no episode last week. I had actually planned on recording an episode and then I was trying to get ready for vacation and it was I it just like you know, do you just know how sometimes things happen where you think you've got something planned out really well and then it just disintegrates through your fingers like sand on the beach? That's that's how that happened last week. But I think you know it out it it was an unintended break, but it actually ended up being a really good break. I road tripped with a dear friend of mine to Vegas because we went and saw our favorite boy band, our favorite band BTS, in concert, which was so much fun. And my voice still sounds a little bit hoarse because I screamed my guts out and danced and sang, and it was a great time. So uh but I'm glad. I'm glad to be back. I'm glad to be here with you for another episode, you know, and coming off the heels of, you know, just going and having a good time and and really doing some things that I enjoy. Uh, I just feel like the Lord has continued to work in me and he's been dealing with things within me. And I pray that today's episode, as I share some of those things and where he's kind of led me in the word, I pray that the episode is encouraging to you today and meets you maybe in some places where you are praying for the Lord to move and praying for him to change something, or where you need to see a miracle, or you've you've asked the Lord very specifically for something, and yet how he's chosen to answer is not even something that you considered in the realm of possibility. And it seems like he's going the complete opposite way of what you've what you've prayed for. Uh, because I think we've all experienced times like that in walking with Jesus, you know, and seeking the Lord, and and we're told, and it's true, I mean, the the Lord is a good father and he gives us good things, but he's also in the in in in the journey of those good things, he's also refining us and he is conforming us to the image of his son. And a lot of times that reforming and that refining and that conforming can be painful because there are things that the Lord has to cut away. And sometimes it can be really surprising and amazing because they're all of a sudden we can clearly see the good gifts that the Lord has has given to us, and yet they've come to us in a way that we never would have expected. And that's actually what I want to talk about today. I have been reading in Mark 8, and it's such an interesting chapter. There's so much going on, and I'm actually I am not gonna go through the whole chapter, nor I'm gonna read the whole chapter to you. I will not do that to you this week. But there are some really interesting snapshots that Mark gives us in the ministry of Jesus, in his interactions with the disciples, in interactions that he has with people that he heals. And I, again, I pray that this just encourages you. Um, and I and I was I've been reading in this chapter because it popped up in a devotional that I'm doing or a daily plan that I'm doing with my mom and my friend Gina. And the whole context of the devotional we're going through a new version is um waiting on the Lord. And and this this section of scripture came up in the context of that. And as I was reading it, I it was like the Holy Spirit was holding this passage up to me as a mirror to say, Carrie, I've heard you pray for certain things. I've heard the cries of your heart, and I know that the answers that you have sought either haven't come in the way that you thought, or maybe I've said no, or it's it's taken a route that you did not anticipate. But I just felt like the Lord used this small, these four verses to really encourage me and and to also remind me of the sovereignty of the Lord, to remind me that I may ask him for something and I may petition him as to how I would like to see him do it. But that my ultimately my position before the Lord is as a child of the Lord, I I can ask him, I can ask him for things and I can ask him to move and all of that. But also as a as a disciple, it is also paramount for me to submit and to surrender to the ways that he chooses to work because he does know best. His ways are not my ways, and praise God for that, because I have such finite view of of what's going on, and the Lord sees everything, and he also knows what I need, and he knows what my life needs in order for me to walk out what he's called me, what he's called me to do. So I want to encourage you with this section of scripture, and it's Mark 8, 22 through 26. And so Mark writes, They came to Beth Seda and they brought a blind man to Jesus and implored him to touch him. Taking the blind man by the hand, he brought him out of the village, and after spitting on his eyes and laying his hands on him, he asked him, Do you see anything? And he looked up and said, I see men, for I see them as trees walking around. Then again he laid his hands on his eyes, and he looked intently and was restored and began to see everything clearly. And Jesus sent him to his so his home, saying, Don't even enter the village. So this is a very interesting snapshot because I, like I said, I was reading this verse, and and I just so clearly could see my own self in the people that bring the blind man to Jesus. Because I love how Mark puts it, they they brought the blind man to Jesus and implored him to touch him, right? The the thought being like, Man, if Jesus could just touch him, he'll be healed instantly. We've heard what he can do. And if Jesus would just touch him, then this man's life would be made better. And and oftentimes I find myself in that similar place of imploring the Lord. And in the Greek it means to beg, to entreat. Um, to and the helps word study says it's to make a call, but you're in a close personal space with the person that you're asking to do something for you. So it's not just like, hey, Jesus, would you mind healing our friend here or would you mind healing this blind dude? But it's Lord, please, please move in this man's life. Please heal him. And I think about so many times in my own life where I have begged the Lord, Lord, I just want your presence. Lord, if you would just do this, Lord, please heal me. Lord, please move in this way, please do X, Y, and Z. And I expect that the healing will take place or the Lord's move will happen immediately and in the way that I've asked. But as I'm reading, I love how Jesus immediately disrupts everything that people expect him to do. And he does it consistently to show us that he is God and that how he chooses to do things is right and beautiful and perfect. And he always does them for our good, for a deeper revelation of who he is, that we would learn more of his ways and that we would, I think sometimes stop directing him, right? Like I think it's great that we can say, Lord, I need this, or I like, Lord, we're asking you to move in this situation. But again, we're not God. I mean, and I like there are many times where I just feel like, man, Lord, if you would just do this the way that I've asked you to, it'd be so much better. And the Lord's like, uh, yeah, okay, lady. Um, and I and I love like man, if Jesus would just touch him, he would be healed, he'd get his sight back. But what does Jesus do? He takes the man by the hand, he brings him out of the village. And I love that there is the compassion of Jesus to say, I've heard you, but I have I have things that I want to do here to help this man and to also help you, right? So he takes Jesus, or Jesus takes this man by the hand and leads him out of the village and spits on his eyes. So I was doing some research and Jesus uses spit in three different healings. Um, one of them is in Mark 7, where he uses spit um on a man who is deaf and dumb. He uses it here in Mark 8, and then he uses it with the blind man at the pool at Siloam in in John 9. And there are lots of things that people have said about um why Jesus might have used spit. And there's there's a lot of different reasons why. But I loved, again, the topical lexicon. I loved what um what they shared about why Jesus used used spit because it was um considered in some in some cultures and and back in biblical times um a sign of shame. Obviously, there's lots of places in the Old Testament that tells us that Jesus, when he was crucified and he he knew that he would be spit on, that he would be mocked, that he would be hit, that he would be whipped, all and and and and the spitting was shame, right? But there was also cultural contexts where sometimes if there was somebody who was a rabbi or someone perceived to be very spiritual or had certain gifts, that their spit held some sort of mystical magical power. And I think that Jesus uses his spit to actually blow all of that out of the water. And and the topical lexicon breaks it down in this way, and I really appreciated this when I was when I was looking up the word for for saliva. It says the theological and mini ministry significance is wrapped around four different points. The incarnation revealed by employing something as humble as saliva, Christ dignifies the physical world he created. And I thought that was really powerful. Again, the reversal of shame, what set what society treats as repulsive becomes an instrument of grace, prefiguring the cross where the stone, the builders rejected, has become the cornerstone. Progressive illumination here in this text that we're looking at in Mark 8, sight is restored in stages, mirroring the disciples' gradual comprehension of the Messiah's identity. Because just before this miracle happened, Jesus had fed the four or the 5,000, 4,000. And then they got into the storm and all of a sudden they realized we don't have any bread. And Jesus is like, Why do you not understand that this is not about bread? And so they they are Jesus is why don't you understand? They they were in confusion, and and I think Mark is the one that tells us that they had hardness of heart. Um, they're you know, they had seen the Lord do a lot of different things, but there was a hardness of heart there where the miracles are starting to become commonplace that they couldn't see, they couldn't see the deeper motive of Jesus, they couldn't see the depth of his divinity. And it's actually right after this miracle that then Peter gets the true revelation that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And so I love how the topical lexicon said progressive uh illumination. This man's sight is restored in stages, and it's such a great example of how in our own walk of discipleship we get a spiritual sight in stages. There are there are places as we're walking with Jesus where we're still blind to certain parts of him and aspects of him. And as we walk with him and as we come to know him more, as we study his word, as we let him prune us and dig deep as we repent and ask the Lord to help us grow in holiness and sanctification and be made more like him, that our our spiritual sight is opened. And by the end of this miracle, we also start to see clearly. And then the fourth point the topical lexicon makes is faith and obedience. The blind man in John 9 is instructed to go and wash in the pool of Siloam after Jesus spits in the dirt and makes mud and puts it on his eyes. And I love this healing is inseparable from believing submission to Christ's word. And I think that that is so necessary for us to understand. And it's been something in my life that the Lord has really required me to learn in a deeper and deeper and deeper way. Because it's easy, it's easy at some points when we've been walking this discipleship thing with the Lord to kind of feel like we know Jesus, we got this all together. And then something happens, you know, whether it's good, whether it's bad, whether it's hard, whether it's joyful, whatever it is, and all of a sudden our perspective of Jesus shifts again. And that's why I love, I love this parable because it Jesus intentionally shows the stages of sight that this man had restored. And as his disciples today, there are places where we are spiritually blind to Jesus. And there are times when he restores our sight right away, but there are times when he says, No, I'm I'm gonna do this in stages because I want this to stick. I want, I want the revelation that I'm trying to give you. I want the the things in my word that I'm trying to open you, open to you to stick, but also I want to see, are you willing to trust me? Even when the healing or the request or whatever doesn't come how you think it should look, or it seems like it started and there's a great anticipation that it's going to, that the Lord's gonna come through, and then all of a sudden it seems to stall. Are you still going to trust the Lord? Am I still going to trust the Lord and and see it through to the end? And that's what I I just again the compass see the compassion of Jesus. He doesn't turn these people away who bring him the blind man and say, No, I'm not gonna heal this guy. But he also is like, I hear you, and I will heal him according to my father's will. And I just love that we see the compassion and power of Jesus on display because he takes the man by the hand and he leads them out of the village. And oftentimes in my own life, there have been things that I have wanted the Lord to do for me, but I've wanted him to do them in a very public, amazing way so people can see how spiritual I am, all right? Or look at me and be like, man, Jesus is really with Carrie. And that's my own pride, that's my own wrong, sinful desire. And I'm not saying that this is how this blind man felt at all. I don't know how he felt, but I do love and I see the spiritual principle of the Lord saying, I'm going to heal you, but I'm going to take you away with me. I'm going to pull you out of the crowd. I'm going to pull you into a place where it's you and me. And we're going to do this deep work together. And it's going to be secret and it's going to be hidden. And I'm going to, and like at the end of this miracle where he says, he sends him home, but he says, Don't even go back to the village. And how many times Jesus said, Don't, don't tell people what I've done. And that's for a multitude of reasons. But one of them is there are things that the Lord does in secret, things that he does in our prayer closet and in our secret place that he does not want us blabbing about because they're precious between us. And if he gives us the go-ahead to share, that's great. But more often than not, he wants people to see the fruit of what he's done, but not necessarily, like he says in Matthew 6, like don't stand on the street corner and trumpet your prayers or talk about how much good you do for people. There are so many things that the Lord loves to do in the secret place. And I see that with this man compassionately taking him by the hand, bringing him out of the village. You know, Jesus doesn't stand him in the middle of a group of people and then spit on him. You know, and in a way, I think he, I don't, I think he he honors the dignity of this man by saying, How I'm going to choose to heal you is going to surprise you, but I'm not so also not out to embarrass you or to mock you or, you know, this is going to between be between you and I. And and I just I love I loved the other point that the topical lexicon made of the reversal of shame. You know, that spit is look, you know, it's disgusting. It's a bodily fluid. And yet the way that Jesus uses it three times to heal people, I mean, I don't know. I I just think about like it's Jesus. He came down, like it's God using his spit to heal you. And that sounds, you know, and I and I think it's like we probably sometimes have a visceral negative reaction to it because it's like, ooh, gross. And yet I think that's that's a huge part of it. It's it will we surrender and submit to the ways that Jesus chooses to work in our lives when our natural adamic nature reaction is, oh Lord, ooh, gross or ow, that's painful. Will we love him enough to say, I trust you, even though this is uncomfortable and this is gross or it's difficult, and I don't understand this. But you know what, Lord? I'm gonna trust that you spitting on my eyes to help me see something, even though I don't understand. I'm gonna submit to it. I'm gonna submit to however you choose to work with me, Lord. And I loved here as well in the uh in the topical lexicon when they were talking about practical application in this packet passage, they said the Lord may employ unlikely means to accomplish his purposes. Ministers should remain open to God's creativity while staying rooted in scripture. And I think that that's so important. It's so important. We tend to keep the Lord in a box. And scripture gives us a vast, deep and wide variety of the way that the Lord, that the Lord chooses to work. And when things get, we we have a tendency as humans, when things get uncomfortable, we are like, mm, see ya, we're gonna book it out of here. And the Lord's like, no, trust me enough that even though this might be distasteful to you, will you trust me? Even though this might feel gross, will you trust me? Even though this is super uncomfortable, will you trust me? And will you trust my love for you? That you've come to me for healing, I'm not going to deny you. You've come to me for something. You need my move, you want my person, you want my presence, you need to hear from me that I'm not going to deny you. But will you trust that even though it doesn't come the way you expect it to or you that you want it, that how I choose to work is ultimately for your good and and for you to know me more. The other thing that the topical lexicon says is that Jesus uh turns a common, even distasteful act into a vessel of divine power, embracing the lowly and overturning cultural expectations. He reveals his authority over both body and symbol, inviting his followers to trust his word, participate in his compassionate presence, and anticipate the ultimate restoration when he will wipe every tear away from their eyes. And I just think that's really beautiful. And so, you know, Jesus spits on this man's eyes and then he lays his hands over his eyes and then says, Do you see anything? And the man looks up and says, I see men, for I see them as trees walking around. And we were doing this Bible say it was interesting. I hadn't caught this, but both my mom and my friend Gina pointed out that this man must have been seeing at some point because he knew what men looked like and he knew what trees looked like. And I had never thought of that before. But what I love here is that you know, Jesus heals him in stages, he doesn't bring the healing all at once. He heals this man in stages, and and and again, I think there is a bit of a test in. To say, will you trust me to see this all the way through? And I was telling my mom as I was prepping for this episode, you know, there have been times when, and I referenced it earlier, where the Lord has started to move in my life, and I'm starting to see the Lord work in a particular area that I have asked him to work. And I see him starting to move. And there, you know, that anticipation builds, like, oh, yes, Lord, thank you. Thank you for what you're doing. And then all of a sudden it's like the records scratch, you know, like clearly I'm not a DJ. But there is that, and all like all of a sudden, you're like, okay, the Lord spread it this far. And is he gonna go all the way? Am I gonna see the fruition of what I've asked for? Is the spiritual healing that I've asked for going to come? And you know, but then, and again, just just being totally honest, I'll put on a falsely humble, humble heart. I've done it in the past to be like, well, thank you for what you've chosen to do, Lord. You know, I'm gonna worship you in this, and this is so great. And like Jesus doesn't see in my heart, I'm like, really? Like, you couldn't have gone all the way. You couldn't have taken this healing or this prayer request or shown up all the way, and you know, and and I think sometimes there's a test in that for us to say, am I willing to accept what the Lord has chosen to do? Am I willing to keep walking in faith and trust that whatever he decides to do after this point that I've reached is still good and perfect? I mean, the blind man did not have any guarantee that Jesus was going to fully heal him, except that Jesus had fully healed others. So he knew, he knew the Lord was able to do it. And I I just feel like there's, but there's also the test, I see men as trees walking, and it's that tension, right? Because sometimes the Lord is requiring us to be content with seeing men as trees walking. Sometimes there's that place where it's like the Lord gets us to a certain place and he's opening things to us, and he's and then we have to wrestle with what he's opened to us or what he's dealing with us in, or the things that he's shown us about our own heart, and then the full healing comes. And I think sometimes there's also that place where we get to where we see men as trees walking, and the Lord knows He's gonna, He's gonna bring us all the way through. But we also need to know our own hearts. Do I really trust that the Lord is? I see, I've seen how the Lord's been good to others, right? He's healed other blind men fully, other blind women fully, he's delivered other people fully, he's restored limbs, he raised this woman's son from the dead. You know, do I believe that the Lord's goodness extends to me as well? And and and like I said, just in in the place of full transparency, these are places that I have wrestled with the Lord and and wrestled with him recently because the Lord keeps going deeper to get out that the full root of things that keep me from trusting him. And I have to let him, I have to be willing to let the Lord dig that that deep so that I can walk in the full confidence of who he is and trust him no matter what comes to me. You know, and we and we read, you know, we read people in the Bible, we read their stories, we read their accounts, and I think I'll just speak for myself, but I know having conversations with with friends and and a Bible study of like we think that there was probably some extra supernatural power that some of these people in the scripture had access to that we don't. And that's why they were able to have joy in prison or you know, worship the Lord and be thankful that they were counted worthy to suffer for his name's sake. No, we have that same, it's the same Holy Spirit, it's the same Jesus, it's the same Father. They desire to equip us with the same joy, the same endurance, the same perseverance, the same faithfulness and confidence that they have equipped their people with throughout centuries. But I think sometimes, especially in our Western culture, when it confronts our comfort or it confronts our preconceived notions and ideas about how we think God should work for us, we are really like, whoa, no, no. Then I am satisfied. I am satisfied right here with seeing men like trees walking. And sometimes we don't see the Lord take us all the way through unless we're willing to wrestle, unless we're willing to trust him. And I don't say that that's all the time, but in my own life, and as I've walked with friends and family, as they've wrestled, I've seen some of these things come true. Like, well, okay, Paul was able to rejoice in prison, but I mean, it was early church, look at the way the Holy Spirit was moving, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, look at this man. The Lord healed him. So, of course, he was able to have great faith, or whatever it is. The Lord wants to give us these same gifts, but we have to be willing to wrestle with him, we have to be willing to trust him, and we have to be willing to submit to how he chooses to do things and say, You are God and I am not. And so, Lord, if you want to spit on my eyes, if you want to make mud and slather them, you know. I mean, in John, in Mark 7, he not only used saliva, but he stuck his fingers in this guy's ears. Jesus does things with us that are uncomfortable and they rattle us and and they take us out of our comfort zone. And he does it intentionally, not because he's cruel, but because he is not, he is, he's unwilling to leave us in places where we stay steeped in wrong, wrong ideas about him, where he lets us, he he will not let us live in lies about him. And that is his grace. And he's willing to sacrifice our comfort in the wilderness. He's willing to say, I know that this is painful, and I know that this is harm, like I know this hurts. And in some sometimes we we think that the Lord is intentionally harming us, but he's not. He's not, but he uses, he, and it's a verse that's been so overused. But man, if we sit take a step back and really think about the power of it, that he does actually work all things together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. You know, that what Joseph said to his brothers, you did this and you intended evil, but guess what? God used it for good. And Joseph was unjustly imprisoned and unjustly sold into slavery and all of those things. And I think I just I want to challenge, and I'm challenging myself. And again, this is something that the Lord has walked me through recently, and I'm still wrestling with it in some ways, but I can feel myself coming out of that dark place of wrestle where I'm like, what are you doing, Lord? And can this please be over? Because I'm tired. I'm tired of this being hard. I'm tired of this wrestle to where I have come out of it to say, you know what, Lord, instead I'm gonna thank you. I think I'm gonna thank you for the difficulty. I don't, I haven't liked it. This has not been fun, but I'm starting to see the things that the Lord has worked in me through it. And I'm starting to see the ways that he has taught me how to discern his voice in ways that I didn't know how to do it before. And if, but if I had stopped back here, where I was only partially the way through some healing and and and the Lord freeing me from some things, I'd still only see him as a man who looks like a tree walking. But but fighting and having to do a hefty amount of repenting, I am like people, I can have the absolute worst attitude. There are days when I honestly do not know who the Lord puts up with me because it's like, girl, sometimes your attitude is the worst. I but just having to repent and really choose once again, Lord, I'm gonna choose you today. I choose to serve you, I choose to love you more than I love myself because I want to come to where my faith is taking me past seeing men like trees walking to seeing everything, seeing, seeing things clearly, and being able to look back on difficult seasons and hard seasons and say, Lord, in the midst of it, I could not comprehend what you were doing. But I see now that you are working in me the peace, you have worked in me the peaceable fruit of righteousness, that I now have a deeper and more beautiful holy spiritual grasp on the peace that passes understanding. That I now know, Lord, even though there were times when my attitude stunk in it, I was, I was had a sinful disposition towards you, that you are still big enough to handle my questions and to handle my fear and to help me deal with my anger and to help me wrestle through these things. And and I that's why I just want to encourage you, like if you are finding yourself in a place where you have asked the Lord to move in your life in an area, you've asked him for spiritual healing in an area or for restoration in an area or in very practical places like jobs or family things or whatever it is, and how all of a sudden Jesus is moving and working is putting you in a place that you are uncomfortable, persevere. Keep choosing Jesus, keep choosing him, keep trusting him. Shut down, shut down the thoughts that just want to, you know, the places where the devil whispers that he's untrustworthy or he's harming you or he's unkind or he's a harsh taskmaster. Shut it all down and keep persevering because I know that there are places where the Lord is going to open your eyes and give you clear sight. And I think that is one of the coolest and most beautiful things about this whole piece of scripture is that the the word when when Jesus heals this man, he puts his hands on his eyes again, and then the man looks intently and is restored and begins to see everything clearly. And in the Greek, so this is the only time this word is used, and it means to see clearly or with distinct, distinct vision. I love that part of it means like shimmering and radiant and bright, like that's how this, because it wasn't just that the man had been healed, but the word restored means that it was restored to how God intended. Like this man is not just physically restored, but it's like it's not just the physical vision that the Lord restores here. It's that this man has gotten a revelation of Jesus. And and again, going back to this thread that the the language that's used here is helping, it's it's a living parable for the disciples who were grappling with their own partial understanding of Jesus. They were seeing Jesus as a man walking like a tree. But through this, through this healing with this man, this interaction with this man, through his questions of who do you say I am, they start to get that sharper, radiant, clearer, shimmering spiritual vision of who Jesus is. And I just I love it. I just think it is so amazing. And it just goes to show how thorough Jesus is. And and so I I again just he is compassionate and he leads us from dim sight to eyes that are spiritually open to see him. And as you think about this passage, and as maybe you go and study and you reason, and I would encourage you to go read it. The question that I have been asking myself is am I there places in my life that I'm still just settling? I'm settling for partial vision. Am I willing to trust Jesus when he pulls me apart to be alone with him? He starts working in ways that unsettle me and are uncomfortable, but will I trust him enough to keep going so that I can get the spiritual vision, the heart, the heart look at him and a deeper understanding of him that he wants me to have. And I just I the topical Lexicon, again, I just think it's so amazing. And I want to leave you with this because this word that's used, even though it's only used once, it magnifies Jesus' power to turn partial vision into unmistakable clarity and enduring call to pursue ever sharper sight of his glory and truth. And friends, that is what I want to encourage you today. If you are finding yourself in a place where you only have partial vision, where you can only see certain things like trees walking, or you're uncertain of how the Lord is choosing to work with you, you know he's on the move, but it's uncomfortable and it's difficult and it's hard. Don't give up. Keep persevering because I can promise you from my own life and from from what we read in scripture that the Lord has gifts he wants to give you, and he wants to sharpen your sight to see him and to know him more. Amen.