In this week’s lesson, Ray Vander Laan started with a geography lesson. The province of Galilee is where about 70% of what Jesus says and does what is recorded in the Bible. The area was religious, Jewish and fertile. By God’s design, directly across the lake is a much bigger territory called Decapolis which was very pagan with very little Jewish population and influence.

Capernum, Bethsaida, and Korazin are villages to the north of the Sea of Galilee. The people living in these agricultural areas would have been lower- or middle-class and Jesus performed most of His miracles there. Bethsaida is believed to have been discovered by an archeologist in a grove of trees by Galilee.

In Bethsaida, home of mostly lower- and middle-class people, Jesus calls Andrew, Philip, Peter, James and John to discipleship. Out of that one village, the stars are found. Peter wrote two books in the Bible and was crucified for his faith. Philip dies a brutal crucifixion watching his daughters executed. James writes a book, and John writes the book of John and Revelation.

Ray then speaks about a passage in Scripture he had a difficult time understanding at one point. He had his class write journal entries for every chapter they read. One of his students came to him and asked if he would be teaching on Jesus healing the blind man at Bethsaida. Ray responded that no, he was planning to skip over that part because he didn’t understand it. The student made the point that he expects his students not to skip passages they don’t understand and asked why he should be any different. The Scripture that confused Ray reads as follows -

“They came to Bethsaida, 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 and 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 him home, saying, “Don’t even go into the village.” (Mark 8:22-26)

Why didn’t Jesus heal him fully the first time? Why take the man outside the village, heal him, and tell him not to go back home to the village? Sometimes Jesus says to the people witnessing miracles first or second-hand to “go and tell”, but not this time. Why didn’t He want anyone to know about this?

He then promptly sent an e-mail to one of his rabbi friends, convinced there was something linguistic or culturally implied that he, a Gentile, would not immediately pick up on. Within three minutes, his rabbi friend e-mailed him back simply saying, “read the whole thing.”

Ray wanted to reply that he had read the whole thing, and then recalled that chapters and verses were a relatively new addition to Scripture, so he started at the beginning of chapter 8 where Jesus has finished teaching four thousand me, plus women and children, for three days. Jesus tells his disciples, “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 came a long distance” (v2).

The disciples gather seven loaves of bread and a few fish, which Jesus blesses, multiplies, and has his disciples distribute to the multitude. Ray tells his students to imagine the disciples carrying enough food up and down and up and down the mountain for 10 people per trip about ten times each. Then they go back through the whole crowd and gathered up the leftovers. Seven basketfuls. Now the disciples are totally winded, and they know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they had just witnessed a miracle. (The devil knew he had just witnessed a miracle, too.)

After this, Jesus gets into the boat with his disciples headed for Dalmanutha. Verse 14 says, “The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat.” They told Jesus about their lack of food to which Jesus replies, “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 fail to hear? And don’t you remember? When I broke five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketsful of pieces did you pick up?” he asks his disciples (V17-19).

Ray then says he came to understand Jesus only partially healed the blind man’s sight at first to make a point to his disciples. A person doesn’t have to be blind in order not to see things clearly.

Then Jesus heals the blind man completely.  

It is right to believe in miracles, but God wants it to change who we are when we see it. “Since God can provide that miracle for those people, He can provide one for me too.” It is not enough to believe in the Biblical miracles. God wants our hearts to move and shift because of them.

The disciples witnessed Jesus multiplying bread for thousands of people, but worried about their hunger upon discovering a lack of bread on their boat. Jesus was in their boat. What earthly good does it do for us to believe in miracles if we worry about anything?

Who is in the boat with you? Will you make the decision to be a disciple with 20/20 vision, or do the people in the distance look like trees to you?