Feeding, Teaching, Healing

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Take out your Bibles and turn with me to Mark chapter 8 and we are going to read a rather lengthy section of this chapter hoping to actually get through verse 26 which those who come on Wednesday night know that I Jackie just gave me the look because she knows that me getting through 26 verses is probably not going to happen but I have a reason for it because what we are looking at in the life of Christ in this moment in this chapter is we are actually looking at a series of parallel events to what we have already studied in chapters 6 and 7 now I'm not saying that these are the same events but what I am saying is that many of the same things that we have already seen are going to happen again in the life of our Lord I'll give you an example we have in chapter 6 a miraculous feeding of the 5,000 well at the beginning of chapter 8 we have a miraculous feeding of the 4,000 in chapter 6 the later verses and chapter 7 we have a dispute with the Pharisees well in this we have a dispute with the Pharisees and then we have the disciples misunderstanding the dispute with the Pharisees and then in chapter 8 there's the disciples misunderstanding the dispute with the Pharisees and it culminates in a unique miraculous healing with Jesus healing the deaf and dumb man at the end of chapter 7 and now here in chapter 8 it's going to this portion is going to culminate in the healing of a blind man and both of those miracles the healing of the deaf and dumb man and the healing of the man who is blind in chapter 8 both of those miracles are unique to mark mark is the only one who tells those two miracles and I think that there's a reason I think there's a pattern I've talked about this Jackie's been here and Steve I've talked about this that there's patterns in mark and I think that he does sort of lay out his his his his story in a fashion that is intended to be somewhat building upon itself and teaching us something it's it's not just as we said the the Gospels are not just biographies the Gospels are theological narratives they're intended not only to give us the history of what happened to Christ they are also intended to give us a insight into what is happening in his ministry and in the theological foundation of that so we're going to see that today in our study so and also I do want to make a mention the Gospel of Mark is 16 chapters and the first eight chapters so chapter 1 through 8 is Jesus revealing himself in his teaching and his miracles and that culminates in what we're going to look at next week which is in chapter 8 verse 27 to 30 which is where we have what is known as the good confession Jesus saying who do people say that I am and Peter making that confession you are the Christ right this this moment in Mark's gospel marks the turning point of the whole book because what's going to happen after this is going to be the push to Jerusalem and Passion Week so this has all been leading up to the question who do they say that I am they've seen the miracles they've seen the the things that I've done they've eaten the the fish and the loaves they've seen who do they say that I am and this moment is the turning point of the book and then we go and I've often said I've said really Mark is because starting at chapter 11 it's going to be the Passion Week so almost half the book is Jesus is beginning with the trial for injury ending with the resurrection almost half the book is that week so 11 through 16 so all of this is pointing to that marks getting us there and as we said the key word in mark is the word who remembers let's cure immediately because he's constantly and immediately this and immediately that and immediately this because he's getting us there he's he's moving us there he has a point and a purpose to get us to where we're going so just keep in mind the reason why I want to look do 1 through 26 is because next week I really want to hit 27 and get us to that turning point in the letter or in the in the book so let's read we're going to read beginning at verse 1 and read down to verse 26 this evening beginning of verse 1 it says in those days when again a great crowd had gathered and they had nothing to eat he called his disciples to him and said to them I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat and if I send them away hungry to their homes they will faint on the way and some of them have come from far away and his disciples answered him how can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place and he asked them how many loaves do you have they said seven and he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground and he took the seven loaves and having given thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples to set before the people and they set them before the crowd and they had a few small fish and having blessed them he said that these also should be set before them and they ate and were satisfied and they took up the broken pieces left over seven baskets full and there were about 4,000 people and he sent them away and immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha verse 11 the Pharisees came and began to argue with him remember I talked about the pattern you had the feeding and then you had the argument with the Pharisees the Pharisees came and began to argue with him seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him and he sighed deeply in his spirit and said why does this generation seek a sign truly I say to you no sign will be given to this generation and he left them got into the boat again and went to the other side verse 14 now they had forgotten to bring bread and they had only one loaf with them in the boat and he cautioned them saying watch out beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod and they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread and Jesus aware of this said to them why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread do you not yet perceive or understand or your hearts hardened having eyes do you not see and having ears do you not hear and do you not remember when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up they said to him twelve and seven for the four thousand how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up and they said seven and he said to them do you not yet understand verse 22 and they came to Bethsaida and some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him and he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him he asked him do you see anything and he looked up and said I see people but they look like trees walking then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again and he opened his eyes his sight was restored and he saw everything clearly and he sent him to his home saying do not even enter the village may God add his blessing to the reading of his inspired word that was a lot by my by my norm that was a whole lot this Sunday I'll be preaching two verses in Colossians chapter 4 and I fully expect to spend all 45 to 50 minutes on those two verses so to look at 26 verses at a shot is quite a bit but as I said there is a pattern here that I want us to note and there is something that is tying all of this together we begin in the feeding of the 4,000 with a very similar situation to what Jesus dealt with in chapter 6 but there are some differences in fact I have a little chart here I don't I didn't bring copies for everyone but I do have a chart if anyone's interested what is the differences between the feeding of the 5,000 and the feeding of the 4,000 because there are those who argue that this is an example of scribal error there are those who say that Jesus did something miraculous by feeding a group of people and the story went out multiple times in multiple ways and we end up with two different accounts of the same story the problem with that is that just ain't so because the text itself clearly tells us that this was a different event than what took place in the feeding of the 5,000 this is not just a retelling of the same story and the most important thing that distinguishes the feeding of the 5,000 but up to the feeding of the 4,000 is the audience the feeding of the 5,000 was a Jewish audience the feeding of the 4,000 is a Gentile audience and we know that based upon the area Jesus is in Jesus was prior to this in the area known as Tyre and Sidon we talked about that in our last lesson and he has now gone to the district called the Decapolis now if you're interested if you think of the Sea of Galilee which of course leads down to the Dead Sea and over here you have the coast Tyre and Sidon would be up here they're up here in the northwest area and then you have Galilee which is in this area and then across the sea there's an area here called the Decapolis and the Decapolis means the ten cities Deca being the word for ten and it was Gentile areas it was a Gentile area and this is the area Jesus is in and this tells us something about his audience now that's not the only thing but that is a major distinction and I do think that there's something to be said here in regard to Jesus showing us something about his ministry because if you remember just a few weeks ago and I know it's been over a month since we met on Wednesday night but we studied the story of the Syrophoenician woman and the Syrophoenician woman came to Jesus and she said please heal my daughter and Jesus said I don't want to you know this is for the Jews and you don't take the crumbs from the masters or you don't you don't you don't give the food to the dogs and she said well the crumbs that fall from the masters table get they get eaten by the dogs right there's that interaction between her and Jesus and if you're familiar if you're if you're wanting to know more about that go back and listen to that lesson because I did talk about what what was meant by that but the the the key there is Jesus does do a miracle for a Gentile and there is this seeming distinction between the Jews and the Gentiles that Christ is overcoming and we know that ultimately the gospel does overcome the distinction between Jew and Gentile so now we're seeing Christ who has fed 5,000 Jewish people which we actually said it's probably more like 25,000 because it's 5,000 men and if you count 5,000 men who probably had corresponding women and children you're up to maybe 15,000 possibly even into the 20 and 25,000 which is what John MacArthur believes it's even you know that that high of a number you're talking about thousands and thousands of Jewish people who ate from five loaves and two fish well now Jesus is with 4,000 Gentiles Mark doesn't tell us if these Gentiles are Mark doesn't say this is just the men but Matthew does if you look at Matthew's corresponding gospel he says that which this is Matthew chapter 15 verses 32 to 39 it says those who were those who ate were 4,000 men not including the women and children so again we're looking at maybe 12,000 maybe 16,000 depending on if every man had a child and a wife we're looking at a very large number of people and Jesus has taken this miracle and repeated it among the Gentiles he's repeated this this same thing essentially same amount among the Gentiles now that's one of the major differences another difference it's not as big of a difference but another difference is that in the 5,000 account the account with the Jews they were with Jesus only for one day according to chapter 6 verse 35 they were only with Jesus for one day this crowd had been with Jesus for three days and if you've ever done a three-day fast you'll know that's a long time to go without food and it's very difficult so they're in a little bit more of a need physically for this food of course the numbers are different in the 5,000 account Jesus had five loaves and two fish in this account he has seven loaves and the term small fish is different than the term for fish and the other the term for fish in chapter 6 is more of the generic use of the term for fish this term is actually the word according to one source is sardine like I don't know why that matters but I used to eat sardines as a kid so it kind of got my interest piqued when I said oh maybe this that that was the type of fish that it was but it said specifically small fish and that's how it's translated here it's it's small fish and again the difference in the numbers 5,000 versus 4,000 and then the surplus is different out of the 5,000 the surplus was five I'm sorry twelve baskets full but the word for baskets is different than the word in chapter 8 in chapter 8 it says there was a surplus of seven baskets but the word actually is better translated hampers it's not a small hand basket like we would think but a giant large basket so so where it started with smaller because Jesus had five loaves and two fish now he's got the seven loaves but he has he has compounded it even more than the than what he had here he's more smaller fish I meant he started with a different beginning and ended with a different ending it's not the same story I give you a comparison to this in in Matthew's gospel there is the Sermon on the Mount we're all familiar with the Sermon on the Mount greatest sermon ever preached Matthew chapter 5 verses or 5 to 7 chapter 5 through chapter 7 in Luke's gospel he gives a very similar account we call it the Sermon on the Plain it's not the same account though it's a different sermon if you read it it doesn't read the same it's not in the same place Jesus is not in the same posture it's all different so what we see through the life of Jesus as we see these repetitive things often for the purpose of either expanding the ministry or showing that this is this is a continual thing this is not something that's a one-time only and so this feeding of the 4,000 is Jesus doing for the Gentiles what he had already done for the Jewish people and and yes sure sure but we if you think of the what the general living in people that it was generally this is the area that when people would go and they would come back they were in the gym they were in the Gentile land so I'm not saying Jews weren't present I'm saying this is a predominantly Gentile land so it's likely most likely a predominantly Gentile audience or yeah I'm sure there were Jews there and there may have been Gentiles in the first group but typically at this time and in this area those groups did not congregate together Jews particularly would be separate we talked about this a little bit when we talked about the man who was the demon possessed man who was in the catacombs remember yeah yes that was also in the same place the Decapolis that was in the same place and there would not have been pigs herded in a in a Jewish area yeah so most likely and again speaking not necessarily on absolute authority but most likely what we're seeing here is Christ doing for a Gentile audience what he has done for the Jews yeah so that sort of gives us the picture and the end of what's happening here in verses 1 to 10 and once this story is complete it comes back up again and I just want to make mention if you go down to verse 19 he says when I broke the five loaves for the 5,000 how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up they said to him 12 and the seven for the 4,000 how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up they said seven and he said to them do you not yet understand not only is this a picture of Christ taking the the gospel and expanding it but he also is pointing back to this as a reason to chastise his disciples over their faithlessness because what we're going to see when we get there in verses 14 to 21 is Jesus has told them essentially that they need to be watching out for the leaven of the Pharisees we'll talk about what that means in a moment but when they don't understand when they have this hard heart Jesus said didn't you see what I just did didn't you see the feeding of the 4,000 and then just a few weeks before the feeding of the 5,000 and and for those of you who are here Steven and you may remember this Jackie do you remember what Jesus said after he fed the 5,000 and they were in the boat and the winds were blowing and everything remember that moment and they were afraid said they didn't remember the loaves says they didn't remember the loaves they were in the boat with Jesus same almost same scenarios here cuz they're in the boat again and they keep forgetting so it just reminds us there's something about this feeding of the 5,000 that is supposed to stick with us there's something about this narrative there's something true in this story and it's all true but there's some truth in here that's supposed to remind us of something of God's faithfulness of his power of his sovereignty of his ability and I bring that up to only for this reason go back up to verse 2 here in Mark 8 he says I have compassion on the crowd because they've been with me now three days and they have nothing to eat and if I send them away hungry to their homes they'll faint on the way and some of them come from afar off and his disciples said to him how can one feed these people this with bread here in a desolate place what I mean get to like overly excited but you just saw this you and again as I said they were they forgot it almost immediately because when they're in the boat and the winds are blowing and he says did you they had forgotten the loaves they forget this they forget his ability they forget his power they forget who he is I don't understand that except I know what happens to me and sometimes I think we give the Apostles a hard time without giving ourselves a hard time as we forget what God has done for us and then when things get tough or things are hard or things are difficult and we have to be reminded of all that God has done sometimes my wife will do that I'm thankful for my wife she's not in here to hear this but sometimes we'll be going through something difficult either a painful event or there'll be some kind of difficult emotional thing and she will simply say but don't you remember the time that God did this and we have had so many times in ministry that God has done things that were obviously him that it's easy for her to just point at something don't you remember when God did this and then I feel like a fool so God bless a faithful wife so again looking at the the narrative the disciples asked Jesus you know what are we going to do of course what we're gonna do we're gonna do we did last time you know that's what we're gonna do we're gonna do we did last time we're gonna feed them and then at the end of the narrative of the feeding of the 4,000 Jesus sent them away and immediately he got him to the boat and the disciples with the disciples and they went to the district of now Dalmanutha now in Matthew's gospel it says they went to the region of Magadha and some might think that that is a contradiction because obviously these are both the same story so did Jesus go to the district of Dalmanutha or did he go to the region of Magadha which would have been the same where we talked about Mary of Magdala that's the same area where it's it's it's it's it's Magdala or Magadha there's different ways of writing it but it's the same area thing of Mary Magdalene so the answer is they're the same place Mark is the only one who calls it the district of Dalmanutha but there is in historically they would have both been indicating the same area so it's not as if they're contradicting one another they're just it's like if I said we went to Jacksonville or we went to Ocean Way I mean it's not exactly a contradiction to say one or the other one is just a little bit more specific as to the region and the district so it's not not a contradiction so when they reach this place in verse 11 the Pharisees came and began to argue with him and I want you to notice what they say in verse 11 says the Pharisees came and began to argue with him seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him now what's interesting about this word sign is that it's not the same word for miracle because I want you to do this thing for a second have the Pharisees seen Jesus through miracles a lot they've seen him heal they've seen him do all these things the word miracle you may know this because I've talked about it before and other teachers talk about it the word dunamis means power and it's where a lot of times the word miracle is a translation of that it's an expression of God's power that's not the word here they're not necessarily looking for a miracle because they have already attributed Christ's miracles to something else does anybody remember what it is Satan we know why you do what you do or how you do what you do you do it by the power of Beelzebul right the prince of demons you that's how you do what you do so by coming and seeking a sign from him they're not necessarily seeking something miraculous because they have already seen the miraculous so there's some debate as to what it is they're asking for some believe that they're asking for Jesus to confirm his words with some form of Talmudic backing because everything at that time was done by virtue of having some authority that you appeal to and you remember when Jesus taught he didn't appeal to any authority that was a very first thing he says in Mark chapter 1 it says they were surprised that he taught but he taught as one having authority and not as the scribes because when the scribes taught they always appealed to their teachers they always appealed to the Talmud they always appealed to those who came before Jesus didn't do that Jesus spoke on his own authority I come from God I come down from heaven so what are they seeking from him it's difficult to really comprehend because they've seen the miracles one person one commentator said perhaps they want to hear God's voice and we know God has spoken God spoke at Jesus's baptism remember this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased and and some people wonder well why didn't God just do that in the presence of the Pharisees why didn't God just speak from heaven and say this is the one this is my son this is the one you should follow and the answer is at least from my opinion that was not God's will to do so because he had not chosen to give them what they wanted or give them what they demanded they demanded that sign and notice what Jesus does it says when they seek a sign from heaven to test him it says he sighed deeply in his spirit now if you compare that to verse 2 I keep jumping back and forth I hope you understand I'm just trying to show the connection points here in chapter 8 verse 2 Jesus said I have compassion on this crowd and what's interesting about that MacArthur points this out he said this is the only place that Jesus ever in the first person says I have compassion there are several other places where it says from the third person he had compassion on him but this is the only place in the Gospels where Jesus said I have like he spoke the words I have compassion on this crowd which distinguishes this passage verse 2 but now he's moved from compassion to what frustration because we get to verse 12 it says he sighed deeply and in his spirit he sighed deeply now I don't know if you've ever sighed deeply if you have children you have probably sighed deeply if you're married Caleb you'll find this out soon one day you will sigh deeply because there are times when you're dealing with another human being and you're in a difficult situation that you sigh deeply or you see the other person sigh deeply yeah that's true well Jesus sighs deeply in his spirit and he asked this somewhat rhetorical question why does this generation seek a sign and then he says truly I say no sign will be given to this generation now Mark's gospel stops right there and this bothers me I want to tell you I'm not at all questioning the Holy Spirit who inspired this to be written neither am I questioning God who has fully determined everything that is to be in his words but Mark's gospel does not agree with Matthew's gospel in this statement it's not a contradiction but Matthew's gospel goes one sentence further and if you're familiar with your New Testament text you probably know what he says a sign will not be given to this generation except for the sign of Jonah in fact if you want to just quickly just turn over to Matthew 16 I'll show you the parallel because this is a exact parallel if you go to chapter 16 verse 1 in Matthew's gospel it says and the Pharisees and the Sadducees came to test him asking him to show them a sign from heaven he answered them when it is evening you will say it will be fair weather for the sky is red and in the morning it will be stormy today for the sky is red and threatening you know how to interpret the appearance of the sky but you cannot interpret the signs of the time so Jesus actually challenges them on their own discernment he said you can look at the sky and say whether or not it's going to rain or whether or not it's going to storm but you can't look around and see the eschatological perspective that's happening right now you we are beginning the end times by the way people ask if we live in in the end times we are because the end times began as soon as that curtain between the the the holy place and the most holy place was written half when Jesus died on the cross that's when the end times began that's the eschaton that's the last age that's why I don't believe in a premillennial dispensational view where we're gonna have another age no this is the last age and it will culminate in the return of Christ this is the final age but he says he says you understand meteorological signs I said that I know I said it's a weird meteor I don't think I can say it right me you can understand the weather but you can't understand the very powerful eschatological truth standing before you and then he says so you see how Matthew is expanding a little bit on this because then he says what he says in Mark and even when adulterous generation seeks for a sign but no sign will be given to it now that's where Mark's gospel ends but Jesus does say there's a sign in Matthew he says except the sign of Jonah now what is the sign of Jonah the sign of Jonah is Jesus three days and three nights in the tomb he says in Matthew 12 and Luke 11 that just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish so too will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth so we have that connection point here so when they ask for a sign Jesus says you haven't believed anything you haven't believed the miracles you you haven't been able to discern anything you can discern the weather but you haven't been able to discern me and I bring all of these miracles and you still want a sign no sign for you except this I'm gonna die I'm gonna raise and that's gonna change the world that's the sign that's gonna change the world so going back to Mark's gospel verse 13 says and he left them got into the boat again and went to the other side by the way he makes two crossings of the Sea of Galilee in this one chapter he's already gone across to the Decapolis he went back across to down Manutha now he's going back to Bethsaida so there's crossing over several times in this chapter no now Manutha was on the other he was coming from that area he was at the Decapolis he went over to down Manutha now he's going to Bethsaida which is a Jewish area but it's in a different place yes yeah that was also Magadden or Magdala same place yep yep it's where Mary Magdalene was from yep all right so now we get to verse 14 and this is Jesus's interaction he's gonna talk to them about what's just happened he's just had this interaction with the Pharisees now he's gonna talk to the to the disciples about it says now they had forgotten to bring bread seemingly out of nowhere that's if you're reading it that sentence sort of kind of comes out of nowhere they're in a boat they forgot to bring bread and they only had one loaf between them and the boat now again you've got Jesus who has fed thousands of people with very little food and you're worried about one loaf not being enough well anyway verse 15 and he that being Jesus cautioned them saying watch out beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and 11 of Herod and they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread Wow just think for a minute Jesus had just has just made a profound statement and what are they worried about bread because they think that's what Jesus is talking about it's almost like Nicodemus when he came to Jesus at night and he said you know we all know that you're a teacher come from God and Jesus said unless a man be born again he shall not see the kingdom of heaven well how can a man be born again shall I return again to his mother's womb what are you nuts do you think that's what Jesus is talking about and Jesus even basically said that he said you're a teacher and you don't understand well here this is similar they're talking about bread and Jesus says beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and 11 of Herod now we know who the Pharisees are and we know who it is Herod is the one we read about just a few weeks ago was responsible for the death of John the Baptist you might wonder why Herod is mentioned here it does seem to be out of nowhere because Jesus has not immediately been dealing with Herod at this time but there were different groups that had political and social social power at that time and the the two most powerful groups were the Pharisees and the Sadducees the Sadducees of course were the ones who controlled the Sanhedrin but within political realm there was also a group known as the Herodians and the Herodians were the ones who were had allegiance to Herod and Jesus says beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod meaning that there is both religious and political influence that can destroy that can make its way in I could do an entire sermon on that just the ability of both religious leaven and what is leaven represent what is leaven you may know but what is leaven what is leaven yeah you put a little bit of it into flour and it causes bread to rise and it's representative in Scripture of anything that small that makes a big change even the kingdom of God is called leaven at one point not that it's evil but it says it's like leaven it goes into and changes this is one of the arguments for post-millennialism I don't know if you've done any studies on post-millennialism but one of the arguments that they make is that because the kingdom of God is like leaven it's going to go into the world small and then grow and grow and grow and grow until Christ returns and there is some truth to that because Jesus did say it's like a it's like a mustard seed smallest of all seeds but it grows in this huge plant and birds come and make their nests in its branches right the kingdom of God is going to grow God's kingdom is going to flourish and the gates of hell will not prevail against Christ Church so there is some truth to all of that but the point of the matter is in this regard when it talks about the leaven it's talking about the teaching of the Pharisees and the influence of the Herodians making its way and Jesus is trying to protect his disciples or warn his disciples more more appropriately and they began to discuss with one another the fact that they had no bread verse 16 we are all dull at some point so we cannot condemn them too harshly but that's a dull moment when Jesus drops a golden nugget from his mouth about the truth of the danger of the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod and they say yeah but we're still we're still talking about bread over here yeah verse 17 and Jesus aware of this said to them why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread do you not yet perceive or understand or your hearts hardened having eyes do you not see having ears do you not hear and don't you remember and then he goes into the story of the feeding of the 5,000 the feeding of the 4,000 I fed them I fed them and do you not yet understand by the way they don't in fact as I said earlier I'm trying to get to this point I'm trying to get to this point because this is a point where a an inkling of understanding comes through when when Peter says that answer to who do men say that I am well some say you're Elijah some say you're prophets some say you're John the Baptist but who do you say I am thou art the Christ the Son of living God that's that's the that's that light shining through because what did Jesus say in Matthew's gospel flesh and blood is not revealed this to you but my Father in heaven has revealed this to you and that's what brings me to what I wanted to show you this is why I tried to do this all together because in verses 22 to 26 I think and again I'm saying I think I believe this to be true I believe verses 22 to 26 are actually a picture of something greater than what we see there and what we see there is pretty great because what we see there is we see a man who is born or a man who is blind who Jesus goes to he spits on his eyes which is a little strange but that's what he does so he doesn't say spit in his hands and rub says he spit in his eye and the guy opens his eye and it's not healed perfectly he still can't see let's look at it again notice what he says says they came to Bethsaida some people brought him a blind man and begged him to touch him and he took the blind man by the hand let him out of the village there's a lot of debate about why Jesus would lead him out of the village it doesn't say why he did this but that does make this a peculiar miracle because Jesus usually just heals a man on the spot right there sometimes it's immediate but in this case as well as the man with the death the other parallel story as I said they're only in Mark's gospel he pulls him out of the audience and pulls him to the side but in this he leads him out of the village and we'd spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him he asked him do you see anything and he looked up and he said I see people but they look like trees walking now RC Sproul believes that that that what he believes that that that means this man was not born blind as he knows what trees look like I think that's pretty smart but I have I have a little different view because I I don't know if this man was born blind that's not an argument I'm willing to make but I am willing to say this a person who is blind and healed of their blindness will not automatically be able to discern what they are seeing if they've never seen anything give you an example there was a film came out back in the 90s movie was called at first sight it's with Val Kilmer if you've ever seen it but in the movie is a man who was blind and he received surgery on his eyes and he has sight but when you can see he doesn't know what he's looking at because he's never seen anything so all he can describe or he doesn't even know he wouldn't know the difference between red and blue on Holly's shirt he wouldn't know what red and blue is right and so when Jesus healed his eyes there was still an intellectual healing that needed to take place an understanding that needed to take place so again I'm not necessarily disagreeing with R.C.