In Mark 8, Jesus heals a blind man.... by rubbing dirt into his eyes?Listen in as Thomas Terry breaks down this remarkable scripture.
Transcript
Welcome to this week’s sermon from Trinity Church in Portland, Oregon. We hope this message inspires you, roots you down deep into the Lord, into His Word, and may His Spirit be your guide as you enjoy this teaching. Thanks for joining us. Here’s the message. Our sermon text this morning comes from Mark chapter 8, verses 22 through 26. If you want to either thumb that direction or get on your screens and tap that way, that would be a good way to go.
Well, typically when we preach a sermon, we take a passage or a portion of Scripture and we try to break it down line by line to see what it meant in its historical context and then find unique ways of how that text applies to our unique context. This is what’s called expositional preaching, but this morning we’re going to do things a bit differently. Since this will be the last time we’re in Mark’s gospel for a little while, and since we’ve come to the halfway mark in Mark’s gospel, we’re going to switch things up a bit. Although we will be doing a bit of exposition, we’re also going to be looking at the creativity of the structure of our passage and how it creatively fits within the whole of the book. Don’t worry. We’ll faithfully preach the text, but we’re just going to take a bit of a scenic route
Mark’s Creative Storytelling
this morning. Now, I’ve said this to you before. One of the things that I really do love about Mark’s gospel is its creativity. I resonate so much with Mark’s writing because it’s a bit poetic and he’s such a great storyteller. You see that in Mark’s attention to detail, his use of contrast and repetition, his meter and movements, his embellishments and use of reoccurring objects. For example, the boat. If you’ve been paying attention, Mark is always using this boat. He uses all these things to help shape his creative storytelling, but sometimes the pace is so immediate and punchy that it’s hard to see the creativity on the surface. Take for example our passage this morning. On the surface, it seems relatively straightforward. In fact, it’s so straightforward, it’s as if you really don’t even need to preach it. I mean, Josh really could, at the end of the sermon text reading, have simply said amen
and closed it and we would have been sufficiently fed because the text preaches itself. You have a blind man who is brought to Jesus and Jesus, exercising his compassion, restores this man’s sight so that this man can see clearly. If you read through this quick narrative as an isolated journalistic or historical account of what Jesus did for this blind man, you won’t see much more beyond the beauty of Jesus’ compassion and power. It’ll be a little bit more than just data. It won’t be very creative. Even though the data would be sufficient to move our hearts to worship, the more we mind the passage and the structure that leads up to this passage, the more we’re moved to greater degrees of worship. That’s part of what I want to do this morning. That’s my aim for us. I want to mind the depths of this text and the surrounding text to lead us into greater
degrees of worship. Instead of looking at this passage from a linear perspective, I want to mind the text in these three different dimensions. In order to do that, we’ll look at the symmetry of the stories, then we’ll look at the history of the healing, and then we’ll look at the metaphor of the miracle. Before we get into the three dimensions, let me first help us to figure out where we are in this particular passage as a whole in Mark’s gospel, because this will help frame everything for us. I do hope you brought your Bibles with you this morning, because we’re going to bounce around a bit in the Bible. Mark’s gospel is basically broken down into three themes. We have Jesus’ public ministry, Jesus’ private ministry, and Jesus’ passion ministry. The public ministry of Jesus is really his powerful public preaching and his miraculous healings and signs that point people to the reality of his coming kingdom.
The private ministry is his intense and intentional teaching ministry that he uses to equip his disciples and us for the continuation of his ministry. Finally, you have his passion ministry, where Jesus painfully and resolutely moves forward towards his saving work on the cross. This passage this morning brings us to the close of the first section, which is his public ministry. Now, that doesn’t mean that we won’t see him do any more public miracles or he won’t be doing public preaching, but what it does mean is that his emphasis after this particular passage will shift drastically to the private teaching of his disciples. This passage serves as a bridge between his public ministry of healing and his private ministry of teaching. It only makes sense that this passage would be somewhat of a hybrid of the two. We’ll see that this morning. Jesus does miraculously heal this blind man, but Jesus also uses this healing of the blind
Divine Symmetry
man to instruct and teach his disciples. That’s where we are with this passage in Mark’s gospel. Now that we know where we are, we’re going to go back to where we were over the last three chapters because this will help us to better understand the symmetry of the stories. Let me start first with just a few principles here. God’s word is divinely inspired. This means that God uses men and their unique writing styles and their unique vantage point under the inspiration and influence of the Holy Spirit to write down word for word exactly what God intended for them to write without error and without contradiction. This is called the doctrine of biblical inspiration. But not only are the words divinely inspired, so also is the structure divinely inspired. Every word of scripture is divinely penned, but it’s also divinely placed exactly where it should be.
This is why scripture is not always chronological as we’ve seen in these recent weeks. When you read scripture with this kind of framework, that both the words and placement of the stories are divinely orchestrated, you start to better see the beauty of God’s word and how these stories beautifully fit together as a whole. And that’s especially the case in Mark’s gospel. He does this a lot. And just to FYI, the reason why it’s important to understand this divine symmetry is because when you see it clearly, you begin to understand God’s magnificent and multidimensional design when it comes to his word. You see the powerful and providential hand of God using humans throughout history as a paintbrush to tell his beautiful redemption story. And the symmetry of scripture is somewhat of an apologetic. It’s somewhat of a defense of his divine authorship, which by the way is incredibly important for
us today. With our slanted media fact-checking age that tends to drive emotional and tribal narratives, in these post-truth anti-authoritative days, you need to trust in the divine authorship of scripture, its divine authority, and its reliability. And so to help us this morning, I want to briefly track over a few of the stories that we’ve looked at in chapters six through eight to see a bit of the symmetry in what we’ve been exploring. So this will be a bit of a summary, but it’ll also show the symmetry, okay? You guys ready? That didn’t sound enthusiastic. Are you ready? Okay, here we go. Mark chapter six, verse 31 through 44, you have this miraculous feeding of 5,000 Jewish people where Jesus provides for a massive crowd of hungry people with limited resources. In Mark chapter seven, verse 14 through 22, shortly after a conflict with the Pharisees
about the religious tradition and unclean things, Jesus begins to warn or instruct his disciples about what it is exactly that defiles a person. But his disciples are confused. They don’t get it. And so he rebukes his disciples. And the way he rebukes them is by asking them these questions. Are you also without understanding? Can you not see? Mark chapter seven, verse 31 through 37, Jesus miraculously heals a deaf and mute man so that he can hear and speak clearly, okay? So that’s one side. Now Mark chapter eight, verse one through nine, again, you have another feeding miracle, this time of 4,000 Gentile people. Shortly after this miracle, there’s another conflict with the Pharisees where they demand a sign from Jesus. But Jesus gives them no sign. After that conflict, Jesus warns his disciples, beware of false teaching. And again, they don’t get it. So again, Jesus asks them a series of questions.
And two of those questions are, can you not hear? Can you not see? And in our text this morning, chapter eight, verse 22 through 26, Jesus heals a blind man so that he can see clearly. So when you put these together, what you have are two symmetrical accounts of Jesus miraculously providing for the people, Jesus having a conflict with the Pharisees, Jesus instructing or warning his disciples, his disciples failing to hear or see what Jesus is talking about, Jesus rebuking his disciples, asking them questions, do you not hear? Do you not see? And then Jesus performs physical miracles, making a deaf man able to hear and a blind man able to see. So throughout these passages, you have two narratives that take place in two different regions with two different types of people that reveal the same truth, that Jesus uses miraculous signs to reveal who he is and what he’s come to do, that he is the God who has
come to provide for his people. But the religious Pharisees, the so-called people of God, are so completely deaf and blind to the truth, and even his own disciples are partially deaf and blind to the truth of who Jesus really is. And so Jesus uses the physical healing of a deaf man and a blind man to teach his disciples to hear and see who Jesus really is and what he’s come to do. And what we’ll see the next time we open up Mark’s gospel in chapter eight, verses 27 through 30, is this pivotal moment in Mark’s gospel where Jesus asks his disciples, who do you say that I am? And for the very first time in Mark’s gospel, one of his disciples, Peter, responds, you are the Christ. What they did not hear or see completely is now made more clear precisely because Jesus used the physical healing of a deaf man and the physical healing of a blind man, not only
to open up their eyes and ears, but also to open up the eyes and ears of the disciples so that they can say with confidence that Jesus is the Christ because they understood, because they can now hear it and see it more fully. Brothers and sisters, do you see the magnificence of God’s divinely inspired and divinely structured word? All these individual stories working together in perfect symmetry to tell one ultimate story that Jesus Christ is the son of God who has come to provide for his people, who will open up deaf ears and blind eyes to the realities of who he is and his saving work on the cross. Only the creative God of creation could creatively string together these stories using his creatures to tell the story of his new creation. You see, brothers and sisters, this is the beauty of our God. Scripture is not just a textbook, something to simply be studied.
It’s God’s beautiful and living words. They’re meant to master us and transform us, to creatively capture us and compel us to worship and to open up our eyes and ears to the truth of who Jesus is and what he’s come to do. And I really hope you don’t just see this as some literary exercise for you, but that by seeing the beauty and symmetry of scripture, it would expand your affections and appetite for God’s word, that you would learn to love his word, and that you would desire to mind the scriptures and hear it and see it in all of its complex beauty. I mean, the truth is, this has been one of the greatest privileges for me over the last two and a half years. I get to spend my weeks mining the scriptures to help us, you and me, to worship properly and to see Jesus clearly.
The History of Healing
Okay, so without losing our focus on the symmetry of scripture, let’s now take a look at the history of this healing. Turn with me to verse 22, if you will. And it came to Bethsaida, and some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. Now, if you remember earlier in Mark’s gospel, after the first feeding miracle, Jesus had sent his disciples in a boat towards the town of Bethsaida. But remember, they didn’t make it. They got caught up in a storm, and Jesus had to walk on water to rescue his disciples. And so for whatever reason, they decided to shift course. They didn’t make it to Bethsaida. But here, Jesus and his disciples have finally arrived in Bethsaida. Now, this specific town, Bethsaida, was relatively close in proximity to where that first feeding miracle took place. And so it only makes sense that the people in the surrounding areas would have heard
about Jesus’ miraculous works, about his ability to provide for 5,000 people plus women and children with just 12 loaves of bread and two fish. And not only did they hear about his ability to feed people, but also about his ability to provide healing. So when Jesus shows back up in the region, word gets out quickly. And so some people brought this blind man to Jesus, because Jesus really is the only hope for this blind man. You see, in the first century, there was no cure for blindness. There were no surgical procedures, and so there was no hope for regaining or restoring a man’s sight. In fact, many people in the first century would view healing a blind man as probably the greatest of all miracles, because of its impossibility. And so, just like with the deaf man and the paralytic man, some faithful friends bring
this blind man to Jesus. The man would have never been able to get to Jesus on his own, nor does the text express any enthusiasm from the blind man to go to Jesus on his own. And we see that because the text says, they, meaning the faithful friends, brought and begged Jesus to touch him. The blind man didn’t beg. It’s probably because he was skeptical about the possibility of being healed. I mean, the odds were completely stacked against him. But nonetheless, his faithful friends bring him to Jesus and beg Jesus. And this is something you shouldn’t just pass over, as if this is just some historical data. This here is an example for us to follow. I mean, all throughout Scripture, what we’ve seen so far is people bringing their broken and needy people to Jesus, of people appealing to Jesus on behalf of someone else who are
broken and needy. I mean, in Mark chapter 1, verse 32, that evening the sun went down and the crowds brought to him all who were sick and oppressed by demons, Mark chapter 2 and 3, and they, meaning the faithful friends, came, bringing a paralytic man to Jesus. Mark chapter 5, verse 22 through 23, Jarius came to Jesus, fell at his feet and begged Jesus, my daughter is at the point of death. If you would come and lay your hands on her, she would be made well. And he does. Mark chapter 6, verse 55, and the people ran about the whole region and began to bring sick people to wherever they were, to Jesus. Mark 7, chapter 26, the Syrophoenician woman begged Jesus to cast out the demon who had possessed her daughter. Mark chapter 7, verse 32, and they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech
impediment and they begged Jesus to lay his hands on him. You see, brothers and sisters, this is also our job as restored believers in Jesus Christ. We need to bring needy people to Jesus so that they might be restored. We must appeal to Jesus, intercede for people in prayer, for our children, for our family, for our friends and our coworkers. This is here for us to learn from. These faithful friends appeal to Jesus, they beg Jesus, just touch him. And you see, what lies underneath their appeal is that they know Jesus is powerful and capable of healing. They beg because they know if Jesus is willing and if Jesus would simply touch this blind man, he would be made whole, his sight would be restored. They beg because when Jesus touches people, miraculous and powerful things happen. Just like with Simon Peter’s mother-in-law, in Mark chapter 1, she was sick.
Jesus touched her, he took her by the hand, lifted her up and her fever left. Just like in Mark chapter 1 with the leper, he came to Jesus, begged him and said, if you will, you can make me clean. Jesus moved with pity, stretched out his hand and he touched him and he was made clean. You see, brothers and sisters, our God demonstrates tangible expressions of compassion. He’s not a separatist like the religious Pharisees who would simply pass by needy and broken people. He’s tender and he touches people to heal them. He doesn’t have to touch them, but he does touch them to demonstrate his deep compassion and tenderness for suffering people. He is a personal God who cares enough to touch the worst kind of people. So we see his tenderness in his touch, but we also see his compassion in the way that
he leads this man. His compassion is expressed in the little details of this private encounter. Look with me at verse 23. 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 he said, I see people, but they look like trees walking. Now don’t miss the compassion of Jesus here because there’s spit and trees and all that kind of language. Listen, Jesus first leads this man away from the chaotic crowd. He leads him away from the noise and commotion of the crowd. You know, one thing we know is that blind people tend to have a very sensitive hearing because they’re solely dependent on the sense of hearing to navigate and orient around everything in their dark world.
And not only that, but a blind man in this culture would have been totally dependent on the leading of others to travel around. In fact, this is what happened with the blind man’s friends. They led him to Jesus. Well here, Jesus takes this man by the hand and guides him, walks him through the forest to pull him away from the busyness of the crowd so he doesn’t get overwhelmed or overstimulated by the crowd. Remember, Jesus did the same thing with the healing of the deaf man and mute man. Jesus cared enough to take them away privately. And again, just like with the deaf and mute man, he uses spit to begin the healing process. Now why does Jesus use spit? I don’t know. I don’t know. We can speculate all day, but we really don’t know. I mean, here’s my best guess, is that Jesus used the spit in these healings to connect
the two with the deaf man and the blind man, because Jesus intends to connect these two. That’s my best guess. But really, we can’t be sure. But whatever the reason, Jesus uses spit and touches this man’s eyes. Now something really interesting here is that this is the only time in all the Gospels where Jesus, in the middle of the healing process, asks the person being healed a question. After Jesus spits on the man’s blind eyes, Jesus asks him, do you see anything? And the text says, he looked up. He looked up, okay? That means he saw something. And he says precisely, I see people, but they look like trees walking around. So the man, who was completely blind, completely lost in the darkness, is essentially saying to Jesus, I can see, but only partially. Not perfect. I see figures of what looks like trees. The man went from complete blindness to partial blindness.
Now why does Jesus partially restore this man’s sight at first? Well, I think there’s a few reasons here. One is, again, an issue of compassion and care. For a blind person to go from complete darkness, the inability to see any light, to completely come to the light, would be so overwhelming to the senses. I mean, think about what happens to you when you walk out of a dark movie theater into the bright light of the sun. It’s so overwhelming on the senses. You almost have to cover your eyes because of how bright it is. It’s too much light. Or for those of you with children, think about how painful it is when your four-year-old comes into your room at 4 a.m. and clicks on the lights. It’s just too much. It’s unbearable. So this would be too jarring. So Jesus gives this man time to adjust with this partial healing.
And two, this could very well be Jesus leading this man to greater faith. Remember, he was not the one begging because he was skeptical. He did not believe it was possible. Well, here Jesus helps him to believe it’s possible by way of giving him progressive sight. You see, what looks like a partial healing is more of a progressive healing so that this blind man could not only acclimate to the bright Palestinian sun, but so that his faith could grow. This, too, is an expression of Jesus’ holistic care for the man, both physical needs and spiritual needs. So this man now sees in part, but in verse 25 he’ll see in full. 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.
Now to be clear, just so we don’t misunderstand, the second laying on of hands is not a second attempt to heal. Jesus makes no mistakes ever. He is perfect. And this is not an expression of limited power. This is a continuation in the healing process. It’s a progressive healing by design. It’s a complete healing in two parts. Jesus touches again to completely heal. And look at the emphasis of the healing that Mark uses here. There’s three expressions. It says Jesus opened his eyes, that his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. His eyes that were sealed shut were opened by the touch of Jesus. His lack of vision that was previously his biggest impediment has now been completely restored. And now he sees things for how they actually are. He saw things in plain sight. For the very first time, everything made sense. Everything that he would imagine and everything that he would try to orient around made sense.
Everything was clear. And brothers and sisters, this is the conversion experience in short, is it right? We were blind to the truth of the gospel. We failed to see the realities of the gospel because our eyes were shut. Our vision for spiritual things was impaired, so we couldn’t see things clearly. But Jesus opened our eyes to the truth. He gave us vision to see him and his gospel. When we saw Jesus for who he is, everything was made clear. We were once lost in the darkness, but now we are found. We were blind, but now we see. Jesus healed this man and sent him away, telling him, do not enter the village. So Jesus heals him and tells him essentially, don’t say anything. Don’t go back into the town where everyone who knew that you were blind would now realize that your sight has been restored because they’re going to know that I did it.
The Metaphor of Miracles
Now why does Jesus do that? I mean, humanly speaking, this would be a perfect opportunity for Jesus to be on brand. Jesus tells him not to because Jesus knows that men and women have a way of seeing and hearing miraculous things while at the same time not hearing and not seeing the bigger meaning behind the miraculous signs. Jesus does not want these people preoccupied with this sign. You remember last week, the Pharisees wanted a sign. Jesus said, what is it with you people and your generation? You’re always looking for signs. But signs won’t mean anything unless you’ve been given ears and eyes to hear and see what they’re really about. He doesn’t want them to only see the miraculous healing. He wants them to see the metaphor of the miracle. Now as we’ve gone through this passage, I really hope you’ve seen the symmetry of this
healing miracle and the miracle of the deaf and mute man. Now we looked at this a few weeks ago and I want you to notice this. Turn with me quickly in your Bibles to Mark chapter 7, verse 31 through 37. And if you’re the highlighting type, this might be a good place to highlight some things. Starting in verse 37, then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee in the region of the Decapolis. And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment. Okay, so here again you see they brought someone to Jesus. And they begged him to lay his hands on him. Again you see these friends begging Jesus to touch. And then taking him aside from the crowd privately, again you see Jesus pulling the person away from the crowd.
He put his fingers into his ears and after spitting, touched. So there’s that spitting and the touching. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, Ephatha, that is, be opened. And his ears were opened. His tongue was released and he spoke plainly. And Jesus charged them, tell no one about it. So in both passages, you have broken people who are brought to Jesus. Both passages, people beg to touch Jesus. Beg Jesus to touch the broken person. In both passages, Jesus leads the broken person away from the crowd as an expression of compassion. In each passage, Jesus uses spit to touch and heal the person. In both passages, Jesus instructs them not to tell others about it. You see the symmetry here is not just beautiful, but it’s meant to point you to the metaphor of these two miracles. These miracles, which were both a process of revelation, is just as much for the disciples
as it was for the deaf and blind man. You see, up to this point, the disciples have failed to hear things clearly. They have failed to see things clearly. They’ve only heard spiritually in part. They’ve only seen spiritually in part. And Jesus actually rebukes them for not hearing and seeing fully. Even after God has given them eyes and ears to see clearly. In Mark chapter 4, verse 11 through 12, and he said to them, to you, his disciples, to you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God. But for those outside, everything is in parables, so that they may indeed see, but not perceive. And may indeed hear, but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven. So Jesus has already given them ears and eyes to hear and see, but they still only hear and see in part. Both of these miracles are meant to help the disciples recognize that they still need help
to hear and see. They need to constantly be touched and helped by God to hear and see things clearly. In fact, this is why Jesus heals the blind man in two stages. To point to the reality of progressive clarity concerning spiritual things. You remember just last week, the disciples were dulled to spiritual realities. They had no idea about Jesus warning them about the leaven. They didn’t understand. They thought Jesus was talking about bread. See, at this point in Mark’s gospel, it’s clear that the disciples know certain things about Jesus, but it’s also clear that they don’t know with certainty who Jesus really is. This is why they keep missing and misunderstanding Jesus. Because though they see in part, they’re still growing into greater degrees of clarity. Jesus is progressively revealing to his disciples who he is and what he’s done through the use of these physical healings, through the actual healing of a deaf man and through the actual
healing of a blind man, he’s helping his disciples to see and hear clearly that Jesus is the Messiah. The one prophesied about in the Old Testament. In fact, this is pointing them to Isaiah 35, four through five.
Say to those who have an anxious heart, be strong, fear not, behold, your God will come with vengeance, with recompense of God. He will come to save you. That’s that Messiah language. He’ll come to save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be open and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
— Isaiah 35
(ESV)
This Old Testament passage is pointing them to the coming Messiah. These miracles, although very literal, are also metaphors meant to reveal that Jesus is the Messiah, the long-awaited Messiah that Isaiah was pointing to. They’re revealing that Jesus is the Christ, which is why in the very next time we’ll open up Mark’s gospel, we’ll see that when Jesus asks his disciples, who do you say that I
am? That’s a very important question. And who does Peter say that he is? You are the Christ. That word Christ means Messiah. In Matthew’s account, in chapter 16, verse 15 through 17,
he says to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
— Matthew 16
(ESV)
Jesus was saying to Peter, you did not confess that truth because you were smart enough, because you figured it out, because you could piece all these things together, because you knew the Old Testament really well, because you had physical ears to hear and physical eyes to see. You only confess that truth because the God of heaven opened up your ears and your eyes
to that truth. Flesh and blood did not tell you that I am the Son of God. The Father in heaven opened up your ears and your eyes to help you understand it. You see, brothers and sisters, this is how God works. He opens up your eyes and your ears to the truth. And even though we have been given eyes and ears to the truth of Jesus and his gospel, we are still entirely dependent on the Lord to know anything. This is why we ask for God’s help every time we open up God’s word, because unless God touched our ears and our eyes, we won’t hear anything. We won’t see anything of spiritual significance. We still need help. And we’ll continue to need help until we are face to face with our God, until we can hear and see things perfectly. First Corinthians chapter 13, verse 9 through 12 says, for now we know in part and prophesy
in part. But when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. Listen, when I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. This here is our progressive maturity, our progressive hearing, our progressive sight that will be made perfect when we see Jesus face to face. Can I ask you this morning, do you have ears that have been opened? Do you have eyes that have been opened? More importantly, can I ask you a question? The most important question, who do you say Jesus is? Do you see Jesus clearly that he is the son of God, the long anticipated savior of the
world who opens up eyes and opens up ears to save those? Do you want to know this Jesus? You can know him this morning, ask him to open up your eyes and ears to the truth and he’ll do it. Come to him this morning and he will lead you out of the darkness into his marvelous light. He’s done it for all of us and he’ll do it for you. If you ask him to help you see and hear the truth of who he really is and what he’s done for sinners, let’s pray. Our father and our God, it is not some routine exercise that we come to hear your word preached to us every single Sunday. We don’t do it because it’s cute or it’s routine. We do it because we constantly need to hear and see the truth of who you are and what
you’ve done for us. We need to be reminded father because we are a forgetful people. Sometimes our ears are not tuned to the realities of who you are and what you’ve done for us. Sometimes our eyes are veiled to who you are and what you’ve done for us. And so we need to be reminded, we need the truth of who you are and what you’ve done made clear. We need to hear it and see it constantly to live in this dark world, to walk around with competing ideas and worldviews. We need to anchor ourselves to the truth. And we do thank you father for the multidimensional complex beauty of your word that testifies of your meticulous providence that throughout the ages you’ve been crafting this grand story that reveals the goodness of your gospel in Jesus Christ. We pray oh Lord and God that you would make our congregation of people who are lovers
of your word, who live by your word, who eat it up because it’s so life giving, who are richly and deeply dependent on it. Make us that kind of people, oh God, we pray in Jesus name, amen. Thanks for joining us for this week’s sermon from Trinity Church in Portland, Oregon. If you’d like to learn more about us, you can visit our website at www.trinityportland.com.