Mark 8: Lord, Open the Eyes of My Heart

Introduction

"My eyes! What do they see?" This is the theme of the message Pastor Débora brought to Église Protestante Baptiste La Fraternité after the church's return from its retreat. She warns right away: "This is not a new message. You know these passages." But in the routine of daily life, we fall into habits, we forget, and we think we have arrived.

Three passages were read: the healing of the blind man of Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-26), Elisha's servant facing the Syrian army (2 Kings 6:15-17), and Jesus' words about the eye as the lamp of the body (Matthew 6:22-23). Of the five senses, the preacher focuses on just one: sight. Not the sight of the physical eyes, but spiritual sight, the eye of faith.

The question is addressed to each person individually: "Your own eyes, not your brother's eyes, not your sister's eyes, but your own eyes. What do they see?"

Outline of the message

1. The five spiritual senses

People have five senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch. The preacher explains that there are also five spiritual senses: spiritual hearing, spiritual sight, spiritual taste, spiritual smell and spiritual touch.
For spiritual smell, she has the congregation read 2 Corinthians 2:15: "For we are a sweet aroma of Christ to God, in those who are saved and in those who perish."
She leaves the other four senses to the pastors who will preach after her, "otherwise I will keep on teaching like this for four months, five months," and dwells on sight.
With our physical eyes we see many things: the people in the room, the procession passing by with its sirens, the fish in the water. "But that is not the spiritual eye, that is the physical eye."

2. The healthy eye: perceiving the things of God

In Matthew 6:22-23, Jesus shows that having good sight means being filled with light. When the eye is unhealthy, there is darkness. The preacher tells how she took the wheel one morning because her husband, who puts drops in his eyes every day, could not see well.
But Jesus is not talking about the organ: "He is talking about the way we perceive spiritual things." If we misunderstand the things of God, we risk doing the opposite of what he asks of us.
The healthy eye symbolizes a life consecrated to the Lord, stripped of duplicity. You cannot come to church, preach, and then live differently once you walk out. Either you are a child of God and you walk according to what you perceive of him, or you walk according to the things of the world.
This eye is devoted to serving God and to being loyal to him: "When you see how God works in the church, you will be loyal to your God."
God will not come into the church with lightning bolts. It is with the eye of faith that we perceive his power, his glory and his love. Whoever sees what God is doing in them begins to praise him "without waiting for Sunday," without waiting for the worship groups.

3. Jesus puts in you what belongs to him

Some people close to the blind man bring him to Jesus. The Lord does not stay with him in the middle of the crowd: he takes him by the hand and leads him out of the village, away from distraction.
Jesus applies his own saliva to the blind man's eyes. "The blind man does not heal himself. It takes the intervention of Jesus Christ." Jesus takes what is his and puts it in you so that you can see.
What he has put in us: love, kindness, forgiveness, intercession, hospitality, joy and peace, the fruit of the Spirit. He has also placed ministries in us: singing, evangelism ("there are people who, when they have not spoken about Christ, do not feel well"), encouragement, like Barnabas.
"You come as if Christ has put nothing in you since you accepted him." The day you received him, he already placed this love, this joy, this peace in you. It has to show. When you walk into church, leave at the door what comes from you and come in with what Christ has put in you.
No one should wait for someone else to serve in their place. The preacher challenges the intercessors: their number is shrinking day by day, even though God placed intercession in the hearts of those who committed themselves.

4. When your sight is still blurry

After the first touch, the blind man answers: "I see men; for I see them like trees walking." His sight is blurry. Trees do not walk: he could not yet understand that they were people.
We too can see blurry: "Do I have to do this? Do I really have to intercede?" Many do not yet understand their calling or their ministry. The person who comes to rehearsal grumbling "is still at the first stage."
The Lord comes back a second time, because he is love. He adds another dose. And when we have understood, it shows: the joy of interceding and the joy of singing show that we have grasped where the Lord is calling us.
Why twice, when Lazarus came out of the tomb at the first word? It was not too hard for Jesus. He wanted to show his disciples that some healings are instant and others are gradual. "Do not follow other people's pace." God wants you to move forward step by step, and sometimes he holds you back because he sees something in you that is not yet mature.
The blind man did not leave Jesus' presence between the two touches. "Often we leave God's presence because we have not received what we wanted." He stayed and waited.
Once healed, he looks intently. He looks neither to the left nor to the right. "Let them slander you, let them insult you, let them say anything about you, I am the one who saw the Lord. I am the one who met Jesus, and I keep my gaze turned and fixed on him." Whoever goes back to sin is like the washed sow that returns to wallow in the mire (2 Peter 2:22).
You see God's hand in the lives of your brothers and sisters, in the life of the Church and in your own life. Like Job: "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you" (Job 42:5). He saw God's greatness and goodness, and God gave back to him what he had lost.

5. Setting yourself apart to see the glory of God

Jesus took the blind man aside because the crowd brings distraction. "Set yourselves apart for the Lord, aside, and you will see the glory of God that you are looking for." Without communion with the Lord, you do not set yourself apart for him.
In a couple, each person needs this time: "There is a time to cook and there is a time to pray." There is a time to work and a time to serve God. "That is my time. Let no one take it from me. Not even the children."
Jesus says: "But you, when you pray, enter into your inner room, and having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you" (Matthew 6:6). You can leave a concert or a worship service unchanged if you do not then go to the secret place.
Moses drew near to God and asked him: "Please show me your glory" (Exodus 33:18). God put him in a cleft of the rock and covered him with his hand. "It is when we are in the secret place that we will see how God protects us." Are you in the hollow of God's hand, or does everything pass before your eyes like a train?
One of her spiritual daughters asked her whether we can experience the glory of God as Elijah did. Her answer: yes, "provided you have this intimacy with God."
"I came to wake you up." Since 2020, communion has not been the same. The Lord asks us to return to our first love (Revelation 2:4), the time when we came to the night vigil with a pure heart.

6. No one can see for you

Elisha's servant was right there with Elisha, but he did not see the horses and chariots of fire. He trembled before the Syrian army. Elisha, for his part, saw the power of God, because he lived in communion with him.
"It is not because you are a singer, it is not because you are a pastor, it is not because you are an evangelist," or because you serve on the audiovisual team, that you will see. You can be together in church and not see what God is doing there, for lack of communion.
The preacher tells how, the day before, she received a registered letter demanding a large sum of money. She refused to let it trouble her on the eve of bringing the Word: "My God is great. My God will bring me out of this." That is what it means to stay fixed on Jesus.
To the person who asks about the tithe, "Is it God who is going to pay my bills?", she answers that this is seeing with the physical eyes. The One who feeds the birds of the air, which neither sow nor reap, will take care of you (Matthew 6:26). "Even if it is for your marriage, wait on God. Even for healing, wait on God."
Elisha prayed: "Yahweh, please open his eyes, that he may see." He could not see for his servant. "It is not your dad, it is not your mom. It is not your brother, it is not your sister, it is not your spouse who has to see for you." Her own husband is a pastor, she says, and he does not see for her.
The blind man's friends and family led him to Jesus, and then the text no longer mentions them. A family member can bring you to church, and that is not a bad thing. But "no one can build your relationship with God in your place."

7. What to do so that your eyes see

Go to the Lord, even if you feel abandoned: "He is always standing there with his saliva," with what is precious that he has for you.
Seek his touch. Jesus is the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep (John 10:11). "Hold me by the hand, I am weak. I want to see you."
Move away from the crowd and from distractions: going from Instagram to Netflix to YouTube steals this time. She advises turning off your phone and not sleeping with it: "It does not bring you life."
Be set free from fear, like Elisha's servant, and from spiritual blindness.
Remain every day in God's presence, attached to him as the branch is to the vine (John 15:5).
Prepare "the drops for your eyes": the Word of God and communion with God. Build your relationship with him each day by listening to his Word, meditating on it and putting it into practice, by choosing forgiveness and resisting temptation.
Christ's calling is to make us people who see: to see how he frees us from sin, how he heals the sick, how he restores broken hearts. "I want to see the world through your eyes."

Key takeaways

The eye Jesus speaks of is the eye of faith: the way you perceive the things of God, without duplicity and with loyalty.
Christ has already put in you what belongs to him: his love, his joy, his peace and gifts for serving. It has to show.
Some healings are gradual. Stay in Jesus' presence when your sight is still blurry.
God's glory is seen apart, in the secret place, away from the crowd and from distractions.
No one can see for you or build your relationship with God in your place.

Personal application

Today, what do your eyes see: only people and circumstances, or also God's hand in your life?
What has Christ placed in you that you have left "in the closet"?
In what area do you still see blurry: your calling, your ministry, a prayer that is slow to be answered? Do you stay in his presence while you wait?
What fixed time can you set aside this week to be alone with the Lord, phone turned off?
Are you counting on your spouse, your parents or your pastor to see in your place?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

Why did Jesus touch the blind man of Bethsaida twice?

According to the preacher, it was not because the miracle was difficult. Jesus raised Lazarus with a single word. He wanted to show his disciples that some healings are instant and others happen gradually. What God has put in you grows little by little, step by step, without following other people's pace.

What does it mean to have a healthy eye in Matthew 6:22-23?

Jesus is not talking about the organ but about the way we perceive spiritual things. The healthy eye represents a life consecrated to the Lord, without duplicity, devoted to serving God and to loyalty to him. It is the eye of faith, which sees God's hand in your own life, in the lives of your brothers and sisters and in the Church.

How can you open the eyes of faith in daily life?

The preacher gives five markers: go to the Lord, seek his touch, move away from the crowd and distractions, be set free from fear like Elisha's servant, and remain every day in God's presence. The "drops" for the eyes are the Word of God and communion with him, in the secret place.