Blinded In Part
Reading today from the book of Saint Mark chapter seven:
Mark 7:1-23: “Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem. And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault. For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables. Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands? He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother" and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me" he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother" Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye. And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand: There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable. And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him" Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats? And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.”
Here is a great lesson that the master was teaching when He was walking here many hundreds of years ago. He was telling the people that they were not keeping the ordinances of God. He was telling them that they had become hypocritical. He did not come to break the law. He fulfilled every jot and every tittle. During His lifetime, they could never find one time that He transgressed the law. Paul said, on one occasion, to the others, “You have the law and none of you keep it.” Jesus was the one that kept the law, every jot and tittle. No one could ever trap Him in His words, or find any place where He violated the law.
So His dispute, His confrontation, was not with those who followed Moses. It was not with those who loved Moses and esteemed Moses and who loved Abraham. He had no dispute with them, for these were His fellow men. They were His brethren. He came to seek and to save that which was lost, in that they were looking for their Messiah. But to become the father of all nations, as Abraham did, according to the prophecy, they had to be blinded in part so God could go to the others, otherwise, He would have had to set up His kingdom there on the earth. They asked Him, “Will You, at this time, restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said, “It’s not given unto you to know the time and season that God has set in His own power.” He said, “The kingdom of God cometh not by observation.” It is within a man. It is a spiritual thing. This was the Christ talking, for the hour when Jesus would sit upon the throne was not yet. He was yet to have compassion on all of the world through the mercy of the Jews.
So then, we see them blinded in part. What does this mean? It means they were able to see the hinder part. When Moses was on the mountain, in the cleft of the rock, the glory of God passed before Moses and He let him see the hinder part" which means Moses, as to Moses’ memberly body, the church in the wilderness, was to see the hinder part. This means from Calvary back to the garden. That is the hinder part. And the veil is still there. It is not rent in twain, because the veil that comes through the fall at the garden is still there. The veil that was over Moses’ face means they could not look steadfastly to the end of that commandment and that light. That veil, which must be abolished, stands between them. That is the veil of death that Jesus abolished at Calvary.
But until the time of the fullness of all the other nations (the Gentiles), Jesus as the Messiah cannot take away this veil. The holy of holies is still veiled, and they cannot enter into that place. But to you and I, the high priest officiates on the inside, sitting in that body at the right hand of the Father. Jesus came back on the day of Pentecost and entered through the veil. This was the first fruits, the waving of the barley harvest. He arose as the first fruits, and forty days from then He went away. Ten days later He came back, making the fifty days, as to the forty-nine days having to do with the feast of weeks, and the fiftieth day, the Jubilee, which is Pentecost. He returned as the meal offering, the ground up offering, to the Gentiles which receive the Spirit by measure. Not as a whole thing, as to the waving of the barley harvest, but the wheat harvest.
So then, we see what God has done. It is so wonderful! “The veil remaineth,” Paul said, “over the eyes of the people, even until this day in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away with in Christ Jesus,” in that the veil is rent. God the great Spirit within the human veil of Jesus, the veil is rent, and no more is He under the law, God under the law or God within a nation. The nation has been rent. The head has been rent. The body has been rent. Jesus, the Bible says, made in Himself twain, both Lord and Christ, that the veil might be rent in twain, which means in two, the separation of the Lord and the Christ, as to take the bodily image of sin, to fulfill the law and then fold it up and lay it away. Then, the Spirit of Christ may come forth in the new form, in a new man, as a second man Adam, being made a quickening Spirit, the first man Adam a living soul. The soul that sinneth shall surely die, and then the second Adam, a quickening Spirit, even Christ that resurrected from the dead, to bring us peace.
He was delivered for our offenses, smitten, to take away our sins, and then raised from the dead, that we might have the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, in this new form, even the bodily image of Christ. As He bore the image of the earthly, as the first man Adam, so do we bear the image of the heavenly. If this tabernacle be dissolved, we have another one eternal in the heavens, not made with hands, which is the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. We bear the image of the earthly, but we will bear the image of the heavenly.
The hinder part is that which is beyond the veil. On this side of Calvary, we do not see through a glass darkly, nor through a veil, for in Christ the veil is dissolved and done away with. But we see face to face, because we see the face of our Lord" whereas Moses saw the hinder part. So when Jesus came, His dispute was that they were keeping the tradition of the elders, and not keeping the law. He came to fulfill the law. He said, “Out of your heart comes evil thoughts of adultery, fornication, and drunkenness.” He said that they did these things, and it was a violation of the law, for the law says, “Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not covet.”
Jesus’ dispute was that they had the law, and they didn’t keep the law, they broke the law, and they kept the tradition of elders, such as the washing of pots and pans. He said, “This is not the keeping of the law, though God gave this to you.” We wash pots and pans, because we believe in cleanliness. But He said, “You shouldn’t associate that with salvation, because salvation comes from God, who is a Spirit.” Life is in the Spirit. There’s no life in ritualistics. There’s no life in traditions. So He said, “You’re breaking the law of God, which gives you light. How can you accept your Messiah? You’ve been blinded! You do not understand your Messiah.” Jesus could have said, “I am God made manifest in the flesh. I am the one that commissioned Moses, and I gave you these things. Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think that ye have eternal life, but they (the Scriptures) witness and testify of Me, pointing to My coming.”
So we see, beloved friend, He said, “You break the Scriptures and transgress the law. Therefore, He said, “You are guilty of transgression and must pay the penalty, for transgression of the law is sin, and the soul that sinneth shall surely die.” Jesus was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him, that perfect Lamb, there is no sin.
By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.
Founder and first President of Jesus Christ’s Eternal Kingdom of Abundant Life, Inc.
Holiness Unto The Lord