23 Pentecost

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: 23 Pentecost
PROPER: 25 B
PLACE: St. John’s Parish, Kingsville
DATE: October 26, 1997

TEXT: Mark 10:46-52 - Jesus heals a blindman
Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his signt and followed him on the way.


ISSUE: A blindman finds hope and healing in the Savior. He wants to see ‘again.’ He wants renewal and hope for his life which culminates in his following Jesus to the presence of God. The passage calls all of us in our spiritual blindness, our gradual short-sightedness, our falling away from the light of God to renewed proclamation and following of the Christ in our lives. For in him and through him we find our way back to love, to forgiveness, to compassion, to renewed energies that allow God’s redeeming power to work in and through us.
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Today’s scripture reading from Mark about the blindman who seeks out Jesus for healing is a truly fascinating passage. It is rich, I think in meaning and in hope. Jesus is reportedly on his way from Jericho to Jerusalem. It is a difficult up hill journey. On his way Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus, is begging along the roadside. He is blind. He makes his living through begging, because he is unsighted and has no other way to make a living.
Blindness in Jesus’ time was common. Many people were afflicted with trachoma, a conjuncitis of the eye, which was a serious infection. It was largely caused by poor hygiene. It was spread by flies getting into the eyes. Water for hand washing was quite scarce among many people and so bacterial on the hands and rubbing the eyes my trachoma relatively common, and resulted in blindness. In this story we get the impression that the man had been able to see once, since he asks Jesus to let him see again.
Blindness was seen by many people of the period as a result of sinfulness. It was considered to be a curse, and blindmen could not enter the intersanctum of the temple. Leviticus 21:16-24 forbid persons with physical defects from making sacrifices in the temple or coming near to the temple curtain and altar. Experiencing this kind of ostracism made handicapped people appear and feel cursed and alienated from the healthier community. Begging for a living was not exactly an honorable calling.
In the story as Jesus approaches, the blindman begins to call out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many people, which may well have included some the disciples rebuke the man for calling out to Jesus. This rebuking may have been a sign of their keeping the defective person, or less honorable person in their place. Recall that the disciples and crowds had rebuked the children who were brought to see Jesus as well, in gospel lesson we read a few weeks ago. Yet, the more this man is rebuked the more he calls out, “Jesus, Son of David have mercy on me!” The disciples were not always very welcoming and were in fact quite dense sometimes when it came to understanding what Jesus’ ministry was about. Recall last week, James and John want places of honor in Jesus’s kingdom, competely missing the point of Jesus’s mininstry as a ministry of servanthood and not honorable status. Here the disciples and the crowd try to squelch the pleas of a desperate, and agonizing man. (Conjunctivitis could be very painful, not to mention the agony of blindness itself.)
The blindman also calls out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Today we think of ‘mercy’ as a kind of compassion. In Jesus time it did not quite have that meaning. ‘Mercy’ was an economic term. It meant more like ‘you owe me.’ Mercy described a person’s willingness to pay his debts in the Mediterranean culture. Thus, the blindman is call Jesus, “Son of David.” Jesus is beginning the ascent from Jericho to Jerusalem, and the blindman is loudly proclaiming him “Son of David.” “Son of David” was a messianic title. David and his son, Solomon, were considered at the time to be extraordinary kings in terms of their great competence as leaders. So the blindman in essence is proclaiming louder and louder - the more people try to silence him - ‘Jesus, you are the Messiah,’ ‘Jesus, you are the all knowing and all competent one,’ Jesus, you are the hope and the salvation of Israel.’ . . . ‘Jesus, you owe me my sight, the ability to see again.’ What this, of course, means is that the blindman is owed his right place in that kingdom. He is owed the right to restoration of status. For as he is physically blind, he sees deeply and spiritually that Jesus is the Christ the hope of the world.
What’s more. The crowd and disciples say to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” The blindman gets up and throws off his cloak and goes to Jesus. Throwing off the cloak is no idle, incidental, action. Blindmen would never throw anything away. How could they find it again? It would be lost in the crowd, if not stolen. The man is so assured of his healing that he throws off the old to embrace his anticipated new life with Christ, Jesus.
“What,” Jesus asks, “do you want me to do for you?”
“My teacher, let me see again.”
“Go; your faith has made you well.” Jesus says.
Immediately the man gets up restored and well and does not turn back for the cloak, does not turn back to the crowd, does not return home again. The renewed man follows Jesus along the way. He follows him in servanthood on to Jerusalem, the cross and on to resurrection and hope. The blindman in the story comes to see in his desperation and his blindness that hope and renewal is to be found in Jesus. He assigns his complete faith, confidence, and trust that Jesus will lead the way to the presence of God and God’s redemption and salvation. With Christ he becomes a worthy son of God fully restored and accepted.
What’s in this story of us? What does it mean? What’s its impact for us in the world we live in today? As I wrestle with these questions and consider our own time and culture the words of the Old Testament Lesson from Isaiah come to mind:
Isaiah 59:1-19 - Justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us; we wait for light, and lo! there is darkness; and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. We grope like the blind along a wall, groping like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among the vigorous as though we were dead.
In our world today there are many injustices and problems that keep the world in darkness and gloom. Racism and poverty prevails. Hunger and starvation persists at home and abroad in a world where storage bins are full, in a world where there is abundance. Drug and alcohol addictions are a blight on our cities and in our homes. Violence continues on the streets corners, in the political unrest in many places around the world, and in our homes. People get caught up in the cultural demands of personal success and egotistical individualism. We come to value what is often lonely, meaningless, and empty in just trying to care for ourselves alone. Human falleness, sinfulness, is a reality. God’s presence seems distant and the prevalence of a dark and unchanged world can seem to be the ongoing predicament of the ages. Our frustrations and our depressions silence us and sentence us to despair.
But there was a blindman who dared to trust and to place his confidence in the renewing power of God: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Inspite of a world that told him to shut-up and embrace the hopelessness, he cried out in faith all the more loudly. “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” He yelled and shouted all the more . . . there is hope, there is a savior, there is a leader of leaders there is a way to seeing again, and embracing hope again! He threw off the old cloak, the old stuff and went to Jesus in complete faith and trust that Jesus could leading him into a new appreciation of godliness. “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asks. He wants to see again, to have healing again, to see beauty and love and hopefulness. I want to follow in your way.
What do we want from Jesus? How do we in our lives need renewing? What do we want to see happen again in our lives and in our world? “Give light ot my (our) lives, O Lord.” (Psalm 13) the blindman in the story believed deeply, he trusted, in fact, he felt Jesus owed him his healing and hope. He yells out confidently his need for healing and hope. And he follows along the way. Many people want healing just for the sake of healing. But we the blindman wants renewed life and to follow with Jesus wherever he may lead. Do we want to see the hungry fed and cry out for that, yell and shout for that. Do we want see the end to violence at home and abroad? Do we reach out and cry out for peace: Jesus Son of David give us peace. Do we want lives that are lifted out of depression and hopelessness? Do we want better homes and happier marriages? Do we want our broken lives mended? Do we want to be hopeful again, and our energies recharged, and our dreams renewed. Then our cry, our yelling, our praying must be: Jesus you are indeed the messiah. You are our hope. We can only trust in you, in your love, in your way of forgivness in your healing and renewing powers. We trust in your dying and in your resurrection. We trust that in following you in a world that would shut us up with its negativity and hopelessness. Our faith gives us the worthiness to stand and come before God. It opens eyes see the truth of the world around us and that in community with Christ we are and continue to be the force of hope for the world. We come to see that what is fallen can be raised up. What is broken can be healed. It is in confident trust and faith, and the desire to live in a constant relationship embracing Jesus as Lord that renews us and keeps us going in hope.
A few weeks ago we read the story of the rich man who came to Jesus. But he turned away and went away sad for he had many possessions. The cursed blindman in the story today is in sharp contrast. In his recognized cursed state he throws off the old and accepts the loving grace of Jesus and follows him on the road to hope and renewal. Is there not a message in this rich piece of scripture for us all?