Pentecost 20

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

SEASON: Pentecost 20
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: October 29, 2000


TEXT: Mark 10:46-52 - 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.”

See also: Isaiah 59:1-19 - “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.”

ISSUE: - A poor blind beggar wants to see again. He is willing to cast off the past in hope of restoration to community, a whole, full, strong, healthy life. He calls out to Jesus Christ in faith, and by his grace the blind man is restored and follows him. As humans we all often stumble in the darkness and keeping the status quo. We’re satisfied with some of the meager things in life, the monetary materialistic things that satisfy. But, the blind man in the story does not want mere hand outs, he wants life. By faith he receives the grace to be with Jesus Christ.
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The story from Mark which tells of the blind man receiving his sight is a powerful and wonderful story. It tells of a poor blind man whose life has been given to begging for a living. Tired of all that he calls out to Jesus Christ giving him great honor, calling him Son of David. And by his clear intentional faith, grace comes to him and he receives his sight and follows along the way.
In Jesus’ time, the first century, blindness was quite common. The disease was Trachoma, a contagious infection of the mucous lining of the eyelids and cornea. It was spread by flies and poor hygiene. Hand washing would have helped, but water in the land was scarce and not readily available among the poor. Pharisees, in fact, criticized Jesus’ disciples for not washing their hands before eating. But wealthier persons in position of leadership had that luxury. Peasants did not, and thus you had significant number of blind beggars. The disease is curable today.
Blindness in the first century was also thought by many to be a curse, the result of some sinfulness. It meant that a person bore great shame, and could not enter the Temple in Jerusalem. Blind person got their living through begging along the roads.
The story today tells of Bartimaeus, the Son of Timaeus (a name meaning highly prized or honored) who seeks out Jesus for healing. The crowds are on their way to the temple in Jerusalem taking the route through Jericho. This time was a good time for beggars who would stand outside the city gates to beg from the pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem. As the crowds are passing by, this one Bartimaeus learns that Jesus is in the crowd passing by. He calls out to Jesus: “Jesus, Son of David have mercy on me!” The crowd tell him to “Shut-up.” How dare this shameful, sinful, beggar cry out. He’s an expendable nothing. But he dares to challenge the crowd, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” The blind man is bestowing a title of great honor upon Jesus. He gives to Jesus an honorable messianic title, “Son of David, the greatest King of Israel, the father of Solomon who was wise and considered to be near omniscient and omnipotent ruler.” (J. Pilch) “Honorable Jesus, you can reward me with healing.” This scene is one in which the blind beggar is so focused in faith and loyalty, trust, that Jesus can restore his sight. Jesus accepts the accolade and rewards him. So Jesus calls him to him. The blind Bartimaeus gets up, throws off his coat and runs to Jesus.
Mind you, a blind man does not throw his coat away. He may never find it again. We are given an enhanced appreciation of the great faith of the blind man.
Jesus asks Bartimaeus, “What do you want me to do for you?” Get this point, and get it good. It’s important. The poor shameful blind beggar who sits in the gutters on the side of the road dares to approach Jesus with the title “Son of David”, an extremely royal and highly honorable title: you are as great as they come O Royal One, high potentate. But, Jesus taking the role of a slave says to the beggar, “What do you want me to do for you?” What shock to his disciples that wanted to sit at his right hand and left hand when Jesus came into his glory. “What can I do for you?” are the words a slave asks of his master.
The blind Bartimaeus replies to this servant master with another title of great honor, “My teacher (or rabbi), I want to see again.” He wants to be enlightened. He wants to come into the light. He wants to live a meaningful fulfilled life again. And he believes that through his faith in Jesus Christ he can be fully restored with his shame done away. He risks everything. He’s thrown away his coat, perhaps a symbol of his past. He’s given up his way of life. He may have been a beggar, but at least it was a living, and his only living. He gives it all up. “Teacher, let me see again.” Through his faith in Jesus Christ, the grace of healing restoration flows. Having given up his past, he follows Jesus on the way. Incidentally, “The Way” was what Christians were originally called, “People of the Way.”
Note too that the blind man when asked by Jesus, “What can I do for you?” could have replied, “Give me five bucks.” It was not affluence, materialistic gain, which would have kept him there always at the beggars gate that for which the blind man asks. He is ready in faith to move on, to be changed, to be enlightened, to carry on new life. He throws away his old coat in eager hope of healing restoration so that he can see the way of God’s free gift of love, forgiveness, and reconciliation (friendship with God) through Jesus Christ.
This story is such a powerful and wonderful one, of a man whose life is in darkness, whose life is despairing, whose life is shamed, whose life is reduced to the gutter, but who finds great hope and healing in and through Jesus Christ the great high priest, and yet the slave of all who extends the graciousness of God. Who of us have not known such times in our lives when we felt deep in the dark not knowing where to turn, groping in the darkness. Sometimes life can be like groping in the dark. Sometimes it is hard to know which way to turn. The human condition is described in the Isaiah passage today (59:1-19) in a time when people had lost touch with God:
“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.”
This passage came from a time when people were very litigious, suing one another frivolously, cheating one another, having no respect for human need of the poor. Government was corrupt. It was nation robbed of its dignity and godliness. Sound familiar? We as a people and nation still have our problems and a great deal of indifference and apathy, blinded to our need for vital responsibility to community, and to the common good.
The situation in the Middle East today appears to be one, at least from the American perspective, where the Israeli’s and the Palestinians cannot find the way to peace. The old ways of pride, fear, prejudice, corruption, terrorism keep getting in the way. They can’t seem to throw off the past and cry out for mercy, compassion. There are blinders that keep them from seeing the larger picture. Continued vengeance maintains the status quo. There appears to be no surrender to God, and need for God’s mercy to help and heal. The misery goes on without a commitment to real peace.
One of the things in my ministry that has been troublesome is how spiritually blind many men are. So many families have been destroyed by men who cannot see the abounding grace in their midst. I think of men who have nice homes, good jobs, children, devoted wives in many instances, but who will throw it all away on the whim that they can have a better life somewhere else, when a good life is in their midst. Jobs, and children, and wives, and homes are work. They are all demanding, and life in God, in Christ is servanthood. That’s the clearer picture. We are called to be faithful, as God is faithful and responsive to us. But the values of faithful devoted commitment to our vows becomes hazy, out of focus, and lame excuses for our behaviors lead us away from stability to groping in the darkness.
It is hard for us to see (another way of saying that we are blind) that unless we embrace our faith in God, in Jesus Christ, unless we embrace ministries, a character of servanthood, nothing ever changes very much. Without we become committed to justice, then we face blight, insurrection, rebellion, decaying cities, communities, and nation, not to mention a decaying church without people with a focused faithfulness.
Many of us Christians today have allowed ourselves to be hazy, unclear, out of focus so far as our faithfulness is concerned. The world encroaches on our way to finding insight, hope, and we let it. We are undisciplined. We are casual about our religious commitments. The world tells us not to claim Christ as Lord, and we say, “Okay”, and shut up. The meager hand outs of shallow plastic affluence and materialism suffice, but people are miserable, and nothing changes.
For those of us who wear glasses, we know that without them we get to the point where we are legally blind. We see colors and shapes, but things around us get very fuzzy. Unless the print on the page is very large and very dark, we cannot see to read. We can’t find our way through the pages, until we put our glasses on and then things around us become sharp and clear again. It’s a lot like putting on faith in Jesus Christ. It helps us to see things in perspective again.
The blind man in the story had some inkling that the love, the forgiveness, the hope, the wisdom, the teachings of Jesus offered more than what his world of shame, depravity, alienation, prejudice, and injustice could ever offer. He dared to break free and to honor Christ. He dared to throw off the burden of the past and risk in faith a new way of life that was devoted unequivocally to Jesus Christ. The servant Christ responded to him. He could see again.