Sermon by Dan Carew, Lay Preacher

Good morning. As y’all may know the lectionary has been guiding us through the Gospel of Mark. We’ve been through many familiar teachings and accounts of Jesus, today's selection is no different. However, I hope to bring light to some interesting aspects of the passage and give us some things to reflect upon.

Where has Jesus been prior to this moment captured in the Gospel of Mark? Up to this point, Jesus has established himself as a teacher who brings enlightenment and is savvy in his confrontations and challenges. The latter is especially true when he is dealing with the religious leaders of his time. He has demonstrated having divine power displayed through healings and
miraculous acts. He’s done all these things in and around Galilee, and thus has a growing fame that has brought on the ire of the religious leaders. Today’s selection from Mark is the last account before the gospel shifts its focus to Jerusalem and Jesus’ predicted death and resurrection.

Here in October, our lectionary journey has taken us through Chapter 10 of Mark’s gospel. We’ve heard about the religious leaders questioning Jesus about divorce and the disciples denying people from bringing children to Jesus. We’ve heard of the man with many possessions asking what he must do to inherit eternal life. And last week the Zebedee brothers were asking to
be Jesus’ right-hand men. In this chapter of Mark we’ve bounced between stories of the selfish, those looking for personal gain, and those in faith, and possibly desperation, coming to Jesus.

Now we are here at this passage at the end of chapter 10 where a blind beggar encounters Jesus, or perhaps Jesus encounters the blind beggar, but before we get into the encounter I would like to take a moment to have us consider two thoughts about the beggar.

First, the beggar is identified as “Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus.” This is interesting because there is a repetitive nature to the identification. “Bar” in Aramaic means “son” or “descendent”. We have what looks like an Aramaic phrase, Bartimaeus, being attributed to him as his name, followed by a Greek description “son of Timaeus”. It essentially reads “son of Timaeus, son of
Timaeus”. All this to say, we may not know who this beggar was but he was connected to Timaeus, and those with early encounters with Mark’s gospel may have known who Timaeus was.

Second, the man was not just a beggar, but also blind which adds other layers to his situation and the encounter. We don’t know how he became blind, but we do know that he previously, at some point in his life, had sight. We gather this from his response to Jesus. Blindness, and other physical ailments in ancient times came with stigmas - maybe he sinned and was made blind as a
punishment, or he angered some deity incurring their wrath. However, I don’t believe this is how God, who is love, operates but rather ancient people trying to make sense and explain life occurrences. Either way, there are ramifications for the man. In his commentary on this passage, Luis Menendez Antuna states, “Although he is the ‘son of,’ men in his situation would not be able to form a family, work to sustain himself and his dependents, or fulfill some obligations
proper to civic and religious life.” You see, he was a beggar because he was pushed to the margins of society due to his blindness; how could he live normally in the community?

He’s forced to be a beggar because of a systemic problem and he therefore gets placed in the category “other” where he is left to beg in order to survive.
Alright, now let us dive into the encounter between this man and Jesus. I am going to break this account into 6 parts.

The first is The Pleading.
As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

While this man is described as a “beggar”, the action he takes is different from begging. He’s not asking for food, or money but something soul worthy; he’s asking for mercy. He is calling out in desperation with the knowledge of something deeper, and I suggest it is something deeper due to how the man refers to Jesus. The gospel writer identifies Jesus “of Nazareth”, while the man calls him the “son of David” implying a royal lineage and perhaps acknowledging prophetic statements about Jesus. I wonder how he came to this conclusion.

Does he hear others talking about Jesus before He comes through? Can he hear others murmuring in the crowd their suspicions that Jesus is the Son of David? What does he know of Jesus? What has Jesus done so far that this man knew of?

Regardless of how the man knew, his proclamation is a bold and potentially dangerous, political statement in Roman occupied Judaea.

Perhaps it is this statement that leads to the second part, The Rebuking.
Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Could it be that the crowd tried hushing him because of his statement? Or because he is being loud and they are annoyed? In his blog post about this passage, D. Mark Davis, describes the crowd’s actions as an “anti-healing: the crowd was trying to make the blind man mute.” 

We’ve seen these types of actions before in the Gospel of Mark - People trying to runinterference or “assist” Jesus. In the beginning of chapter 10 the disciples try to stop people from bringing children to Jesus, and at the end of chapter 9 we saw a similar thing when the disciples complained about someone other than them casting out demons in Jesus’ name.

These instances remind me of a line from the U2 song "Stand Up Comedy" where Bono sings, “stop helping God across the road like a little old lady.” I think we humans think that we need to protect God as if God is fragile, or maybe we are the fragile ones, protecting societal standing and ideologies by excluding those that are different. Either of these could be the case for the crowd. However, for the man of desperation he shouts all the more and
louder. He will not relent. He is determined to get Jesus’ attention.

Part 3, The Stopping.
Jesus stood still Do you remember the last time there was shouting in Jericho? While the physical walls of the city do not fall down, the same city walls this man is probably accustomed to resting against, what does happen is Jesus, the son of God, is stopped in his tracks by the man’s pleading cries. In the entirety of the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is continually on the go, so this man’s actions have done something extraordinary. His cries have also overcome the “gatekeeping” crowd to get Jesus’ attention, opening the opportunity for the encounter with Jesus.

Part 4, The Calling.
... and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.

We humans are fickle. One minute the crowd is rebuking the man and now it’s gentle and encouraging. Those that were denying him just moments ago are now the ones being directed to engage with him in a positive way; “Call him here.” Once the man hears the encouragement of the crowd he is up and on the move. There’s so much faith happening here.

Imagine what this looks like. He tosses his cloak, most likely his sole and cherished possession. If you are blind you do not toss your possessions. You are deliberate about where you place things - you need to be able to find them again. This is reckless.

He sprang up indicating that he was eager and moving quickly towards Jesus. Most likely arms out in front of him to feel for obstructions and to brace himself for impact. Realizing that in this instance something grand was about to happen, perhaps the crowd parted, giving him an unobstructed path to Jesus. Maybe, they helped him along with a gentle touch or encouraging directions, “straight ahead”, “watch out for the hole”, “a little to left”, “almost
there”. If you are blind you don’t move quickly, you are tentative with your movements, otherwise you’ll likely injure yourself. This is reckless.
This blind man stands in stark contrast to Jesus’ encounter with the man with all of the possessions seeking eternal life earlier in chapter 10. The blind man tosses his cloak, whereas the other man couldn’t part with any of his possessions. One man with reckless faith, the other perhaps with faith that has been wrecked.


Part 5, The Asking.
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’ question is the same question he asked the Zebedee brothers earlier in chapter 10.

However this man’s request stands in juxtaposition to theirs. The Zebedees wanted a place of privilege and power, this man just wants to see again.
There are times when we humans operate as if God is a cosmic vending machine, or perhaps a cosmic genie. We put our prayers in and out pops an answer to our desire, or we “rub” sacred objects - the Bible, the book of common prayer, the communion cup, and ask, “oh god give me my wish”. Yet here is a situation that seems like it might be true. Jesus asks “what do you want me to do for you?”. The door of possibility is opened for the blind beggar; he could’ve requested anything. He could have asked for eternal life. Or to be elevated to a place of power. Or wealth. Or strength. He could have asked for revenge on his enemies. However, he does none of those things, he pleads for mercy and chooses to ask to see again.

Part 6, The Granting.
Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.
We’ve heard Jesus say these words before - the woman with the hemorrhage in Chapter 5 of Mark, and the encounter with the 10 lepers in Luke chapter 17. The blind man’s faith as demonstrated through his actions: calling out, throwing off his cloak, leaping to his feet, running to Jesus, and his humble request - has brought healing to his body.

I would also suggest that he not only gained his physical sight, but he deepened his spiritual insight, because encounters with Jesus seem to do just that - change the person, and with this man it is no different. After regaining his sight he follows Jesus “on the way”. On the way to where? Jerusalem.

Now what? How should we reflect on this encounter between the blind man and Jesus? I’ve got three things for us to consider.
The first is that faith is powerful, it brings healing in different ways, be it physical healing, intellectual healing, social healing, spiritual healing, or emotional healing. It can assure us in moments of trial and stress. Faith can carry and sustain us. It can give us courage to do the audacious - like throwing off our cloaks and running blindly towards hope.

The second thing to consider is what is our “cloak”? What do we need to “throw off”? What is keeping us from a deeper encounter with God? We may not need to be as reckless as the blind man, but we all have places in our lives where we could use some liberation and freedom from the things that are hindering us. We all have areas where we can be and do better.
The last thing, which is more of a proclamation than a consideration, is that all can come to God. Jesus demonstrated this when he stopped and called the blind man to him. He demonstrated it with the children who were brought to him and through many other accounts in the Gospels. Despite what religious gatekeepers and holy quality control managers might say, despite what doctrine various church denominations ascribe to, despite the crowds that
try to mute and the disciples that try to interfere - everyone is welcome is approach and experience God’s love, and in that, God’s healing.

Amen.

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