Opening the Eyes of Faith at Every Age (4/5)

B Pentecost13 2015

August 23, 2015

Mark 10:46-52

Romans 3:21-31

Bethlehem's Value #4

The Holy Gospel according to St. Mark. [Glory to you O Lord]

⁴⁶ As [Jesus] and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. ⁴⁷ When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” ⁴⁸ Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” ⁴⁹ Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” ⁵⁰ So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. ⁵¹ 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.” ⁵² Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

The Gospel of the Lord [Praise to you O Christ].

Grace to you and Peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

You probably know someone who has lost their eyesight over time... have you ever spoken to someone who completely blind?  I remember asking a friend if he could remember what it was like to see.  Yes, he said.  He could remember, he could dream in color, but some things were fading from him memory.  Faces.  He couldn’t remember the faces of the ones he deeply loved.  The pain in his voice matched the tears welling in his eyes, but was strangely disconnected from his blank stare.  The ability to see those faces again was something he dearly longed for. 

I imagine him when I hear the story of Bartimaeus.  There were people Bartimaeus used to see, and now he could not.  There may have been work he used to do, that he couldn’t do any more.  There may have been relationships that he had been cut off from when he was blinded, no longer being able to support a family or himself – maybe people thought he was cursed by God.  A Jew’s faithfulness, at the time, should have been evidenced in his blessings. 

But God wasn’t done with him yet.  Bartimaeus may not have been able to see with his eyes, but he could see what was going on around him.  

He could see who Jesus was.

Bartimaeus – a blind man is the one who names him “Son of David”  the promised Messiah, come to save the world.  And Bartimaeus is bold enough to ask for that salvation here and now.  “Have mercy on me!” he calls out.

Have mercy on me!  The same thing we cry at the beginning of every worship service – often in Latin – Kyrie Eliason!  Have mercy, Lord!  Save us, Lord!  Whether it is our own sin, or just the wretched sin of the world that has gotten us in this despairing place; we pray for God’s mercy and grace to find us.  For we know that God has the power to change what we cannot.  We pray this prayer when we hear of the latest mass shooting or the sad state of rape culture on our college campuses.  We look at ourselves and consider how we have contributed to the problem, and we look to God with faith in his loving presence among those who are hurting, and in using all hurt to transform the world.  Just saying this – Kyrie Eliason! Lord have Mercy!  Is an act of faith.  Reaching out to God when we see how sin is so much bigger than a problem we can fix.  This is faith.  Putting our trust in God.  Giving over our way of seeing, for God’s way of seeing. 

The people around him spoke stearnly.  I am sure they though Bartimaeus wasn’t worth the Teacher’s time.  But Bartimaeus knew better.  He knew the God of grace cares for those at the bottom of the social scale.  And he knew Jesus was from God.  Where had he heard this good news, I wonder?  Had someone who cared for him told him this was his only hope for a different life?  Some faithful soul had passed by his begging corner shouting out Hosannas and Glory be to God for their own blessed healing?  Faith is caught, not taught they say.  So the faith-bug had bitten Bartimeaus; Jesus was it, the promised one.  Breaking hope and healing like shafts of light through a canopy of branches. 

Bartimaeus knows who Jesus is.  He sees that the Savior has come, and he is not going to let him pass by his pleading prayer.  And Jesus stops.  He stops and listens.  He stops and listens and calls Bartimaeus to come. 

Bartimaeus leaps off the ground and lands in front of Jesus.

Did you notice that Jesus asks Bartimaeus the same question he asked James and John last week?  “What do you want me to do for you?”

What do you want me to do for you? 

Same question, but different requests.  Here we have an inversion of James and John’s request for personal glory.  “Have Mercy on Me” Bartimeus cries, “Teacher, Let me see again!”

Teacher.  He calls him teacher.  Bartimaeus knows this Jesus has much to teach him.  And Bartimaeus is ready to learn, ready to study his every move, ready to pray as he prays, ready to love as he loves, ready to follow him on the way. 

Jesus seemed to know Bartimaeus was ready for a new life, new life found on the way with Jesus. 

I can imagine Jesus saying “Yes!  This is what I have come to do – to let people see!  See God through me.  This is the great mercy for which you ask, Bartimeus —Yes!  I will open your eyes to match the eyes of faith that are already open in you.”

It’s your core value #4, Bethlehem.  Opening the Eyes of Faith at every age.  Bartimaeus hears the good news, he has faith, his eyes are opened, he follows.

Have you ever felt that it was hard to believe in Jesus? Or, for that matter, hard to believe that there is a loving God? 

I get that.  We look around us and see pain.  We look at scripture and we see some old stories.  Sometimes it just feels too fantastic to believe that this man named Jesus offered people real healing and that God broke in, over and over and over again, when we don’t see that kind of miracle happening in our daily lives.

Believing certain things happened in a certain way at a certain time isn’t really the definition of faith.  Faith is not about finding the right facts. 

What is faith?  Trust in God.  Trust that God not only exists, but loves us and wants good for the world.  And that God has the power to influence us – not just to change what we don’t like in our neighbors, but to change me.  Faith in God is believing that this almighty benevolent being cares about me enough to want to show me a new way to live.  A way of grace.  A way where I get things I don’t deserve, and so does my neighbor.  A way where I am gentle with myself, and my neighbor.  A way of life that hopes for transformation for the world, starting with me. 

Faith is trust that all this is possible.  And that the power of God can come into my own deepest hurts and heal them. 

Bartimaeus had that kind of faith.  He put his trust in this man Jesus, in the God that empowered Jesus to be the Messiah, the son of David.  Bartimaeus, a blind man, might have been viewed as incapable of much.  His fate was to lie on a mat, begging for sustenance.  No one thought he could teach them, or teach us.  But he did.  God goes on, once again, giving us this story in scripture of God using the last person anyone would point to as a leader, or worthy of God’s choice.  Yet he is.  Because he has the one thing God wants us all to have…faith.

When we feel like it is hard to believe, we are given the words of the liturgy that we pray with Bartimeus –Have mercy on us!  Open our eyes to your ways—that we might live liberated of our denial of who you are to us. 

For when we live knowing Jesus as Bartimaeus did— it changes things.  For us.  Our priorities change.  When we let the Kyrie fall out of our mouths, our eyes are open, again, to see that God the greatest.  Our eyes are open, again, that we do not have to be in control of everything, because ultimately, God is in control.  Our eyes are open to the truth of our beloved status in God’s kingdom. And you, Faithful Children of God, are called to follow in Jesus way.

So, dear Bethlehem, let me say, finally, that you are invited to walk with Jesus in Bible Study this fall – either in the weekly study here on Sunday mornings after worship, where we will be talking about Lutheran beliefs for the first 7 weeks, then moving to scripture study.  Or in Bible and Wine, our monthly Bible book club that will be studying God’s Word, the foundation of our faith in community with our ecumenical brothers and sisters at Holy Trinity Episcopal. 

Let us pray…

Open our eyes God, that we might know and love you first.  Give us faith, that we might live in right relationship with all the world.  Let us walk with you on the way, like Bartimaeus. 

Amen.