CW* Trinity 22 - Proper 25

Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

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In today’s Gospel, Jesus, for a second time in Saint Mark’s Gospel heals a blind man. This time, the man is named, Bartimaeus or, Son of Timaeus. For a second time, Jesus asks, “What is it you want me to do for you?” In last week’s Gospel reading, Jesus asked the disciples James and John, “What is it you want me to do for you?” Their reply, “Appoint us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” To which Jesus responds, “You do not know what you are asking.” It is funny how James and John don’t then ask Jesus to help them understand, to help them see. They assume they know what it means to share Jesus’s cup and his baptism, but it seems that they don’t, at least not yet. Does the blind man understand what the disciples don’t?

It is at this point in Marks’s Gospel, after performing this, the last healing miricle in Mark, that Jesus turns and sets his face towards Jerusalem to confront his death. He begins his journey on what Saint Mark calls “The way.” Before this scene there have been many healings in the Gospel of Mark but it is only Bartimeaus who is said to become a follower of Jesus after the healing. “Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.” That is not necessarily a judgement call on those who didn’t follow Jesus on the way - we are all called to follow Jesus in different places and in different sorts of ways. But it is interesting how, just after two disciples not understanding what it means to share the cup and baptism of Jesus, Bartimaeus sees and follows Jesus on “the way.” The way that leads to Jerusalem and the sacrifice that takes away the sin of the world. Does Bartimaeus understand what the disciples do not? That Jesus is glorified by overcoming death?

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It is easy, as I have shown, focus entirely on the spiritual reading of the metaphor of sight. The disiples did not understand but the blind man did and could see clearly enough to put his faith in the right thing. But the healing of the man is first a physical healing. Saint Mark, and the other Gospel writers, depict Jesus as having spent, what might be to some contemporary forms of Christianity, a surprising amount of time healing people. Ever since the time of Jesus, healing and health care have been a part of the Christian tradition. The modern arrival of the NHS, whilst of course a wonderful thing, has left the church without the fulness of its identity. The purpose of church has often become preach and believe. The hebrew view of a human being was one where the body and soul weren’t two seperate bits but were a way of describing the life of the whole person. To save a soul meant to heal that person of their physical and mental illness as much as it meant for them to have a future hope. In Jesus’s day, the Greek verb sо̄zо̄ was used to mean both "to save" and "to heal” and sо̄tēr could signify either "savior" or "physician.”

Although, like the author of Job before him, Jesus rejected the theory that sickness was God's way of getting even with sinners, he nonetheless seems to have suggested a connection between sickness and sin, to have seen sin as a kind of sickness. "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick;” he said. "I came not to call the righteous but sinners." (Mark 2:17).

Seeing sin as a sickness is why, in the catholic tradition, theologians can be called doctors of the church. My soul is sick, what can you perscribe? To go to Mass, to receive the medicine for your soul, to name that sickness in confession, to hear the words of forgivess, to pray a psalm, to get a second opinion from another doctor of the church. Like any health system, at it’s worst it is formulaic and lacks the particularity needed for individual people and situations. But, like any health system, at it’s best it offers wisdom, guidance, hope, and resource.

Bartimaeus is given sight perhaps because he has a healthy soul. But the health of his soul means that he understands the weight of following Jesus on the way. He sees not only the world but the kingdom of God as it really is.

How can we restore the healing aspect of the church’s identity today, especially given the fear of the NHS? Can we create a culture in Church that encourages young people to work in health care, to put it back above the status of business woman or man? How can we help those around us access health care with all the complications it involves? Do we have enough slack in our diaries to help others as and when the need arises or are we living already at full capacity? Is it impossible for us to make slack in our diaries? What does that say about the culture of competition we’ve created where the bar is always being shoved higher and higher? Do we see the bruised inner bits of us which a soul MRI might pick up? Rather then condemn sin in ourselves and others, do we seek advice on how to sustain the health of our soul? To do our daily exercises but to not be too hard on ourselves. Grace says it’s okay, keep going, I’m with you on the way.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.