22nd Sunday after Pentecost
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Do you remember Jericho? The famed city of Numbers 4-6 whose walls crumbled at the sound of shouts and trumpets. What’s great about this is that archeological excavations have shown that Jericho was destroyed around this time by sudden force - an earthquake they say!
Jericho is about 5 miles away from the Jordan river and 15 from Jerusalem. Matthew and Luke record this event happening as Jesus is headed into Jericho but Mark has it on the way out of town - as He gets ready to enter Jerusalem the last time.
Now too often we do what we just did with the scriptures. We contextualize it and then place it at a distance.
What happens in verse 46 is absolutely something we would see in our world today.
What we see in v. 46 and the rest of this story is a Miracle of Mercy in the midst of change and decay.
And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside.
There is a beggar, sitting on the road headed out of town, just like there is at every single freeway entrance and exit between Spokane and Seattle. A man in need asking for help in a high traffic area.
Now notice what Bartimaeus - the only man in the gospel of mark who is named and a recipient of Jesus’ miracles. Why would Mark do that? SO THAT YOU COULD ASK HIM ABOUT IT! Not just Bart, but Bartimaeus the son of Timaeus, it’s actually an Aramaic name so theres a good chance that Bartimaeus was Jewish. Jesus is headed to the lost sheep of Israel first.
Then Bartimaeus cries out the same cry that we make every Sunday ‘Kyrie Eleison’. Lord have mercy. Specifically how is Jesus addressed? By name and by title. He is expecting HIS royal king to do Justice- to do the kingly thing that the ancient kings would have done. King David’s line was supposed to save His people.
And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Now this is important, when we take time every Sunday to sing the Kyrie we are reenacting the salvation of Humanity. It calls on us to remember that God DOES HAVE MERCY. Christ healed Bartimaeus and He heals all of us.
The kyrie acts a sort of verbal reminder in salvation history, we mark our world with all sorts of roadside signs, statues, even national parks memorialize significant moments in history. Christians remember our history of faith by telling the story over and over again. We are people of the word.
Friends, I should stop here for a second. God has had mercy on you. Whatever plagues your life today know that the we the church cry out with you and He hears us. This is no minor miracle, as such we continually cry out.
What happens when you tell the same story over and over again? People tell you to be quiet.
And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
This too should be our response. Here also is another lesson for us. Where the mob would cry louder for the blind man to be quiet, Christ shows mercy.
Friends, the Kingdom of God is not grown by violent force but by mercy. This is how our God has always acted. After the violent change of kingdoms and the destruction of Jerusalem how does God promise to restore His people?
With weeping they shall come, and with pleas for mercy I will lead them back, I will make them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble, for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.
The Lord treats us as His own Children. He gives us water in the desert, mercy in a world of retribution, peace in strife and light in the darkness.
And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.”
Take heart, Jesus is calling you. What I love about this passage is what you see next especially in the context of the last few weeks readings and our desire to hoard possessions.
And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.
Man- what an image. The blind beggar throwing off His greatest possession that he may meet His king.
One of the great problems in our homeless population is that they have no wealth security. Their coats may be stolen, there is a decent chance they don’t have a bank account so whatever small amount of money they have is probably quite vulnerable.
I remember working at Walgreens and there was a homeless guy that would reload one of those cash cards, green dot I think it was. It charged him $2.50 every time he tried to save money. It’s not much but when you have nothing it ends up being everything.
This beggar just threw his coat that has kept him warm on endless nights into a crowd of unknowns.
And Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.”
How would you respond to Jesus’ question?
The man doesn’t ask for his sins to be forgiven. That’s what the Pastors who preach want him to ask for. Deep down I think each of us would want him to ask for that, for him to "own” that he was responsible for his situation.
Thing is… we don’t know why he’s blind. Maybe he sinned and acquired blindness and homelessness as a small piece of retributive justice. Maybe he was born with it. Either way- he asks for something simple and Jesus heals him.
Friends, I know you all pretty well. Each and every one of us has some sort of pock mark that we just want to be better from. Whether it’s an addiction, an attraction, or an alternate voice in our heads we all need healing. These things are the evidence of sin in our world, that we were conceived in sin and that we have committed sin. Sin is at fault for all of it.
To say sin doesn’t exist is to say that brokenness doesn’t exist. If brokenness isn’t real, then how can we ever expect to be made well? How can a miracle exist if sin does not exist?
And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.
What I appreciate about this is that Jesus makes the man well. As a Lutheran and not a pentecostal I bristle at the thought of faith healings. But this passage calls us to expect to be made well, in this life or the next.
I’ll tell you this - we won’t have hope for healing unless it is grounded in the reality that God can and does do it. This is called faith.
We follow Jesus even unto death, the sting of sin, knowing that He 100% has conquered it and will heal us from it.
See I think Jesus gave us little miracles to prove that He can do the big one. Too often we look past the simple healing of a bandaid and good ole Neosporin. We look past the healing of someone saying ‘I’m sorry’ or “You’re forgiven’ we have no faith in those little miracles. Too often we look past the little miracle of a congregation gathered in the rain to sing out, ‘Lord have mercy’.
And then He does. God himself shows up. Don’t you see it here? I do.
Blind Bartimaeus calls us to see the miracles of God’s healing all along the way of life that we may courageously see the great gift of His Son on the last day.
Amen.