2024 Sun Oct 27

I. Theme –  Preparing for Restoration and Healing

Healing of Bartimaeus – Daniel Bonnell

“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.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.” – Mark 10:51-52

The lectionary readings are here  or individually:

Old Testament – Jeremiah 31:7-9 Psalm – Psalm 126 Page 782, BCP Epistle – Hebrews 7:23-28 Gospel – Mark 10:46-52

The promise of restoration and healing flows through today’s readings. The prophet Jeremiah looks forward to the rescue and renewal of God’s people. Job has all his lost property restored because of his fidelity to God. The author of Hebrews affirms the promise of full salvation through Jesus Christ and continued growth for believers. In today’s gospel, Jesus grants physical and spiritual wholeness to blind Bartimaeus.

Counselors say that many people will prefer a known evil to the unknown. They may cling to an identity as abused child, battered wife, long-suffering spouse of an alcoholic, or jilted lover because to surrender that identity seems like giving up themselves. Bartimaeus might have wondered if he would lose his identity as a blind beggar.

Yet Bartimaeus accepts his blindness as past. It does not curtail his freedom to hope for change. Thus he surrenders to the mystery of the future. Just as he casts away his cloak, he flings aside his reservations and his insecure clinging to the status quo.

The road on which he follows Jesus is leading to Jerusalem and ultimately to Calvary. Again in contrast to the apostles, Bartimaeus wants to follow, even into pain, if it means he can remain close to Christ. His step has a sureness due not only to restored vision but because he knows deeply the truth of the crowd’s assurance: “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” Thus, the story ends on the note of grace accepted.

Life is not easy either for us. God is active in the world and in all of the universe around us, even though we may experience God’s absence in our own lives. Our focus can be very small and narrow. We may worry or be upset about what happens to us, forgetting about the fact that there are 7 billion people on earth. We may feel that God has abandoned us and forget that no asteroid has wiped out the earth yet.

We may be like Bartimaeus, blind to what is going on in the world, crying out to God to let us see, then realizing there is a greater world beyond us. Or we may be like Bartimaeus, marginalized by the world, unable to do anything but beg until God and others intervene on our behalf. In other words: it’s not all about us, and yet, it is all about us. God heard the cry of Job. Jesus heard the cry of Bartimaeus. God hears our cries, and God is active in our lives, though we may have a hard time understanding that when we are in our valley of the shadow. Nonetheless, God is there.

Read more

The SALT Blog for Pentecost 23 goes into Mark’s Gospel story on the blindman Bartimaeus.  This is the culmination of the section that the Blog has been discussing recently – 8:22-10:52&. “The primary theme of this central section in Mark is what it means to “see,” understand, and follow Jesus, the Messiah who comes not on a warhorse but as a suffering servant.”   The disciples constantly avoid the real meaning with last week James and John more worried about their own status than the real meaning in Jesus’ story.

This section begins with healing of a blind man (blind man  at Bethsaida) and ends with one another blind manBartimaeus .  The particular story today (Mark 10:46-52) is at the end of this central section. The story  starts in Jericho with Bartimaeus a blind beggar sitting by the roadside. He heard it was Jesus coming down the road. He calls Jesus  in a loud, boisterous  manner “, Son of David, have mercy on me!”Son of David was  a title for the Messiah. He also calls Jesus , “My teacher”. 

Jesus says to “call him here”.  Before he goes to Jesus he throws off his cloak. The SALT blog indicates that this action to “symbolize a dramatic shift, such as a person leaving behind the old order of things. ” He is able to transition unlike the rich man in Mark who was unable to part with his possessions to achieve eternal life.

Jesus then asks him the same question he has just put to James and John: “What do you want me to do for you?” (Mark 10:36; 10:51).  James and John actions pale beside him in his perception of Jesus. As SALT describes “the supposed “outsider” models a fitting blend of boldness and humility.” He is bold shouting out and calling Jesus “Son of Davis” but shows his humility “have mercy on me.”

With the Blind man at Bethsaida Jesus in charge leading “spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him”. With Bartimaeus it is his faith  that has cured him. It was result of his own actions rather than Jesus. The SALT Blog maintains that faith for Mark is a “synonym for courage” “For Mark, he is nothing less than the model disciple, bold, discerning, humble, direct, and courageous”.

“Our faith — which is to say, our bold and humble courage — is both a gracious gift of God and a vital source of our everyday wellbeing. Accordingly, again and again, Jesus calls us to “take heart” and trust, and at the same time, to step forward and play an active role in our own ongoing restoration.”

From Trinity New York ,“We pattern our lives after Jesus’s teaching and example by putting others first, by caring for those who are outcast, and by positioning ourselves as children of God in need of God’s love and guidance.”  “For Jesus, the liberation of God’s people is rooted not in violent power but in humility, service, and sacrifice — in love.” This is shown at the end of the reading- he is ready to follow Jesus.

"The story about Bartimaeus, I mean. He won’t shut up. Even though people tell him to. And that’s hard. We are so quick to fall into silence in general, worried about offending or hurting feelings or being rejected or whatever. And so when folks tell us to shut up, we’re all too quick to oblige. But Bartimaeus won’t. He is free. Free to defy his neighbors. Free to call for help. Free to make his needs known to Jesus. Free. Perhaps he’s suffered enough, or feels like there’s nothing left to lose, or just doesn’t care anymore. Or perhaps he just senses — or, really, sees — that in the presence of Jesus all the rules change and he is no longer “Blind Bartimaeus” but instead “Bartimaeus, Child of God.” Whatever the reason, he knows he is free and seizes his faith and his courage to live into that freedom and Jesus says that’s what made him well.

It’s about freedom 

"Jeremiah 31 (also appointed for Reformation Sunday, although it would fit just as well with the Mark passage for Pentecost 22), as well. It is the past that traps us, you see. The past that reminds us of all our shortcomings and failures and disappointments. And God tells Israel through Jeremiah that even though Israel forgot their identity and fell short in a hundred different ways, yet God would not hold this against Israel. That God will – indeed, already has – willfully forgotten all their sin. And here’s the thing: no memory of the past, no memory of sin, and the future is open. You’re free. 

It’s about freedom.

"The whole Reformation, while we’re at it. From Paul’s declaration that we have all been justified by grace to Luther’s hammering his theses against the Wittenburg Church door to remind us that grace reigns supreme, the whole darn Reformation-thing was intended to tell us that, in the end, we don’t need to do anything, earn anything, say anything, accomplish anything, or buy anything to earn God’s love. That we already have it, and that most of the Church’s problems – and, indeed, the world’s problems – start when we forget we already have love and worth and dignity as a gift from God and try to earn it or take it from someone else.

It’s about freedom.

"The Gospel. Yeah, the good news of what God has done in Christ for us and all the world. It’s about freedom, too. From time to time, we might wonder what the biblical readings have to do with our lives today, and we might wonder if the words and deeds of the Reformers 500 years ago matter, but it’s finally all about freedom. We are not trapped. No matter what we may have done, no matter what may have been done to us. None of these things define us. We are free and the future is open.

"Look, I know that can be really, really hard to believe. Some of what’s happened to us seems so huge, so important, so all-encompassing, but it’s not. Not to say that these things don’t matter. They do. Illness, disappointment, hurt, whatever. They matter and they may, in fact, be descriptively true of us. But they do not define us. Nothing we have done or has been done to us captures who we are completely. Only one thing can do that: God, the creator and sustainer of all. And God has chosen to call us beloved children, holy and precious in God’s sight. That’s what defines us.

"And so we are free. Free to risk and serve and help and care and try and struggle and laugh and all the rest. We are free, that is, to love, just as God loves us.

"That’s what all these readings are about. That’s what our whole ministry is about – freedom. So tell them they’re free this week. Free from their past, free from regret, free from fear, free from self-limitation, free from old hurts and mistakes. They’re free. And then tell them again. Because it’s hard to believe. And then tell them one more time, because it takes a while to get used to this truth. And then tell them once more yet, because freedom takes some practice. Tell them they’re free, and then tell them to come back next week to hear this same good news, because the world will often try to convince us otherwise and so the freedom that sets you free, well, it takes a little while to sink in."

From the Episcopal Cafe -"Bartimaeus -Speaking to the Soul: The real miracle"

"Healing of the Blind Man" – Carl Bloch

"After a lifetime of blindness, Bartimaeus cries out to Jesus in desperation. Jesus hears his cry. He clearly sees the blind man’s faith fighting through the darkness. Like Bartimaeus, we turn to Christ in disappointment and pain when all else has failed. Jesus is used to that. He knows our frailty, our shaky mix of fear and faith. And that’s as it should be. It is the human condition. Our faith is not a destination. It is a journey. And the journey is fraught with detours and potholes.

"First there are the roadblocks we build ourselves…our doubts, our inhibitions, our reluctance to let go and put things in God’s hands. Then there are the obstacles that others erect. Some were quick to tell Bartimaeus to pipe down and stop bothering Jesus. They thought Christ had better things to do than bother with this nuisance." 

"Faith is the electricity of the spirit. It informs our hopes. It inspires our love. It is the foundation of the New Covenant. We do not come to God through genetic descent from Abraham. We come to God through our faith in Jesus Christ… through our belief in a miracle that took place 2000 years ago. Far greater than the discovery of electricity, the internet, the theory of relativity and the mechanics of the universe… all the acquired wisdom of the ages… far, far greater is the transformative miracle of faith."