ISAIAH 59:1-19
PSALM 13
HEBREWS 5:12 – 6:1, 9-12
MARK 10:46-52
Sermon – 10/26/03
Bartimaeus—and Us
Bartimaeus is one of my heroes.
Before I tell you why, let me give a little
background on today’s wonderful Gospel story.
Scholars generally believe that Mark was the first of the four Gospels
to have been written, and what we get in this, the oldest Gospel, is the
vividness of first-hand reporting. We
have details which in later retellings of the same story in other Gospels get
lost, smoothed over, made generic.
Like, for instance, the name of the
person Jesus healed. Rarely was that
recorded. This name was—scholars think
it was recorded because the earliest
readers of St. Mark’s Gospel may have known
Bartimaeus. This is not a story
about “some blind guy;” it’s about Bartimaeus—imagine someone saying—“You know
him, he was at the Parish Picnic.”
Mark tells us that “Jesus and his disciples
came to Jericho.” Mark doesn’t say why
they came there or what they did there—that
wasn’t as important as what happened with Bartimaeus. The kind of things the TV news would
have covered—vague, impersonal, and negative—are replaced in the Gospel
with vividly specific and personal Good News.
It makes it easier to believe that Christ has specific and personal Good
News for us today.
Mark tells us that Bartimaeus was “sitting
by the roadside begging.” That was his
job. He had no alternative—that was the
only job for blind people, for whom the government gave nothing. Beg or starve. And Bartimaeus had carved out a prime spot and time to do this:
on the one (and only) road from Jericho (and environs) to Jerusalem—a
week before Passover.
In Mark’s Gospel, this is the last act
recorded by Jesus before he came to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday—and to be
crucified on Good Friday.
O.K., so why is Bartimaeus my hero? Here are five reasons:
First, he
called out to Jesus without any introduction. Mark says, “When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began
to shout out and say, “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!” Some people today think they need someone’s
permission to talk to Jesus, or to go through some bureaucracy, or to have
someone else do it for them, or they think they just can’t reach him. Baloney.
Just “call Jesus up.” Bartimaeus
knew that even though he’d never been in Jesus’ presence before. He called him. We’re in Jesus’ presence too; when we call him—here or
anywhere—it’s just called prayer.
Second, Bartimaeus
wouldn’t shut up. Don’t you love
it; some self-important people who could see took it upon themselves to
tell Bartimaeus to shut up, as though he couldn’t possibly be worth Jesus’
attention. Bartimaeus ignored
them. If people discourage us from praying—or
reading the Bible or going to church—we should ignore them too. Rock on, Bart.
Third reason he’s my hero, Bartimaeus threw off his cloak. That’s a detail it’s easy to ignore. But he was sitting by the roadside, and his cloak was covered with the coins
religious pilgrims had given him. It
was (and is) traditional for religious Jews to give to an indigent as charity
when starting a religious pilgrimage.
For a beggar, the week before Passover on the only road from his area to Jerusalem
was a gold mine. Picture the owner of a
toy store walking away from his or her receipts from Thanksgiving weekend. That’s what Bart did when he threw off his
cloak.
This was an act of faith: before he
even met Jesus, he believed that Jesus
could and would heal him and he would never have to beg again. No going back. And it was an act of
charity: before he had any new job
he might be able to get after (he
believed) Jesus restored his sight, he gave away all he had earned that day to
the poor. Imagine the scramble among
the other beggars for all the coins!
And don’t think someone didn’t take home the cloak as well! But now Bartimaeus was going on a
religious pilgrimage: walking up to
Jesus. So he gave to charity first. Not as an afterthought. Not “when all the bills are paid.” Not “if I have enough for all my future
needs.” He gave first.
Can we show ¼ as much faith and generosity
ourselves, today?
Fourth reason Bartimaeus is my hero. When Jesus asked him, “What do you want me
to do for you?” he had an answer,
and a good one. What a person wants
most is not always the person’s most obvious need, though in this case you
could say the two were the same. But
Bartimaeus didn’t ask for money—after how many years of doing nothing else? He asked if he could see again. With that, he could support himself, and
choose his path (see reason five.)
If Jesus walked up to you this afternoon and
asked, “What do you want me to do for you?” do you have an answer? Work on it.
Make it a good answer. He may
ask.
And fifth, when Bartimaeus was healed—“immediately,”
Mark tells us—“he followed Jesus on the
way.”
He didn’t say, “Thanks, J. C., it’s been
real”—or just walk off even without a thank-you, as some did. He followed Jesus.
And the fun times with Jesus were over—at
least the fun times with the mortal Jesus.
For the next place Bartimaeus went with Jesus was Jerusalem, where Jesus
would be arrested, tortured and crucified.
Bart was not a “fair-weather friend.” He started following Jesus on the eve of
Holy Week. But I think the reason we
know his name is that he stuck with the community of those who love
Jesus—through thick and thin.
Following Jesus is what it’s all about. Being part of the community that knows,
loves and believes in Jesus and serves others in his Name is what it’s all
about. Not being casual, or fixed on
“what’s in it for me,” but hanging in there with our faith and generosity
through thick and thin, as part of the community of faith.
So let us, like Bart, have a personal
relationship with Jesus Christ, hold onto it even if people try to discourage
us, act on our faith and live with reckless and joyful generosity, know what we
really need most from Jesus and ask for it, and follow him as part of the
community of faith, through thick and thin.
God only knows what wonders we may see
if we do all that.
(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard
St. Barnabas Episcopal Church