Two weeks ago we had some fun with the story of the Rich Young Ruler, from Mark 10:17-25. In this familiar story, a young man of great wealth found that his attachment to his riches was stronger than his desire for eternal life. It seemed like such a waste for him to be so unhappy, and his riches so under-utilized in helping the cause of Jesus, that we proposed some alternative endings to the story that would not end up with a sad young man and a pile of hoarded wealth.
In today’s
reading, it’s as if Mark had the same lingering dissatisfaction about the story
of the Rich Young Ruler, for today we are given a story that has a much more
satisfactory ending. The trick is,
however, that the happy ending is tied to a very different beginning to the
story.
Today we meet, not a rich man, but a
blind beggar who hears that Jesus is passing by, and calls out to him: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
So far, the story is not too different
from the Rich Young Ruler, outside of the polar difference in the social status
of the two men. One has both wealth and
social standing, the other has neither, but both of them recognize that Jesus has
a special connection to God, and both of them believe that Jesus can cure the
deepest problems of their soul.
Hearing the cries of Bartimaeus, and
perhaps having heard him a few too many times before, the crowd try to stifle
him but he will not be silenced. This
time he shouts out even louder, “Son of David, have mercy on
me!”
As with
the story of the Rich Young Ruler, Jesus does not ignore the plea, but stops to
engage the hopes of this person. He
calls Bartimaeus over to him, and asks him what he needs. Bartimaeus hops up, drops his beggar’s cloak and
proclaims, “Rabbi, I want to see”.
The specific word used in his request implies that he was not blind from
birth; at some point he could see, and he desires to see again.
At that
very moment, his wish is granted: he can see, he is set free from the indignity
of panhandling, his life just gained a whole bunch of abundance. Jesus does not need to tell Bartimaeus to do
what was demanded of the Rich Young Ruler, that is, to give away all that he
has, because Bartimaeus already did that the moment he set his cloak
aside. We’ll come back to the
significance of that cloak in a few moments, but for now, it’s sufficient to
say that unlike the Rich Young Ruler, who clung to his possessions the way you
might cling to your coat in a windstorm even after Jesus tells him he has to
let go of them, Bartimaeus flings aside his one and only possession of worth
even before Jesus tells him what is needed.
The rich
one surrenders nothing and goes away sad but still rich; the poor one
surrenders everything and goes away fulfilled and free. The one who obeyed the Ten Commandments with
great diligence and thought he saw everything with clarity, understood nothing
of the mission of Jesus; the one who could see nothing, understood everything
about Jesus.
So far,
I’ve spoken only about these two Biblical stories, without attempting to draw
any direct connections to our lives and our context. But I trust that you’re doing that
already. For every time we see a
face-to-face encounter between Jesus and someone with needs, we can quite
safely put ourselves in the shoes of the one who needs Jesus and realize that
the story is speaking directly to us, no interpretation needed. We can contrast our approach to Jesus with
that of the person approaching him: are we as eager to approach Jesus as these
people were? Do we think that he’d care
enough to stop and listen to the deepest troubles of our lives? Do we trust
that he can address those needs? Are we willing to give up the things that make
us feel safe and secure in order to engage Christ’s mission in the world? If questions like those are stirring in your
minds right now, pay attention to them – it’s not by accident that these
stories from long ago still have the power to shape our understanding of our
stories, today.
But wait,
there’s more!
This is
one of those Biblical stories that keeps showing you more and more, the more
you look at it. It’s what I’d call a
“forest and trees” narrative: it is placed in a really key location within
Mark’s full recounting of the ministry of Jesus, that being the “forest”; and
contains numerous details that have important news for us, those being the “trees”. Both the forest and the trees have much to
say to us.
Recognizing
that there’s way too much to fit into one message, we’ll start with two of the
“trees” - two details of the story that speak to us in our time and place.
Detail number
one: Bartimaeus calls out to Jesus, and the crowd tries to silence him.
Throughout
the gospel of Mark, the disciples are painted in a very unflattering
manner. Mark repeatedly makes the point
that those who were closest to Jesus seemed to be those least able to perceive
what he was about, But here, it was not the disciples who attempted to shush
the blind beggar, it was “the people” in general. To me, this draws a strong connection between
this Bible account, and the way that I perceive current-day religious life in
North America. Bartimaeus, though blind,
“sees” what Jesus is about and will not be silenced in his pursuit of his
saviour, yet the society around him tells him to shut up and remain
stranded.
It’s hard
to state a full-fledged commitment to Jesus in our time and place without
getting shushed. Many sophisticated folk
see Christians as ridiculous or deluded in stating an allegiance to Jesus,
especially if we go so far as to embrace Jesus as Son of God, the Word made
Flesh. It can be a bit embarrassing trying to articulate our faith in ways that
will make sense to our secular friends. And it can be awfully hard to commit
ourselves to regular Church attendance when ski hills, mountain bike trails, dance
recitals, hockey tournaments and special family events have such a strong claim
on Sunday. While I don’t think that society as a whole is particularly opposed to Church life, the voice of our
prevailing culture does make it very challenging to call out “Son of David,
have mercy on me” without feeling like total fools. I get that, I really do, especially during
the twelve years that I was out of the Ministry. But I also “get” that the only way that
Bartimaeus moved forward from his unsatisfying life as a blind man begging for
pocket change, was to call Jesus’ name repeatedly in spite of the good reasons
presented to him to remain quiet and not make a spectacle of himself. Sometimes you just gotta take that step, and
keep taking one step after another, if proximity to God’s path is important to
you.
Detail number
two: the cloak.
I can
still remember the first time I saw a person wearing a parka in the
summertime. She was pushing a shopping
cart full of beer bottles and pop cans.
I was maybe 10 or 12 years old and it struck me as ridiculous that she
wasn’t wearing her spring jacket, or in shirtsleeves like us normal
people. What I didn’t realize was that
her parka was the sum total of what she had.
It was her roof if it rained, her tent if it got cold at night, her
sleeping bag and her mattress. There
was no “closet” that she could go to, no clothes-hanger on which a spring
jacket was hanging. The coat, whatever
provisions she could stuff into its pockets, and the potential income riding in
that shopping cart, were it for her.
When
Bartimaeus takes off his cloak and steps forward into his new life, even before
Jesus tells him what to do, picture the shopping-cart lady putting her parka on
the sidewalk and walking away from it. That cloak was his sleeping bag in the chill
of night, his tent in the scorching noontime sun. More than likely, he would spread his cloak
on the ground in front of him to collect the money that would be thrown by
passers-by. Without his cloak, this
blind beggar was a dead man… and he dropped this key possession to the ground
to step toward new life in Christ.
In our mission
statement, we at Ralph Connor Memorial United Church have committed ourselves
“to reach out and become an agent for social justice in our neighbourhood and
in the global community”. At times we
are approached for help, when the full-time job gets cut back to 12 hours a
week, when the paycheque runs out before the month is through, when uninsured
health costs deplete all the savings, when one night in a warm bed would make
all the difference. For this reason,
we’re instituting a special offering on communion Sundays, a Benevolent
Offering which will allow us to respond when these needs are presented to
us. Recognizing that the needs of the
congregation and the M&S fund are ongoing, the plates will be passed once
as they are every Sunday, but then they’ll go around a second time, for us to
have some money specifically set aside for these personal emergencies. That will start at next Sunday’s communion
service, and every time we have communion.
Those are a couple of
things that show up specifically within the confines of the encounter between
Jesus and this person. But beyond those
individual “trees” we find the “forest” – the overall setting of this story
within the gospel of Mark – and that, too, contains some key points for our
faith and practice. Once again realizing
that the ears can only hear for as long as the backside is comfortable sitting,
I’ll confine myself to one point about the broader setting of this encounter
within the gospel of Mark.
In virtually all of the readings
in the gospel of Mark from the time I started with you in July until now, there
has been reference to “the way.”
Sometimes this refers to the journey that Jesus and the disciples are
on; sometimes it speaks more of the road itself; other times it’s more directly
connected with following the spiritual agenda that is being set by Jesus; but
it’s always the same Greek word, hodos, and is always worth noticing:
ü In
Mark 8:27, Jesus and his disciples are on the way when Jesus asks, "Who do people
say that I am?"
ü It
is on the way in Mark 9:34-35 that the disciples argue about who was
the greatest.
ü Jesus
is back on the way in Mark 10:17 when the rich ruler runs
up to him.
ü They
are back on the way in Mark 10:32, going up to Jerusalem,
when Jesus tells the twelve what will happen to him -- the third passion
prediction.
ü And
finally, when they come to Jericho, Bartimaeus is sitting beside the way . He is not yet "on the way," but
by the side of the "way". He is an outsider. However, our text ends:
Jesus said to him, "Go; your faith has made you well." Immediately he
regained his sight and followed him on the way,
even though the very next stop on the way
(Mark 11) is the triumphal entry to Jerusalem, where trial and crucifixion
await. {for more, see crossmarks.com}
That movement – from
being “beside the way” to actually following in the way of Jesus – is crucial for us to understand as
Christians. The mission and ministry of
Jesus Christ is primarily for the sake of the marginalized – those who, quite
literally, are on the shoulder of the road rather than happily travelling along
with the rest of the traffic. His
desire, during his time and continuing in our time, is that those who are blind
will see, those who are deaf will hear, those who hurt will be healed, those
who are silenced will be heard, those who are excluded will be included.
I heard a great sermon
three years ago from a young Mennonite Brethren pastor named Steven Pahl. Preaching on the beatitudes, he was musing on
the fact that when we look at the tabloids and the entertainment section of
newspapers and newscasts, it often appears that those who have immense
popularity and wealth have the greatest personal problems. And those same celebrities often wonder
about the inconsistency of this: after all, hadn’t God granted them all this
fame and fortune? Why would God suddenly
withdraw peace and harmony from their personal lives?
The answer, said Pastor
Steve, was simple: when it comes to promises of blessings, our Lord wasn’t
talking to the rich and famous! In the
gospel of Luke, chapter 6: 20-22 (NIV), Jesus says this to his disciples, a
group who had left everything to follow him:
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom
of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are
you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you,
when they exclude you and insult you…because of the Son of Man”. Those who are poor, those who hunger, those
who grieve, those who are ridiculed because of their commitment to Jesus, THEY
are the apple of God’s eye. THEY are the
ones who are within God’s special concern.
THEY are the ones who are closer to God than those who aim for fame and
success, and bask in its comfort. God
always has a lookout for those who are “beside the way” – people like
Bartimaeus – knowing full well that when those folks step into “the way” of Jesus,
they do so with both feet and with their heart ready to go full speed ahead.
One of the
important tasks for any Church – and any Minister – is to be aware of how we
relate to those who are on the margins, or fringes, of congregational
life. Maybe it’s newcomers or new
Canadians, maybe it’s folks who are a bit on the shy side, maybe it’s those
whose finances are challenging; maybe it’s children and youth, maybe it’s young
families, maybe it’s folks of alternate sexual orientations; maybe it’s those
with health concerns, or those who have difficulty getting to church due to
transportation issues. It’s a little
different in every congregation, but it’s always important for folks from the
edge of the road to know they are welcome to participate fully – and for them
to know that they will be listened to, even if they need to stay at the edge of
the road for reasons known only to them.
To my mind, the new Godly Play initiative is one way that we’re trying
to do this: for parents and congregation to jointly embrace the spiritual needs
of our children, who are the most vulnerable and most precious members of the
family of God, and at times a group whose needs are hard to hear.
So there you have it. Two weeks ago, we met a person of great
wealth, who could not bring himself to give up his riches and follow. Today, we met a person with no prestige, no
social standing, and a physical infirmity to boot, who could not wait to jump
to his feet, throw off his beggar’s cloak, and follow Jesus. As those who seek the way of Christ Jesus,
may we truly see what is being shown to us, and pursue the way of Christ with
complete abandon. Amen.
References: for some excellent exegetical
work on the 10th chapter of Mark, see
http://www.tomboomershine.org/writings/StoryJourney/7_Bartimaeus.pdf
http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/mark10x46.htm
http://leftbehindandlovingit.blogspot.ca/2012/10/bartimaeus-bar-timaeus-and-joy-of.html
© 2012 Rev Greg Wooley, Ralph Connor Memorial
United Church, Canmore AB
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