Help Us to See

 Mark 10:45-52

October 24, 2021

Commitment Sunday

 

Stewardship is about how we use

Jesus Heals the Blind Man
Brian Jenkel

the gifts we have been given.

Yes, we often talk about money,

when we talk about stewardship, but it’s other things too.

It’s spiritual gifts and talents,

it’s the environment and natural world.

It’s everything that is in front of us how do we use it,

understand it, and share it?

 

I’ll get back to this, but onto today’s story

 

Today’s story is about Jesus healing a blind man.

There is another story about Jesus healing a blind man

in chapter 8. So Mark’s gospel has two stories about

literal blindness within two short chapters.

 

And between those two stories are stories about other kinds of blindness.

The people in them might be able to see literally,

but they cannot see in the many different, metaphorical ways

 

So Mark has two stories of literal blindness

flanking many stories of metaphorical blindness.

Mark uses this technique a lot in his gospel.

Until relatively recently, scholars just thought that Mark

was just a bad writer, but now they see he’s done it on purpose.

If you’re into that stuff, it’s called “interpolations”.

Sometimes referred to as “Markan Sandwiches”

 

The stories of metaphorical blindness are the ones

we’ve been talking about the last few weeks.

It starts with Peter rebuking Jesus for

saying that he will be rejected, tortured, and killed.

 

Peter, James and John see Jesus transfigured

up on the mountain top, but Peter just wants  to stay

there and worship that instead of doing

the ministry that vision is calling them to.

 

 It goes on with the disciples arguing about who

is the greatest among them.

Then the disciples try to stop someone who is

expelling demons in Jesus name.

Then they try to keep little children from Jesus,

 

Then the rich man is blind to his problem of wealth.

And then James and John, his other closest

disciples, try to get a place of honor at

Jesus right and left hand.

 

All through this time Jesus tells them again about

his impending rejection by the religious elders,

suffering, crucifixion and resurrection.

 

The disciples and others around them

might be able to see literally.

But they don’t see metaphorically.

They don’t see Jesus for who he really is.

They don’t understand. They don’t see the

people who Jesus is sent to serve, they try and brush them away.

They have blindness to Jesus mission, to who Jesus is,

to what he is about, they can’t see God’s abundance

they only see what they want to see and they

barely understand what their role in Jesus ministry is.

 

They might have finally come to realize that Jesus

is the Messiah, but they don’t see what that means.

They are spiritually blind to the truth

that Jesus is trying to show them.

 

They all might be able to see literally,

but they can’t see in any other meaning of the word.

Now Bartimaeus is another story.

Bartimaeus is blind, it says it in the story.

And it says he’s a beggar too.

To be blind or almost any kind of disability

at the time was often a sure path to

living on the streets and begging for sustenance.

And like today, beggars made people feel uncomfortable,

they were harassed, and looked down on Bartimaeus

and ushered off and told to go away a lot.

No one wanted to see them.

But Bartimaeus is bold and will not be brushed off

He yells out to Jesus, and everyone tells him to be quiet.

But that doesn’t stop him, he knows he has to take this opportunity.

He will be seen by Jesus.

And Mark wants to notice Bartimaeus.

He’s one of only two named people who ask for  Jesus healing

(Jairus, the prominent religious leader is the other one)

Mark wants to make sure that we SEE

Bartimaeus and not just brush him off like the others.

 

When he hears that Jesus is coming, he calls out

to him, “Jesus, Son of David.”

This is the first time this title is used in Mark.

Jesus has spent a lot of time telling people

not to reveal his identity as the Messiah.

But blind Bartimaeus knows.

 

And Jesus doesn’t just go to Bartimaeus.

He tells the crowd go get him.

So now, they have to see this man too,

this one that they’ve brushed off so often and didn’t notice.

Jesus tells them that they should bring Bartimaeus to him.

 

And when he’s called, Bartimaeus throws off his cloak.

For a person who was begging on the streets

as it says Bartimaeus was, a cloak would be all he had.

It would keep them warm at night, it could be a pillow,

it was laid out in the street in front of them

to catch the coins that people threw at them.

It is familiar, a security blanket, it’s surely all that he has.

But to go meet Jesus, he throws this one item he owns.

as opposed to the rich man who

came to Jesus with all his possessions still intact.

And after Jesus calls Bartimaeus over

and the crowd see him for the first time

and get him over to Jesus, Jesus asks him,

“What is it that you want me to do for you?”

Jesus wants to see Bartimaeus too.

He doesn’t want to assume he knows what

he wants or what he’s requesting.

 

This question, by the way, is the same exact question Jesus asked

James and John, the sons of Thunder last week.

 

And the man answers:

he didn’t want status or to be

the best, he didn’t want safety or security.

He wanted to see again. He wanted to be healed.

 

Which maybe is what the disciples should

have been asking for the whole time.

For Jesus to cure their spiritual blindness.

 

And Bartimaeus he is healed

meaning now he could see in the literal sense,

because he could always see in the spiritual sense.

and after that, he follows Jesus on the way.

And the way that Jesus is going

is to Jerusalem and to the cross

 

This is the last healing story of Mark’s gospel

and the last of the travels of Jesus around

the Northern part of Israel that he’s been on.

The next stop for Jesus is Jerusalem,

to confront the religious leaders and

face his suffering and death for the life of the world.

Mark packs a lot in just a little story.

And all the way, this gospel is challenging us.

Stewardship is about how we use the gifts we have been given.

This is not just a healing story, this story challenges us.

We have been given the gift of sight. Not  literal sight.

But we can see Jesus for who he is:

The Messiah, the son of the living God.

If we’re here now, we can see Jesus.

We are in the presence of Christ.

Jesus is in front of us.

How do we use that gift that we have been given?

 

Can we see really see Jesus?

Can we see what Jesus’ mission really is?

Not just what we want to see,

not just what fits into our political or personal agenda?

But can we see who is really is and

what that really means for us and our lives?

Is he a vending machine just put in a prayer

and get what we want?

Is he just a path to our own personal power and glory?

 

And how do we approach Jesus?

With pride, boastfulness, without

acknowledging our own brokenness

and sickness, wanting to keep everything we have

and just brush off those that are less

fortunate than us and ignore those

that society says to ignore.

 

And how do we use this gift we have been given

to be in Christ’s presence?

Do we follow Jesus path of self-sacrifice

for the sake of others or do we

use Jesus as an excuse or a path

to get and do what we want?

 

What do we do with this gift that we’ve been

given, the presence of Jesus in our lives?

Do we see just what we want to see or do we see Jesus?

  

Or are we like Bartimaeus?

Seizing this moment of Christ’s presence.

Seeing Jesus for who he really is

Casting off our cloaks of security,

and coming before Jesus asking for mercy and healing.

And following him on his way, wherever that leads us.

 

Jesus is here to heal.

To heal us and this whole world.

From our arrogance and pride,

from our sin and from our fear.

From a life of metaphorical blindness

and our self-centered lives.

 

Jesus sees us. Really sees us. And loves us still.

Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us.