Colossians 4:2-6
Mark 10:46-52
Sometimes in the movies, and sometimes even in real life, there are critical moments where time slows down. Moments when you notice every second of what you are experiencing, when it feels as though a message is being conveyed to you. The message is: in this moment, everything changes.
I have had that feeling about our journey these last few weeks in Chapter 10 of Mark’s gospel. Time slowed down. We have not rushed through it. We have not used the Cliff Notes version of this. We have absorbed every word.
Because there is an important message. And everything is about to change.
He is drawing near the end of his journey. He is taking his disciples from Galilee, which was home for most of them. It was the sticks, out at the margins of civilization. But now they were leaving Galilee and moving toward Jerusalem.
Jerusalem was the center of Judaism, but these Galileans were not strangers to it. Like all Jews, they had traveled up to Jerusalem to offer their sacrifices at the temple. But this journey to the city was unlike any they had taken before, because this sacrifice will be unlike any that has been made before. When they enter the gates of Jerusalem they are walking toward his crucifixion.
They are on the last leg of their journey today, passing Jericho and heading into Jerusalem, when the entourage passes by Bartimaeus, a blind beggar. Bartimaeus listens to the movement around him and hears that this is Jesus passing him by. He begins to shout out for all he is worth, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” People try to shut him up because, I guess, people who are in need shouldn’t draw attention to themselves and their needs. Because, I guess, making other people see their need is rude. Offensive.
But this is a very large crowd on the move, and large crowds make a lot of noise. Bartimaeus crying for mercy should not have been a problem because who would hear him anyway? Jesus hears him, as it turns out.
Jesus stops in the middle of the road when he hears Bartimaeus’ voice calling to him. He stops and causes everyone else to stop too. There is silence as they all look to see what has caused this interruption in their programming. Jesus, standing still, says, “Call him here.”
And the word makes its way to Bartimaeus on the side of the road. Suddenly they all want to be helpful. Bartimaeus leaps up and throws off his cloak, scattering the coins he has collected so far this day, and he runs to Jesus. Jesus asks him a simple question: “What do you want me to do for you?”
It is the same question that he asked James and John, the sons of Zebedee, just last week. But now, instead of asking for power and glory, Bartimaeus simply says, “My Teacher, let me see again.”
And Bartimaeus, his sight restored, is now on the way.
Jesus says to him, “Your faith has made you well,” but the word that is translated as being “made well,” is one that has another meaning. And we might just as easily read this as saying, “Your faith has saved you.”
Your faith has saved you, is the message to Bartimaeus, by giving you new vision. Your faith has freed you from the blinders that kept you from seeing the world as God sees it. Your faith has enabled you to see everything – absolutely everything – through Christ Jesus. And this makes all the difference in the world.
When we become followers of Jesus it is as though we are walking through a curtain – on one side of the curtain we can see things in one way, and on the other said of the curtain we can suddenly see what we could not see before. And this new vision leads to new values, new priorities, new desire to live in the kingdom of God, in mutual care and harmony with all of God’s creation.
It is not about putting on blinders that shut out the bad stuff or sticking our fingers in our ears to shut out the discordant noise. When we begin to see through Christ Jesus we see it all as God sees it all.
And we can see that this world God loves is not about transactional relationships – where the one question we always ask is, “What’s in it for me?” but instead we might ask, “What do you need? What do you want me to do for you?”
Kim and I went to the Civic Center last Thursday to cast our votes in this year’s election, and I have felt a lot of anxiety about it. Not anxiety about how I voted, because I am clear about my values and how they direct my decisions in this matter. But just anxiety about the state we are in and about what may come. These are not easy times.
Yet, I know that there are higher powers on the move; there is greater wisdom than yours or mine or anybody running for office. The universe does not turn on our votes. The world does not turn on Kamala Harris’s abilities or Donald Trump’s faculties.
Regardless of the outcome of these elections, we know there will be challenges ahead. There will be suffering that cries out to be alleviated, there will be need that cries out to be filled, there will be conflicts that require the efforts of peacemakers.
No matter who we choose to lead our nation, our nation will need us to see the world through Christ.
And know ourselves called to be salt and light in the world – this is who we are in Christ Jesus. We share this vision with others as we go on the way –
The way of Jerusalem…the way of the cross with Jesus.
But even as we walk through the darkness we can be confident. On this way, we are surrounded by love, we are filled with purpose, we are clothed with righteousness and shaped by God’s grace.
In this new life, with new vision through Christ, we are shaped by God’s grace so that our every action, every decision, every intention reflects it.
May you, like Bartimaeus, boldly ask Jesus for what you need.
May you embrace the gift of new vision through Christ.
May you be on the way with Jesus.
