The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Mark

Jesus and his disciples came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. 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 10:46-52)

                                       _______________________

Isn’t it maddening when you are trying to explain something and the other person just can’t grasp what you are getting at? 

“Can’t you see?”  you say.  It is so frustrating.  Like when you discuss – argue – politics or religion with someone.

It is so hard to get the other person to see your point of view.

They are just as frustrated as you are of course, because they can’t get you to see their point of view.

If I discuss religion with someone, I try to keep what I say on a personal level. I talk about what has happened to me. What things in my own life brought me to know my Jesus, and to decide to follow him.

They can’t say it didn’t  happen. They can’t say that God doesn’t work like that, or that there is no God, or that Jesus isn’t the Son of God.

Because I make no claims.

I just tell the truth about how I came to believe. And leave the other person to think about that for themselves.

The thing is that when it happened to me, it was a revelation. It was something about which I could say, “ My eyes were opened. ”

I had been living one way, being that sort of person, and suddenly I saw things differently.  All the stories I had ever heard about God, or about Jesus, or the Holy Spirit, the bible stories read to me as a child, the testimonies I had heard other people give, somehow,  all made sense. 

Suddenly, I understood.

In Raymond Moody’s  book on near-death experiences, there is one story that stood out for me.  A man’s heart stopped for a while. He was certifiably dead. Then his heart was restarted, and he literally came back to life.

When he was revived, he said something very profound. He said,

 “ When I died, I understood everything.”

When I died I understood everything.

Like, all the things he had learned and remembered, or forgotten; the way he had been brought up; the things he had come to believe  – rightly or wrongly ; the habits of thought he had developed;  his very way of being, as a human being.  – everything that might get in the way,  was swept aside and his vision clarified. 

It was like he got spectacles for his mind.

We read to day that Jesus and his disciples entered the city of Jericho which was only fifteen miles from Jerusalem. The main road ran right through Jericho. 

Lots of people were headed to Jerusalem for the Passover feast, and anyone coming from the north would travel along that road.

Rabbis, with their followers would walk along, discoursing, as they did, and teaching their followers, and anyone who cared to listen. Those who couldn’t  make the journey to Jerusalem would line the road to see the pilgrims go by, and to see and hear famous rabbis.

Jericho was a city of priests and Levites. The temple in Jerusalem had 20,000 priests and as many Levites attached to it. They  couldn’t all serve at the same time, of course. They would serve a term of office in rotation.  Many of these priests and Levites lived in Jericho. There would be many of them in the crowd that day.

They would be eager to see who passed by, but perhaps doubly eager to see the rebel Jesus, who had talked about how temple worship had become irrelevant.

Their faces would be hard, their eyes hostile as they looked upon this man, this threat to their way of life. To their jobs.

Maybe it was out of concern for their positions in the temple. Perhaps it was their study and  observance of the law, but look as they may, they just could not see Jesus as the light that had come into this  dark  world. 

They just couldn’t see it.

Just as their colleagues in Jerusalem could not, or would not, see it.

But a blind man, a man  with no agenda to get in the way, sees Jesus as he is.

Here’s an interesting paradox. He was blind and could see. They had sight but could not see.

“Son of David,” he calls out, “ Have pity on me.”

Bartimaeus is his name, and he is persistent. He will not be prevented from getting to Jesus.  And when Jesus asks him to come over, he responds immediately. 

Jesus says, “What do you want me to do for you?”

On the face of it, this is a silly question.  It’s like when you go to the doctor and she asks, “ How are you doing?”  Like if you were well,  you wouldn’t be there would you?   Of course, like idiots, we say, “Fine thank you.”

Jesus can see that the man is blind, but he wants the man to ask for what he wants.

And the blind beggar is given his sight.

You might expect him to rush off  and show everyone what has happened to him, but we are simply told that he follows Jesus.

But what of those with the cold eyes, as they look upon Jesus?  Have they seen this miracle take place? And do they see it as a sign that God is in this man? And is it going to  make a difference in their lives?

No! 

Too many things stand in the way.

They can’t see that this man who  brings sight to the blind must surely have  some real connection to God Herself.  

That from now on the world would be different.

Would see differently.

But not them!.

Not at this time.

William Thackeray had one of his novels published in serial form in a magazine. He wrote each chapter just ahead of publication.  After a few chapters had been published, the editor called Thackeray into his office, and told him that the readers were becoming impatient for the hero to marry the heroine.

Thackeray said, “I have no plans for them to marry. It would weaken the plot.”

“Nevertheless,” the editor, said, forcefully, blind to the author’s rights, ” I  think they should marry.”

Thackeray, needing the money, realized this was a command, not a suggestion, so he said, “ Well, then, if you insist, I will marry them in the next episode.”

“But ” he added, ”I cannot guarantee that it will be a happy marriage.”

There are so many people in this world, even in our close acquaintance, who are stubbornly blind.  Can’t see anyone else’s point of view. Can’t see what you see.

Wouldn’t you just like to touch their eyes and have them see Jesus as Lord and Saviour – to just know, what we know?

Wouldn’t that be something?

You know there is a phrase that exemplifies  today’s technological culture, it is usually said with a cell phone to the ear:  “Can you hear me now?  Can you hear me now? “

Well, just cast your mind back  twenty years, and see if you remember those computer generated pictures that were all the rage for a while.  On the surface  they were a mélange of patterns, quite attractive in themselves, but they were much more than that.  Do you remember? 

If you stood about three feet away, and looked at the picture, and focused your eyes somewhere beyond the picture – which was quite a trick in itself – then  suddenly a three-dimensional image jumped out at you.  And you saw it! 

It was quite exciting.

Then, of course, you just had to show everyone else how to do it.  They had to stand just so, and to focus just so.

This practice may have given rise to the phrase, “Can you see it now? Can you see it now?”

I think getting to see Jesus is a bit like that. 

I think we have to stand back a bit  from the skepticism of this world.  We have to lose our hardness of heart – and recognize that we too need healing.  And look beyond the everyday stuff that obscures him from us.

And when healing is offered, we need to leap at it, and grasp it, and accept it and celebrate it, and be thankful for it.

Or go on being blind.

The story I told you of the man who died and saw the truth, is wonderful, in that he came back and was able to live in the knowledge of that truth.

I would hate to think that we will only know the truth, by dying,  wouldn’t you?

Because let’s face it, the chances of coming back to put it to use are close to nil, aren’t they?

Amen.