His Excellency,
The Most Reverend Edward K. Braxton, Ph.D., S.T.D.
Diocese of Belleville
Sermon:
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time,
October 24, 2021,
St. Luke Parish, Belleville
(This is the text as originally written. During the actual delivery, some passages were omitted and other comments were added spontaneously. Nota bene: This text has not been thoroughly proofread. Therefore, there may be errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation.)
"Lord, That I May See"
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Peace be with you!
One month ago tomorrow, someone very dear to me had a mild stroke. My first concern was that the stroke would impair my dear one’s speech or movement. Happily, this was not the case. The speech and mobility of this treasured friend remained normal. However, at least initially, the stroke has created a strange vision phenomenon. While this person can see normally, there are now unusual and distracting moving images that appear in front of one’s eyes. This caused my friend and I to have several conversations about the importance of our ability to see. What would be the greatest suffering? To lose the ability to speak? To hear? Or, to see? We agreed that this is a painful question to answer. But, in the end, we thought that blindness, living in total darkness would be the greatest suffering! We talked about the experience of children covering their eyes and playing Blind Man’s Bluff. The only reason the game is “fun” is the fact that children can uncover their eyes and see the world around them again!
St. Mark’s gospel is preoccupied with the question of blindness, that is, “spiritual blindness,” the blindness of the Pharisees who refuse to see who Jesus really is. The blindness of some disciples who cannot see that the Kingdom about which Jesus speaks is not one of military power like King Saul or King David. It is a kingdom of the heart. The blindness of the apostles James and John, who ask Jesus to give them a seat on either side of his royal throne, even as they approach Jerusalem where he will be hung on a cross as a common criminal in the Roman empire. Why do they not have the spiritual sight to see themselves on crosses on either side of their leader?
This morning’s story of Bartimaeus, the blind man, concludes a long section of Mark’s gospel that began back in chapter eight, when Jesus healed another blind man – only that time, Jesus had to twice cover the man’s eyes with spittle before the man could see. This portion of the gospel come to a dramatic climax today in chapter ten.
The journey of Jesus and His disciples from Galilee to Jerusalem was an 85-mile walk over several days, stopping outside Capernaum long enough for Jesus to teach about marriage and divorce. On the road again, they run into the rich young man, and Jesus tells him that, if he is attached to money and material things, it will be difficult for him to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Then, Jesus explains, for the third time since the first blind man was healed with spittle, how He will be arrested, scourged, and crucified, once they get to Jerusalem. But they keep heading for Jerusalem anyway and along the way, James and John selfishly ask for seats at the side of Jesus in the Kingdom of Heaven, forcing Jesus to make clear to the disciples that those who would be great must become servants of all. Indeed, they must become suffering servants like Jesus Himself. But the disciples are blind and cannot see the tragic future that Jesus is trying to reveal to them. They cannot see that he is on a collision course with death.
Now we have continued to travel with Jesus from Capernaum to Jericho, just 15 miles outside of Jerusalem, which is where we meet the blind son of Timaeus, begging beside the road.
Let’s take a closer look at Mark Ch 10, v. 46-52. “As He went out from Jericho, with His disciples and a great multitude.” The streets would be filled with pilgrims coming from everywhere and heading for Jerusalem, the Holy City. Jesus’ reputation precedes Him, and people hoped to get a glimpse of Him. Perhaps they will witness a miracle, or see sparks fly between Jesus and his growing number of enemies. Jericho is the home of many priests and Levites who serve at the temple in Jerusalem. Some are surely in this crowd, perhaps trying to build up the courage to challenge Jesus as He walks by.
“Bartimaeus (whose name means son of honor) a blind beggar was sitting by the road.” Bartimaeus’s circumstances (a blind beggar) are at odds with his noble name (son of honor). As a blind beggar, he lives on the margins of society. But Jesus will show him honor and restore his sight so that the man might reclaim the honor he deserves. Bartimaeus’ life was almost certainly difficult. He was likely homeless, and sitting on his cloak! The roadside is a place for marginal people. The road on this day would be noisy with pilgrims headed for Jerusalem.
When Bartimeous heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!” Many rebuked him, that he should be quiet, but he cried out much more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Until now, Jesus has tried to keep talk of him as Messiah to a minimum, it was the “messianic secret.” But Jesus does not rebuke Bartimaeus for calling him, “son of David.” The reason is quite simple. Before now, His time had not yet come, but now it has. He is ready to enter Jerusalem—ready to face his destiny in confrontation with religious and political leaders—ready to die. For Mark, it is important that Bartimaeus is focused on Jesus and NOT on begging. There is irony here: Bartimeus CAN’T SEE, he is BLIND. Yet, he is the only person in the entire story who CAN SEE, CAN SEE that Jesus of Nazareth IS the SON OF David, the expected Messiah and deliverer of the Jewish people.
“Many rebuked Bartimeous, that he should be quiet.” The people on the road may have wanted him to be silent out of respect for the young prophet, they wanted to hear what he might say to the Pharisees, who are out to get Him, or they may think it would be beneath the dignity of Jesus to pay attention to a beggar. “but he cried out much more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Bartimeous probably thinks meeting Jesus is the chance of a lifetime. And he might disappear into the crowd at any moment. He will not let the crowd stop him from getting close to Jesus.
Then Jesus, Himself, always attentive to those whom others ignored, stopped in His tracks and said, “Call him over to me.”
The disciples, no doubt surprised, called the blind man, saying to him, “take courage! Get up. Jesus is calling you!” Bartimeous cast aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus. Somehow, he knows he will no longer need the cloak that he was not wearing. He used it to cover the sandy rocky road on which he was sitting. Beggars typically sit with their cloak spread on the ground before them to catch coins tossed by passersby. The Son of Honor’s cloak was as important to his livelihood as boats were to fisherman. Just as fishermen abandoned their boats to follow Jesus, Bartimeous cast aside cloak and coins to follow the Son of David.
Instead of shouting at the blind man through the crowd, Jesus asks him to be brought to Him giving him a place of dignity at the center of the drama. He is instructing the disciples to stop blocking those who need Him and start helping them to get to Him. Jesus reaches out with authority to embrace a powerless, vulnerable person showing the disciples and all of us how a true disciple should treat others.
Jesus asked Bartimeous, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said, “Lord, that I may see!” Unlike James and John, who asked to sit at the right and left side of Jesus, Bartimeous asks not to be seen, but to see—not for honor, but for vision—which, of course, he ALREADY has! He alone can see.
Jesus said to him, “Go your way. Your faith has healed you. Immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus on the way.” “The Greek verb used here can mean “healed,” “made whole,” or ”saved.” In this case, all three are true. Bartimeous not only regains his sight and, thereby, his place in society, but he also becomes a follower of Jesus “on the way.” On the way to where? To living by the gospel of Jesus? To Jerusalem? To the cross? To the empty tomb? To the hope of eternal life?
Once Jesus gets to Jerusalem, He will be quickly arrested and put to death. What will Bartimaeus’ reaction be to the sudden, tragic destruction of the life of the Son of David to whom he had looked with such hope? Will his faith carry him through to the Resurrection? Mark is silent about all of that! He is silent because he wants each of us to realize that we are the blind man or the blind woman.
When we gather for the Eucharist, Jesus is asking, “What do you want me to do for you?”
Sunday after Sunday, He awaits your response and mine. “Lord, that I may see!”
“Lord, that I may see!”
Praise be Jesus Christ. Both now and forever. AMEN!