Helen Keller who was probably one of the most famous blind people of our time, Helen Keller was once asked, “Isn’t it terrible to be blind?” She answered, “Better to be blind and see with your heart than to have two good eyes and see nothing.”
Of course, throughout the New Testament we find Jesus speaking frequently about blindness - not just physical blindness but the blindness of the human heart, the blindness of our routine daily life, indeed the blindness of most human life apart from God. Jesus constantly urges those who do have eyes to see - “those who have eyes, let them see.” In fact, faith - which is what this story today is really about - faith is just another way of seeing the world around you. Faith is the ability to see beyond, below, beneath, above, around and through the daily events of our life, to see something of the grace, the mercy, the guiding light and providence of God working within the daily events of our life. To be able to see more clearly and truly who we are and whose we are, where we are and where we are called to be.1
So, our gospel lesson today needs to be read on two levels. It is a story about physical blindness. But it is also a story about spiritual blindness. And if we cannot relate to it at one level, we certainly can relate to it at the other.
If you’ve been in church the last four or five Sundays, you know that this central section of Mark’s gospel is all about the meaning of discipleship. In fact there are only two stories in the entire gospel of Mark that focus on restoring sight to the blind. And these two healing passages, including the one today, form a bracket - like a parentheses - around Mark’s vivid discussion on the meaning of discipleship, which occurs as Jesus and his disciples are “on the way,” on the way to Jerusalem. What does it mean to see Jesus? What does it really mean to follow Jesus? What does it mean to clear away the fog of our complicated, confused, stressed and distracted lives in order to focus on who and what and where we are truly called to be?2
In this little catechism on discipleship, bracketed by the two healing stories, it is made painfully clear that the disciples - those who have been Jesus’ most intimate companions - don’t have a clue what he is talking about. They are still worrying and arguing about who is going to be at the front of the parade. So, they remain blind to the possibilities of God and the promise of God’s kingdom. It is the outsiders - the beggars, the infirm, the outcast - who in a burst of faith - and vision - again, the two are connected - they are the ones who see - they are the ones who are healed - they are the ones who respond to God’s invitation to wholeness - the ones who actually follow Jesus “on the way.”
Because apparently the kingdom of God calls for a very different way of seeing. Seeing that, in Jesus, the long-awaited Messiah is not to be a conquering hero but a suffering servant. Seeing that unless we receive the kingdom of God like a little child, we will not enter it at all. That the person who wants to save his life will lose it, and the one who wants to be truly great will be servant of all. And seeing here, that sometimes a blind person can see much more clearly than a whole crowd of people who supposedly have 20/20 vision. The story of Bartimaeus is a story of seeing beyond the surface, a story of what Jesus means by “faith,” and a story of one person who responded immediately and wholeheartedly to Jesus’ call to follow him - “on the way.”
“On the way.” It is the phrase with which the story of Bartimaeus reaches its climactic moment. Indeed, this outcome is Mark’s goal for anyone and everyone who would read or hear his gospel - that like Bartimaeus they would regain their sight and be moved to follow Jesus “on the way.” “On the way.” It is a repeated refrain throughout this discipleship section of Mark. Jesus and his followers are on the way. In Jesus’ case it means they are on the way to Jerusalem, to the Passover festival, and ultimately to the fulfillment of the divine purpose of Jesus’ life and ministry, on the way to his death and resurrection.
But, I believe, in this sense we are all “on the way.” Because I truly believe that God has a divine purpose for your life and for my life, as well. God has a divine purpose for your life and for my life, as well. And, like Jesus, we will not be given an infinite amount of time to fulfill this divine purpose here on earth. Like Jesus, death and resurrection lie ahead for every one of us. We don’t know exactly when it will come, but death will indeed come. To follow Jesus “on the way” means to faithfully be “on the way” toward fulfilling our divine purpose in the time we are given. Again the question, what does it mean to see Jesus, to clear away the fog of our complicated, confused, stressed and distracted lives, to focus on who and what and where we are truly called to be - in the time we are given. There is a certain urgency to following Jesus. But it is an urgency that Jesus clearly calls us to meet not with anxiety, but with what he calls “faith.” And Bartimaeus is a particularly vivid example of what Jesus means by faith. “Your faith has made you well.”
You see, although Bartimaeus was blind, he unquestionably had vision - that special way of seeing that Jesus calls faith. He had the vision to understand that the way things were for him and for the world were not the way God intended them to be - that God had a purpose for his life as well - and that God’s purpose for his life was to be something more than a blind beggar by the side of the road.
That is why he seizes the moment. Bartimaeus makes a split-second decision: to move from begging travelers for alms to begging God for healing. He seizes the opportunity. He does not let it pass by. He does not put it off for another time, you know, let me think about it, maybe tomorrow, maybe later. He seizes the moment. For some reason, he has the presence of mind, the clarity of vision and courage of heart to respond right here and now, in the present moment. And that is a very good thing, because this is precisely where faith happens, the only place where God’s presence can be known and trusted - in the present moment. God’s calling always comes to us in the present-tense of our life. As one author puts it, “the Power of Now.” Now. Not when we finally get our lives all together - Not when the children are grown, or when school is over, or when I retire - Not when I don’t have to worry about the money, or when everything settles down, or when this condition is met or when that finally happens, but now. Now! This is the time. Now is the opportunity. And Bartimaeus does not let the opportunity pass him by. At the very moment he senses Jesus is near he moves decisively, without hesitation, he cries out to him in a loud voice, “Son of David, have mercy on me.”
He cries out - that in itself is important. Bartimaeus acknowledges his need for God and his need for healing - which is something that is difficult for many of us to do. We too have a deep need for God, we too have places in our lives in need of healing, but so many of us spend so much of our energy and effort pretending we don’t, wearing a mask of self-sufficiency, hiding from others and sometimes ourselves, our stress, our pain, our emptiness, our wounds and weariness, hiding our deep need for God and for the emotional and spiritual healing that come from God. But Bartimaeus, for one, apparently is tired of hiding in the darkness. And in this moment of opportunity, he confesses his need for healing. Indeed, he shouts it out so loud that the crowd around him tells him what? - to shut up. They sternly ordered him to be quiet. Social pressure. Be quiet. Suppress your true need, and just pretend, along with the rest of us. And we all know about social pressure. You see, the crowd wants to keep this blind beggar “in his place” so to speak. Just as there are social pressures that work to keep us “stuck” in the same place. Yet, Bartimaeus is willing to take the risk, to risk even the disapproval of the crowd, to make his real need, his real desire known to Jesus.
Do you realize how hard that is, to risk the disapproval of the people around you? I think most of us so desperately seek acceptance and approval from others that we routinely allow other people - friends, family, co-workers, the media, “the crowd,” - we allow others to define us, to define our place and our possibilities in the world. Generally, we are not willing to risk such disapproval or, even worse, rejection. And so, we often just passively conform to social expectations, just blend in with the crowd, and go with the flow instead of reaching out for something more, instead of seizing the opportunity of this life and the time we are given, instead of reaching out for the change and the healing we truly need, instead of reaching out for that new and abundant life that God longs to give us.
But, in this story, Bartimaeus refuses to let the disapproval of the crowd silence him. This is the moment of opportunity - right here, right now. So he cries out again, even louder; and this time Jesus hears him and beckons him to come near. And notice that suddenly the crowd has completely changed its tune. Suddenly the crowd is saying: “Yes, that’s right. Good for you, Bartimaeus. Take heart, get up, he is calling you.” You see, the opinions of the crowd are like the wind, they have very little substance, and they can change direction very, very quickly. So Bartimaeus throws off his cloak, springs to his feet and stands before Jesus, unashamed of his need and honest about his condition, he is blind and desperately wanting to see.
And Jesus asks him what seems to be sort of a stupid question: He says, “What do you want me to do for you?” It’s not that Jesus could not immediately see that this was a blind man stumbling toward him. Perhaps the scripture is suggesting that it is more for Bartimaeus’ sake that he asks the question. Because, Jesus wants Bartimaeus to name his need. “What do you want me to do for you?” It is a question that underlines the importance of getting our deepest desires straight. It is one of the great questions of the Bible, a question that reaches beyond Bartimaeus and right into the depths of where you and I are living right now. What do you want Jesus to do for you? Because, if there is in you and in me such a need - a need for healing, a need for change, a need for renewal - and I have to think there is some such need in every life, then we must dare to name it and ask Jesus to help us with it.
And so, I invite you, in the coming week - in fact, I invite you to take a moment right now - maybe close your eyes for just a moment - sometimes “insight” comes when our eyes are closed, and, if you can hear Jesus’ question addressed to you, “what do you want me to do for you,” pause and respond silently, but honestly, respond to Jesus in your heart. Where is the deepest need - your deepest desire - for healing, for change, for renewal in your life? In what ways are you perhaps blind and unable to see? Jesus is asking right now: What do you want me to do for you? ...
Do you really want to see? Are you willing to risk a change in the status quo of your life? Risk, perhaps, the disapproval of the crowd? Do you dare to cry out and bring your deepest need before him? What is God’s part in fulfilling your deepest desire? What is your part? Are you willing to do your part? Will you trust God to do God’s part? And, if the answer in your heart is “yes,” “yes,” “yes!” then: Jesus says, “Go your way, your faith has made you well.”
And if, (as Barbara Taylor puts it): having regained your sight, you find you don’t like the looks of the way you have been traveling in your life, then you might want to try another way. You might, like Bartimaeus, choose to follow Jesus on his way - or as Scripture calls it, “the Way.” The way toward fulfilling the divine purpose of your life in the time you are given. It is the way of faith, genuine trust in God, service and self-giving love - the way that leads to life. It is a way that leads to Jerusalem, through a garden, past a cross, into an empty tomb, and finally it leads to the light - the eternal light we were created to behold, the light of God’s presence which opens the eyes of the blind, which outshines death and all forms of darkness, it is the light of Christ which God longs to shine into your heart today and forever.
Take heart. Get up. He is calling you.
1. Rick Brand, paraphrase.
2. Susan R. Andrews, adapted.