Your Faith Has Made You Well

October 25, 2009
Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 25
Jeremiah 31:7-9
Psalm 69:15-18, 31-38
Hebrews 7:23-28
Mark 10:46-52

In his book A Cross Shattered Church, Stanley Hauerwas observes that, for the first 17 centuries after Christ's earthly ministry, the primary place of theology was the pulpit. As a result of the Enlightenment, theology retreated into the walls of the ivory towers, becoming as much of an academic pursuit as a key element of the body of Christ. In our calling as Christians, it important for us to remember the role that theology plays in our everyday lives. According to Hauerwas, "The story that makes us Christians cannot be known without proclamation....That is why our task is not to explain "the meaning" of the text, but rather to show how our lives are unintelligible if Jesus Christ is not the Lord."¹ With that in mind, let us take a look at today's readings.

As we look at today's Gospel reading, we see what one of my old youth group kids would call "another Jesus miracle." We see seven rather short verses that we've probably read a dozen times or more in Sunday School and in our readings of the Scripture. Jesus is walking along the road with a crowd, he heals a blind man, and carries on his way. This story is told in three of our four Gospels, only escaping mention in the Gospel of John. By reading this story outside of the entire Gospel of Mark, we run the risk of missing the narrative that the Holy Spirit is revealing through Mark's pen. So let us take a moment to place this story within the Markan narrative.

Of the Gospel of Mark, Richard Hays says that it "redefines the nature of power and the value of suffering."² Throughout the Markan Gospel, we see powerful men like Herod and Pilate as villains and pawns of the forces of evil, while the true triumph is in Jesus' suffering, death and resurrection. This is the true manifestation of the kingdom of God and it is a fundamental aspect in Mark's Gospel. "The kingdom of God, incarnated and modeled in the person of Jesus Christ, advances only by exercising power under others," Greg Boyd writes. "It expands by manifesting the power of self-sacrifical, Calvary-like love."³

In the chapters preceding our selection from Mark, we see a constant failure of the disciples to understand the nature and mission of Christ. Immediately after the miracle of the loaves and the fishes in chapter 8, Christ's disciples argued over their lack of bread. He questioned them in verses 17-18:

Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember?

Realize at this point that Jesus is having to constantly remind his disciples of his reason for being on the earth. In verse 29 of this chapter, Peter professes him as the Son of God. And yet three verses later, Peter is seen rebuking Jesus. Do you get the feeling like the disciples are just not getting it? It is at this point where Jesus sums up who he is and what it means to be a disciple of Christ.

"The Son of Many must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again." (31)

"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it." (34-35)

This, my friends, is the crux of discipleship. Disciples who are willing to take up their own crosses and lose everything for the Gospel of Christ. Jim Elliot was a 20th century missionary to several native tribes in South America. His life was popularized recently in the film End of the Spear which tells the story of his death at the hands those they were preaching and ministering to in Ecuador. Elliot is best remembered for a journal entry he wrote in 1949, in which he summed up Christian discipleship perfectly: "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." Denying ourselves and following Christ. And this is the heart of Mark's narrative. A Messiah who suffers and dies for the world.

Focusing now on our Gospel selection, we see Christ healing the blind man Bartimaeus. In our readings of Scripture, I believe we fail to realize the radical nature and message of these healings. In the Jewish culture of the day, we know that many who had ailments or disabilities were considered unclean or unwhole. Lepers, for example, were forced to live outside the community. which was a harsh symbol of separation from the people of God. Being unclean or cut off removed a Jew from the covenant between God and Abraham, as they were not allowed to worship at the temple or break bread with their fellow man. In this very literal practice, they were shut out from the blessings of the old covenant. And yet Bartimaeus, in verse 47, calls out "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"

Now the phrase "Son of David" reflects directly on Second Samuel chapter 7, when God establishes his covenant with David. Consider this passage beginning with verse 14:

I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.

Here we see God speaking to King David through the prophet Nathan, establishing a covenant of heirs to the throne of Israel. This covenant is the foundation of the Messianic expectation that filled Jerusalem and the surrounding area at the time of Christ. Remember the triumphal entry that we celebrate on Palm Sunday. It was a common expectation at that time that the Messiah would come to physically redeem the people of God from the rule of the Roman empire and its allies (think Herod). This phrase that Bartimaeus shouts out would have very real implications to those nearby as well as early readers of Mark's Gospel. "Many," we are told in verse 48, "rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more."

And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.” And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.

In these two verses, we see a distinct call from Jesus to Bartimaeus. Bartimaeus made himself heard over the crowds of people who tried to silence him. We see Bartimaeus react quickly to this call. There is no hesitation on his part to be in the presence of this Jesus.

Now we get to verse 51, a powerful point of irony in Mark's Gospel. We read:

And Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight."

The story that precedes this in the Gospel of Mark is what is often called "The Request of James and John." Let's back up and read that one together, starting with verse 35:

And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized, but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus asks them in verse 36, "What do you want me to do for you?" James and John, two of the disciples that have been with him for most of his earthly ministry, ask to sit at either side of him in eternity. What an arrogant request! In verses 43-45 we see yet again the crux of Christian discipleship: service, sacrifice, the giving of one's life. Even though he JUST told them in chapter eight what disciples of Christ must suffer, James and John still don't get it. Like Peter, they seem more concerned with power, with promotions, with prosperity. Peter rebuked Jesus when he foretold of his suffering and death, James and John wanted him to guarantee them the best of the best in eternity.

When Jesus asks Bartimaeus the exact same question he asked James and John, the response is much simpler. After fighting to be heard through the crowd, Bartimaeus simply asks for his sight back, and Jesus is quick to respond in verse 52, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” This is the healing reflected throughout the Gospel of Mark. Of this healing, N.T. Wright says that they were "not merely to bring physical healing; not merely to give humans, within a far less individualistic society than our modern western one, a renewed sense of community membership; but to reconstitute those healed as members of the people of Israel's god. In other words, these healings, at the deepest level of understanding on the part of Jesus and his contemporaries, would be seen as part of his total ministry, specifically, part of that open welcome which went with the inauguration of the kingdom."⁴

So many of those that Jesus healed did exactly he told them, by going their own way and rejoicing in the healing that had been bestowed upon them. But not Bartimaeus. This until-recently blind man does the exact opposite. And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way." The incredible part of this passage is that the verb Mark uses for "follow" is the exact same one he uses in verse 8:34:

And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

This isn't a passive attitude change. Here we see a man blessed by the healing power of Jesus who, rather than choose his own worldly path, follows on the repeat command Jesus gave to his own disciples. What a radical example of discipleship!

With this story as our backdrop, what can we say about Christian faith and discipleship?

We Need to Cry Out to God and Beg for Mercy. 

So many of those healed by Jesus in the Scriptures are healed because they sought him out and cried out. Bartimaeus called out repeatedly over the noise and rebuking of the crowds. The woman with the bleeding disorder followed Jesus amidst the crowds and grasped his clothing. We must do the same.

For some 1500 years or more, Christians in the Orthodox Church have prayed the Sinner's Prayer, which is simple "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have Mercy on Me, a Sinner." With a cry remarkably similar to that one, Bartimaeus asks for God’s mercy. We do this corporately each week in our liturgy, where we confess that we have sinned against God in "thought, word and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone." As sinners in need of constant grace and redemption, we too must always approach God with a penitent spirit.

We Must Follow.

Christ calls his own to follow him by taking up their cross and committing to a life of self-sacrifice and suffering. This isn't a passive idea. This isn't an idiom or an exaggeration. This is the harsh reality of the path that our Lord and Savior walked, and he calls us to follow him on that same road. It is not an easy path, and it is one that can cause us to lose heart. Think of the Rich Man that precedes our own story today. Consider Jesus' call to discipleship and the Rich Man's response.

And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

We can't say for sure whether or not the man chose to follow Jesus, but we can say that he clearly understood the hardship that is being a disciple of Christ. He was disheartened and sorrowful, but still, Jesus still called him to follow.

Jesus and the Cross is the beginning of a new era in our world's existence. His death and resurrection brings forth the kingdom of God in a new way, and this kingdom of which we are called to be apart is unlike any kingdom we have ever seen. It is one where we are all called to a life of servanthood "But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all" (43-44) and a life where "But many who are first will be last, and the last first" (31) is the true reality. Compared to everything this world has to offer, God's kingdom is indeed an upside down kingdom. Or is it truly the world that is upside down?

Richard Hays tells us that Jesus "can be rightly understood only as the Son of Man who will surrender power in order to suffer and die. The cross becomes the controlling symbol for interpreting Jesus' identity. Thus, the question, "Who do you say that I am?" finds its final answer in the confession, "Truly this man was the Son of God," a confession that can be rightly uttered only at the foot of the cross."⁵

May we cry out to God for salvation and mercy, and may we have the humility to pick up our crosses and follow him, wherever he may lead us.

Footnotes

¹ Hauerwas, Stanley. A Cross-Shattered Church: Reclaiming the Theological Heart of Preaching. p 16.
² Hays, Richard. Moral Vision of the New Testament.. p 90.
³ Boyd, Greg. Myth of a Christian Nation. p 14.
⁴ Wright, N.T. Jesus and the Victory of God. p 192.
⁵ Hays. p 80.