I Want to See
(Mark 10: 46-52)
One of the good things about Facebook is that occasionally you see a post worth seeing, one that makes you feel good, one that makes you smile. I saw one some time ago that was really heartwarming and made me smile. It was a video of an infant who was born visually impaired. Apparently, the doctors realized that the child could see somewhat but not clearly so they had a pair of special glasses made for the child. When the glasses were placed on the child’s head and her eyes began to adjust you could see the pure amazement and joy on her beautiful, sweet face when all of a sudden, a blurry world came into focus. What a gift and how happy her parents must have been. Not yet old enough to speak, but if she could, I’m sure she would have told her parents: “I want to see”. Praise God for his mercy and for the healing hands of her doctors. She once was blind but now she sees. Her future got a whole lot brighter and clearer.
Wanting to see and having your sight restored is what our scripture reading for this morning is all about. It’s about a blind beggar who had enough faith to ask the Messiah to give him his sight so that he might see. During the time of Jesus blindness was considered a curse from God for sin as evidenced by an exchange between Jesus and his disciples in John’s gospel who, when they encountered a man blind from birth they asked: “Rabbi, who sinned so that he was born blind, this man or his parents?” Jesus answered, Neither he nor his parents. This happened so that God’s mighty works might be displayed in him. While it’s daytime, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world. After he said this, he spit on the ground making a mud poultice that he placed on the man’s eyes and then instructed him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. After the man did as he was told, his sight was restored. Jesus didn’t buy into this sin theory as evidenced by these two sight-restoring encounters. Sometimes being born afflicted is just being born afflicted.
Mark tells us that after visiting Jericho Jesus, his disciples, and a sizable crowd were leaving when they encountered a blind beggar named Bartimaeus who was sitting beside the road. Often times these beggars would stake out a spot on a road leading into or out of a town, usually at one of the city’s gates where they could appeal to those passing by much like we see folks standing at the exits of QFC and Safeway. Beggars were a common sight in most towns because most occupations of that day required physical labor and anyone with a crippling disease or disability was at a severe disadvantage and if they didn’t have family to support them, they were forced to beg for their survival. Now back then beggars weren’t viewed with disdain or suspicion like they are now. In the 25th chapter of Leviticus the people of Israel are told that if one of their fellow Israelites faces financial difficulty and is in a shaky situation with you, you must assist them as you would an immigrant or foreign guest so that they can survive among you. They are instructed not to take interest from them, or any kind of profit from interest, but to fear God so that your fellow Israelite can survive among you, and not to lend a poor Israelite money with interest or lend food at a profit. It appears that between the time that Moses gave these God-inspired instructions and when Jesus left Jericho the opinion on helping the destitute had changed some as we are told that when Bartimaeus heard that Jesus of Nazareth was near he began to shout: Jesus, Son of David, show me mercy! Many scolded him, telling him to be quiet, but he shouted even louder: Son of David, show me mercy! What’s significant here is that Bartimaeus addressed Jesus as Son of David as it was known, according to Isaiah 9: 7, that the Messiah would be a descendant of King David. The fact that Bartimaeus called Jesus the Son of David shows that he recognized Jesus as the Messiah. This caught Jesus’ attention as he stopped and said Call him forward. They called to the blind man saying: Be encouraged! Get up! He’s calling you. Throwing his coat to the side, he jumped up and came to Jesus. Jesus asked him: What do you want me to do for you? Bartimaeus responded: Teacher, I want to see. Jesus said: Go, your faith has healed you. Mark then reports that Bartimaeus was immediately able to see and that he began to follow Jesus on the way. To me, I think this is significant when you put it into context with many of the other healing miracles Jesus performed. I may be wrong here, but I think that most of them, after being healed or cured, went on their way, never to be mentioned again. Because of Bartimaeus’ faith, he was healed and became a follower of Jesus. Jesus neither asked questions nor attached any strings for this restoration of sight. We know who Jesus is and we are free to follow him, or not.
The fact that Bartimaeus began to follow Jesus on the way revealed his faithful response to Jesus’ implicit call to discipleship. Up to this point the disciples had shown a spiritual blindness to the kingdom reality Jesus had been showing them all along. They had been preoccupied with their jockeying for positions of prominence in the coming kingdom not realizing that Jesus’ kingdom would not be of this world. During Jesus’ short three-year ministry, he met many spiritually blind people—religious leaders, family members, people in the crowd and though their eyes were fine, they could not see the truth about Jesus. Conversely, blind Bartimaeus’s only request is to see, fulfilling the true desire of Jesus for all his followers, to see. We do not know how long Bartimaeus had been blind, it could have been from birth, or it could have occurred during his lifetime, but it only took a moment for him to call upon Jesus for help. The now-seeing Bartimaeus is given the freedom to venture anywhere he desires, and he chooses to follow Jesus.
Like us, Bartimaeus had not seen Jesus’ miracles, but he responded in faith to what he had heard. And we have heard Jesus described in the Gospels, so in coming to Jesus, we need Bartimaeus’s boldness. We must overcome our reticence and doubts and take the step to call on him. May we be like those of whom Peter wrote about in 1 Peter 1: 8,9: Although you’ve never seen him, you love him. Even though you don’t see him now, you trust him and so rejoice with a glorious joy that is too much for words. You are receiving the goal of your faith: your salvation.
So, we have to ask ourselves one of two questions. If we have seen and been set free, where have we gone, what have we done, and where are we going? And if you have faith but have not yet seen and want to see, where would you like to go and how would you exercise your freedom?
Let us pray.
Pass me not, O gentle Savior, hear my humble cry. While on others thou art calling, do not pass me by. Yes, gracious and loving Jesus, hear our cry, our pleas to see what you want us to see more clearly. Move us by your Spirit to follow you and go wherever you would have us go in service to God. May we embrace the freedom you have so graciously bestowed upon us to lead others to your light so that they too may see. This we pray, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
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If you have faith but have not yet seen and want to see, where would you like to go and how ould you exercise your freedom?
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