27/10/2024
Queanbeyan Uniting Church
Queanbeyan, NSW
Sermon for 17 Oct., 2024 -Pentecost 23
Readings: Job 42:1-6, 10-17; Mark 10:46-52
Text: Mark 10:51 - 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."
Theme: Seeing with the eyes of faith
We have been following Jesus and his disciples since Mark 7, when they headed to the Mediterranean coast after Jesus’ debate with the Pharisees and the scribes about being ritually clean and unclean. Interestingly, most of the places they visited after that squabble were ritually unclean places occupied mainly by gentile people.
As they went around, Jesus drove out evil spirits, healed the sick, gave speech to a deaf-mute, gave sight to a blind person, fed the hungry, and taught the disciples about his ministry and the requirements of God’s kingdom. All the time, he was probably hoping that the disciples would learn and follow him.
The current leg of their journey began in Capernaum (see map), with the narration starting at the beginning of Mark 10. Along the way, Jesus taught about divorce, the need for one to be like a child in order to be in God’s kingdom, the relationship between material wealth and faith, his impending death and resurrection, and leadership in the kingdom. In today’s reading, they have arrived in Jericho (see map), a city that is just outside of Jerusalem, their final destination.
As they are leaving Jericho, they come across Bartimaeus, a blind beggar who is sitting by the road. Bartimaeus finds out that Jesus is coming near him. So, he shouts out saying, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
The people try to shush him away, but the more he cries out louder: “Son of David, have mercy on me!” This causes Jesus to stop. He tells the people to call Bartimaeus to come to him. They tell Bartimaeus that Jesus is calling him to come over. Upon hearing those words, Bartimaeus throws off his cloak, he jumps to his feet, and comes to Jesus.
Then Jesus says to him: “What do you want me to do to you?” And Bartimaeus says to Jesus, “My teacher, let me see again.” And Jesus says to Bartimaeus, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately, Bartimaeus gets his sight back; but instead of going his way, he follows Jesus on the way.
That is our Gospel reading for today; it has only seven verses, but they are so heavy with symbolism and coded language that it is difficult to decide where to start. The key question, however, is how did Bartimaeus know that Jesus was the Messiah (Son of David), while none of those who were following Jesus, including the disciples, knew this truth? For insight, it is useful to consider the context.
The context of today’s reading is the journey to Jerusalem. For us readers, we know how that will end: on the cross, the grave, the resurrection, and then back to where the Christ belongs. Now, we know this because we have been brought up in this story. The crowd, however, did not know it, and they were only interested in what they could get, including being fed. So, the idea of the Messiah and Son of David were outside of their concerns. The disciples, also, had their own agendas. And while Jesus told them several times about his mission, their interests were only in what they could see with their eyes. But what our eyes can see are not the only things that exist.
It is widely recognised that not everything that exists can be seen by our naked eyes. Often, the most important things in life are outside the scope of our eyes. Things like looking glasses and microscopes help us see things that are not clear to our visions and things that are microscopic in size. Then we have the binoculus and the telescope that help us see things that are far away.
But there are things that exist that none of the tools mentioned above can help us to see them. Yet, we can see them with the eyes of our minds; and we know they exist because we can see their effects. For example, the wind and the electron. We can feel the wind and see its effects in the clouds, the waters of the ocean and lakes, and more, but we really cannot see it with our eyes. The electron is slightly different. We cannot see it with our eyes, nor can we feel it, and no instrument can help us see it. But we know they exist, because they are involved in the creation of electricity, and electricity is real. So, while we cannot observe electrons, the existence of electricity is proof that they MUST exist.
And there is a third level of existence that neither the eye nor the mind can see, but only the heart can perceive it. These are the spiritual things that only the eyes of faith can see, with the help of the mind. In Judeo-Christian religion, faith is not blind and seeing with the eyes of faith is not a leap into the un-known, but a journey into the fulfilments of God’s promises.
Having developed this way of seeing in the religion of Israel, people like Bartimaeus, who tend to be the simple, like children, though not all of them are, have come to develop this way of seeing by immersing themselves in the history and the scriptures of Israel. This might have been how Bartimaeus came to know Jesus was the Messiah. The text suggests that he had his sight before, as he is asking Jesus to restore his sight. So, he probably studied the scriptures of Israel before he lost his sight, but his blindness had afforded him the opportunity to immerse himself in the history of his people.
Seeing with the eyes of faith is more powerful than seeing with our eyes only, or seeing with our minds. It is so, because we are using all the information that your eyes and mind provide to form the understanding that the eyes of faith are able to see. And when you see with the eyes of faith, you can see telos, the purpose, in things, including ourselves.
In the OT the prophets had this ability. And so, the likes of Habakkuk were able to see ‘the earth [being] filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea,’ (Hab. 2:14) and Zechariah saw the king of Zion and Jerusalem coming ‘riding on a donkey,’ (Zech. 9:9).
Interestingly, Bartimaeus is probably seeing the same, and with devastating effects to the existing powers at the time. Scholars have reminded us that the last time someone shouted in Jericho, its mighty walls came tumbling down (Josh. 6:20). And now, Bartimaeus is shouting louder, as he asks Jesus to retore his sight. And while the walls of Jericho did not come down this time, Jesus would be riding into Jerusalem on a donkey a few days later, as Zechariah had proclaimed around a half a millennium earlier, on his way to the cross. And this was the beginning of the collapse of the ‘walls’ of Jerusalem’s establishment and the collapse of the ‘walls’ of the Roman empire centuries later.
Job, also, had the ability to see with the eyes of faith. He lost everything but his life in a wager between God and Satan, but he never lost faith in God. And in today’s reading, from the final chapter of Job, God has restored more than Job had lost. And Job lived to the beautiful age of 140 years, which, when you divide it by 7, it means he had achieved perfection on 20 occasions in his life. No wonder he died, saturated with life.
Now, as Bartimaeus walked over to where Jesus was standing, he threw his cloak away. Some have suggested that the cloak represented Bartimaeus’s old way of seeing, likely to be Greek philosophy given the connection between his name and the work of Plato. This suggests that, seeing with the eyes of faith is more powerful than any other way of seeing.
As Christians, we should all try and develop the capacity of seeing with the eyes of faith. This will require a deeper understanding of the history of God as understood in the Judeo-Christian tradition, a deeper understanding of the Bible, and a sound understanding of theology as guided by the spirit through prayers.
We can see again, with new eyes, the eyes of faith when we throw away our cloaks, our old ways of seeing, and we will be able to see the merciful God in Jesus; it is like John’s idea of being born anew, from ‘above’. And when we see anew with the eyes of faith, we shall be able to see God’s purposes in all of life, including our own, and that is a source of great joy for we have found ourselves in the realm of God.
And for me, seeing with the eyes of faith is like being an everyday theologian in contrast to the one whose career is to teach theology. The everyday theologian can feel the pulse of God’s spirit in her/his being at every moment of her/his waking-up hours and, thus, is deeply connected to God in the ways of Jesus. In contrast, the theologian that practices it as a career is like a mathematician who teaches mathematics but has no connection with the numbers because they are abstract.
To see life with the eyes of faith is a journey into God’s promises, and that can help us understand God’s purposes in those promises for the world and also for us.
For the glory of God. Amen
p.s. Now off to Galong, previously a Monastery for a 3-day retreat. Looking forward to talking to the natives - the snakes, the scorpions, the spiders, etc.
