Sermon: Sight for the Blind

 Mark 10:46-52
Sight for the Blind
James Sledge                                                                            October 24, 2021

Christ Giving Sight to Bartimaeus
William Blake, 1799

I’ve shared before something that happened at the church I previously served, an event that is seared into my memory. It happened one Sunday as I was preaching from the pulpit, and I saw it only because of the peculiar architecture of the sanctuary.

The back wall of that sanctuary had windows that covered its entire width. The choir and I could look through them into the narthex. There were entry doors from outside on either side of the narthex, but they were beyond the view through those windows.

In this church the ushers had a habit of remaining in the narthex, or the parlor just beyond it, during the worship service. The choir and I could see them milling around, going to get a cup of coffee from the parlor kitchen, and so on. And so there was an usher in the narthex when a rather disheveled man entered.

The man was Black, making him a minority of one, unless the immigrant family from Cameroon that we sponsored was there that day. He might well have been homeless, although I don’t know that, and I assumed that he had entered our church building looking for some assistance.

One of the ushers moved quickly to intercept him. I could see them talking but hear nothing. They conversed for a short while, and then the usher ushered him out of my sight toward the door he must have just entered. From what I could tell, he left willingly but, I presume, unhappily.

It was easy to ascertain what I had just witnessed. The man had come to the church seeking some assistance and likely had asked for the pastor. The usher had then explained that I was in the middle of worship. I was busy and he would need to come back later. I never saw the man again.

Something similar happens in our scripture. In this case it’s a blind man who wants help, but Jesus is busy. Jerusalem is just over the horizon. He’s likely got some final instructions he needs to give his disciples, and time is short. No time to deal with one more desperate person seeking help.

But this blind man, Bartimaeus, won’t take no for an answer. He keeps yelling, trying to get Jesus’ attention. Even though he is blind, he somehow recognizes something about Jesus that seems to have escaped the crowd and the disciples. Jesus came for people just like him, and Jesus won’t turn him away.

You’d think the disciples would have realized this, too. Jesus had just taught them about how he came to serve rather than be served. And just before that Jesus had become indignant at the disciples for trying to shoo away parents who were bring children for Jesus to bless. But then again, this section of Mark’s gospel repeatedly highlights the disciples’ inability to comprehend what Jesus is trying to teach them, their spiritual blindness if you will.

Throughout this section of Mark’s gospel, which began with the healing of another blind man, Jesus has tried repeatedly to explain about his upcoming arrest, death, and resurrection, but the disciples have responded by trying to correct Jesus, by arguing over who is the greatest, and by asking for plum spots in Jesus’ coming glory. The disciples seem incapable of understanding, unable to see the truth.

But Jesus can cure blindness, which is why I think Mark puts this healing as the last event prior to entering Jerusalem. This healing story looks different from most others in Mark’s gospel. That is true of Bartimaeus’ insistence that Jesus heal him, and especially true of what happens after he receives his sight.

In the typical healing story in Mark, Jesus tells the person to go home and not tell anyone what Jesus had done for them. That is exactly what happened when Jesus healed a blind man at the beginning of this section of the gospel. But with Bartimaeus it is different.

For starters, Jesus credits Bartimaeus’ faith for the healing saying, “Go; your faith has made you well.” This might well be translated your faith has rescued you, or your faith has made you whole. Bartimaeus’ trust in Jesus makes great things possible.

Even more surprising is what Jesus doesn’t say. There are no words about going home or saying nothing to anyone. Instead we hear, Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way. Bartimaeus is healed and he follows Jesus, follows him to Jerusalem and to the cross.

I think Mark’s telling of this story speaks of hope for the bungling disciples who over and over misunderstand, whose spiritual blindness leads them to argue over who’s number one and who gets the best spots in Jesus’ inner circle. If they wish, their blindness can be cured, and they can follow Jesus on the way.

“The Way” was the first name applied to the movement that would later be known as Christian. Bartimaeus’ faith and Jesus’ healing power enabled a former blind man to see and the walk in the way of Jesus. So too faith and Jesus’ healing power can enable the spiritually blind to see and to walk in the way of Jesus.

All too often, my own attempts at following Jesus are every bit as bungling as those disciples in Mark’s gospel. I like having money and wish I were rich. I find it difficult to love my enemies. The last thing I want to do is suffer, and I have little use for crosses. I’m very much captive to the ways of our individualistic, consumer-oriented culture addicted to the idea the happiness and contentment will follow if I only acquire just a little bit more. I struggle to see the way of Jesus, afflicted with a spiritual blindness every bit as acute as that of the disciples in the gospel.

If you sit down and read all the way through Mark’s gospel, you might well conclude that Peter, James, John, and the other disciples are hopeless cases, so incapable of understanding and following Jesus that they’re doomed forever to fumble about in the throes of their spiritual blindness. But of course these are the very disciples who found the Church, who, sometimes at the cost of their own lives, began to spread the way of Jesus throughout the Mediterranean world. And I think this final healing in the gospel hints at that.

Jesus came to bring sight to the blind, and that includes, maybe especially, those whose blindness is spiritual, who cannot see the truth of the way Jesus shows us. It takes a little faith, enough trust to turn to Jesus for help. But mostly it happens because of Jesus’ power to rescue, to heal, to free me from a captivity to ways that are ultimately not life giving, to open my eyes to the way of life in all it true fullness.

Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!