Mark 10:46-25
Miraculously Healed by Jesus
James Sledge October
25, 2015
I
came across a story recently that’s a bit lame, or worse than that, but I think
I’ll share it anyway. A farmer lived along a quiet, county road, but over the
years, it became a busy highway, and the speeding cars began to kill more and
more of the farmer’s free-range chickens.
He
called the local sheriff to complain. “You’ve got to do something to slow these
cars down,” he said. “They’re driving like mad men.” The sheriff wasn’t sure
there was much he could do, but after repeated calls from the farmer then he agreed
to put up a sign that might make people more attentive. It said, “SLOW: SCHOOL
CROSSING.”
But
a few days later the farmer called to say that the sign hadn’t worked at all.
If anything, the drivers seem to have sped up. So the sheriff tried a slightly
different tactic, installing a sign that said “SLOW: CHILDREN AT PLAY.” And the
cars went even faster.
Finally,
the exasperated farmer asked if he could put up his own sign. The sheriff was
tired of the farmer calling every day, so he agreed, and the calls stopped. Eventually
the sheriff decided to call and check on things. The farmer said he hadn’t lost
a chicken since he put up his sign. The sheriff had to see this, so he drove
out to the farm where he saw a piece of plywood with spray-painted wording that
said, “NUDIST COLONY: Go slow and watch out for the chicks!”[1] …I told you it was bad.
I
told this story, lame as it is, to raise the issue of what it takes to get folks
to slow down and pay attention. We live in a fast paced world where we are
often busy and overscheduled. It’s a threat to our mental health and overall
well-being, and that of our children. Even more, it is a huge threat to a
relationship with God, to getting to know Jesus, because that requires
stopping, waiting, silence, and attentiveness on our part.
But
lest you think this a peculiarly modern problem, the people in our gospel
reading also seem unable to slow down enough to see what truly is important.
Jesus has just passed through Jericho. Jerusalem is not very far away, and the
very next episode in Mark’s gospel is Jesus’ triumphal entry into the city of
David. Jesus is picking up something of an entourage. He, his disciples, and a
large crowd are all headed down the road when a blind beggar begins to cry out.
“Jesus,
Son of David, have mercy on me!”
The
beggar’s name is Bartimaeus… or perhaps not. Our story says he is Bartimaeus,
son of Timaeus, but Bartimeaus means son of Timaeus. I’m suspicious that Mark’s
gospel gives us the original Aramaic and then its translation. This blind
beggar is insignificant enough that no one remembers his name, only that of his
father.
An
unnamed, blind beggar is hardly important enough to warrant stopping,
especially for this procession headed to big events in Jerusalem. “We’ve got to
keep moving. Be quiet!” blind beggar. We’ve got somewhere to be.”
Our
readings says, Many sternly ordered him to be quiet. Many? Many of the
disciples? Many in the crowd? Many of both? The last time anyone spoke in this
stern manner it was the disciples trying to chase away those bringing children
to Jesus. Unimportant children, now an unimportant, blind beggar. “Shoo, get
away. No time for you.”
In one of those wonderful ironies of
Scripture, the blind man sees what the crowd and disciples cannot. Jesus came
for people such as this blind beggar, and he came to help people see. Jesus
heals the beggar’s blindness with little difficulty. But the harder work of
healing his followers’ blindness continues and won’t come to full fruition
until after the resurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
I
know my share of Christians who have great difficulty with the Bible’s miracle
stories. The notion of Jesus making the lame walk, blind see, or deaf hear is
too incredible, too at odds with scientific understanding. But I will tell you
a much bigger miracle. These disciples, who shoo away children and blind
beggars, who tell Jesus he must not die on the cross, and run like scared
rabbits when he gets arrested, end up spreading Jesus’ message and movement all
over the Mediterranean world in a matter of decades. They suffer and even give
their lives for something they could not even see when Jesus walked alongside
them.
I’m
not much of an expert on healing miracles of the physical sort. I’ve not been
there when someone experienced a miraculous healing from some disease, though
I’ve certainly heard of such things. But
I have witnessed the sort of miracle that transformed bumbling, blind,
frightened disciples into the bold founders of the Church.
I’ve
seen individuals change in ways that no one thought possible, going from
selfish and self-absorbed to totally devoted to serving others. And I’ve seen
inwardly focused congregations concerned mostly with guarding church property
and keeping people from spilling anything on the parlor carpet transform and become
outposts of the kingdom whose greatest joy is hosting homeless families in
those rooms they once guarded so carefully.
I would not put my own personal experience
in the miraculous category. Yet when I was thirty years old, I could not have
imagined in my wildest dreams that Jesus would call me to seminary. Me, a
pastor? When I first heard that voice, I was sure I was imagining things.
____________________________________________________________________________
The
Church is called to be a community where the miraculous happens, where people
discover how to see in ways they never could before, where people learn to live
in ways they didn’t know were possible. But that only happens when Jesus helps
us slow down and see. It only happens when he heals us, and when the Spirit
fills us and empowers us to do what would be impossible otherwise.
When churches forget that, they become
institutions like other human institutions. They may be nice places that do
some good things, but nothing miraculous happens. But when they stop and open
themselves to the Spirit, when they listen for and follow the voice of Jesus, they
become alive in ways that anyone who encounters them can see and feel.
____________________________________________________________________________
On
a handful of occasions, I’ve somehow ended up in conversation with non-church
folks about stewardship, specifically tithing. Most of them were absolutely
incredulous at the notion of someone devoting a full ten percent of her income
to the church and its ministry. For that matter, I know my share of church members
who are just as perplexed at the idea.
But
in those congregations where Jesus is a living presence and not just some
stories in a book, where the Spirit leads the community into bold and sometimes
risky mission for the sake of Christ, surprising generosity is the norm. The
Holy Spirit fills people so that they become God’s Beloved Community, and
hearts overflow with love and generosity and grace.
As
we offer our pledges to God this day, as we give from our hearts, my prayer is
that each of you have experienced in some way the miraculous power of Jesus who
heals blindness, grants life, and calls us the be God’s Beloved Community. I
hope you have been touched by the fire of the Spirit and caught up in what God
is doing here at Falls Church Presbyterian, at what God is doing to heal and
give life to the world.
[1] Adapted
from Sweet, Leonard, Nudge: Awakening
Each Other to the God Who's Already There (Colorado Springs: David C Cook,
2010) Kindle Locations 1629-1645.
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