By: Rev. Daniel J. Bradley
Jesus Heals Blind Bartimaeus
46 And they came to Jericho. As he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. 47 And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" 48 And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 49 And Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." And they called the blind man, saying, "Take heart. Get up; he is calling you." 50 And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. 51 And Jesus asked him, "What do you want me to do for you?" And the blind man said to him, "Rabbi, let me recover my sight." 52 And Jesus told him, "Go your way; your faith has made you well." And immediately, he recovered his sight and followed him on the way. [1]
We are all blind at some point in our lives. Never having sight can be challenging, but not as difficult as having sight and then losing it. Sometimes, it is because of a physical ailment or an accident; the world of blindness causes our other senses to work harder to compensate for the loss. At some point, we have a choice as to how we will live with our blindness. As Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemptions says to Red, "I guess it comes down to get busy living or get busy dying."
We are more than our physical and spiritual ailments. We are not a problem to be fixed by a medical doctor, spiritual guru, or program that promises eternal happiness through self-discovery. The only real healing that can occur is an encounter with the living God.
As a divinity student over the years, I have listened to professors and authors deny the divinity of Jesus and refer to him as just another prophet. I have always wondered how they came to that conclusion. Perhaps they never encountered Jesus, or their encounter with organized religion was so awful that they saw Jesus through an imperfect institution that harmed individuals as opposed to meeting them with grace. Somehow, they hid from Jesus in academia, infiltrating the hearts of the faithful who would shape and form the church for the next generation of pastors and teachers.
One of my colleagues and best friends said in a chapel sermon,
“Cemetery [seminary] is a place to question everything you know about God and a time to work out your salvation through the work of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. It is not a time to rewrite the Christian experience, but to experience Christ in a new and holy way through the scriptures and traditions of the church.”
Intellectualism, theology, and philosophy will only take you so far. There must be a component of faith in the experience of God that brings the church's scriptures, traditions, reason, and experiences to life.
The television show All in the Family featured Archie Bunker as a racist, boorish, and a product of World War 2 culture that has run a muck. Archie refers to Mike, his son-in-law, as meat head. It was not that Archie didn't love Mike, but in his way, he was reminding him that his 'college way' or 'commie liberal' way of thinking was not only irrational but downright foolish. There are times throughout the fictional series when Archie is right, and there are times when Mike is right. It is for the audience to determine. Our perspective on our situation greatly matters to what we experience or choose to experience.
Perspective matters; if you don't believe me, stand at the edge of a skyscraper on the rooftop and look down. It's not the same as if you were inside looking through the glass from the observation deck. Perspective matters. I always ask myself, "Is what I am experiencing? Is it reality or fantasy?" Most of the time, it is fantasy dressed up in vanity and the things of self. I am good at fooling myself into believing that I am the center of the universe and that everyone around me needs to bow to my every whim, thought, idea, or hair-brained scheme that I get at that moment. Psychiatrists will call this narcissistic and grandiose thinking. I call it being full of S%^&. Even the sanest person at one time or another has experienced this kind of behavior. The only question is: "How have they avoided the men in white coats and the padded rooms."
Many people in public life lose their ability to reason when faced with the reality that they are not the end-all and all of the world. This is true, especially for elected officials. This is not a political statement but a truth that has played out throughout our Western cultural experience; no, it does not matter which side of your political spectrum. The phoniest people in this world speak out of one side of their mouths and do another thing because they are like puppets on a string. Politicians claim to represent their constituents, but they describe themselves and their re-election campaigns. Have you ever seen a politician that isn't worth millions?
The only public position that makes sense to me is dog catcher. You cannot run for dog catcher; the town supervisor has to hire you. Even though people appear sane, sanity is in the eye of the beholder, not the psychiatrist or physician. The psychiatrist or physician may be able to treat symptoms, but the root cause of the problem is far greater than the symptoms that have led to our infirmities.
Blind Bartimaeus knows he is blind and has depended on the alms of the community to keep him alive. His blindness was seen as a cause of his parent's sin or perhaps his own; It was God's judgment on him. The adage of the Old Testament was that the sins of the Father…are visited upon the Son for seven generations. Bartimaeus was doomed to die without his sight. Yet, for some reason, he is inclined to see Jesus the Nazarene coming through. He heard the crowds and knew something miraculous was happening. His hearing peaked, and he is now calling out. "Son of David, have mercy on me." The whole time, the crowd tells him to shut up. He persists and will not stop calling out. Jesus tells the crowd to bring him close. He asks Bartimaeus, "What do you want?" He says, "I want to see." Jesus lays his hands upon his eyes, and he is, for the first time, able to see God face to face. He throws off his cloak and follows Jesus.
No prophet in the Old Testament scriptures could open the eyes of the blind. That was reserved for the Messiah. In the Gospel of Luke, chapter 4, Jesus, in his hometown of Nazareth, reads the scroll of Isaiah:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, set at liberty those who are oppressed, and proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."[2]
If you came face to face with God and God asked you, "What do you want?" How would you respond? What would you say? It's all a matter of perspective. You either get busy living or get busy dying. And perhaps, just perhaps, it is in dying, to self to gain a life full of joy and faith. What do I know? I'm a beautiful mess that God is still working on, and that dying-to-self thing; I will let you know when I have it mastered; it will be my epitaph in glory to God.
[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mk 10:46–52.
[2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Lk 4:18–19.
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