23rd Sunday after Pentecost 2024
St. John’s Cathedral Knoxville
Mark 10:46-52
The Right Rev. Brian L. Cole
“My teacher, let me see again.”
What a difference a Sunday can make.
Last Sunday, the lesson from Mark’s Gospel focused on James and John and their bold request for status in the Way of Jesus.
“Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you,” they said.
I guess you can say it never hurts to ask, right?
James and John sound as if they want to increase while Jesus decreases.
This morning, a blind man named Bartimaeus, cries out for mercy. Like James and John, the blind man also wants something from Jesus.
Yet, he does not begin by demanding that Jesus restore his sight. He begins by asking for mercy. He begins by asking for Jesus to see him, to see the man who cannot see, or who can no longer see.
The lesson from Mark’s Gospel seems to suggest there was a time when Bartimaeus could see. So, he has not always been blind Bartimaeus. He has not always been the blind beggar.
But as Jesus is passing near him at the edge of Jericho, the days of seeing are long past. He has lost his sight. Without sight, he has ended up losing his status, too. Bartimaeus is now begging.
With others, Bartimaeus may have asked for food or money. With Jesus, however, Bartimaeus asks for mercy.
“Son of David, have mercy on me!” Others may share their bread with you or offer you a coin for your troubles. For Bartimaeus, he seems to understand that Jesus can do more than give him food or coin. He believes Jesus can give him back a chance to see again.
So, Bartimaeus cries out for mercy. When people tell him to hush, Bartimaeus keeps crying out for mercy.
Jesus hears this cry for mercy. And he calls the man who cries for mercy to come see him.
Then Jesus, perhaps remembering what James and John had asked him, puts the same words before the blind man. “What do you want me to do for you?”
Let’s not rush past what Jesus says to Bartimaeus.
“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asks the man who asks for mercy what he wants. Jesus does not tell the man what Jesus thinks he needs. Before he heals the man, Jesus sees the man. Before he heals the man, he asks the man what needs to be healed.
Last week, James and John wanted Jesus to give them status. They wanted Jesus to let them be in charge. They thought they knew of what they were asking.
Jesus knew the man could not see. Jesus knew the man was crying out for mercy. But Jesus refused to decide what the man needed before asking the man what he needed. Before he gave back his sight, Jesus made sure the man had his dignity.
Bartimaeus wants to see again. Jesus restores his sight. The man who could see, then could not see, now can see again.
Once you can see again, what would you want to see? Where would you go? Would you go home to see faces of loved ones? Or would you choose some place of natural beauty? A sunset? A sunrise?
Bartimaeus, now able to see, chooses to keep his eyes on Jesus. Now able to see, Bartimaeus chooses to see where Jesus is going and follow him.
Now the gospel of Mark is not a lengthy document. Of the four gospels included in the New Testament, it is quite concise. While we are only in the tenth chapter of Mark, Bartimaeus has chosen to follow Jesus just as the way is leading towards Jerusalem, and ultimately to the cross. So, Jesus, who has just healed Bartimaeus, is going to Jerusalem, where no one will be able to save Jesus now.
This morning, in this liturgy, we will have persons who wish to be confirmed in the Church. They will be presented to the Church. They will be asked what they want.
They will have a chance to speak for themselves, to let us know they want to be confirmed. You could even say they are asking to be able to see as Jesus sees.
Several days ago, I traveled to South Dakota. I was there to explore the possibility that the Diocese of East Tennessee and the Diocese of South Dakota might be ready to renew a relationship of mutual support for each other.
I had never been to South Dakota. So, everything I saw, I was seeing for the first time. If you have ever been to South Dakota, you know it is a beautiful landscape. You might also know it is a hard landscape. I have never experienced wind quite like the wind you meet in South Dakota.
While traveling, I was reading a new novel by David James Duncan, who is an author who mostly writes about the West. As far as I knew, South Dakota was the West, though I learned they call it the Northern Plains. And the novel by Duncan I was reading was mostly set in Montana. West, north, all I knew was that I was a long way from here.
As I traveled in South Dakota, visiting reservations where Episcopal clergy are serving, I met people who are trying to see as Jesus sees. Each priest I met there told me they thought they had the best job in the Episcopal Church. From what I could see, they had the hardest. Somehow, we were looking at the same thing.
In the David James Duncan novel I was reading, one character has a life-changing epiphany. In a room by himself, the character, a young man, says out loud to the empty room, “Who-am-I-what-am-I-where-am-I-how-am-I?”
When Jesus restores your sight, it is worth asking, “Who am I? What am I? Where am I? How am I? Bartimaeus decides the answer to each question is answered by following Jesus along the way to the cross, to go to a place of death to discover what is real, what is love, what is true, what is eternal. The Resurrection of the Risen Christ gives all of us a new set of eyes.
This morning, with confirmations, with receptions, and with each one of us invited to share in the body and blood of the Crucified Christ, we are gifted with a chance to see the world as Jesus sees it. The good news of the Gospel gives us a reconciled vision, to see the world that God has made and loves and is redeeming.
My prayer this morning is that we will all experience an epiphany and say out loud in empty rooms, “Who am I? What am I? Where am I? How am I?
May we always remember that we are the people of God. We have been made followers of the Way by God’s healing grace. For now, we abide in God’s broken and beautiful world. We choose to live with an unconditional hope that everyone we see bears the image of God and belongs to us and we to them.
James and John’s desire for status made them blind to the true way of Jesus. Instead of choosing the other, they choose themselves.
Like Bartimaeus, Jesus gives us new sight again today. May we look beyond ourselves and see all that God has made and loves in this world.