October 28, 2018 | Rev. Wayne Whitney
It is not without a lot of trepidation that I assume the pulpit this morning being tasked with rightly dividing the word of truth and delivering a message that hopefully God can speak through toaddress the sadness, the hurt, the rage, the “not-again-ness” of the shooting incident at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburg yesterday. Essentially what we have here is yet another instance of one person taking it upon themselves to act violently to deep- seated beliefs out of a conviction that my ideology is better than your ideology, my people are better than you people, and I deserve to live and you do not. As people of faith we must condemn any actions that devalue any segment of society as somehow unworthy of a life of freedom to worship and live in harmony with society and the world.
And of course, it is easy to condemn such violent actions motivated truthfully, not so much by hate as by fear; it is much harder for us to take responsibility for our complicity in a climate which makes it okay to talk down about any segment of society for whatever reason. This is the harder work that we are called to do if living a life of transformation is going to become real. I invite you to listen for a word from the Lord this morning—not as a way of justifying how you may already think or feel, but a word that might challenge you to open up yourself to the fresh Spirit thatmoves you beyond “wow, what a shame—now what’s for lunch.” Ibelieve our Gospel lection offers us a word of hope—and it’s not packaged in a way we might expect.
As people who come to church regularly, we find ourselves quite at home with hearing stories of Jesus healing people. And wereally kind of take it for granted. I mean they’re all over the place, right? Just look in Mark’s gospel alone, if it’s not an unnamed man with an unclean spirit, or Peter’s mother-in-law or a leper or a paralytic or a man at the pool of Bethsaida or a man with a withered hand or a demon-possessed Gentile or an unnamed woman with a hemorrhage or the daughter of the synagogue president or a Canaanite woman’s daughter or a deaf man with a speech impediment or an epileptic boy or a man blind, dumb and possessed. So, how are we supposed to get excited abouthearing yet another healing story? It’s like, “Oh yeh I get the point,Jesus is the man alright—God’s Son going about doing powerful deeds. How could we possibly doubt, go Jesus, yay Jesus.” ButTHIS? This healing? This healing is different! I mean, aside fromthe fact that it’s the last healing story in Mark’s Gospel beforeJesus enters Jerusalem—and we all know what goes down there, exactly what is it that is different here?
I had to ask myself this question as a preacher of the Word and ifthere’s anything I learned during my Gospel seminars in my post- Graduate studies, it’s that it is the differences, the distinctive items in a normally run-of-the-mill story, that have us get the point of the story. What is it that we are supposed to learn from THIS particular healing story? Well, what did YOU notice that was different? That it was a man? No. That he was blind? No. That there was faith expressed by the supplicant? No.
There are three major differences in this healing story and they make all the difference in the world. The first difference is that we are told his name. Yes, that’s right, his name. Have we ever heard anyone’s name from any other healing story in Mark? I’ll give you this one. NO! This is the last healing account in Mark’s Gospel but this is the first time we’re told the name of the person healed. So,what of the name? It’s a Greek name. “Bartimaeus.” Literally “Bartimaeus” means “son of Timaeus.” The “Bar” prefix means “son” in Hebrew and we’re used to this somewhat—you’ve heard of a “Bar Mitzvah.” Bar Mitzvah means “Son of the Covenant.” It’sa rite of passage for all Jewish boys who translate to manhood by taking on the mantel of the Sinai covenant as their own. Well.
Mark’s readers already knew that “Bartimaeus” means “Son of Timaeus” but he actually takes the time to spell it out for us bysaying, in the text, “Oh by the way his name means “Son of Timaeus.” If we could see the author reading this to us you canjust imagine him lowering the book and seeing his face give us a little side wink. What does this mean?
Oh my! Well, who were Mark’s earliest readers? Mark’s earliestreaders were Greek-speaking Gentile Christians and Greek-educated Gentile Christians couldn’t help but have been familiarwith a very popular philosophy book written in the 4th century BCcalled “The Timaeus.” Yes, that’s right, “The Timaeus.” TheTimaeus was a philosophical book about the nature of creationand the physical and invisible universe. It’s kind of like the BC world’s version of L. Rod Hubbard’s “Dyanetics” or Wayne Dyer’s “Pulling Your Own Strings” or that hit from just a few years agocalled “The Secret” which revealed the “The Law of Attraction.” The Timaeus was written by a guy you’ve probably heard of, hewas a big star in ancient Greece went by the name of Plato. ByJesus’ day this work was 300 years old! We’re familiar with bookswritten 300 years ago, things like Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels” or Daniel Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe.” One thing we have come to learn about Mark’s readers is that they weren’tuneducated. So, how is this significant? Mark is intentionally setting up this healing as an interaction between Jesus of 1st Century Palestine, the herald of the coming of the Kingdom of God, with the best of what Greek philosophy had to offer. The fact that this blind man is Son of Timaeus creates a metaphorical interaction between the Judaic-rooted Gospel of Jesus and the popular philosophy of the day. This is a confrontation between the popular philosophy/theology/ideology of the day represented by a blind man whose never seen a day in his life crying out for help to the true Savior of the World brought to you by the Jews.
And that brings us to the second important difference in this healing story. Did you hear what this Son of Timaeus, this popular-philosophy-espousing man calls Jesus? He calls him“Son of David.” This is the only time anyone calls Jesus Son of David in all of Mark’s Gospel. He couldn’t have chosen a moniker more messianic, more nationalistic, more militarily loaded. Yes,Jesus was Jewish, and it is precisely to his “Jewishness” that thisphilosophy-of-the-day espousing man beckons. Mark is deliberately setting up this scene to be a confrontation of need between popular Greek modes of thinking with the power of the Jewish faith. It is a face-off between the popular philosophy of the day with the good news which is the Gospel of Christ. We’re notsurprised that Bartimaeus was blind, of course he was blind, he had had his faith in the philosophy of the time not in Jesus. Hecouldn’t see the truth because he thought he had it; but IT wasfailing him—failing him to the point that he found himself screaming out for help.
Folks, that’s the only thing putting too much trust in popularphilosophy and ideology will lead you to. In our extremely divided political world this day we see people of all ilks and ideologies being a little bit too tribal about the political party they identify with. It has led to divisions at the most basic institutions of life, not the least of which is the family. It’s just a shame, but the truth of the matter is, the only thing that will bring us out of this funk is thepower that Jesus brings and makes available in the world. That’swhat Bartimaeus did. Blind Bartimaeus heard of what this Jesus had been doing in his healing ministry and so he reaches out in desperation and he says it . . .twice, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And the people around him, well, they were just embarrassed by him (and you’ve been in that situation—being embarrassed by someone in close proximity to you who doesn’t seem to know their “boundaries”) and THEY tried to shut him up.
But what happens? Jesus stopped and said, “Call him here.” Andthe people who were trying to get him to shut up had to stepaside: “Hey good news Bartimaeus, He’s calling you to him. So, he goes to Jesus and makes his request: “My Teacher, let me see again.” I hope you’re getting this. This man represents theblindness of popular theology and philosophy and political ideology and he reaches out to Jesus as someone who can teach him something new, something bold, something that lifts him up out of his self-created like-long funk of blindness. And what doesJesus say? “Go; your faith has made you well.” Jesus discountsall that the Bartimaeus knew and all that Bartimaeus did and boiled it all down to the faith desperately expressed in boldly asking out of his deepest need. He came to Jesus as he was withwhat he knew, all of what he knew, AND all of what he didn’tknow and realized none of that made any difference for him in his experience of life. So, he asks of Jesus, from exactly where he is, his position in life and he supplicates the savior, the only savior who can make any difference for him. And Jesus restores his sight. Jesus IS the only lens by which any of life looks good, my friends. Nothing substitutes for the way of the love of this Christ as the thing that will make a difference for anyone in life. There is no substitute for the way of love in the world especially in the world today.
And that brings us to the final difference in this healing story. Usually Jesus tells people he has healed to go their way and bequiet. Over and over again we’ve seen this—“Go and be quiet. Go your way and say nothing.” But here Jesus lets him pick up andfollow him—which is significant because this is the last scene before Jesus heads into Jerusalem—remember this wholeBartimaeus scene takes place in Jericho about a day’s journey tothe east of the holy city. Bartimaeus joined in with the rest of the unnamed disciples following Jesus toward Jerusalem—remember what this symbolizes. Beyond this we know nothing of Bartimaeus of anyone who might have had the name Bartimaeus—but we don’t need to. Why, because Mark’s metaphorically craftedtheological point is clear. Jesus and his way of love and mercy and acceptance are the only way that the world makes any sense. Our experience of life is strongly affected by the forces that made us. Just as Bartimaeus represents how we can be so steeped in our opinions and philosophy about how life should look— eventually you’re gonna have to take it to Jesus—and the sooner the better. You see, like Bartimaeus, without the healing touch ofJesus, you’re just running around life blind, annoying the people around you, them telling you to just “Shut Up.” It’s only when wego to the true savior of our souls is our blindness healed. It’s only when we open ourselves up to the healing presence of God’s lovethat hurts are healed, and ignorance is transformed into faith. For the sake of our own well-being we have no other place to go with our blindness and ignorance than God’s Christ. And that’s why you’re here today! Opening your hearts to this Divine touch iswhat liberates us from the blindness of our personal philosophies and political ideologies and frees us from denigrating people who believe differently. Take heart. Jesus will respond to us. Take heart; he is calling you. To the only wise God our savior be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.
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