A sermon preached at Thankful Memorial Episcopal Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on Proper 25, Year B, October 28, 2018. Readings: Job 42.1-6,10-17; Psalm 34.1-8; Hebrews 7.23-28; Mark 10.46-52.
I tend to experience a lot of anxiety when watching suspenseful movies. I will do just about anything to get out of watching any sort of suspense-filled movie in the theaters. If I can’t get out of it, I’ll look up a detailed summary of the movie. Knowing what is about to happen reduces my anxiety. I know how everything is going to turn out, and I watch the movie with the ending in mind. I do the same things with books. When things become too suspenseful, I skip to the end of the chapter and read backwards. Because if I know how things end, I can control my anxiety.
We read the gospels in the same way, even if we don’t realize it. We already know the ending: Jesus dies but rises from the dead on the third day, and sends his apostles out to build up the Church. We know what happens.
Because we read the gospels with the ending in mind, we can overlook how important today’s reading is. It just looks like another healing story. But this isn’t just another healing; today’s gospel is a hingepoint in the gospel. It’s part of the turn that takes us to Calvary and the tomb.
Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. He passes by Jericho, and a blind beggar named Bartimaeus cries out to him to have mercy on him. “Jesus, Son of David,” he cries, “have mercy on me!” When the crowd tries to silence him, he cries even louder. Because of his persistence, he catches the attention of Jesus, who calls for him. Suddenly the crowd’s attitude changes. Instead of trying to silence him, they help him to Jesus. “Take heart,” they say. “Get up, Jesus is calling you.” So Bartimaeus jumps up. He asks Jesus for his sight. His sight is restored, and he follows Jesus on the way as a disciple.
Because we know the ending of the story, we can overlook that this is the first time Jesus is proclaimed as the messiah in public. A couple of chapters earlier in the gospel, Peter had confessed that Jesus is the Messiah, but that was in private with only the disciples gathered around. This is the first time in public that Jesus is identified as the Messiah. And in just a few verses, the crowds in Jerusalem will pick up on Bartimaeus’s cries as Jesus enters on a donkey. The crowds will lay down their cloaks and palm branches and cry out, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!”
So Bartimaeus, this blind beggar from Jericho who would be so easy to overlook, turns out to be a crucial person in this good news. This blind man is the first one to see Jesus. And having been healed, he follows Jesus on the way. He becomes a disciple of this One he calls the Son of David. He would follow Jesus from Jericho to Jerusalem, and from Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives. He would follow from the Mount of Olives to a place called Gethsemane. He would follow to the cross and death. From death to the tomb. From the tomb to resurrection.
Bartimaeus could not have known where following Jesus would take him. The crowds told him today, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you,” but Bartimaeus could not have known where he was going, where those first few steps would take him in the end. There was no way he could flip to the end of the chapter or read the summary in advance. He just had to follow.
We can’t flip to the end of our chapters, either. There’s no way we can know where Jesus will take us anymore than Bartimaeus could. We just have to take heart, get up, and respond to the call of Jesus to us. We just have to follow Jesus on the way, not knowing how things will turn out, but all the while trusting that Jesus is always with us, leading us along the way.
This means that we have to give up control. We have to put our lives in the hands of God, not in our own hands. And if we take this call seriously, that can be an unsettling thing. Perhaps that’s why the crowds first tell Bartimaeus to “take heart.” It can also mean “courage”–courage to walk even when we cannot see, even when we are blind to what lies ahead, because we know Jesus has called and is waiting for us.
This is what a life of discipleship looks like. Jesus is calling us to nothing less than this: a life of complete trust in God, an open-ended commitment with no strings attached. Because that is what God in Christ has done for us: an open-ended, no-strings-attached commitment to you and me. That’s what God’s grace is.
So take heart; have courage; get up, because Jesus is calling us. Jesus is calling us to dedicate all of our lives to God, to follow Jesus wherever the path may lead. Jesus is calling us to offer all of who we are to God, all of our selves, souls, and bodies.
Take heart; have courage; get up, because Jesus is calling us.
Our stewardship season ends next week. As we approach our time to make our commitments for next year, we need to remember that stewardship is about so much more than the money we give to continue the important ministry of this place. It’s also about how we participate in our common ministry, both in this space on Sunday and out in our community the rest of the week. It’s about offering our whole lives to God–our talent, our time, and our treasure. In the end, it’s about making a commitment to follow wherever Jesus leads us as a community of disciples, and about proclaiming the living and loving Jesus to our community.
So take heart, my friends. Have courage. Get up, because Jesus is calling us.
Storied Grace 