Mark 10:46-52; 1 John 1:3
October 28, 2012
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
All of us got up this morning and traveled to church. Who came the farthest? Who came the closest? Who drove? Who walked? Who had to pay a bridge toll to come here? Who took more than one mode of transportation to get here? In one form or another, we all traveled to be here today.
You could meet Jesus at your home. But most people meet Jesus on the road.
When John the Baptist introduced Jesus to the world, he quoted the prophet Isaiah, “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together” (40:3-5). In Jesus, God worked a highway construction project, making a road straight through the desert to an enslaved humanity.
In the Old Testament, God made a “way” for the people out of Egyptian slavery to the Promised Land in the Exodus; so Jesus is the “way” to God. The first name for the church was simply “The Way,” not our way to God but rather God’s way to us.
If you want to know about Jesus, if you want to know him, you’ve got to meet him on the road. Anybody who wants to meet Jesus, to understand or be with Jesus, must be willing to relocate. Jesus is God in motion, on the road, constantly going elsewhere, often to where he is not invited.
My Little God
The modern world has many ways of tempting us to settle down, usually by turning us in on ourselves. We eventually worship the dear little god located within. I have nothing against personal retreats and going on vacation—I just spent almost three weeks on vacation. But our modern world tells us that when we are too busy or too stressed out with life, the solution is to take a couple of sleeping pills and you’ll be fine in the morning. Some go to snuggle up with beautiful Mother Nature, closed our eyes and everything would be okay later. But when we are only hugging humanity, we won’t find Jesus there.
Following Jesus is a decidedly fierce way of wrenching us forward and outward, of getting us in motion, of putting us on the road.
If we had the opportunity to come up with our own version of God, it would not be Jesus. If Jesus were a figment of our imagination, he would be pocket size, maybe glued on our dashboard or sitting on our dining table.
But Jesus is the God that we couldn’t and wouldn’t have thought up on our own. Jesus turns to us, reaches to us, and is revealed to be someone quite different than the God we would have if God were merely a figment of our imagination.
God is a Jew from Nazareth who lived, briefly, died violently, rose unexpectedly, and made his way to us. If we had all day to be together today, everyone of you could readily testify that Jesus walked with you in life and that he was the force driving your life to places that you wouldn’t have gone were you left to your own devices.
Bartimaeus
Many people have wanted to know more about the early childhood and adolescence of Jesus. From the Gospels, we know a little about the circumstances of his birth and his visit to the Temple in Jerusalem when he was twelve. And when he was baptized by John and entered into the wilderness, it was then that the Gospels started to record the actions of Jesus. He started to hit the road.
Jesus lived his adult life as a wandering beggar, without any means of support. He never held a job or had a proper home. Many expected God to come and save them; few expected God to show up as a homeless man, unmarried and unemployed.
All the Gospels depict Jesus as on a journey and those who believe in Jesus became his fellow travelers. Any portrayal more static, fixed, and stable would be unfair to the subject. The Gospels give us not definitions, explanations, and arguments but rather stories—beginning, middle, and end—about our struggle to keep up with the movements of a living God. Jesus’ way, we have come to believe, is the Way.
In our lesson for this morning, on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus came through Jericho and there he met Bartimaeus, a blind beggar sitting near the road. Bartimaeus was near all the traffic, near the road so that he could receive the maximum amount of alms.
On this day, Bartimaeus hears a stirring on the road and voices crying out, “Jesus the Nazarene is here!” He does not want to this opportunity to bypass him. After shouting over those who tried to quiet Bartimaeus, Jesus heard him say, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” When Jesus heard him, he stood still and said, “Call him here.” So the crowd of people made a way to blind Bartimaeus and Bartimaeus throwing off his coat sprang up on his feet and walked to Jesus. When Jesus asked him, what do you want me to do? Bartimaeus said, “My Teacher, let me see again.”
Now notice what Jesus says to Bartimaeus, “Go.” Jesus tells him to “go, depart, leave, travel, relocate, move on, get going” because your faith has made you well. If we were Bartimaeus, we would take a little time to sit for a while and to enjoy the scenery if we have been blind. If we were Bartimaeus, we might want to throw a party to celebrate the return of sight. If we were Bartimaeus, we might want to stay at home to settle our personal affairs and to file our medical claim forms. But see what Jesus tells him to do: “Go; your faith has made you well.” And immediately, he regained his sight and followed Jesus on the way.
Did you see that Bartimaeus disobeyed Jesus’ first command and, instead of departing, follows him on the road? Bartimaeus perseveres in the face of the discouraging crowd and even the command of Jesus. Instead, the blind man sees who Jesus is, responds to faith and follows Jesus on the way to Jerusalem.
Jesus was warned by his disciples not to go to Jerusalem. But Jesus, ever the bold traveler did not let danger deter him and the results were death on the cross. On that Easter morning, death doesn’t halt his mission. Jesus is once again on the move. So the angel says to the women, “You’re looking for Jesus? Sorry, just missed him. By this time in the day, he’s already in Galilee. If you are going to be with Jesus, get moving!”
And what does Jesus say to them? Does he say, “You have all had a rough time lately, settle down and snuggle here in Galilee among these good country folk with whom you are most comfortable—buy a house, build a church, and enjoy being a spiritual club?”
No, he doesn’t say that. This is Jesus after all, not a Baptist pastor. The risen Christ commands, “Get out of here! Make me disciples, baptizing and teaching them everything I’ve commanded you! Go to everybody. “I’ll be with you until the end of time—just be sure you obey me.”
Jesus does not allow his people to rest. He does not encourage them to hunker down with their own kind, but rather to send them forth on a mission. They were, in Jesus’ name, to go, to take back the world that belonged to God. There is no way to be with Jesus, and to love Jesus without obeying Jesus to go and make disciples.
E-F-G
On Pledge Sunday, we invite you to travel with Jesus on the highway of life as you commit your time, talents, and tithes. The “always-on-the-move Jesus went from place to place healing and teaching, finding food and shelter wherever it was offered. He told his followers to take no money, no food, or protective stuff; they were to be totally dependent on the kindness of strangers. They were not to be impeded with the baggage that the world considers necessary. There was something about Jesus that led rather settled, ordinary folk to forsake everything and follow.
Not only was he on the move, but Jesus constantly invited everyone to join his journey. He is telling us to “Evangelize, Fellowship, and Go!”
I have been preaching when I was 15 years old. My first sermon was at a Youth Sunday service when the adult members of our church would allow one Sunday out of the year for a youth to bring the word of God. I probably preached on the topic of the “Youth is the Church of Today;” some kind of message that the church should value the contributions of the younger laity. So for nearly 50 years, I would think that I have somehow encapsulated God in my ideas and my cherished concepts.
But the living God is always on the move. After all these years, I am still surprise that there is something new to be revealed to me, some delightful or troubling and challenging aspect of God to be revealed. We believe in a living and true God who is on the move.
How can you tell the difference between a true and living God, and a mere idol, a mere figment of our imagination? Only a living God can surprise you. A false god is dependable, predictable, stable, and tends to be easily located in a safe and secure place.
But a living God is always on the move. Dead things can’t move. Dead things never surprise us. The surprise today is that Jesus won’t let us settle in and become too comfortable. That’s why Christian thought and doctrine is never final, finished, or static.
God is alive, in motion toward us, in movement beyond us, not only two thousand years ago but now. Jesus is a journey. If Jesus is who the scriptures say he is, we’ll never completely grasp him, for he is bigger than our ability fully to hold on to him. He holds on to us.
Go
Like Mark says, “Immediately, Bartimaeus regained his sight and followed Jesus on the way.” Let us immediately, stop what we may be doing and follow Jesus on the journey. Let us immediately go out to evangelize and fellowship with strangers, seekers, the unchurched, those who need to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ. Let us immediately submit our 2013 pledges so that we can get moving, go forward, get going, because Jesus is moving on.
Aren’t you glad that you walked across Sacramento Street today? Only when we are in the crossroads of life, we will meet Jesus. To be with Jesus is to be on the way to God and to expect God to be making his way toward us.
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus, you have called each of us to walk with you. Thank you for all the times when you have joined us and walked beside us. There are many times in our lives when we couldn’t have made it without you walking with us.
Lord Jesus, traveler along the way, give us courage to walk with you where you lead us. Still our anxious fears of being led into places we think are too tough for us to go. We promise to walk with you, knowing that you continue to walk with us. Amen.