Mark 10:46-52
October 29, 2006
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
When we are born, we are the least developed among creatures. We are more dependent than most. Look at the many newborns and infants at our church. They are born with enormous size heads, proportionally speaking compared with other young. When we hold a baby, we need to make sure that we support the baby’s head. We are nowhere near as able as most young.
When baby horses are born, they are running around their stalls within minutes, calves are standing in the field and nursing, but human babies are needy indeed. They need to be fed every three hours, changed constantly, clothed and held, played with and cuddled in order to develop properly. They learn what mercy means from the very beginning.
Mercy is at the center of being human. Not only at the beginning of life but also at the end of life, mercy is at the very center of what it means to be human. Perhaps when we were all babies and received the merciful care of our parents and guardians that with our larger brains, we hope that we have learned to be merciful now as young people and adults.
Bartimaeus
In Mark 10, we see the story of a blind beggar named Bartimaeus. In Jesus’ culture, illness or injury was often assumed to be punishment for a person’s sins or the sins of his parents, or their parents. People would be inclined to mercilessly avoid them, think strangely about them or judge them. They would assume that they were unclean. So it’s not surprising that people warned Bartimaeus to be quiet and not bother the Master as he was leaving Jericho to go to Jerusalem.
Bartimaeus’ cry was simple, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And though it annoyed others, it caught Jesus’ attention. Jesus, instead of being repelled or annoyed by the crying and the shouting; asked the bystanders to call Bartimaeus to him. Jesus was about the business of offering God’s mercy even though the bystanders were not. He saw in the blind beggar not a pitiful prisoner of his own sins, but an opportunity to display God’s love in action.
When we see Bartimaeus, we can see the need for the ministry of mercy in our world today.
Ministry of Mercy
Sometimes you might hear people say, “Mercy, mercy me!” or “Lord, have mercy!” We cry out for help in times when we might very well deserve what might be coming to us. Mercy is refraining from harming or punishing someone who is seen as worthy of that kind of maltreatment. Out of compassion and kindness, we choose to forgive and have pity. We also ask God to grant us mercy especially when we are sick and our bodies need wholeness. Like Bartimaeus, we might not know how we have become sick. We might think that we don’t even deserve what may be happening to our bodies so we plea for mercy.
Jesus is our Great Physician because he learned compassion and empathy for our sins through all his own suffering, beginning in the wilderness after his baptism and continuing through his death on the cross. He knows, first hand, what human suffering is. Jesus himself was humbled, suffered loss, pain and humiliation, and so is able to understand our need for mercy and compassion.
Without question, our world yearns for mercy. We know we have said “Lord, have mercy” before. If we who are most likely more privileged than others yearn for mercy, imagine what it might be like for people like Bartimaeus. Imagine how much more merciful care they need.
Bartimaeus’ need was evident and acute: he was blind. I’m a lot more privileged than Bartimaeus—I can go to Dr. Tommy Lim, my optometrist and he would fit me up with new fashionable eyeglasses with those new lenses that will allow me to see with high definition! There are people who need more mercy than me!
There are other kinds of blindness, other kinds of needs that cry out for mercy. And all too often, people make judgments about those in need: the homeless should just “get a job;” the hungry should work harder; the poor should “pull themselves up by their bootstraps;” the immigrants should just learn English.
When you’re in those situations, it isn’t always evident what you can do to remedy your situation. You may have tried everything you can think of, you may be working very hard indeed, you may be seeking every opportunity you can find, but doors seem to keep being slammed shut on your face. Regardless of how hard you worked, the paycheck is not enough to live on. The “system” can be cold and indifferent.
Bartimaeus had nothing else to do but cry out for mercy, and hope someone would help, maybe someone who would not turn a deaf ear, someone would hear him and stop to ask what he wants. In our world, there are those who cry out for mercy and hope someone hears, and hope they will be taken seriously. And we who follow Jesus must tune our ears to hear these cries. Real wellness begins when we have mercy like Jesus did with Bartimaeus.
Faith Heals
How many of you have been healed?
How many of you have been sick?
Most of us are so used to associating the term “healing” with the TV faith healing episodes that we don’t stop to think about all the many times we have recovered from illness or injury through God’s healing power that is built into our bodies.
We know that there’s an intimate interconnection among the body’s various systems. Things inside of us are all interrelated. But we also know that the influence of family, friends, co-workers, and other community relationships have an impact on all these interrelated systems that lead to our physical well-being. There’s a story of someone’s co-worker who became mildly ill and several people decided to play a cruel trick on him and told him he looked awful. Soon the man was gravely ill and nearly died. The power of suggestion is enormous.
Jesus does not heal Bartimaeus. Instead, he commends him, and says “Go, your faith has made you well.” It was the faith of Bartimaeus that made him whole and well, that restored his sight. Unlike before when Jesus took mud and spread it on another blind man’s eyes in John 9. As far as we know, Jesus didn’t even touch Bartimaeus’ eyes.
Instead of Bartimaeus becoming dependent or beholden to Jesus, he is set free and commended for his faith, his trust, his confidence. This is usually the way healings are described in the gospels. Jesus doesn’t take any credit. He simply honors the faith of the one seeking healing and wholeness. And any means by which the healing comes about is honored.
Medical care that restores or improves sight is just as blessed and godly. I thank God for people like Tommy Lim who restores my sight.
The role of faith in good health has been demonstrated in numerous statistical studies. While it is hard to decide whether it is really faith that is making the difference, or other factors such as “clean living” attitudes that tend to be part of a faithful lifestyle, there appears to be a correlation between regular involvement in a faith community and such things as long-life, improved immune system response, less prevalence of illness and other indicators of good health.
Being a part of a faith community where members care for one another helps us to make wise living choices leading to real wellness. From Bartimaeus’ life, we realize that the first step toward healing is acknowledging that our problem is beyond our ability to manage ourselves. We frequently convince ourselves that we do not need anyone’s help—not even Jesus’—but that we can resolve the problem by our own efforts. It’s like an enthusiastic young man who just received his plumber’s license. He was on vacation to see the Niagara Falls, and after looking at it for a few minutes said, “I think I can fix this.”
When we show mercy and care to others that offers hope to those who are sick, that helps them to be more complete and less limited, that reduces suffering, we are participating in doing God’s work of bringing real wellness to the world. Faith is wrapped up in this too, because without faith, without the trust in God’s love, and the will to be whole, healing is not possible. Doctors talk about a “will to live” that plays a powerful role in any therapy. The person’s will to live improves their chances of recovery considerably, and actually has an effect on their immune system and the effective functioning of the healing capacity of the human body.
Hospitalis
Our church is well-known for our hospitality. When visitors come, they always let me know about how welcoming they feel from you. The Latin root, hospitalis meaning “welcoming of a guest” is the hallmark of Christian churches stemming from how Jesus welcomed the little children or the stranger or the diseased and sick. He welcomed Bartimaeus to come to him. He taught us that when we welcome one of the least of these, we are welcoming him.
From this Latin word, we also have the word, “hospital.” Hospitality and healing are related, and the first hospitals were convents and monasteries in France. The church’s obligation to provide places for rest, recovery and healing in a hospitable atmosphere seems natural when we think of the ministry of Jesus.
From this Latin word, we also get the word, “hospice.” As Christians, we believe that when all procedures have been tried, all actions have been taken, all possibilities have been explored; we also trust God with our lives that he will be merciful to us at the end as he was at the beginning of life when we were born.
We know that not all blind persons are healed. The life of hymn writer Fanny Crosby is a good example of a blind person who had a close relationship with Jesus and thus knew wholeness, but who was never physically healed. However, anyone who has sung her beautiful hymns, such as “Blessed Assurance” or “To God Be the Glory,” will agree that spiritually her vision was 20/20.
Her blindness came as a result of a quack doctor who rubbed a harmful ointment into her eyes when she was a child. She spent 35 years as a student and a teacher at the New York Institution for the Blind, where her talent as a poet was appreciated. She became an advocate for the poor, often using the proceeds from her hymn writing for her work. Her fees often were no more than $2. She met every U.S. President up until her death in 1915, and she was distinguished as being the first woman ever to address the U.S. Congress. Because of her hymns and her work for the poor, she can truly be said to have lived up to her words, “All the way my Savior leads me. What have I to ask beside? Can I doubt his tender mercy, who through life has been my guide? Heavenly peace, divinest comfort, here by faith in him to dwell, for I know, what e’er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well.”
Like Bartimaeus, we all seek real wellness. We are grateful and thankful when physical healing blesses our bodies. We are filled with comfort and encouragement when our Christian community lifts us up in prayer and our faith brings us inner peace and confidence that whatever happens, we are in God’s care.
When we are merciful as Jesus was with Bartimaeus, we become true disciples of our Lord. To all the Bartimaeuses of the world and of our communities, we respond with compassion to their needs; we advocate for them in the halls of government and churches; we welcome them with hospitality.
We might not be physically blind but we may be more blindsighted than seeing, more poor than rich in the things that really count in life. Only when we find the Bartimaeus in ourselves, and come to see our own need for merciful care, guidance, and healing, can we reach out as Jesus reached out, in compassion and healing.
Real wellness comes when we know the Lord. Real wellness for others comes when we show mercy. Real wellness at the end comes when we trust God with our lives.
Let us pray.
God of mercy, forgive us for our sins and restore us according to your will to wholeness. Teach us to be merciful to those who need our compassion and your unconditional love. Make us become a community of disciples that welcomes everyone of your children so that we may bring peace and reconciliation in the world. May our faith in you bring healing also to us. In the name of Jesus Christ who welcomed Bartimaeus and each one of us, we pray. Amen.