Throwing it all Away
“What do you want me to do for you?” Twice we have heard Jesus ask that question. Last week, he asked James and John, “What do you want me to do for you?” Basically they answered by asking: When you inherit the kingdom we know that’s coming to you, we want the most direct access to your power. Today, Jesus asks that question again, “What do you want me to do for you?” Sometimes the key to getting the right answer means asking the right question. The Zebedee boys asked for power and domination, clearly the wrong response to Jesus and the wrong question. The blind beggar asked the right question, as we shall see.
Our story begins as Jesus is leaving Jericho, only 15 miles from his ultimate destination, Jerusalem, where he has told his disciples three times that he will be killed and that he will rise. And yet, he is still surrounded by many disciples and a great crowd. Notice that Mark separates the two. There are those who have followed Jesus from up north in Galilee for three years, waiting for him to come to God’s holy city and inaugurate the kingdom that will throw off the chains of Roman oppression, a kingdom in which his disciples expect to share in the power and privilege that comes with worldly empire. Then there is the crowd; curious, hopeful, skeptical, just looking for a great show.
Then Jesus passes by this blind beggar without a word. The disciples and the great crowd follow behind. And amid all their murmuring, Bartimaeus can make out the words, “Jesus,” and “Nazarene.” And he knows who Jesus is. He has heard people speaking of this Galilean prophet as they passed by him on the way to Jerusalem for the past three years. He knows what Jesus could do for him. Then he realizes that the first pair of footsteps he heard, before the clomping of the crowd, had to be Jesus himself! And so he shouts at the top of his voice, "Jesus Son of David, have mercy!" Bartimaeus knows the kind of power that Jesus has, for he calls him by the Messianic title of King David's son.
But does Bartimaeus really understand Jesus’s power any better than his disciples? For those three years and who knows how many years before that, he has sat on the road between Jericho and Jerusalem, day after day, with his cloak spread out before him, so that pilgrims with some pity could drop coins, which he would then bundle together in that cloak of his and walk very carefully to the market for food. He has probably learned how many steps he has to take before he turns right or left to get to the market. He probably knows how many steps it is to his favorite hole in the ground where he can wrap his cloak around him for warmth and get some rest. And he probably knows how many steps and how many turns to get back to his spot on the road between Jericho and Jerusalem, where he spreads out his cloak for another day of begging and alms, day after day, year after year. It’s a living. There’s security in knowing that as long as he stays there, he has as much assurance of food and shelter as anyone else has in this world. So, does Bartimaeus have the faith to let go of his security blanket? Does he have the faith to leave behind the place he knows, step by step? Does Bartimaeus really want the kind of healing that Jesus brings? Does he, or for that matter do we, really want to see our Lord going to die?
The answer is most emphatically: Yes! He doesn’t throw off his cloak. He throws it away, with his coins from a day’s begging flying in the air. He tosses his cloak aside, where it lands someplace around him that he would have to stumble around for hours to find, if he ever could. But he stumbles toward Jesus. Yes, Bartimaeus wants to see again. But Bartimaeus knows Jesus can do much more. Bartimaeus knows that God made him for more than begging. He may not know what exactly it is that God made him for, but he trusts that with opened eyes, he will see the destiny that God has in store for him. That is the faith, the trust, that Jesus sees in Bartimaeus when he throws away his security blanket, which leads him to proclaim, “Go, your faith has saved you.” And leaving behind his cloak, his security, his crutch, Bartimaeus does what no one else whom Jesus has healed in this Gospel has done before: He follows Jesus, in this case to Jerusalem.
And so today, the Gospel asks us two questions. What are our cloaks, our security blankets, our crutches, our coping mechanisms? Any habit, strength, role, or prejudice that keeps your head down, and your eyes focused on the day to day struggle to preserve that security blanket, that is your cloak. What do you want Jesus to do for you? Do you just want Jesus to freshen up that cloak? Or are you ready for Jesus to tip your head up, so that your eyes can begin to glimpse a new possibility, a future you cannot imagine but that God already sees?
If you want to follow Jesus, don't look down for him in your old cloak. He is ahead of you, and waiting for you as well. And so is Bartimaeus.
The Rev. David Kendrick
October 27th, 2024
23rd Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 25B