October 27, 2024 at Saint Peter and Saint William Catholic Churches in Naples, FL
Jeremiah 31: 7-9 + Psalm 126 + Hebrews 5: 1-6 + Mark 10: 46-52
In the mid 1700s the slave trade was very lucrative business for English sailors and captains. A teenager named, John Newton was out of control with alcohol and he ended up on a slave trader. His behavior on board landed him in chains becoming a slave to the captain of the ship who eventually sold him to another ship where he was put him in charge of the holding pens for slaves. It is said that he was the cruelest man on the ship. He found and read a copy of “The Imitation of Christ.” It frightened him, and he closed the book. Not long after that, a terrible storm nearly tore the ship apart, and for the first time, he prayed in fear. When the storm calmed, he began to read the New Testament and in the story of the Prodigal Son he could see himself. The damaged ship barely made it to shore. He went straight to a church to pray, but his conversion didn’t last long, and he ended up back in the slave trade where in West Africa he contracted malaria and nearly died. This time, the fear made a difference and even though he made three more voyages taking slaves to the Caribbean, he recognized that he had been blinded by power, ambition, and money. He ended up as an active abolitionist working to put and end of slavery in England. As a Pastor for 23 years, his sermons often reflected on the theme of God’s grace, and he left us the hymn we all know so well. “I was blind, but now I see.”
We are nearing the end of our journey with Jesus to Jerusalem narrated by Mark. In just four weeks, it’s over. Then we shall pick up the Gospel of Luke for the coming year with Advent. When Jesus turned his face and started toward Jerusalem in chapter eight, a blind man was healed. Now nearly at the gate of the city there is another blind man. You might find it interesting to compare the stories. They are quite different in several ways that say something about what has happened to Jesus as well as his disciples along the way. This is the final miracle story in Mark’s Gospel, and it is the only time when someone cured has a name.
As Mark tells it there are two issues of notice. The disciples still don’t get it. They just don’t “see” what Jesus has been doing and what his ministry is about. They try to keep Bartimaeus quiet and want him out of the way. I find it remarkable that “Jesus stopped.” Determined as he has been to get to Jerusalem, right there near the end, he stops because someone calls. What he is about, what he must do, where he is headed all comes to a halt for a poor man, a nobody, sitting at the side of the road shouting. Then, he asks the question that echoes down through the ages to us today. “What do you want me to do for you?” When that question is first asked, Bartimaeus knows what he needs. He knows he is blind, and that is his first grace.
When Jesus Christ asks that question of us, if we do call out to him, what are we going to ask for? This is an invitation to consider what we really want from Jesus. We will do no better than learn from Bartimaeus. He calls Jesus “teacher.” I think Bartimaeus is the teacher here teaching us what to ask for. We are blind people. We just don’t really see. It’s not a matter of the optic nerve. It’s a matter of really seeing, perceiving, understanding who we are and what our blindness allows. There is a spiritual blindness like an epidemic in this world. With all our laser technology, cornea transplants, and Cataract surgery, too many of us a still blinded by ambition, power, money, and prestige.
We do not see what our life-style does to someone else. We do not see the face of Christ in anyone who questions or threatens our privilege and comfort. We refuse to stop too often when someone calls out. We ask Jesus for things that really will not transform our lives and bring peace and justice. Yet, Jesus still asks offering help, and his hand reaches down to our hands to lift us up and offer a new way of life. Following him on the “way” will not lead to any superiority or sophistication, but into a world in which everything has meaning and is real and belongs. Our teacher wants us to be well and to see again – to see as God sees. When that happens, we can sing that old hymn and really mean it.