| They came to Jericho. As Jesus
and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho,
Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting
by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth,
he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David,
have mercy on me!” Many sternly ordered him to
be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son
of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stood still
and said, “Call him here.” And they called
the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get
up, he is calling you.” So throwing off his cloak,
he sprang up and came to Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, “What
do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said
to him, “My teacher, let me see again.” Jesus
said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately
he regained his sight and followed him on the way. (See
also Job 42:1-6, 10-17) |
|
| Mark 10:46-52 |
| When Timothy Tyson was in his mid 20s in the early 1980s
he heeded a call that became clear to him through the lyrics
of Bernice Johnson Reagon. “If in moving through your
life, you find yourself lost, go back to the last place where
you knew who you were.” Timothy could not see the truth
as he knew it, matching the structure and values of America.
Where was cohesion between morality and society to be found
for a teen who grew up in the height of Vietnam, Nixon, and
the racial tension, bigotry, and violence prevalent in North
Carolina where he lived? “If you find yourself lost” the
lyrics cried out to him, “go back to the last place where
you knew who you were.” For Timothy that place was his
backyard, after school, shooting some hoops with another ten
year old friend. It was there he heard these words, “Daddy
and Roger and ‘em shot em’ a nigger.” His
ten-year-old friend uttered these words as if all was normal
and the world could continue after saying such a thing. Timothy
was shaken to the core. |
| Henry Marrow, a black veteran, was beaten and shot by three
men for supposedly saying something to a white woman. The year
was 1970. What happened in Oxford was a modern day lynching.
Though there were many eyewitnesses the three men were found
innocent by an all white jury. Timothy’s family, his
father a liberal Methodist preacher, had to leave Oxford shortly
after because of their views of racial equality. The Tysons
ended up in another town even more embroiled in white resistance
to desegregation. School fights, street fights, race violence
all around marked Timothy through his junior high and high
school years. In his early 20s he had just about given up on
truth, on society, and on God, and almost drank and drugged
himself into oblivion. The killing of five peaceful protestors
in front of the media and a subsequent trial where the murders
got off sparked within Timothy rage and a desire to go back
to Oxford to uncover the truth of Henry Marrow’s murder
and the ensuing civil rights struggle in 1970. |
| For Timothy going back to Oxford, the last place where he
knew who he was, where he could clearly see, was like following
Jesus on the way to the cross. It was Timothy’s own plea,
let me see again! He needed to know the truth, for the truth
sets us free. Timothy also had a growing desire to understand
his family’s place in white privilege. He desperately
wanted redemption and without truth there can be no redemption.
In an interview Timothy called Blood Done Sign My Name, which
is a history and personal memoir, “A book about crucifixion.” “Whose
crucifixion?” the interviewer asked, “Henry Marrow’s,
Oxford’s, mine.” In Timothy’s words his quest
to understand and face the truth was an “effort to ring
some redemption out of that.” The redemption of Timothy’s
book has turned out to be not only for him, but for the whole
Oxford community and for America. Like blind Bartimaeus we
cry let us see again! |
| In Mark’s gospel, when the blind see and the disciples
are still clueless about Jesus, more is alluded to than functioning
eyesight. There is more going on here than the need for glasses,
cataract surgery, or a cure for macular degeneration. Mark
is writing about a blind man whose sight is restored, but Mark
is also writing about how the Truth is revealed to those who
will see. Seeing the truth does not come easily to us. |
| This we know well. We’ve all lost our sight at some
point or another. Most of us are working on claiming the truth
that hits closest to home! We need new sight to relate to our
spouses, our kids, our friends, our neighbors in a loving way.
We need new sight to stomp our denial of injustice right here
in our community. We need new sight to face an addiction, domestic
violence, our own anger management or to get help for depression.
Maybe we need new sight to see all the joy the world and others
have to offer to our lives. |
| I’ve been wondering recently if anyone could really
stand to see all truth clearly. Who can take in all the beautiful
and brutal truth of our world? Yet here in our text we’ve
got Bartimaeus, the blind beggar, who cries out to see again—to
see it all. He wants exposure to the whole truth. Crazy! |
| We don’t know when Bartimaeus lost his vision. What
happened? Did he contract an eye disease or was it a workplace
accident? Did he see clearly one day and then boom he was blind?
Or was it a gradual process, a bit darker each day till he
could see no more? |
| The story states Bartimaeus was the son of Timaeus. “Bar” means “son
of.” We know who his father was, yet Bartimaeus is “a
blind beggar”. Did his family throw him out because the
loss of his sight made him a burden? Did they think he committed
a sin that struck him blind? Or was he an only child and they
could not care for him in their old age? Regardless of the
circumstances, Bartimaeus is someone who knows society’s
rejection. He was a blind beggar. He knows what it feels like
to be scorned and looked down upon. He already knows much about
Jesus’ way; reliance upon God. |
| What must have irked the people in the crowd was that Bartimaeus
acted like a person with sight. He called out for mercy when
all anyone wanted to give him was bread for the day or pocket
change. Imagine demanding mercy instead of food! People tried
to shut him up to no avail. “Many sternly ordered him
to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly.” No one
wanted to hear the appeals of Bartimaeus the blind beggar.
The crowd was too busy following Jesus down some glory road.
The blind man, with a hunger for mercy, was in their way. |
| Bartimaeus is a bit of a fool. We know what happens to those
who want to see God clearly. Job asked to see God and he was
silenced and spoken to by God who appeared in a tempest! When
Job finally spoke to God in the tempest he confessed, “I
have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful
for me, which I did not know…I had heard of you by the
hearing of the ear, but now MY EYE SEES YOU; therefore I yield,
and repent in dust and ashes.” Those that really search
for God, search for truth, do not have an easy journey. It’s
a blessed journey, but not an easy one. |
| This week the church celebrates Reformation Day and All Saint’s
Day. These are days for us to remember all the folks who passed
on the church to us and to give thanks for them and their faith.
It is also a time to recount their history truthfully. We give
thanks for the Reformation and yet we lament the bloodshed
and violence that immediately followed and the divisions between
us within the body of Christ. We remember the saints and admire
them and we also remember they were only human, flawed as we
are and were often wrong in their thinking about God as we
are. |
| Bartimaeus called out for two things: mercy and sight. I
think we need mercy if we are going to view the world and our
lives with eyes of faith. Bartimaeus demanded mercy and in
doing so he declared his faith not in society, but in God’s
goodness. “My teacher, let me see again.” Bartimaeus
cried. And Jesus said, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Unlike
Timothy Tyson whose faith walk took him to the past to claim
truth, Bartimaeus chose to follow Jesus who was on the way
to Jerusalem. The blind man, with a hunger to know mercy found
he was on the way and his eyes were open to what was about
to happen in a way the disciples hadn’t glimpsed yet. |
| Mark lays it all out. The visually blind such as Bartimaeus
can see God’s ways more clearly than the disciples. What
about us? Will we be up for the calling of our time? The call
to regain our sight and follow Jesus on the way? Again and
again, Mark’s gospel shows us that the journey of the
faithful with Jesus is fraught with blurriness, even blindness.
If we are to see again, we’ll have to rely on God’s
restoration of our sight as Bartimaeus did. |
| Which of us will write a history of truth that seeks redemption?
Who will seek to see clearly here in our context? Will we leave
it to the archeologists, anthropologists, sociologists…those
studying from the outside and a distance? Or will we be co-authors
of truth with an eye toward redemption with God as our guide?
Oh God, let us see again! |
| Amen |
| Beth E. Godfrey - October 29, 2006 |
| Central Presbyterian Church, Geneseo, New
York |
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