Mark 10:46-50

Transcript (Auto-generated)

This transcript has been automatically generated, and therefore may not be 100% accurate.

Good morning. I'd like you to meet someone today, if we're all right at the back. Can we meet him, please? That first slide, there you go. This is Monkey, and Monkey's a very special person.

Monkey's my grandson, Arthur's best friend. And Monkey has to go everywhere with Arthur. Sometimes he's in his backpack and sometimes when we go somewhere new and we're having an adventure in a walk, if we could go back one. Sorry. He lives in my poacher's pocket in the inside of my coat.

Now, when he's in there, Arthur can't see him, but as long as he's with him, it's all right. In fact, if he ever goes anywhere new, Monkey has to go with him. And it's brilliant that he's got a good friend, but as long as he's in the house, so when he's on holiday and he's at a holiday house, as long as Monkey's there, it doesn't matter if Arthur's on the beach, he's got Monkey. So that's Monkey, all right. He's a very special friend and it's good to have special friends.

Now, adults also have special friends, and you may be aware of someone called Linus. Is that the next one on the slide? So some adults may be aware of Linus. He's a character in Peanuts. And Linus loves his blanket and that's his friend that he takes everywhere.

Now, adults have special friends. He's been sitting here all the time. This one, this is Rupert. And Rupert is Liz's my wife's special friend. So Rupert is middle aged, not Rupert is a multiple of 10 years old, somewhere between 6 and 8.

And Rupert has gone everywhere with Liz throughout her life. And Rupert sits in a room in our house. Now, today we're going to meet a special person called Blind Bartimaeus. And a bit like Linus, he had a special friend. As many adults have special friends.

Not like Rupert, but friends that they have to take everywhere with them or at least know they've got them with them. And Bartimaeus special friend was his cloak, not a coat, as some Bibles say, a cloak. Now, it's not a cloak with sleeves, it's a big long cloak that fits around him. He said, hopefully it fits around and it goes all the way down to the floor. That's his special friend.

And in the Bible, a cloak was so important that there are laws in the Bible rules that say you're not allowed to take it away from anybody, even if they're using it as a guarantee against a loan of money to you. You're not allowed to take it away from them. It's so important because it keeps them warm during the day, and when it's hot, it shelters them from the sun. And at night, it's their blanket. Now, for Bartimaeus, he was blind and he was begging.

And as you can see from the picture, he would use his blanket to collect the coins. It's the only way he got of collecting the coins because he couldn't see where they were. So it was very important to Bartimaeus and he didn't want to let it go. So we're going to meet him and here's a spoiler alert. Jesus heals him.

Now, Jesus had healed many, many, many people before Bartimaeus. But healing a blind person was very special, very special indeed. Because in the Bible, in the history of the Israelites, many people had been healed before. In the Old Testament, people had been healed from leprosy and other illnesses. And there are three times when people have been raised from the dead.

But healing blindness was the one thing that would tell people who the Messiah was, who the king really was. So when Jesus healed Bartimaeus, everybody should have known who he was, and he should have been their special friend. But was he? Did they take him as their special friend? So, as ever, in what we've been reading in Mark's Gospel, the ways of God are in the details of the story.

So this is why you've got your paper, kids, because I want you to listen to this story and take careful note of these things. Next slide, please. Where does it happen? Okay, so that's the first one. What does Bartimaeus shout?

Next one. What do those following Jesus try to get Bartimaeus to do? Next one. What happens to the cloak? Next one.

What does Jesus ask Bartimaeus? And finally, what does Bartimaeus do when he's been healed? Now, for the young ones, it's all written down, and I don't want the page number to be given out. So I want you to listen, because that's what people would have done when Mark was writing to them. So just take one last look at the questions, adults, because they're going to disappear.

Thank you, Neil. Has everybody committed those to memory? You've all got phones in your pockets. You could have taken a picture. Missed out, didn't you, eh?

We are going to sing again just before the reading. And I'm going to ask my other glamorous assistant to come and help the less gobby One, the one that doesn't heckle and rob is going to show us the actions for the song came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus, that is son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus, son of Nazareth, he began to shout, jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, son of David, have mercy on me.

Jesus stopped and said, call him. So they called to the blind man, cheer up on your feet. He's calling you.

Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. What do you want me to do for you, Jesus asked. The blind man said, rabbi, I want to see. Go, said Jesus, your faith has healed you. Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.

I think I'm on, yes.

When I started to think about this passage, all sorts of things came into my mind. But if you think about all the things that we've been hearing about from Mark's Gospel recently, it struck me that what we've been reading is Jesus version of the television programme Sort yout Life Out. That's where Stacey Solomon and her team help families transform their homes. Everything gets laid out in a big warehouse and then they go around basically going, we don't need that, we don't need that. We don't need that.

And sort their lives out.

And this story of Bartimaeus struck me as sort your life out. It's a story saying, sort your life out. So where did it happen? Can you remember? Did you find out?

Where did it happen? Anyone where? Jericho? Yes, it happened in Jericho, well, outside Jericho. Okay.

Jericho was a city. It was the place where anyone who was anyone had to be seen. King Herod had his palace there. The Roman officials had homes there. All the powerful and the wealthy lived there.

But poor old Bartimaeus wasn't allowed in the city. He had to sit outside and beg people for money so that he could live. And what did Bartimaeus shout? What did Bartimaeus shout? Oh, what do you shout?

Quick, say it again, louder.

Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Brilliant. Brilliant. Did you know that in doing that, Jesus is the. Sorry.

Bartimaeus is the first person, other than the disciples, who recognised who Jesus is. He's the Messiah, God's chosen one. And how did he do it? Not from what he'd seen, but by what he'd heard from people. And here he is Shouting as the son of David, Jesus is the king, that king.

Now I want to ask you, have you truly turned to Jesus? Have you, like Bartimaeus, cried out, lord, have mercy on me, and actually revealed that your future depends entirely on Jesus.

So what did the crowd try and get Bartimaeus to do? What did they try and get him to do? Anyone? Yes, they tried to make him be quiet. The actual words are shut up.

That's the polite version. They tried to stop him. Well, why would they do that? Well, perhaps remember where they are. He's just outside a city where the king lives and he's shouting, jesus is the king.

So they might think we're going to get in trouble. He can't do that. If we're following Jesus, we're going to get into trouble. But more likely they're thinking someone like Bartimaeus isn't worth any of Jesus time at all. Jesus isn't going to be bothered with anybody like Bartimaeus.

Now, if you are a follower of Jesus, you will find yourselves in situations where it's very, very hard to actually say that Jesus is the Lord. In some places, it's extremely dangerous. People get put in prison for it. And there will always be people who try and tell you that following Jesus is just a waste of time, but don't give into them. Be like Bartimaeus.

Persevere. Keep on trying to get your voice heard somehow. Never ever be ashamed to declare that Jesus is your king. Be assured, he will hear your cry. You see, Jesus heard Bartimaeus and he stopped.

And he told the same people that were trying to stop Bartimaeus, bring him here. Now, doesn't that sound familiar? Isn't that what Jesus said to to the disciples when they try to stop little children coming to Jesus? You see, no one is unworthy of being received by Jesus. No one.

And he will never ignore a cry for mercy from a humble heart.

We should be encouraging people to turn to him, not putting barriers in their way. After all, isn't it better for people to have hope because Jesus wants them to come to him in their need? So when Bartimaeus heard that Jesus wanted him, what happened to the cloak? What happened to the cloak? He dropped it on the floor.

The words are, he cast it off. Literally. He threw it away. He threw it away. So why did he do that?

Well, do you remember what the Pope was like?

It's very long. He's blind. He's not sure where it is. If he's wearing could trip him up. It could stop him from getting to Jesus.

So he threw it away. Okay? Nothing was going to stop him from getting to Jesus. Now that's really different from the rich man we heard about. The rich man was so proud of following all the commandments, doing everything by the book.

But he couldn't let go of the things in his life that made him feel secure. He couldn't trust Jesus enough to do that. He didn't trust Jesus, so he went away. Sad. But Bartimaeus had no doubt.

Bartimaeus knew that meeting Jesus would transform his life. What about you? Are you really prepared to let the Holy Spirit sort your life out and let go of the things that you think you can't live without, but actually they're stopping you from coming closer to Jesus? As adults, do you actually accept that there are things in your life that. That you need to get rid of?

Attitudes, behaviours, aspirations, things that you do, how you deal with your finances, what your relationships with people are like. Are you actually willing to admit that you may have to change in order to get closer to Jesus? Bartimaeus had no doubt because he knew that his hope for the future depended on Jesus. He needed to get close to him, and nothing or nobody was going to stop him. So what did Jesus ask Bartimaeus?

Can anybody else remember what did he ask? What did he ask over this side of the room? You weren't listening. I know. What did Jesus ask Bartimaeus?

Yes.

What do you want me to do for you? Does anybody remember that? Wasn't that what Jesus had asked the two disciples that we were hearing about last week? What do you want me to do for you? All right.

He'd asked James and John that. And Bartimaeus trusted that Jesus could heal him. And so he asked. I want to see.

Those two disciples had asked for places of honour. They wanted to be seen and envied. They wanted ordinary people to look up to them. But Bartimaeus request was quite different. He didn't want to be superior to ordinary people.

He just wanted to become ordinary himself. He didn't want to rule over others, but to join them in their experience of a normal life. He didn't want to be seen, he wanted to see. And he didn't want to be excluded from the city, but he wanted to be accepted and included.

And what did Jesus say to him? What did Jesus say to him? He said, go. Your faith has healed you.

And what did Bartimaeus do then? What did he do then? I've got my. These are going to get good marks. He followed Jesus.

Now there's an interesting thing here. Depending on which Bible you read, some say road and some say in the way or on the way. The word that's been translated as road literally means the way. And Bartimaeus had regained his sight and he got his place back into society. He was going to be accepted and he followed Jesus along the way.

But where does that way lead? It's barely a week to Good Friday. That way leads to the humiliation, the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus. The selfless price paid by Jesus to redeem you and me, to pay for all the things that we've done wrong and to bring us closer to God. Now, the first followers of Jesus actually called themselves the Way.

They were known as the Way, and it's a name that actually proclaimed the fact that Jesus is the way to God. They emphasised Jesus teaching that his death and resurrection was the path to transformation and eternal life. And they strive to live a better life in the here and now under the reign of God, serving others.

That man that was blind is with Jesus in the way of discipleship. And the faith and persistence of Bartimaeus actually makes us think very carefully about the other people we've heard about in Mark, because they didn't have faith and they were spiritually blind. So just. I'm going to spend a couple of minutes going over what we've already heard in those passages. Three times Jesus predicts his death and resurrection after three days.

And three times Jesus tells his disciples to deny themselves, that in order to save their life they must lose it and that they had to be servants of all. Now, in the culture of the time, repeating something three times meant that the message was of utmost importance. It was a divine truth. It is a divine truth. We say, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.

Three times we repeat the word holy. It's a divine truth. Three times Jesus is warning his followers that their life must change. Their lives will be transformed. But unlike Bartimaeus, as we read, the disciples remain blind to the way Jesus is leading them.

They cannot see the nature of his messiahship, nor the way their lives must change in order to make his love known. They didn't see that until Jesus rose from the dead. They remained preoccupied with themselves and the ways of the world, not in the ways of God. And being preoccupied with ourselves means that we remain blind to other people. We remain blind to what the needs of other people are.

Just being interested in ourselves is form of spiritual blindness, which all of us suffer from to a greater or lesser extent, in response to God's Love for us through the death of his son, we are called to serve others in ways which reflect his love for us, ways which reflect Jesus example of loving service to all.

I was touched recently that a survivor of the Holocaust said the opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is apathy. So the opposite of love is a person whose behaviour shows that they've got no real interest or desire to take action and demonstrates that their unwillingness to give assistance.

James, in his letter chapter two, said this. What does it profit if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food and one of you says to them, depart in peace, be warmed and filled, but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus, also, faith by itself does not have works.

If it does not have works, is dead. Now let me be clear. It's impossible, absolutely impossible for for us to do anything to earn our salvation. Jesus himself said, what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? We rely solely on God's grace through the death of his son, Jesus.

However, faith isn't just some sort of intellectual exercise. It's a way of life that involves love and action. You can't turn to Jesus or try to come close to Jesus, expecting your life to remain unaltered. We are expected to listen to Jesus, to pick up our cross and deny ourselves, to serve others, to actively cut out sin, and above all else, above everything else, to depend and trust in Jesus. My question to you all is if you are determined, like Bartimaeus, to come closer to Jesus, you must understand he will transform your simple, selfish heart and therefore your life.

So I'll finish with this. Pay careful attention to the details of what we've read over recent weeks and you will be made well of your spiritual blindness. Look intently around you and you will see people putting others before themselves, demonstrating that the Son of David, Jesus the King, is at work in this broken world. Look carefully and prayerfully and with the help of the Holy Spirit, you will be able to sort your life out and cast off those security blankets, those things that are stopping you from getting nearer to Jesus and allowing him to transform your life. Pay careful attention to what we have been reading and like Bartimaeus, you will become able to see clearly again.

Just how your hope depends solely on your relationship with Jesus. Can you see him? Can you really see him? Which bits of your life that are in the warehouse on display as Jesus walks by? Are you prepared to get rid of.

I'll finish with a prayer. Heavenly Father, we are like beggars, like blind Bartimaeus, pleading with you to have mercy on us. Lord, open the eyes of our heart that we may truly see you and move closer to you so that you can heal us and save us. Because we know you love us and want to do that for us. Amen.