In seminary I learned to read the book of Mark as a story. It’s really not a long story; if you were to read Mark’s gospel from beginning to end, it wouldn’t take you that long. And if you can get a version in which the verse and chapter numbers have been taken out, and the headings that were added in by the translators are taken out, and you have just the text, it reads very much like a story.
And like all good stories, there are characters, and settings, and a plot that progresses from beginning to end. There is symbolism and recurring themes, many of them centering on power and authority, and how the concept of power and authority is different in this world than it is in the Kingdom of God.
If you can read Mark like that, as a single, unified story, perhaps all in one sitting, then when you read about blind Bartimaeus, you will of course recall that, just two chapters earlier, there was another blind person whose sight was miraculously restored.
Let me tell you how that part of the story goes...
Earlier in Mark, Jesus fed 5,000 hungry people in the wilderness… then a short while later he fed another 4,000 hungry people in the wilderness. There are two miraculous feedings in Mark, just like there are two blind men who get their sight restored.
Right after he fed the 4,000 hungry people, Jesus was in the city of Bethsaida, with his disciples, chastising them because they failed to understand the significance of those miraculous feedings. That’s when they met a blind man who begged Jesus to heal him.
Jesus went with the blind man and headed out of the city. I don’t know why they headed out of the city, but it does seem that Jesus does his best work in the wilderness, doesn’t it? Feeding people in the wilderness, healing blind men outside of the city… doing all this away from the temples and palaces and other symbolic places of power and authority…
Jesus took him out of the city, laid his hands on him, and a partial healing took place, and Jesus laid his hands on him again, and then his eyesight was restored.
When we read about Bartimaeus - the second blind man in Mark - the scripture says that Jesus and his followers had come into Jericho, and the healing of Bartimaeus took place as Jesus was leaving the city.
It’s kind of a forced plot point. Mark wants to show that this happened as they were leaving the city, so Mark first has them go into the city, because how else can they be leaving the city unless they had gone into the city? It’s like the only reason they went into the city is so that they could be seen leaving the city. Just like last year, when Vice President Pence went to an NFL game, and the only reason he went into the stadium was so that he could be seen leaving the stadium in protest.
Except that Jesus entering and leaving Jericho didn’t cost the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars the way the Vice President’s entering and leaving did.
So Jesus and the disciples enter Jericho, and on the way out of the city… that’s when they meet Bartimaeus.
Jesus wasn’t interested in worldly forms of power. The devil tried to tempt Jesus with worldly power, but Jesus resisted that temptation. It’s not about rising up to seats of power; it’s about descending down to where the people are, especially those who are poor and suffering.
God descended from on high to dwell in human form, to experience all that humans experience. It’s like a king leaving his throne to live as a peasant.
And in Jesus, God went as far down as one could go. It doesn’t get any lower than crucifixion on a cross. Jesus was despised, rejected, and executed. The symbol that his followers adopted is the cross. Not a crown. There was never a crown on Jesus’ head, except for the crown of thorns that was meant to mock and humiliate him.
In the city, people are always trying to advance upward, outdo one another, and acquire as much wealth and authority and power as possible. But the way of Jesus is the opposite of that. And to truly see it, one must go out of the city, away from worldly power and wealth.
So those miraculous feedings, and the healing of both blind men, took place outside of the city.
There’s more that connects these two healings...
There isn’t really a whole lot of space between these two healings. Yet in that short amount of space, in that short amount of time, Jesus tells his disciples three times that he will undergo great suffering, be rejected by the authorities, rejected by those in power, be killed... and after three days rise again.
And Jesus tells them that if they really want to be his disciples, they too must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow him. “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”
It’s at this point that James and John make their request, to have places of honor and glory. That story, which was our focus last week, takes place as Jesus and his disciples are heading into Jerusalem. They are heading toward the city! Do you see the symbolism at work here?
Jesus talked about sacrifice and suffering, and as they head into Jerusalem, the first words from the disciples are James and John’s request for honor and glory!
When they make their absurd request, they start by asking Jesus to do something for them, whatever they ask. “What is it you want me to do for you?” Jesus asks them…
That is the exact same question Jesus asks blind Bartimaeus. But by then they are on their way out of the city.
“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asks.
Bartimaeus replies, “I want to see.”
And Jesus says, “Go. Your faith has made you well.” Which, as we know, means: “your faith has healed you. Your faith has made you whole. Your faith has saved you.”
This story is so refreshing! With all those predictions about his death, and his disciples still not understanding, we see how hard Jesus had been working to open the eyes of his disciples, to help them see what was really going on. He wanted them to see the kingdom of God, see it as it really was, not as they imagined it. And he was having a rough go of it.
That earlier healing took place in two stages… with the disciples, it’s taking place in so many stages that one loses count. Jesus tries to open their eyes. For a moment they seem to get it, but then in the next the most clearly do not get it. Jesus tries again. And again. He explains to them about sacrifice and service and humility… and they start to see, but not perfectly clear.
But Bartimaeus: for him, the sight is restored instantly…
There is so much symbolism here, so much depth to all this, that each of us could probably take something different away from this story… and we’d all be right.
Let me share with you something that Kimberley Buchanan, a UCC pastor in North Carolina, shared in a sermon she preached. She highlighted the story of photojournalist Kevin Carter...
“In 1993, while covering the famine in the Sudan, Carter took a picture of a small girl who had collapsed while walking to a food station. Just a few feet behind the starving girl, a vulture stalked her.
“In May of 1994, Carter won a Pulitzer Prize for the photograph. Two months later, he committed suicide. A close friend of Carter's said that after shooting the photo of the starving girl, Kevin ‘sat under a tree and cried and chain-smoked" and could not distance himself from the horror of what he saw. He could not unsee what he had seen.’”
Kimberley Buchanan then concludes that “Yes, seeing can be dangerous. It can call into question everything we've ever believed. It can dismantle our faith, our theology, our worldview. Seeing can devastate us.”
There is so much to see in Mark’s gospel. There is so much to see among the poor, among the hungry, among all those who suffer. Jesus tries to open our eyes to all that. Jesus even tells you how to see. Jesus says when you see the hungry person - that’s him. When you see the poor person - that’s Jesus. When you see the immigrant - that’s Jesus. Whenever you see the least of these, that’s Jesus.
The question is: how much do you want to see?
The world looks to cities like Jerusalem and sees power, wealth, glory. But Jesus sees suffering, shame, and rejection. It’s hard to see. We don’t want to see. Not that. The path leads to death, and who wants to see death? Who wants to see hunger? Who wants to see poverty? Who wants to see oppression? Who wants to see injustice? Who wants to see death?
No wonder the disciples had a hard time seeing. Something in them - and something in us - works to keep us blind to the evils of our world. We don’t want to see. We don’t want to see all the things in our world that lead, ultimately, to death.
But what Jesus sees doesn’t stop at death. As much as Kevin Carter saw, he couldn’t see beyond death. Death seemed so overpowering, so final, but Jesus tells us to not only see the suffering and the shame in our world, but to look even further, and see what lies out there beyond the suffering and shame and death.
Because out there, beyond, is resurrection.
Jesus invites us to see the world’s suffering, to really see it, and to let that suffering affect us in profound ways, changing us completely. But Jesus also invites us to see that even in suffering and death, there is resurrection. There is a miraculous rebirth, which we can be a part of if we open our eyes, open our hearts, and truly see.
Most of the world is blind to this kind of seeing. And many who do their best to follow the way of Jesus still see only dimly. Their sight has only partly been restored, like that blind man in Bethsaida.
But Jesus invites us to open our eyes fully, to see fully and completely, the suffering, the shame, the sorrow, and the death; and also the life and hope and resurrection that is possible beyond all that.
The blind man in today’s story says: “Teacher, I want to see.”
And Jesus says to him, “Go, your faith has healed you.” At once he was able to see, and he began to follow Jesus on the way.
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