Read Psalm 34:1-8 and Mark 10:46-52
At first glance, this is one of the typical miracle stories in the gospels: Bartimaeus is suffering, and so calls out to Jesus for help. This is pretty common in the scriptures, someone is suffering and calls out to Jesus to help them and Jesus does. But Bartimaeus doesn't just ask Jesus for help. No, Bartimaeus shouts from the other side of the town square "Hey Jesus! Jesus! Save me!"
Now, because he's blind, the only way Bartimaeus knows Jesus is there at all is by listening to the crowds around him and hearing them talk about Jesus. Bartimaeus has no idea how close or far Jesus really is to him, he just knows he's somewhere near by. So of course he's yelling for help, hoping Jesus hears him wherever he is. And he doesn't let the crowds shame him into being quieter. He knows he needs help and he knows Jesus can do it so he keeps shouting until he is heard.
Asking for help is hard enough, but Bartimaeus doesn’t just ask, he shouts for help, he pleads for it. He makes a scene until he gets what he needs. He won’t shut up. Even when people tell him to. And that’s hard. We are so quick to fall into silence in general, worried about offending or hurting feelings or being rejected or whatever. And so when folks tell us to shut up, we’re all too quick to oblige. But Bartimaeus really does need the help; it's not like he can cure his blindness on his own. The only way for it to get better was for him to call out for Jesus.
Now, Jesus is a pretty popular guy at this point, so there is a crowd following him around and listening to him teach. And all of a sudden there is this blind guy yelling behind them. I know I get aggravated when people are talking behind me when I am listening to a speaker, let alone yelling out for attention and interrupting everyone. Can't he just be quiet and wait his turn? Does he have to be so disruptive? Isn't there a better way to do that?
Well, no. Not for Bartimaeus. If he sat quietly and waited for Jesus to pass by, which he couldn't see anyway, there is every chance he wouldn't get the help he needed. The only way for Bartimaeus to change his lot is by being disruptive.
And so the crowd tries to get him to be quiet. Are they worried Jesus will be disturbed? Or are they using that as an excuse to quiet him because they are disturbed? Maybe they are disturbed by the reminder that there is pain in the world, they are disturbed by how close that pain has come to them—close enough to reach out and touch them, and they would just as soon not hear about it. They’d rather hear the words of Jesus than the petitions of a sick man.
But the one in need is wise enough not to keep the pain bottled up inside. He shouts, he cries out to Jesus, and Jesus recognizes and responds to his pleas.
Jesus says "Call him here," which is a little seems silly to ask the blind man to find his way forward. But what happens is that the crowd, which was previously trying to stop his nonsense, changes their tune. "Oh, Jesus is calling for you now. Here, let us help you get to him." And so Bartimaeus makes his way to Jesus because of the crowd that so recently tried to silence him.
And Jesus asks him "What do you want me to do for you?" He doesn’t make any assumptions about what the blind man wants, but instead asks for what kind of healing he is looking for. And so Bartimaeus is made well again by his faith. By being willing to call out for help and disrupt the crowd around him.
Now one of the ways we get into scriptures is by figuring out who we can identify with in the story. Sometimes it's easy: we are clearly the clueless disciples, or we are obviously supposed to identify with the workers in a vineyard. But sometimes it's harder like in the passage today. Because there are days when we are like all of these characters.
Some days, we are in need of help, just like Bartimaeus. And maybe we have been asking for help quietly, subtly. So as not to disturb anyone or cause problems or draw attention to ourselves or to seem as less than capable. But as Bartimaeus shows, that doesn’t actually fix anything does it?
If we really need help, we have to ask for it. When something is really wrong, and more than we can deal with on our own, we have to be willing to call out for aid.
Then there is Jesus. While identifying Jesus always feels like a stretch, by calling ourselves disciples, we are saying that we want to try to be like him. Try being the operative word here. Whenever Jesus is doing something in scripture, we are supposed to take it as something we should emulate, at least to the extent to which we can.
Now, Jesus heals Bartimaeus of blindness. I can't do that and I suspect those of you listening can't either. But what we can do is help where we can. "What do you want me to do for you?" is a great question. That is something we can follow. We can ask how we can help when we see someone hurting, and then follow through. We don’t assume we know the best ways to help and we try to respond in ways that help others best.
Sometimes we are the helpers and sometimes we are the ones in need of help. But there is a third group here isn't there?
There's the crowd. And like it or not, some days we are the crowd.
The crowd that initially resisted the disruption to their day. The ones that protested the scene that Bartimaeus was making, no matter how much help he needed. The ones that wanted him to sit down and be quiet so they could go about things without having to think about things like blindness or beggars or anything that wasn’t scheduled.
And yet, the crowd also were the ones that encouraged Bartimaeus, saying "Take heart; get up, he is calling you." They helped him make it over to Jesus to get the healing he so desperately needed.
So on days when we are neither the ones who need help or the ones who can offer it, we have two ways we can respond. We can resent the people who need the help, we can ignore them or try to make them shut up. We can dismiss their needs and go about our business.
Or we can people find the help they need. We can put them in touch with those who can make a differences. We can offer words of encouragement and support to make a difference for them.
So who are you in this story? What role will you play today?
