Year B

Mark 10:46-52

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

Throw Off Your Cloak and See!

The morning that Helene came right over us, while I was watching the weather channel earlier that night to keep track of the direction she was taking, I hurriedly got my lantern from the top of my refrigerator and brought it into the living room where I was sitting. I had a pretty good suspicion that the electricity would eventually go out and as we all know when there is no light at all inside or outside except maybe the moon, it is very hard or impossible to see anything. So when the lights did go out, I was really glad I didn’t have to walk around in the pitch black darkness to find my lantern to be able to see. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to be permanently blind. I’m sure I would cry out as Bartimaeus did today “Jesus of Nazareth, I want to see!”

All the texts today speak of humans like Bartimaeus and Job who cry out to God, and of God’s gracious response. God restores Job’s life and fortunes. He opens Jobs eyes, to the mysteries of God and Job prays for the friends who had wronged him. When asked, Jesus restores Bartimaeus’ sight and is shown in Hebrews as the perfect high priest who intercedes on our behalf. Set within this theme of God’s gracious response to humans and Mark’s theme in his gospel of hearing and not hearing, seeing and not seeing, is this encounter of Jesus and Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, a gentile who is one of many who play a significant role in Mark’s gospel, the outsider who was blind and now he sees.

The disciples themselves seem to still be blind to the truth of the suffering of Jesus despite his repeated efforts therefore; the gospel is as much about the unseeing disciples as about the newly seeing blind Bartimaeus. The healing of Bartimaeus takes place as Jesus is leaving Jericho to go to Jerusalem just after his third passion prediction and the third time that his disciples have responded inappropriately to that prediction. The irony is that Jesus prepares to enter Jerusalem for the final week of his life accompanied by a blind man who sees the “way” of Jesus and follows, and sighted disciples who do not see.

There is no doubt that Mark intended this story to be seen as a symbolic counterpoint to the disciple’s consistent “blindness” to Jesus’ mission. Pointing out that those who are closest to Jesus and claim to know best of all may be furthest from the truth, while those who are on the outside may spiritually, and in the conduct of their lives, be very close to him. Bartimaeus shouts out to Jesus or in other translations “cries out.” This expression “to cry out” has been used in Mark’s gospel earlier to express fear and awe at an extraordinary event of power, as when the unclean spirits cried out and when the disciples cried out when they saw Jesus walking on the water.

Bartimaeus calls Jesus “Son of David,” which is the first time in this gospel that this messianic title is used by someone other than a demon. The crowds offer a harsh word of rebuke as Bartimaeus cries out in an annoying way but Jesus stops and responds by asking him: What do you want me to do for you? “Master, I want to see”! Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way. “The way” is both up to Jerusalem, and the climax of Jesus’ ministry. “The way” expands in the book of Acts, Acts of the Apostles to include the way of discipleship. The way of following Jesus, and this journey of discipleship, the church is privileged to bear witness to the love of God to those who cry out to God, for in the healing of Bartimaeus, we see the reach of God’s love and the radical nature of God’s response, God’s hospitality.  

The radical nature of God is seen as God responds to the cries of Job and Job responds to God, acknowledging God’s power. Today we have come to the climax of the story of Job. He has been humbled by God’s response and offers to “repent in dust and ashes” for having felt abandoned by God. He admits now that he cannot know all that God knows and must therefore simply trust in God’s care. He recognizes that his life is hard, but he’s still alive and is ready to go back to living. He prays for his friends who had spoken foolishly about God and the Lord accepts Job’s prayer. His friends repent and admit their errors. Job is vindicated and his fortunes are then restored twofold.

The ending of Job may leave us with a happy ending but here is where the happy ending can be troubling leaving us with unresolved questions. After all that has happened to Job can he really be expected to return to his life as if nothing has changed? It seems almost impossible to believe and not real to life. Yet, Job returns to something like normal life, though his life will always include the pain and lose he has endured. Somehow God’s justice is at work here not as a blind force out beyond Job and his friends, but as a mysterious presence, inviting them in their own relationships to not only humility, but also to the new power it brings to those who give their lives to it.

The book of Job does not resolve the mystery of suffering in our lives, but it challenges us to endure, and triumph. Life remains mysterious, much is unexplained, therefore, like Job we must simply trust in God’s care. Not as easy as it sounds because the truth is that we are like Job and blind Bartimaeus. We sit by the roadside, shouting loudly for mercy and as Jesus did with Bartimaeus, we learn that he sees and hears us. He calls us to throw off our cloak and come to him; he listens to our cries for healing, and through the power of his life, death, and resurrection we are restored to full life. In Christ, the unsearchable power of God bends toward us, toward humanity.

Today’s texts show how God attends to the cries of people: Job, the psalmist, Bartimaeus, and all who approach God through Christ. Because God listens and responds to the cries of all God’s people, according to God’s will, we can trust that God will empower us to endure whatever comes our way and attend to those on the edges of society, like Bartimaeus. We follow and serve Christ as beggars, casting away our garment-through joy and eagerness, ever dependent on God’s provision with new, “resurrection sight.”

This is why Jesus credits Bartimaes’ faith, as a reminder that our faith in God’s life-giving love, our yearning for wholeness, and our sincere desire for healing and renewal can lead to the clear vision that allows us to trust and follow God and experience the joy of being a disciple. But we have to throw off the cloaks that weigh us down, and commit ourselves fully and completely. When we spring forth to answer Christ’s call and then jump “all in,” we discover the clarity and wholeness that Bartimaeus experienced. He seemingly left everything behind to follow Jesus. May Baritmaes’ experience inspire us to do the same. May Job’s experience empower us to rise above suffering and seek a more just way of living that over-comes the injustice of suffering for all people.