Mark
10:46-52
Persistence: the
quality that allows someone to keep at something in spite of opposition,
obstacles or disappointments. We love
stories of persistence, where someone is able to keep on keeping on against all
odds, but there are some situations where persistence instead of being
inspiring can become rather annoying.
Take, for instance, the wiley squirrel and the humble bird feeder. Squirrels love bird seed. And manufacturers love to claim that their
bird feeder with its creative wire guard or weight sensitive perch or creative
baffling can outsmart squirrels. But the
reality is that squirrels usually find a way to get what they want. After having no luck with all of the fancy contraptions
one desperate bird lover decided to go back to basics with a simple feeder on a
pole in the middle of his yard, but with one twist. He coated the pole with vaseline. It didn’t take long until a squirrel scurried
over and jumped up to climb the pole.
But strangely enough rather than moving up he quickly slid back down to
the ground. Undaunted, the squirrel
tried again and the same thing happened, again.
And on it went, jump up, slide down, jump up, slide down, over and over
and over. The bird lover watched with
delight. Could it be that he had
stumbled upon the ultimate fix to such a vexing problem? Sadly no.
And all because of persistence - that squirrel would just not give
up. Up, down, up, down he went until
finally the vaseline wore off enough that on one of the jumps the squirrel
gained enough traction to scurry up the pole.
And victory, once again, went to the squirrel.
Blind Bartimaeus
in our reading from the gospel of Mark is a bit like one of those pesky,
persistent squirrels. Hearing that Jesus
of Nazareth was passing by this blind beggar sitting by the roadside hollers
out into the darkness that surrounds him, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on
me!” But the crowd tries to shut him
up. Yet Bartimaeus persists. Crying out even more loudly he yells, “Son of
David, have mercy on me!” And upon hearing
Bartimaeus Jesus stops and tells the crowd to call for him. Quickly changing their tune the crowd
encourages, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you."
That’s all that
Bartimaeus needs to hear. He springs up,
throws off his cloak - which is a small detail, but a significant one - a blind
man throwing off anything, let alone something so essential as his cloak, would
likely never find it again. Bartimaeus’
willingness to let his cloak go speaks to a confidence he had that Jesus would
indeed have mercy on him. And so upon
coming to Jesus he is asked the question, “What do you want me to do for
you?” “My teacher,” says Bartimaeus,
“let me see again.” To which Jesus
proclaims, “Go, your faith has made you well.”
Now there’s a
danger here, as with any story where Jesus heals someone and commends them for
their faith, to draw a straight, simplistic, and often painful line between
faith and healing. But that is not the
way that God in Christ works. God’s
healing power is not given or withheld because of someone’s level of
faith. The gospels recount many examples
of Jesus healing people where no degree of faith is mentioned. That’s because God’s will is for all people,
whether they have faith or not, to be healed and whole. In this particular case, Bartimaeus’
persistence was rooted in his faith that God would have mercy on him which
enabled him to encounter Jesus in a powerful and life-changing way. He was healed immediately. And with his sight restored Jesus tells
Bartimaeus to go.
But Bartimaeus
doesn’t go. Instead he stays with Jesus
and follows him on the way. And which
way is Jesus going? Literally, he’s on
his way to Jerusalem which was just a day’s walk from where they were. Which means that Bartimaeus probably saw
Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem with throngs of people shouting hosanna,
waving palms, and laying down their cloaks.
It must have been a sight to behold.
But it also means that Bartimaeus was also a likely witness to the
horror of Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross. Watching that I wonder if there was a moment
when Bartimaeus might have regretted the gift of sight.
But I’d like to
think, although this would have taken a tremendous amount of persistence, I’d still like to think that even as Jesus
hung on the cross Bartimaeus was still able to see what he so clearly saw
before he regained his physical sight, that Jesus truly was the Son of David,
the Messiah. And that in his dying God’s
mercy and love was on display not only for Bartimaeus, but for all of us, to see.
Following Jesus
on the way calls on each and every one of us to develop the capacity to persist
- to learn how to hold on and keep believing even when life gets dark and it’s
hard to see. To persist in trusting that
God will have mercy in spite of any opposition, obstacle or
disappointment. Still there are times
when it can be just too much. We persist
and endure and pick ourselves up and try again many, many times, and sometimes
in that process we just wear out. But
take heart. Because ultimately this
scripture, and really all of scripture, isn’t an account of our ability to hang
in there, but God’s. God is the one who
never gives up. God is the one who never
wears out. God is the one who over and
over and over again comes to us, calls us, heals us, loves us no matter what
opposition we put up or obstacles that get in the way or disappointments we
suffer. None of that will ever deter the
love of God in pursuing us and reaching into our lives with love and
mercy. The story of our faith, the story
of our lives, is the story of God’s persistence. The persistent love of God that surrounds us,
enfolds us, is at work in and around us at all times and forever more. “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus
asks. Perhaps our best answer is, “Let
us have eyes to see.”
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