Take Heart

Our passage from Mark is well known to most of us. Many here have probably heard a dozen sermons or more on this blind man who regains his sight by trusting God.  But today, I would like to focus on the other characters in this story; the nation Israel, the crowd and Jesus.  What do these other characters say and do and in this ancient story?

Will you pray with me?  “Dear God of seeing, teach us to see beyond visual sight.  Help us live your true love into the world and into the hearts of those around us.  Help us to see through hypocrisy and deception.  And most of all, God, help us to see you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly, day by day.  Amen.”

In ancient Israel, people who were disabled and blind were treated as wretched lowest-class people.  Did you know that if you were deformed or disabled in ancient Israel, including blindness, that you could NOT go into the Templein Jerusalem?   Blindness or deformity was considered a spiritual disease, something that made the deformed person impure, and therefore unworthy to go into God’s House.  If you stop and think about this for a moment, not being even able to go into the Templemeant disabled Jews were very literally second-class Jews.  If you were blind, you were not only religiously unclean, but also unemployable.  So blindness was not just a physical mark—it was also a spiritual mark of shame and an economic curse.  This is why the blind people in the New Testament are always begging—it was the only way they could survive.  Now add to this the common belief of the time that a physical deformity was punishment by God for some sin of this or the previous generations.  For Jewish people, their children were the very mark of their blessing and pride.  And a blind child was very often rejected by the birth family in an attempt to distance themselves from the sin and punishment that caused God to punish the disabled person.  So, in addition to being economically disadvantaged, spiritually shunned, and physically disabled, blind people were also social pariahs because they were thought to bare the punishment of their family’s sins.  Blind people were the lowest of the lowest in ancient culture—as if the disability itself was not enough.  Isn’t it terrible how as humans we often throw our troubles onto people who are even more troubled?  We seem to always be looking for someone lower than us on the totem pole to blame for our troubles.

I would like to take a moment to consider these ancient cultural curses on disabled and blind people.  From our 21^st century perspective, these ancient practices might sound horrific, but are our modern attitudes about disabilities really very much different from these ancient attitudes?  Until just very recently, we did not physically block disabled people directly from entering our churches, but imagine how a flight of steep marble steps up to a huge church would look to a person without use of their legs, or how impossible it would be for a blind person to negotiate those stairs alone.  Or imagine sitting in a cathedral if you were hard of hearing where the echoes completely confound even good normal hearing.  Even think today of how many people react when someone with a mental disability enters the room, or the way a crowd on a city street treats someone who is raving or psychologically unbalanced or challenged.  And I think many even in our culture and time still consider that someone who is disabled is somehow being punished for something bad or sinful by somebody somewhere….

Now, to be very clear, Jesus’ ministry was centered on breaking these cultural and religious myths and rejecting them completely.  Jesus was very clear that someone who was blind was NOT being punished for their sins or the previous generation’s sins.  Where most people would simply turn away from disabled people with a shudder, Jesus would spend time with a lame man, or heal a paraplegic or have a conversation with a person with a horrible skin disease.  And if you reflect on this, just the fact that Jesus paid attention to a disabled person gave them some human dignity that they may never have experienced in their whole lives.  Acknowledging someone who has never been treated as human before gives them ultimate respect and dignity, honoring their humanity even as the rest of the world ignores them.  Imagine how the attention from Jesus healed these disabled people in these stories.  Even Jesus’ simple action of stopping to talk says, “I acknowledge you as human.”  These disabled people shouted O my God, O happy day! 

But we must also hear these stories of Jesus stopping to speak with disabled people as absolutely scandalous in that day.  Absolutely and completely not normal.  Absolutely completely insane.  “Why, Jesus, that man is blind.  Don’t you know what that means, Jesus?”  Scum.  Sinful.  Poor.  Probably insane.  Abandoned by family.  No friends.  The lowest of the low life, Jesus.  Keep that blind one silent!  Let’s move on and heal some more deserving decent people, Jesus.  Humph.

Unfortunately, you can go into any major city in Americaand see our cultural equivalent of Bar-timaeus in the homeless people that occupy our downtown areas.  Nothing has changed since ancient times.  I am so proud of the actions of this congregation and others like us that actively support Abraham’s Tent when we will house 12 homeless men in our Great Hall in December.  Every year when we do this, we are reminded that being homeless is not a curse, or punishment for sin, or a character defect or a mark of being a bad person.  These homeless men who come here are only that—without a home.  Some because of a bad break, some because of a bad decision, some because of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  But basically good people who just so happen not to have a home right now.  And they come here to share our place for a week.  We feed them, house them, tell stories with them, listen to them and learn from them.  I always learn that they each probably have more courage and guts and optimism than I do.  They probably have a deeper and clearer faith than I do.  And they are unfailingly grateful to be helped and assisted on their journey.  Volunteer to help with Abraham’s tent—it will change your life for the better, and it will remind you that we are all just one phone call away from our health failing or being homeless.

Now, Jesus didn’t have Abraham’s Tent, but he did have a portable tent of compassion.  So Jesus left Jerichowith a large crowd, walking past Bar-timaeus, a blind beggar.  When Bartimaeus heard it was Jesus, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”  Now, what does this short sentence tell us?  First, Bartimaeus was a Jew—he used a Jewish name for Jesus when he called him Son of David—this is the only time in Mark this name is used, so it is important marker for Judaism.  And he yelled out, have mercy on me.  I need help, Bartimaeus says.  The other things we learn about Bartimaeus is that his spirit is not broken.  He is courageous because even though the crowd tried to silence him, he shouted even louder.  Bartimaeus could have shouted—you miserable Jews, you lock me out of my own Temple, you curse me with other people’s sins, you keep me from a decent job—curse all of you.  Instead, Bartimaeus says, Jesus, fellow Jew, I need a little help over here!  Please listen.

And Jesus stops, and asks Bar-timaeus to come over.  The crowd is silenced, and changes its tune, inviting Bar-timaeus to go to Jesus.  And then Jesus asks Bartimaeus what he wants.  Nobody has ever asked Bartimaeus what he wanted.  Ever.  But here is this Jesus guy, asking now, what do you want, Bartimaeus?  And Bart clearly says, “My teacher, let me see again.” 

Did you notice what the crowd said before Bart went over to talk to Jesus?  First the crowd told Bart to shut up, but then, when Jesus called Bart over, the crowd suddenly changed and said, “Take heart, get up, he is calling you.”  The Greek here is very interesting.  Is says be bold, have courage, be daring, be courageous.  All of these words derive from the word for heart, just like our English word courage comes from the French word for heart, Coeur.   Why would the crowd tell Bart to take heart?  Well, ancient Jews believed the heart was the seat of knowing, the place of knowing.  The crowd changes completely around.  From shunning silence to supporting and encouraging  Bart.  Take heart, be encouraged, Bart, be courageous and say your truth.  This is it Bart, now is the time: speak your peace.

Now before we continue with Bart’s request, let’s briefly look at the context of this story in Mark’s Gospel.  Our verse today is the very last story in Mark before Jesus enters Jerusalemfor the last time on Palm Sunday.  The entire chapter has been small little stories that Mark uses to set up Jesus going into Jerusalem.  Each of these little stories closes a thread that Mark has woven into the Gospel.  Each story gives us a last glimpse before Jesus is captured by the Templeand killed by the Romans.  But alongside the story of Jesus becoming a radical threat to Rome’s peace, Jesus has also become a radical threat to the Templehierarchy.  The Templehad become a tool of the Romans, and Jesus was teaching that the Templewas no longer aligned with God, but instead, the Templehad become aligned with corrupt Roman greed and political power. 

So Mark does an ingenious thing.  In this last story before Jesus enters Jerusalemfor the last time, he brings Bar-timaeus, the blind Jewish beggar, into a conversation with Jesus.  And with the crowd, the local people, saying take courage, say the truth here, Mark places this final courageous request into the mouth of this poorest of Jewish men.  Here, in a person that so clearly shows the nation of Israelturning its back on the poor and downtrodden, here this blind man, representing all of the poor in Jerusalem, says back to the Templehierarchy, “Teacher, open all of our eyes to the reality of what is happening here.”  Take away our blindness, and let the nation of Israelsee again.  Jesus responds to Bart, and through him to all of Israel, “Your faith, that is your trust in the loving God, will open your eyes.”  Hear O Israel, follow your heart back to the loving God!  Trust God and your eyes will be opened, and you will be made well!”  Israel, open your eyes.  Take care of the least among you.  Turn away from Roman power and money and rekindle your love of the living God.  This is more than a plea of a blind man, this is Jesus’ message to a blind nation that has turned away from God and toward greed and political expediency.

Does any of this sound or feel slightly familiar?  Our political season has framed the world with these same two very distinct views.  One view is like that of the Temple hierarchy, that we are all in this grand scheme in life for ourselves—we each need to fight and scrape and get what whatever we can for ourselves.  And another distinctly different political view is that we are all in this together, and that if one is harmed that we are all harmed, and if one is hungry that we all hunger for justice.  One view says that scarcity and fear are the final arbitrators.  And the other view says compassion and love provide a common ground for all to live in abundant peace.  This is the path that Bree took when she said her baptismal vows that we affirmed with her today.  This is God’s path of compassion and love in community.

Jesus repeatedly confronted the worldview of the Romans and the Templethat provided exclusively for the rich while ignoring and depriving the poor.  Jesus repeatedly condemned that worldview, saying that we are to care for one another, tend to each other’s needs, share the abundance of community and love so that we will all be raised up into a better place.  This story today is not just about a blind man who calls out for mercy from God.  This story is about the human condition of our greed and struggle for power that can only be changed when we acknowledge that God’s abundant love breaks through fear and greed – seeing that God’s love conquers the world.  Jesus pleads with all of US, “Trust God and open your hearts and eyes.”

And in the final line in our story Jesus says, “Your trust in God has made you well.”  Immediately, Bart regained his sight, his vision, his understanding of the kingdom of God come down to earth among us, and Bart followed Jesus on the way.  Let us change our mind like the crowd did!  Let us ask to see again like Bart did!  We, like the crowd and Bart, we are invited to take heart, trusting God so that WE see clearly and follow Jesus on the Way to a better world together.  Amen.