“Healing – Bartimaeus”

Scripture: Mark 10:46-52

For the past 3 weeks, we have been considering the healing miracles of Jesus. We know that we look to Jesus as the true source of all healing, regardless of what the need may be, but wouldn’t you think that we must have some part to play in his works? Remember his time in Nazareth, when he was able to teach in wonderful ways, but could only do a very few minor miracles? We read in the gospels (Mark 6:1-6; Luke 4:16-30) that because of the people’s unbelief, the Lord was limited in what he could do.
So what have we learned so far about healing? For the woman who had a hemorrhage, it was her deep and complete faith in Jesus that allowed him to bring healing to her body. For the paralytic, it may not have been his faith, but more likely the faith of his friends who enabled Jesus to work his way. Last week, it was the 10 lepers who were healed, but only one of them showed his gratitude to the Lord for healing. It wasn’t necessarily his appreciation that brought about the healing, but it showed the quality of his grateful heart.

Today, we consider a fourth instance of healing – that of the restoration of sight for the blind beggar, Bartimaeus. In Mark’s Gospel, this would be the last recorded time of healing outside of the city of Jerusalem. For the evangelist, the next event in Jesus’ journey to Calvary would be his triumphant entry into the city, so this may give us a simple perspective on this next miracle, and the last before our healing service next week.

Read Mark 10:46-47

The blind man senses a great commotion along the road, and when he discovers that it is all about Jesus, he begins to cry out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy.” Bartimaeus would have tried many different approaches to curing his blindness, but throughout his life, his eyes had never been healed. There is no indication that Jesus had ever been in Jericho before, or that the man had even heard Jesus teach, but somehow, he knew, without question, who Jesus was. And in acknowledging that Jesus is the long awaited “Son of David”, or the Messiah, he knows that true mercy could only come from this one man.
He doesn’t cry out for healing – he only asks for mercy. God’s gift of mercy is his way of preparing us to receive his grace. Mercy is experienced in the Lord’s love and forgiveness, while grace is seen in his love and salvation. That day, Bartimaeus knew that he was in need of mercy, and as we read throughout the Gospels, only God can forgive our sins. The blind man desperately wanted to have his sight restored, but he knew that something else must come first. And so he cries out, “Jesus, Messiah, make me worthy in you.”

Bartimaeus was acknowledging his sinful condition and his unworthiness to even call out to Messiah. For the people of that time, sin was the cause of all human troubles - blindness, infirmity, illness, injury, loss – you name it, if you were less than healthy or in some other bad way, your sin was showing through. And for Israel, the only remedy was to offer sacrifice after sacrifice at the temple, and then maybe, just MAYBE, the Lord God Jehovah would take pity on you and respond to your need.

Bartimaeus knew, somehow, that God was approaching the place where he was seated that day, so he was prepared to go directly to the source of healing, and cut out all of the ineffective middlemen!

Read Mark 10:48-50

Why in the world would anyone want him to stop calling out to Jesus? They should have been encouraging him, helping him get to Jesus, but no – they were telling him to shut up and leave the rabbi alone. But wasn’t the crowd doing the same thing – trying to get Jesus’ attention so that he would respond to their needs? The problem was that this was not only a blind man, he was a beggar. He apparently had no family to help him, and no means of support for his life – he relied solely on the generosity of others to get around and to get a few coins each day so he could buy food and other necessities. From a societal standpoint, Bartimaeus wasn’t much better than the lepers we read about last week! Who did he think he was, trying to get a favor from this very well-known and popular rabbi?
“Be quiet, and stop embarrassing yourself - and us!!”

But Bartimaeus was persistent – he wouldn’t give up, he wouldn’t be quiet – if anything, he redoubled his efforts to get Jesus’ attention. And the Lord not only heard him, but he told others to have the man come over to him. And suddenly, the very ones who, just a moment before, wanted the beggar to be quiet, would now become the ones who encouraged him.
“Cheer up! Get up! He wants to talk to you!” I doubt that the man needed much encouragement at this point – after all, the Messiah’s mercy was on the way! He jumps up, he throws of his coat, and approaches Jesus, apparently, all on his own. Nothing could get in his way to keep him from the Lord - not the majestic nature of God’s presence, not the overwhelming crowd, not the jeers and admonitions of his friends, not even his own inability to see where he was going. Nothing was going to get between him and his Lord.

And as if Jesus didn’t know what was on the man’s mind, he asks him what he can do for him. Jesus knew very well what the blind man’s needs were, but he was giving him the opportunity to express his need. Isn’t that just like God – to know exactly what we need in life, but still give us the chance to name it for ourselves! Why is that so important?
The Lord could just as well fix every need that everyone, everywhere, is struggling with, but he wants us to tell him what we would like done. This accomplishes 3 things – first, that by asking for God’s intervention in our lives, we are saying that we can’t deal with it on our own. We need God! The second issue is that we are verbalizing our confidence that God can truly make a difference in our lives, and that we want him to intervene. The third thing is that it opens a line of communication between us and God, which is so vitally important for our lives - whether it is for personal healing, or forgiveness, or petition for someone else’s need, or just to give God the glory for his presence in our lives. We need to talk to each other, and that must include the Lord!

And on this day, the blind beggar known as Bartimaeus gives glory to Jesus by referring to him as “Son of David”, who then petitions him for mercy, and is now being invited to ask for a favor from God himself.

Read Mark 10:51-52

Bartimaeus names his burden and asks Jesus to take it away. And without a single word, other than “your faith has healed you”, the request is granted. And the lesson for today?

First, never give up on God. The following refers to a “Charlie Brown” comic strip a few years ago:
Exasperated by the lack of cooperation he was receiving from Lucy, Charlie Brown asks, to no one in particular, “Where do I go to give up?”

How many times has the same question crossed your lips? Where do I go to give up? You've done everything you can. You can think of nothing more. Nothing works. So....
Where do I go to give up?
- Homiletics OnLine

Bartimaeus went to Jesus to give himself up, and so can we. He didn’t let the naysayers around him become discouraging, he didn’t let his past failures at trying to get God to act on his behalf get him down, he didn’t let his lack of sight deter him - he didn’t let anything get in his way. He put his trust in the Lord, and let “perseverance” be his watch word.

Second, never be afraid or hesitant to go to the Lord with the most difficult of requests. Just because it’s something that we have never been able to accomplish, or even imagine how it could be accomplished, it doesn’t mean that God can’t do it either! He not only can, but he is always anxious to make our lives more fulfilling than they currently are.

Bartimaeus knew that both of these lessons were absolutely true, and as Jesus continued on his way toward Jerusalem and the completion of his mission to the people of earth, the man who now had his sight restored followed closely behind his Master and Savior.

Next Sunday morning, we, too, will have the same opportunity that this blind beggar had – to cry out to the Lord for mercy, and to name the very thing that we need the Lord to care for. So come prepared – come with Jesus eyes – with a vision that sees as the Lord would have us see; come with great faith and great expectation, that Jesus truly is the healing presence that you need; come with great trust, that Jesus will be your final solution for all time; come with a heart that rejoices for all that God has given you and for all that is yet to come; and above all, come in the name of Jesus.

He is already waiting and calling and inviting you.

“Healing – 10 Lepers”

Scripture: Luke 17:11-19

Jesus was never one to avoid controversy. Whether it was healing people on the Sabbath, or eating and fellowshipping with sinners, or talking to women, or any of the myriad of other religious taboos and demands that Israel was expected to adhere to, Jesus was true to only one law – and that was “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9) For Israel, this was generally accepted as the greatest of all commandments, and Jesus knew that when you kept this one first in your life, that you would always strive to make the Lord’s will your will.
By all appearances, that was Jesus’ one and only song – and he sang it loudly! And he sang it often! Everything that he did was intended to show love and obedience and honor to the Father.

Read Luke 17:11-13

In traveling between the Galilee and Jerusalem, most travelers would take the longer and more difficult road along the Jordan in order to skirt the region of Samaria. Samaria was, if you will pardon the expression, an area of half-breed Jews. During the exile, the Israelites, who were left behind to work the land, would intermarry with people from other conquered nations. This, of course, was forbidden by the Law of Moses, and when the exiles returned to the Land, they promptly pronounced the intermarried offspring of these unions as “sinners”.
And these weren’t just regular, every day, run-of-the-mill sinners – they were reminders of a time of defeat, of a time when God had “turned his face” away from the people. These were unclean people, and as far as Israel was concerned, they were undeserving of any kind of relationship with their God! And if you had any contact at all with them, you would be just as “unclean”.

But Jesus never took the safer, more widely traveled road – he would go right through a village of this region, “sinners” or not! But another issue with this event, and perhaps one that was far more realistic, is that Jesus wasn’t just exposing himself to Samaritans, but he would also be opening himself up to people who had leprosy. Today, leprosy, or Hanson’s disease as we know it, is still contagious to some degree, but there are treatments available to us that the first century medical establishment didn’t have. And the disease was deadly. And it caused great anxiety among the people. And all sane people would avoid it and those who had the disease.
Lepers were required to live outside populated areas, and whenever a “clean” person came near them, they were required to cry out “Unclean! Unclean!” They were feared, and they were ostracized! But they apparently knew of Jesus and the power of healing that was within him, and so, this day, they came to him, and began to cry out – not “unclean”, but “have mercy”. And the Lord welcomed them.

Read Luke 17:14

This passage is reminiscent of Naaman and Elisha in 2 Kings 5:1-19, and the first similarity is that each of these lepers were given a command that would lead to their healing, but in and of itself, did not heal them.
Naaman was told to go and wash 7 times in the Jordan. But the instruction made little sense to him, and he balked. After all, he was looking for a significant miracle, and this isn’t what he expected. The rivers back home were just as clean and fresh as the Jordan, and he wasn’t about to subject himself to this foreign superstition. One of Naaman’s servants, though, would change his mind, and he would, eventually, go to the river, and he washed 7 times, and was healed.
The 10 lepers would also be healed, but only after they had been told to go to the priests to be certified as having been healed. They were still plagued with the ailment when they left, but they never hesitated, and immediately started out to do as they were told.

Another issue is that Naaman was not a Jew – he was an Aramean. And of the 10 lepers, at least one, and very possibly more, were also not Jews – they were Samaritans. And in Luke 4:27, Jesus reminds his countrymen that of all the lepers that existed in Israel at the time of Elisha, only a foreigner was healed. And now, we read once again that a miracle is about to transpire in an unclean place, in an unusual time, and with the most undeserving of all people. The Pharisees who, most assuredly, were spying on him, must have been livid!

Read Luke 17:15-19

Once again, the issue of faith plays a large part in their healing. Remember the woman with a hemorrhage? Remember the paralytic and his friends? It always required faith in the One who could heal. So it appears that all 10 of these men had that kind of faith, but why would only one come back to Jesus to give thanks? Why didn’t the other 9?
The 9 were, in all likelihood, still caught up in ritual. The law required that a priest certify that a healing was complete, and that was where they were headed. Their skin was clear and fresh, unlike its condition a few moments before, and they knew that it was Jesus who had made this happen, but they also knew that they wouldn’t be "considered" clean until a priest said that they were.

But the 10th had a completely different attitude in his heart and mind. His High Priest was no longer an earthly mortal, but God in the flesh. He would be looking to the Lord Jesus Christ as the One who he was going to certify as his healer, and he returned to give glory to his true Priest. (Hebrews 4:14-5:10)

But Jesus asks “Are you the only one to return and give glory and praise to God?” The others were doing exactly as the Lord had told them – they were on their way to the temple priests to receive a pronouncement of healing, just as the law required. Why would he chastise them for following his instructions? Almost seems duplicitous, doesn’t it?
In Mark 12:17, Jesus told the Pharisees that they were to show Caesar, who represented secular authority in general, the respect and obedience that he required, but that they were also to give honor and praise to God for the very same things.
So the point that I believe Jesus is making here is that the 9 former lepers are showing preference to the law of Moses instead of the Law of God. The 10th leper was giving God the glory first, and only after that, would he be showing allegiance to the law of the land.

And, of course, Jesus also reminds the man, as well as all who are within hearing, that it is faith that has brought about his healing that day. But the actual lesson for us is that when the Lord responds to our needs, that we aren’t to be smug and proud in our good fortune, but we are to give credit where credit is due, that we are to show our gratitude and joyfulness to the Lord. All too often, people take the Lord’s touch on their life, regardless of what the blessing may be, in an attitude that is all too cavalier. Their attitude is almost an expectation of God’s intervention on their behalf – God owes it to them! And that is never the truth.

The Theologian Henry J.M. Nouwen once suggested that the purest, simplest holiday may be Thanksgiving. Christmas is distorted by a society that promotes consumer madness and ritual perfectionism. Even Easter is overshadowed by chocolate bunnies and new finery.

It has been said that gratefulness is the very heart of prayer, and so to truly observe Thanksgiving is to engage in fervent prayer.

Gratefulness, however, cannot be manufactured. It is a grace, a gift that God bestows and not anything we can create in our own hearts. True gratitude bears little resemblance to the forced optimism underlying the admonition to count your blessings. Gratitude is not a denial of real pain and loss. It is not a stoic effort to concentrate on the good things in life. It isn't the power of positive thinking. ...

We cannot attain a state of gratitude by presenting God with a list of things we think we should feel grateful for, but by presenting ourselves and our desire to know God more closely.
-Kris Haig, Grateful Hearts, Presbyterians Today, November 1999, 7.

And John Macks wrote in his book “Heaven Talks Back”:
You should pray every day, not in supplication but in gratitude for all you have been given. [And as if God was speaking to us,] “Hey, I'm just like everybody else; I like a little appreciation now and then. Nothing big, no plaques, just a nice, ‘Hey God, good job today.’”
--John Macks, Heaven Talks Back (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990), 93.

God owes us nothing! But he is eager to work his ways within us. And that is where our faith comes into play. He can only work within us if we truly believe that he is who he is. And our response to his goodness brings us back to the fullness and fulfillment of faith – “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your strength.”
Acknowledge him for all that he does for us! Give him the glory for all the goodness that comes to us! Rejoice in his presence! Testify to the great work that he does on our behalf!

Deep Love compliments and completes deep faith.

Out of Town - July 12th

For those who follow my sermons, thank you. However, this week, I'll be out of town for personal reasons, and will not be posting a sermon. However, I will be back next week, and look forward to celebrating the Lord with you then.

Many blessings.

Pastor Bill

“Healing – the Paralytic”

Scripture: Luke 5:17-26

How far would you go to bring a friend or loved one to Jesus? How important are their lives to you? When was the last time you spent an evening with a friend who was ill, or paid a visit to a person in a nursing home, or helped someone shoulder a heavy burden?

During a commencement address, Barbara Bush offered the following advice to the graduates:
As important as your obligation as a doctor, a lawyer or a business leader may be, your human connections with your spouse, your children and your friends are the most important investment you will ever make. At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict or not closing one more deal, but you will regret time not spent with your spouse, your children or your friends.
--Barbara Bush, 1994 Commencement Address, Wellesley College, quoted in Current Thoughts and Trends, January 1995, 12.

Anyone who has gone on a mission trip or some other outreach effort knows the power of presence in another person’s life. It is, quite literally, life changing – for both you and them.

Read Luke 5:17-19

This passage begins with the thought that the power of healing suddenly came upon Jesus while he was teaching. It’s interesting that Luke doesn’t even mention the content of the lesson, but we are told that there was quite a crowd of people gathered to listen to him, including Pharisees from every area of the country. And considering the distances involved with the trips that many would have had to take, it could very well have been a planned event for these “teachers of the law”.
We don’t hear much about what Jesus was teaching, and we are about to hear of only one instance of healing, so it appears that he is about to “teach the teachers” about the power and authority of God.

In Mark’s report of this healing event, he writes that there were several friends who were involved, with 4 of them carrying their friend on his mat. How far do you think they had to travel to bring their friend to Jesus? And what about the faith that these men must have had – would they ever have expended that much effort if every one of them hadn’t been strong believers?
They were committed to the welfare of their paralyzed friend, and just as importantly, were committed to finding a cure for his condition. But there was an obstacle – they couldn’t get to Jesus because there were so many other people trying to get to him, not to mention the many Pharisees who were there that day. It was starting to look like they would never be able to accomplish their mission, until one of them thought about climbing to the roof of the house, making a hole in it, and letting their friend down into the middle of the room below. Think about the effort that would have been required to get their crippled friend up to the roof of that house, not to mention opening up the roof and lowering him down without dropping him!
One obstacle after another, and still they never gave up. That is dedication!

Read Luke 5:20-21

They bring their friend to Jesus specifically for healing, but the Lord seems to ignore the affliction, and, instead, forgives the man’s sins. There is no pronouncement that sin is the reason for the paralysis, which would have been the reason in the Pharisee’s minds, so this must have been offered for another reason.
Remember the teaching that had begun in the first place, and the presence of the Pharisees in such a great number? Jesus, it seems, is still in teaching mode, and the “teachers of the law”, without knowing it, had become the students! And what were the lessons?

The first one is that it was faith that brought them all together that day. It was the spiritual faith of the friends that was able to safely bring the man into the presence of Jesus Christ, and it was the legalistic faith of the Pharisees that led them to Jesus in an attempt to find out what he was up to.
Does faith matter? It certainly does – even for the Pharisees! God was orchestrating an amazing event that would decidedly demonstrate the power and authority that was in Christ.

The second lesson is that Jesus is exactly who he says he is, and there is no reason to try to look deeper than his word. The Pharisees weren’t quite ready to do that, though, as they were still trying to judge the Lord by the standard of their interpretation of the law.
No one will ever come to understand Jesus by examining him under the power of their own microscope. We can only begin to know the Son of God through the power and word of God. And when we think that God’s approach is insufficient, and continue to use human reasoning to figure him out, we will never succeed.

And the Pharisees were on course toward utter failure!

Read Luke 5:22-26

Lesson number 3 – Jesus is proven to be who he says he is, and God Incarnate has the same authority that God in Heaven has. So listen to him.

The Pharisees hadn’t actually spoken their condemnation of Jesus’ act of forgiveness – it was only in thought - but The Lord responded so that everyone could hear. And he asks that famous, yet rhetorical question: Which is easier to say – “Your sins are forgiven”, or “Get up and walk”? Of course, the Pharisees would never say the first, and they couldn’t do the second! Neither statement was possible for them!
But for God, whether in heaven or on earth, whether in Spiritual form or human, he can do both, and on this day, he uses healing to demonstrate his power and authority to forgive. The power of God at work – first to forgive, then to teach, and finally to heal, and it all came to be through the simple faith of the paralyzed man’s friends.

Over and over, throughout the Gospels, Jesus tells people that they are healed through the power of their faith. In Mark 11:22-26, Jesus tells his disciples that if they truly believe, and don’t doubt, that their faith could accomplish all things, including the moving of a mountain. And he concludes in that passage, “So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

And Jesus offers no exceptions, no ifs, no buts – just the promise that if we truly believe in what we are asking for, it will be given. The paralytic’s friends had great faith – they never doubted that Jesus could and would heal their friend – and we don’t even read that they asked the Lord for healing. He used the situation to not only heal, but to teach a valuable lesson to all who were there that day, including the Pharisees. The “teachers”, though, didn’t learn the lesson very well, or at least the majority of them didn’t. But I think that the Lord planted some vital seeds in a few of them that day – it’s even possible that this is when Nicodemus first experienced Jesus, and later would want to learn more from him.

How powerful is faith? It enables God to work his incredible ways in our life, and even in the lives of others, and as incredible as it may seem, a lack of faith on our part, or even a weak faith for that matter, will inhibit God from completing that same mighty work.
Are you willing to step out in faith and let God work in your life, or in the life of a friend, or even in the life of a stranger? Are you prepared to let the Lord use you to accomplish his plan right in the middle of our lives?

Give it a try – what have you got to lose? And just think about all that you've got to gain!