Mark 10:46-52 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
“See What Jesus Does with Suffering”
Pentecost 23 October 28, 2018
It was an eventful trip. If you have been joining us for worship over the past several weeks, you have been hearing about this trip in the Gospel for each Sunday. However, since it has been broken up into smaller portions each week, it is possible and even likely that you didn’t realize the trip was being taken. These readings from Mark chapter 10 have taken us along with Jesus and his disciples on the way to Jerusalem for one final visit during the ministry of Jesus. Mark doesn’t dwell on the travel itself, but mentions several of the events and discussions that occur as this group left Galilee and eventually reached Jerusalem. Mark chapter 11 speaks about Jesus entering that city on a donkey on Palm Sunday. Along this way, Jesus did have many opportunities to teach individuals, crowds, and his own disciples about what it meant to follow him. He met Pharisees who wanted to trap him in his words. They asked about divorce and marriage, and in response Jesus told them about the blessing of marriage as a gift from God and how people should honor that gift. He also blessed children who were brought to him, another precious gift from God. Jesus then met a rich young man. That man was convinced that he had followed God’s Commandments all his life. He wanted to be told that he had earned heaven. Instead, Jesus invited him to sell all his possessions to follow Jesus. The man went away sad and unwilling to give up his wealth. This was a lesson in how greed can overtake faith. All who follow Jesus need to be careful about this. Jesus taught his disciples on their way about what awaited him in Jerusalem. There he would find betrayal and suffering and death. Even as Jesus was explaining these things, the disciples were arguing about who was the greatest among them. Jesus taught another lesson, that following him meant serving others the way he serves them. Being great means becoming a slave to everyone. This was an eventful trip full of lessons to be learned, lessons for us as well as for those disciples. Today’s Gospel includes the last portion of Mark chapter 10. There we find one last event recorded before Jesus enters Jerusalem. The event was the miraculous healing of a blind man by the name of Bartimaeus. Of course there are lessons to be learned here as well, lessons about faith and about suffering. A blind man was made to see, but just as importantly, he was made to see Jesus as he truly is. That is a lesson that we need to learn over and over, to see Jesus as he is. See what Jesus does with suffering. Mark tells us that Jesus and his disciples were leaving the city of Jericho when they met this man. His name was Bartimaeus. Bartimaeus sat outside Jericho and begged. That was all that he could do. He sat along the roadside so that he could ask for help from all the travelers who wandered by. But on that particular day, he had a particular traveler pass by. It was Jesus. The Scriptures tell us nothing about how or how well Bartimaeus knew Jesus. But they tell us that he reacted by calling out to Jesus. He referred to Jesus as “Son of David,” a reference to the promises in the Old Testament about the Savior. Bartimaeus knew Jesus was someone special. He cried out for him. Unfortunately, the people around Jesus and Bartimaeus told the man to quiet down. But he didn’t. He continued to cry out, louder and louder. And then Jesus stopped and called out for Bartimaeus. This is what Jesus wanted. Jesus wanted Bartimaeus to cry out to him and to persistently seek him. Jesus wanted to summon Bartimaeus and to talk with him. No one else on the road was crying out for Jesus. They were trying to quiet the one who was. But Bartimaeus is doing everything he can. He can’t help himself. He can’t relieve his own blindness or make himself see. The blind beggar on the side of the road can only keep begging. It doesn’t matter how hard he works or how earnestly he tries. He is and will remain blind. This suffering forces Bartimaeus to give up on himself. It forces him to cry out to someone else, to someone who can do something about it. This is what Jesus wanted. He used suffering to make Bartimaeus cry out to him, the Son of David, the promised one.
What a different reaction to Jesus we find here compared to that of the rich young man from earlier in the journey. That man came to Jesus, but he didn’t cry out for him. He thought that Jesus might have something for him, but only on his own terms. He wanted what Jesus had to offer, but he wanted his wealth even more. Not blind Bartimaeus. He cried out after Jesus again and again. And when the people rebuked him, he cried out even more. He knew who Jesus was and what he could do. And Bartimaeus wanted that more than anything. So often this is true: when we have what we want, when we should be most thankful to God for the blessings that he has given us, we aren’t. We get caught up in the material blessings. We get accustomed to the joy or the satisfaction. We have what we need and what we want, and it is easy to forget about God who gave these things to us or to remember that we still need him, that we always need him. So at times, God allows hardships or suffering into our lives. He uses these things to make us cry out for him. He uses them as reminders that we cannot do it on our own, that we do need to cry out like Bartimaeus, “Have mercy on me.” See what Jesus does with suffering. He uses it to make us cry out. And he uses suffering to reveal himself. He uses it to show who he really is. Bartimaeus cried out to Jesus. He wanted to see and believed that Jesus could make that happen for him. And he was right. Jesus is true God with the almighty power to command blindness to change to sight. And Jesus did exactly that for Bartimaeus. And the crowd saw it, and Bartimaeus witnessed it. Jesus is something special. He is someone worth listening to and following. He is someone worth trusting. In fact, Jesus applauds the faith of Bartimaeus. That is amazing, too, since even this faith was a gift that Jesus had given him. But Bartimaeus, who for the whole day had been sitting and begging, went home seeing and believing. He went home forgiven. He knew that Jesus was not just a powerful miracle worker. He is the Son of God and the Savior. See what Jesus does with suffering? He takes it away and reveals himself as the allpowerful Savior. But wait. He doesn’t always do that. He doesn’t always end suffering when we ask. It is not his promise that everything will work out just the way that we expect it to work out. Sometimes his answer when we cry out is “No.” Sometimes it is “Wait” or “Not yet!” And still in those times Jesus uses suffering to reveal himself to us. He uses suffering to show us who he really is. He is the one who will be with us and will see us through our suffering. And it will be worth it in the end. It is his promise to us that he will use all things, even sufferings, and perhaps especially sufferings, to keep us faithful to him until he welcomes us into heaven. Suffering shows us that Jesus is our Savior. That is who he really is. He wants more for us than just life in this sinful world. He travels to Jerusalem this one last time in order to suffer. There he will be betrayed. There he will be whipped and beaten. There he will be hung on a cross and there he will die for the sins of the world. He is the Savior who suffers so that one day in heaven we will no longer have to suffer. And in our current sufferings, that is the Jesus who reveals himself to us. He is worth holding on to because he is the only way out of suffering. He is worth holding on to more than money or wealth, more even than any of the good gifts he has given us in this life. He uses suffering to show us who he really is. He is more than a friend or a mentor. He is our Savior. He is the almighty God. See what Jesus does with suffering. He controls it yet allows it into our lives. He uses it to lead us to cry out to him. He uses it to lead us to see him as he is. He leads us to believe in him. And he leads us through suffering to eternal life without suffering. To him be glory forever.
The Text: Mark 10:46–52 (NIV) 46 Then
they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48 Many
rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on
me!” 49 Jesus
stopped and said, “Call him.”
So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” 50 Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. 51 “What do
you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him.
The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” 52 “Go,”
said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.