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.