Mark 10:46-52 [Pentecost 23 CWS B]
Pastor Ron Koehler Grace—Benson/Vail
October 28, 2018
Dear Friends in Christ, If you were to list the ways that you have suffered during your life…or are suffering now, how long would the list be? And as you scanned your list, what things would stand out? It might be the things that happened because you did something dumb. I have things like that. I split my head open and got stitches because I did something to my brother and he chased me through the house. I jumped in the bathtub and cracked my scalp open on the soap dish. Kinda’ dumb. Maybe not as dumb as hitting a basketball with a baseball bat and having it bounce off and split my head open another time, but still dumb. We’ve probably all got things we’ve suffered because we did sinful things too. We suffered being grounded because we disobeyed parents. We disobeyed the government and had to pay the traffic fine…and a bump in insurance rates too. Yeah, we earn some of that suffering we endure. But there are things we suffer simply because they happen to us. We’re minding our own business and we suffer at the hands of another person. We’re born with some particular thing that causes us difficulty throughout our lives—we’re diabetic or have a congenital heart issue or something with our hearing or our speech or a host of other things. That was the kind of thing caused Bartimaeus to suffer; it was a physical affliction that reduced him to begging for help just to get by. For whatever reason, God allowed that in his life just as God allows some of these other things in our lives. Instead of blaming God or sitting there with an unanswerable question like, “How can a loving God allow this or that suffering to go on?”, we can learn something today. We can learn something about why some suffering goes on and we can definitely learn how to handle our suffering as we think about the day that Bartimaeus met Jesus. Look at Bartimaeus for an Example of What to do when Suffering Call to Jesus for Mercy Blindness is a difficult thing to live with. It is no secret that many people who have no eyesight lead wonderful, productive lives. People who are born without sight know nothing other than that and find ways to function in a world where most have a benefit they do not have. And our modern world has all kinds of blessings to assist someone who is blind. The Braille system has been around since 1820. It allows for reading and writing. Think of all the audio blessings as well—radio, TV, online resources, cell phones. None of that was available in Israel in 30 AD! We don’t know if the man we meet in the gospel today was born blind or if he became blind, but it doesn’t really matter; Bartimaeus was blind and it was a hardship even more severe than it is today.