Shout
Even Louder
Last
weekend my daughter Emma was home from college for Fall Break. Rick was on a
youth retreat, so we were left to enjoy a “Girls Weekend”. We treated ourselves
to hair appointments on Friday … I changed my hair color, and while my color
was setting, Emma had her hair cut. I
sat about ten feet away from where she was enjoying her time in the stylist
chair and listened as the two of them regaled each other with those stories we
all tend to share while sitting in that chair. Emma is a very expressive
storyteller and she is VERY LOUD. She has always been VERY LOUD, and Friday was
no exception. Over blowing hair dryers I heard all about her roommate, her
education class, her plans for the weekend. I wanted to jump up and tell her
how loud she was being and that she probably should tone it down.
Growing
up as a girl, I learned that silence is golden. Society tells us as children to
pipe down. We are “shushed” to death at
home, school, library, stores and even church. We start thinking that being
silent is preferable to being vocal. We
hear, “Don’t speak unless you have something nice to say, don’t speak unless
spoken to, watch your mouth, hush up and zip your lip”. There are many ways to silence us and make us
believe there is something wrong with speaking out or sharing what’s on our
minds. We all get those messages to some extent, but I believe Girls internalize
that message. It changes who we were
created to be. I remembered what it was
like to be “shushed” … and for once, I chose not to quiet my daughter.
Our
story today is about a man who refused to be hushed! Bartimaeus was a man who had lost his sight
and was forced to become a beggar. There
weren’t other options for employment as a disabled person in first century
Israel. Bartimaeus is found by the side of the road as Jesus and his followers were
leaving Jericho. Here was a man, sitting
in the dirt, wearing a tattered cloak and waiting for a handout. Can you think
of any people you encounter who are in similar situations today?
Somehow
Barty hears that Jesus is there. We don’t know who he heard this from, or how
he has knowledge of who Jesus is, but it is obvious that he KNOWS WHO JESUS IS!
He shouts out “Jesus, Son of David, show me mercy!” He not only knows who Jesus is, he knows a
lot about him. First off, he calls him “Son of David” which is a term that has
not been previously used in Mark’s Gospel.
Calling him “Son of David” means that Bartimaeus understands that Jesus
is a descendent of David and subsequently that Jesus is royalty. David was a
king, therefor David’s son must also be a King. Bartimaeus knows Jesus better
than the Disciples do. He asks Jesus to
“Show Me Mercy” … He knows that Jesus is someone who pays attention to people
on the margins. He calls out to be noticed.
Let’s
pretend for a moment that we are in the crowd … what do we in the crowd
do? We hate this! We aren’t supposed to
notice the people on the fringes. The unsubstantial beggar is not worry of our
attention and frankly, should not be annoying us with his loud voice calling up
from the dirt. “Shut up Bartimaeus”, we can hear ourselves saying. “ Jesus has
much better things to do than deal with the likes of you! Shut up, get out of
the way, and don’t cause any trouble.”
But
Bartimaeus refuses to be ignored and he SHOUTS EVEN LOUDER, “Son of David, show
me mercy!” As Barty fans, we love the
gumption this guy has! You go
Bartimaeus, you speak your truth buddy! As members of the crowd, however, don’t
we hate that this guy is so annoying? How dare he keep yelling when we told him
to be quiet. Why does he insist on
getting Jesus’ attention when we obviously deserve it much more because we are
behaving!
Jesus
could have very easily walked over to Bartimaeus himself. All of us in the
crowd could have watched in silence as he approached the blind man. But
instead, Jesus actually makes us deal with our own lack of compassion by telling
us to get Bartimaeus and bring him forward. We have to move ourselves to make
way for Bartimaeus. We have to be inconvenienced by the source of our
inconvenience. We have to help the
person we tried to silence. This is a
gentle slap in the face from Jesus … “why are you spending your energy trying
to silence others, when you should be showing them the way and helping them
come to me!?” The truth of that really
stings, doesn’t it? How many times have we shushed or ignored someone in need? For
me, it’s quite a few and I’m ashamed.
The
story continues on without the crowd. Now it is just Jesus and Barty, face to
face. It is interesting to notice that
when Bartimaeus gets up to go to Jesus he does two things … one he throws off
his coat. This is the only possession that he has. His coat protects him from the elements, the
road, and the disdain of others. His
coat is the one thing that he has to keep close by his side as a blind man …
his coat, he just tosses it aside. This seems like a foolish action, because
throwing something away in the midst of a crowd almost guarantees that you will
never see it again. But instead of being foolish, let’s remember that he really
knows who Jesus is! He knows Jesus is capable of healing and he trusts that
after this encounter he will no longer be blind and he will no longer be a
beggar, he won’t need that coat. His health and his economic situation will be
transformed. The second thing that
Bartimaeus does is he JUMPS up. He doesn’t just rise up from the dirt by the
side of the road … he leaps to his feet to get to Jesus. Bartimaeus knows time is now, and he has to GO!
Jesus
asks him a question that we have heard him ask before. “What do you want me to
do for you?” You might remember that we heard the same question asked in last
week’s story when Jesus talked to James & John. Their answer to this
question was they wanted to be made his favorites … to be put ahead of all
others in eternity. Bartimaeus answers the same question simply,
“Teacher, I want to see.” He voiced this request with the confidence that Jesus
could deliver what he asked. And deliver
he does. He is healed from his blindness. Bartimaeus is no longer a beggar. Amen, am I
right?
This
story is even more interesting when we put it in context with the last several
chapters of the Gospel of Mark. This middle section of Mark begins and ends
with stories of Jesus healing a blind man. In between these healings, are
stories of Jesus instructing and showing the disciples who he truly was,
followed by them failing to understand his true nature and acting in ways
contrary to his teachings. Jesus shares with them three times the difficult road
to come … he will travel to Jerusalem where he will be ridiculed, beaten,
persecuted and killed and after three days will rise. In response to this news,
the disciples jockey for position, and try to keep people away from Jesus. They
just don’t get it. Jesus must have been
tired with their inability to understand and react. I’m guessing Jesus gets
tired of our inability to understand and react.
This makes Bartimaues’ interaction with Jesus even more powerful. The
lowliest of society is the one who gets it. Those who traveled with the teacher
continually miss the mark. The person in the dirt understands. What does say to
us? Do we need to be at our lowest
point, our most broken and needy selves to recognize who Jesus is and what a
life walked in faith with him can be? That is a big price to pay. THAT, my
friends is something to ponder!
The
story of Bartimaeus is a story of healing. It’s a story of recognizing Jesus. But
it’s also a story of calling. The story
ends like this, ‘At once he was able to see, and he began to follow Jesus on
the way.” Bartimaeus was healed and
transformed and he immediately followed
Jesus. He hit the trail with the
crew. Bartimaeus is the only person
who was healed by Jesus and then chose to follow him. Bartimaeus immediately followed him on what
would be his final journey. It’s a short
15 mile journey, and the destination was Jerusalem. And we all know what happened in
Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the beginning
of the end.
The
story of Bartimaeus and Jesus challenges us.
It is a call to live in the Kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is full of people who are
broken, seeking, blind and poor. Sometimes we ARE the people in the crowd …
our human nature is to hush and ignore the outsider, and to place ourselves as
more important. Survival of the
fittest. But in Jesus’ reaction to the
crowd, we understand that Kingdom people put others first. Kingdom people seek out the broken, the wounded
and the forgotten … they don’t leave them in the dirt and the certainly don’t
hush them. How do we as Flossmoor
Community Church rate as a crowd? Do we
seek out the poor, the disabled, the broken to participate in our life of faith
or do we hush and hide them? Do you
think the poor, the disabled and the broken feel welcome at FCC? This might be an area we need to work on …
Not
only are Kingdom people called to seek out the broken, they ARE the
broken. Bartimaeus is a Kingdom
person. Bartimaeus refused to be left in
the dirt, Bartimaeus ignored the crowd who told him to be quiet and instead he
SHOUTED EVEN LOUDER. Bartimaeus knew
that being quiet would leave him in the dirt with only a coat to his name. When no one else spoke up for Bartimaeus, he
chose to speak for himself. The result
of speaking up was a transformed life and a journey with Jesus.
So
where is your breaking point? When will
you find yourself speaking up for Bartimaeus?
When will you stand alongside someone who is broken and help them speak
out? We spend our lives trying to not
ruffle feathers. We bite our tongues and
censor our thoughts. But a life with Jesus demands that we speak
up for those who can’t. A life with
Jesus demands that we not only speak the truth, but we shout it out even louder! I’m not sure who those people are that YOU
need to find beside the road… who are those YOU need to encourage to call out
to Jesus, “Show me Mercy”, those that you long to help and encourage to rise up
out of the dirt. The “Way” that Jesus
invites us to, is a road that is littered with broken people, unjust people,
forgotten children, and wounded families.
The Way is where we SHOUT EVEN LOUDER for those who can’t. The Way is a path that we walk with others,
trying to change the way things are .
The way is a journey that unites us with Jesus, with God, and with
others intent on bringing God’s Kingdom to everyone, right here and right
now.
May
you discover your voice.
May
you find those broken people who need your shouting voice to advocate for them.
May
we never silence a child, a stranger, a friend, or ourselves.
May
we provide megaphones so that every voice can be heard.
May
Flossmoor Community Church discern where we are called to be a loud voice in
the community and the world.
BENEDICTION
Seek
the blind and bring them to Jesus!
Shout
even louder for those who have no voice!
Throw
out your coat and follow Jesus!
The
way may not be easy, but we know that it is worth it!
Go
in peace to love and serve the Lord!
Amen
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