Discipleship

Mid-week Holy Communion at St Giles Thursday 3 March 2011

Gospel Mark 10

Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark.
All Glory to you, O Lord.

Blind Bartimaeus Receives His Sight

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.

This is the Gospel of the Lord.
All Praise to you, O Christ.

Sermon

Discipleship – one of main themes of John’s gospel. Others are suffering – Jesus fulfils destiny by suffering and dying; and person of Jesus – who and what is he?

Today’s reading about blind man Bartimaeus comes at end of big chunk of teaching on discipleship. What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus, Son of God? (8:34 – 10:52).

Means following Jesus in way of the Cross – sharing his suffering and perhaps death too.

Account of healing of a blind man starts and ends block of teaching on Discipleship. Bar-timaeus comes at end. Acted out parable – not just an event when a man was cured of his affliction.

This means a message about discipleship. Bartimaeus is given back his sight. This symbolised the true insight required of all who want to be disciples of Christ.

How do we know this? Because of the way the healing is presented to us.

· Jesus is called Son of David – a rare name representing the Messiah, who is the one who comes to save.

· Second, Jesus asks What do you want me to do for you? It’s obvious. The question, if it’s only an enquiry, sounds almost callous. Bartimaeus cannot just me made a disciple. He must ask. He must want it. So he replies Let me see again. That means the insight of a disciple.

· Third, Jesus makes it clear his faith has made him well. It’s not just a miracle. It’s not just the action of the Messiah that has restored his sight. It required faith on the part of the blind man.

· Lastly, unlike other similar healings when men are sent away, told to show themselves to the priests, or sworn to silence, Bartimaeus after regaining his sight follows Jesus on the way. He becomes a full disciple and follows Jesus.

None of this takes anything away from the miracle. Clearly Jesus healed many people. That’s evident from his mission as portrayed in all the gospels. But we have to read the gospels at many levels. Some stories are harder to interpret, and theologians differ as to the interpretation. This one is clear, and calls us to discipleship as we read about the miraculous healing. Jesus might as well have said Follow me which is what he says to us today. Amen