Sermon Seeds: Take Heart

Sunday, October 27, 2024
Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost | Year B
(Liturgical Color: Green)

Lectionary Citations
Job 42:1-6, 10-17 and Psalm 34:1-8, (19-22) OR Jeremiah 31:7-9 and Psalm 126 • Hebrews 7:23-28 • Mark 10:46-52
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts/?z=p&d=81&y=382

Focus Scripture: Mark 10:46-52
Focus Theme: Take Heart
Series: Here I Am…Testing and Tested (Click here for the series overview.)

Reflection
By Cheryl A. Lindsay

When I was in high school, downtown shopping in Cleveland had a bit of a renaissance. One day, I was walking to a department store on the public square when a man yelled at me, “Hey Beaumont, you need Jesus!” I attended Beaumont School for Girls, a catholic high school, and was wearing a school jacket with the name emblazoned on the back. This man did not know me, but he had a way to call him, identify me, and single me out. It was his routine. He did this daily for years, calling out people walking to and from work, shopping, or public transportation and telling all within earshot that they needed Jesus.

It was a deeply embarrassing moment for my teenage self even though I had no problem believing that I need Jesus. The man’s assumption that I somehow had not encountered Jesus was offensive, and embedded in his blistering delivery, a further assumption that something was inherently wrong with me, my choices, or my life.

The scene in the gospel narrative presents differently. It’s Jesus who is walking by, and a man on the side of the road calls out his need for Jesus.

The story begins with Bartimaeus sitting by the way, in a marginal position compared to his disciples and a great crowd who are leaving Jericho (10:46). Overhearing that the renowned healer from Nazareth is nearby, he cries out for help, using both Jesus’s name and a messianic title: “Son of David, Jesus, have mercy on me!” (10:47). When many people (presumably including the disciples) command him to be silent, he cries out all the more: “Son of David, have mercy on me!” (10:48). Most interpreters have equated Bartimaeus’s blindness with lack of intellectual and spiritual insight, and associated the disciples’ metaphorical blindness to the meaning of Jesus’s ministry with the blind man’s physical disability (Beavis 1998, 23). For example, Ernest Best argues that the title “Son of David” is placed on the lips of a blind person (Mark 10:47–48) because it is an inaccurate understanding of who Jesus is. According to Best, Mark included the incident for the positive symbolism inherent in the curing of blindness: “‘to see’ is to go with Jesus to the cross” (cf. v. 52b), whereas to identify Jesus as “son of David” is to be “blind.” In this line of interpretation, the blindness of Bartimaeus symbolizes the misunderstanding of the disciples regarding Jesus’s true identity, which is revealed in the remainder of the Gospel. Only when Bartimaeus receives his sight does he attain true understanding (of the identity of Jesus).
Mary Ann Beavis

It is the last of the Markan miracle stories. In fact, the section ends with the healing of Bartimaeus, and the next session is the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. This story is pivotal in the Markan narrative. The time of preparation, demonstration, and instruction has concluded. The Passion is set to begin. In addition to testimony, Bartimaeus’ story offers a progression of discipleship that leads the transformed man to follow Jesus, a journey that will take them to Jerusalem, the center of communal identity and faith practice.

Mark finishes this section with the healing of blind Bartimaeus (10:46–52). He is the first person to call Jesus the “Son of David” (10:47–48) and thus to convey the political implications of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem. According to the Hebrew Scriptures, God promised the throne of Israel to David and his descendants forever (2 Sam. 7:16). It was therefore expected that the Messiah would be a descendant (son) of David (Isa. 11:1; Jer. 23:5–6). As son of David, Jesus is a threat to both Roman and Jewish leadership. The blind man sees the very thing that Jesus has foretold in his passion predictions.
Racquel S. Lettsome

Bartimaeus possesses a spiritual recognition and understanding that the disciples who have been close companions and confidants lack. He only needs to hear that Jesus is near to begin to cry out. Notably, he asks for mercy not for sight immediately. Bartimaeus begins by getting Jesus’ attention. He wants Jesus to recognize his presence as he has acknowledged Jesus, and he will not be deterred. When others would have him be silent, he only increased his volume. He has to shout because he doesn’t know the distance separating him from Jesus; therefore, his volume assures him that Jesus will hear his voice even if the one he seeks is far removed from him.

Bartimaeus acts on faith and pleads in hope. His life has him on the margins and on the bottom tiers of his society. He has a physical disability which his culture uses to ostracize him. He must beg to survive. He is overly dependent on his hearing, and that becomes a strength for him as he has learned to trust what he hears as truth even though he cannot see it.

Jesus does not rebuke Bartimaeus for using the title, nor does he reject it; instead, Jesus stops and has his companions call the man, who despite his blindness has no difficulty locating the messiah: And jumping up, casting off his cloak, he went to Jesus (10:50). Due to the centrality of the language of “calling” in the pericope (10:49), the identification of the story as a call narrative has received some acceptance. Several scholars have interpreted the man’s blindness as indicative of his prophetic insight, since both ancient Jewish and Greek tradition recognizes that blindness may be compensated for by brighter spiritual vision. Rather than letting others speak for the blind man, Jesus asks the man what he wants: And the blind man says to him, “Rabbouni, let me see!” (10:51). Instead of performing the utterances and manipulations associated with the previous healings of the deaf and blind, Jesus proclaims that the man’s own faith has healed/saved him. The man receives physical sight because of his spiritual perceptiveness: And he followed him in the way (10:52b). Bartimaeus moves from the wayside to a position on the road as a disciple of Jesus rather than returning to his former life like the recipients of the other healings.
Mary Ann Beavis

Jesus does not treat Bartimaeus as if he has an impediment. On some level, it seems odd that Jesus would not come to him. Rather, Jesus assumes that Bartimaeus is able to navigate his life and says, presumably to the disciples, to call Bartimaeus to him. Jesus encourages Bartimaeus to meet him, not as a beggar on the side of the road, but with an invitation not unlike that Jesus offered to his closest companions. This time, it’s delivered through the disciples, in a preview of the authority and responsibility that will be delegated to them once Jesus’ earthly ministry concludes. They tell Bartimaeus to, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.”

It’s a message for Bartimaeus, for the Markan community, and for the church today. Take heart. Get up. Jesus is calling.

Reflection from Voices of People of African Descent
The 33rd General Synod adopted a Resolution to Recognize the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024). As part of its implementation, Sermon and Weekly Seeds offers Reflection from Voices of People of African Descent related to the season or overall theme for additional consideration in sermon preparation and for individual and congregational study.
I no longer demand belief where there is tension. If the divine is all-knowing, I suspect they understand why I find it difficult to believe in a God who’s loving or kind or listening at all in a world of so much sorrow and injustice. Our doubts are credible. Our disbelief, human. And I see no need for us to force one another to resolve them under the false promise of salvation or nearness to God.
I’m not a person of certainty. It is not a lack of conviction that I feel, rather a complete conviction of divine mystery. I’ve never heard the voice of God. I’ve never felt them calling out to me in the pits of despair. I don’t know what I think about the Trinity, and I don’t know a thing about heaven or hell or the in-between. I know that trees die and come back to life and it’s beautiful, and the right sunset steadies my breath. I know that my sister will answer when I call, and she’ll always take the first sip when I don’t trust the milk. I know my name and the sound of my gramma’s voice speaking it. Maybe this is what belief will always look like for me. Fragments of beauty at rest with divine mystery. “My God has another name.” With doubt, C
Cole Arthur Riley

For Further Reflection
“The heart is an arrow. It demands aim to land true.” ― Leigh Bardugo
“Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.” ― Mahatma Gandhi
“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Works Cited
Beavis, Mary Ann. Mark (Paideia: Commentaries on the New Testament). Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011.
Lettsome, Raquel S. “Mark.” Gale A. Yee, Ed. Fortress Commentary on the Bible: Two Volume Set. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014.

Suggested Congregational Response to the Reflection
This sermon series invites us to explore the call to Christian discipleship and to examine our response. Consider the encouragement to ” Take heart, get up, Jesus is calling.” What journey is Jesus calling your faith community to take?

Worship Ways Liturgical Resources
https://www.ucc.org/worship-way/after-pentecost-23b-october-27/

The Rev. Dr. Cheryl A. Lindsay, Minister for Worship and Theology (lindsayc@ucc.org), also serves a local church pastor, public theologian, and worship scholar-practitioner with a particular interest in the proclamation of the word in gathered communities. You’re invited to share your reflections on this text in the comments on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SermonSeeds.

A Bible study version of this reflection is at Weekly Seeds.