Trinity Episcopal Church
Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Proper 26, October 29, 2006
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Job 42:1-6, 10-17
Psalm 34:1-8, 19-22
Hebrews 7:23-28
Mark 10:35-45
Collect of the Day
From the Revised Common Lectionary as Adapted for Use by the Episcopal Church
and Authorized by the 74 th General Convention of the ECUSA
[Jesus and the disciples] came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way. (Mark 10:46-52)
Jesus In My Oatmeal
The Rev. Dr. Bill Stroop
When I go to the grocery store, I sometimes look for the longest checkout line. I do this so that I have more time to read the tabloids. I just love those stories about what aliens do during an abduction. I like to know that Big Foot is still stalking campers in the Sierra Nevada. I like to read to my fellow food buyers about Pudgy Paulo Cipriani and his blubbery bride Benedetta, the world’s heaviest couple who together weigh more than 2,180 pounds, and who just had a baby boy weighing 28 pounds, 4 ounces – a new world record.[1] (At barely six months old, he now tips the scales at a whopping 130 pounds.)
A couple of times a year, usually around Christmas and Easter, the tabloids often contain “miracle stories.” These miracles usually describe a vision or an appearance.
In October of 1977, Maria Rubio was rolling up a burrito for her husband Eduardo’s breakfast, when she noticed a thumb-sized configuration of skillet burns on the tortilla that resembled the face of Jesus. Shortly thereafter, 8,000 curious pilgrims trekked to the Rubios’ small stucco house in rural New Mexico to view the sacred icon. Mrs. Rubio leaves her house unlocked so that visitors may freely enter and examine the tortilla. That story made an issue of Newsweek in 1978.[2]
In April of 2005, a steady stream of the faithful and the curious, many carrying flowers and candles, flocked under the Kennedy Expressway in Chicago to a view of a yellow and white stain on a concrete wall that some believed was an image of the Virgin Mary.[3]
Nothing seems to be too outrageous for a portrayal of Jesus or the Virgin Mary. Jesus has materialized on a Pizza Hut billboard in a plate of spaghetti; on a bowling alley chimney; reflected from a porch light onto a car bumper; on a diner place mat; and even on a dead priest’s shoe.[4]
Not only have miraculous images of Jesus and Mary been seen in some pretty wild places, miraculous monetary windfalls have also been attributed to divine intervention.
In Tamale, Ghana, a watchman and a lotto addict named Mr. Kofi Apiya, won a total of 2.6 million cedis, and claimed that Jesus Christ gave him the winning numbers in a vision. It seems that Mr. Apiya had decided to stop attending church when his prayers to win the lotto had gone unanswered. He said a month after he had stopped attending church, he sawJesus in a vision and demanded that Jesus give him winning lotto numbers. Jesus obliged, and showed him numbers in a cloud of smoke in a local Roman Catholic cathedral.[5]
Calling to Jesus in prayer had a positive outcome in another situation in Florida. WSVN, a Fox News Affiliate in Ft. Lauderdale, reported that a Roman Catholic priest at St. Mary’s in Pahokee, FL was given an icon of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus that was created in the 16th century and previously owned by Nicholas, the last Czar of Russia. Shortly after parishioners prayed before the icon, miracles began to happen. One woman’s son was cured of a serious skin disease. A previously infertile woman began to have children. The priest needed $39,000 for a youth center and was given $40,000 worth of stock. But the biggest miracle was yet to come. The priest began to pray for a million dollars to build a new church. Within a few months, a visitor came to mass one Sunday morning and quietly handed the priest a personal check for $500,000. Later the same donor gave him another $200,000. With the funds already received, the goal of $1 million was achieved.[6]
We laugh at many of these stories, but I think our laughter is a little nervous. We don’t know what to make of these stories, anymore than we know what to do with the miracle stories we find in the Bible. It seems a little unfair that God could appear as a pillar of smoke by day and fire by night to the escaping Israelites, and that Jesus could walk on the water and bring a dead man back to life in first-century Palestine, while the best we can do is squint our eyes to see an image on a piece of fried dough or the wall of a freeway underpass. We very much want to believe that God can and will intervene in our lives, and provide us with what we need. We very much want to believe that a heartfelt petition to God will be heard and acted upon like what Mark told us happened to Bartimaeus.
According to Mark, Bartimaeus (whose name is Bar Timaeus meaning “Son of Timaeus”) was a lone blind man healed by Jesus as he and the disciples left Jericho on their final fateful trip to Jerusalem. The story is a passionate one. Blind Bartimeus upon hearing that the crowd around him was unusually large and noisy because Jesus of Nazareth was among them, began to shout out “ Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” This is the first time we have heard this kind of language in Mark’s Gospel. “Son of David” evokes a powerful nostalgic longing – deeply rooted in the Jewish conscious of an anointed King, a legitimate heir to the throne of the great King David. It is a declaration of faith and conviction, said in total confidence. It is a sightless man who is able to see Jesus clearly.
Bartimaeus begs Jesus to let him see again. Bartimaeus shows a level of conviction that is rare. He didn’t care that the people told him to be quiet. He wasn’t concerned about any punishment that might come his way. And Jesus, moved by the man’s persistence and dedication, gave him what he asked for. Now that’s what we want of our miracles: some action!
But should we take this story seriously? Matthew and Luke also have a similar story, but they do not agree with Mark’s ordering of the facts. Matthew (20:29-35) has the healing as the men leave Jericho, but the healing is of two blind men, and the name of neither one is given. Luke (18:35-43), who does not provide a name either, disagrees with the other two sources and has the miracle occur when Jesus enters Jericho, instead of when he is leaves.
The miracle is not in the literal details about what Jesus did, but in how Bartimaeus responded to Jesus’ ministry. “‘Go,’ says Jesus, ‘your faith has had made you well.’ And immediately Bartimaeus regained his sight and he followed Jesus on his way to Jerusalem. Unlike the rich man who would not follow Jesus, Bartimaeus fell into step behind his master. And unlike the disciples who shook with fear, Bartimaeus simply displayed enthusiasm. He was probably one of the people in Jerusalem who shouted, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is the kingdom of our ancestor David!’”[7]
Bartimaeus was not just a consumer, a user of Jesus. He was not looking for an answer, a warm fuzzy feeling. He wasn’t looking to receive blessings by forwarding a prayerful email to 11 of his closest friends within five minutes. Bartimaeus wanted his sight restored so he could see where Jesus would go; what he would do. He wanted to partner with Jesus.
Miracles are not divine holograms floating in the sky or bizarre appearances in spaghetti bowls. A miracle happens when God makes a way. God can make a way in our lives when there seems to be no way. God can let love into our lives when perhaps we have given up thinking that would ever happen. Miracles are a sign of God’s active partnership with us – helping us to deal with the issues, removing the obstacles in our lives and in the life of this world. “God doesn’t solve problems for us. God solves problems with us.”[8]
We don’t know how long Bartimaeus had been blind, but I think it had been for some time. And when Jesus asked Bartimaeus what he wanted him to do, Bartimaeus said, “Let me see again.” And Bartimaeus got to see it all. He partnered with Jesus and followed him into Jerusalem. In the week or so following the restoration of his sight, Bartimaeus saw his healer and teacher arrested, cruelly beaten and mocked, tried, and then crucified as a political prisoner. How confusing this must have been. The son of David, who entered the city of his ancestor in triumph, dead on a cross. How incredibly sad. How infuriating. How tragically ironic! It might have been better to have remained blind and ignorant.
Ellie Weisel, is a Jewish historian and philosopher who wrote about the holocaust. When he grew up in a village in Hungary, he befriended a man named Moshe. Moshe cleaned the village synagogue. One day they got into a discussion about why people prayed; about why people asked things of God. Moshe said, ‘Every question poses a power that does not lie in the answer. Humans raise themselves to God by the questions they ask.” Ellie then asked Moshe, “Why do you pray?” “I pray,” Moshe said, “that God will give me the strength to ask the right questions.”
Our faith is more about asking the right questions than about finding the right answers; I’m not sure we would even know what right means, anyway. More than giving us the right answers in life, the Bible helps us how to ask the right questions of God. It’s in the asking that we drawer closer to God and to God’s will for our lives. And sometimes we will be blessed with exactly what we need and want at the time. And other times we will not. Like Bartimaeus, we might see wonderful things; we might experience things that are unpleasant, confusing, or hurtful. But we need to trust that God is right there with us, each and every step of the way.
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Then Job answered the LORD: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you declare to me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends; and the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then there came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and they ate bread with him in his house; they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him; and each of them gave him a piece of money and a gold ring. The LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters. He named the first Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. In all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job’s daughters; and their father gave them an inheritance along with their brothers. After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children, and his children’s children, four generations. And Job died, old and full of days.
1 I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2 My soul makes its boast in the LORD;
let the humble hear and be glad.
3 O magnify the LORD with me,
and let us exalt his name together.
4 I sought the LORD, and he answered me,
and delivered me from all my fears.
5 Look to him, and be radiant;
so your faces shall never be ashamed.
6 This poor soul cried, and was heard by the LORD,
and was saved from every trouble.
7 The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.
8 O taste and see that the LORD is good;
happy are those who take refuge in him.
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
but the LORD rescues them from them all.
20 He keeps all their bones;
not one of them will be broken.
21 Evil brings death to the wicked,
and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.
22 The LORD redeems the life of his servants;
none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.
Furthermore, the former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office; but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently he is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, blameless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he has no need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for those of the people; this he did once for all when he offered himself. For the law appoints as high priests those who are subject to weakness, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.
James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you. “ And he said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They replied, “We are able.” Then Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
Almighty and everlasting God, increase in us the gifts of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain what you promise, make us love what you command; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
[1] Accessed 26 October 206 at http://www.keepmedia.com/pubs/WeeklyWorldNews/2003/10/09/284010?extID=10037&oliID=229
[2] Reported in Newsweek on Aug. 14, 1978, and on line at http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/electronic-publications/stay-free/5/jesus.htm
[3] http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7570729/
[4] http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/NMLAKtortilla.html; http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/electronic-publications/stay-free/5/jesus.htm
[5] Accessed 26 October 2006 at http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=82933
[6] _______. “Miracle at St. Mary” Accessed 26 October 2006 at http://www1.wsvn.com/features/articles/investigations/MI20649/
[7] Timothy F. Merrill. “The King is Back.” Homiletics 18(5):68-72, 2006.
[8] Sam Williams as quoted in Timothy F. Merrill. “ The Fourth M: MIRACLE Miracle Workers.” Homiletics. October 23, 1994; accessed on line 26 October 2006 at http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/btl_display.asp? installment_id=2924&item_ id=24896&keywords=bartimaeus.
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Copyright © 2006, William G. Stroop - All Rights Reserved.
26 October 2006
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