I want to see

i October 25, 2015 Mark 10:46-52 I want to see Year B 22nd Sunday after Pentecost If you could ask Jesus for one thing that would make all the difference in your life, what would it be? There are so many different things going on in my life, it would be hard to ask for just one thing. The gospel lesson for today tells the story of just one wish granted. This is the story of Bartimaeus. Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem, this will be the last miracle that he performs along the way. Every one was supposed to make it to Jerusalem for Passover. But in reality not everyone made it. those who could not afford the trip themselves, would line up along the main roads and cheer the pilgrims along the way. So as Jesus passed threw Jericho, the last major city before Jerusalem, there were crowds who has heard of his reputation gathered to cheer him along. In that crowd was a blind begger man, waiting for Jesus. He calls out Lord have mercy on me. Jesus responds what do you want, He says that I want to see. Jesus heals him, and in gratitude he joins with the followers of Jesus and continues the journey to Jerusalem. That is actually my sermon for today – he asks for mercy, Jesus asks what he wants, he gets it and lives a life of gratitude. Now there are actually 3 stories of Jesus healing a blind man in the bible. So I preach about the blind being able to see a lot. If you read the book of Mark – two of those stories happen in Jericho, in chapter 8 of Mark Jesus heals a blind man, and now again in chapter 9. Making the blind to see is a sign of the coming messiah. There are many ways to be blind. But this time I noticed something else about this scripture. Not so much that Jesus healed him. But he knew exactly what to ask for. Son of David, have mercy on me - to ask for mercy is to ask someone to pay your debts –I could use a lot of mercy. When Jesus asks him what that means- he says Jesus I want to see. How many of us are willing to say that we want to see. How many of us are willing to really see the world as it is. I think that we spend most of our lives - not wanting to see. Not wanting to deal with the hurts and pains of life. Painting our own pictures. When we do see the world as it really is, it is an accident. And yet here this man is saying I want to see. John 9 tells of Jesus healing the son of Timaeus of blindness. And the question is asked –who sinned this man or his relatives. In this story- Bar means son of - so Bartimaeus is Timaues’s son. As a blind man, all that he can do is sit on the streets and beg. When he hears that Jesus is coming to town –he knows that he has hit the jackpot. In a lot of ways when we pray – we too are beggers. Asking the master to have mercy on us. As a matter of fact, the church is a community of beggers, when we reach out to others, we are beggers reaching out to other beggers, telling them where to get some bread –Jesus is the bread of life. Jesus gives us life, Jesus gives us salvation. If there was one thing in your life that would make all of the difference in the world – what would it be? Do you have the courage to ask Jesus to see? See life as God sees your life, not as you want it to be? To be healed –to be made whole. Salvation comes from the same root as salve. A solution to make you whole and complete. Text Illustration: Illus.: “When Blind Eyes Were Opened” D.L. Moody, the famed evangelist, told this story at one of his meetings: One evening just before Christmas, a man was walking through the streets of an Eastern city. The store windows were all beautifully decorated, and he observed three little girls intensely interested in one of them. He discovered that the girl in the center was blind, and the others were trying to describe the beautiful things in the window. “Why,” they said, “can’t you see that Teddy bear and that doll? Just look at that pretty pink bow!” But the poor little girl stood with a blank expression on her face and could not appreciate the beautiful things before her. “Now,” said Moody, “this is an illustration of the effort we Christians are making to arouse the unconverted to an interest and delight in spiritual things. The reason we can’t do so is because the sinner is spiritually blind.” Moody had scarcely concluded when a reporter was on the platform asking him where he had heard that story. “Oh,” said Moody, “I read it in one of those daily papers. I have forgotten which one.” Then the reporter said, “I’m the one who wrote the story because I was there and saw the whole thing. I see now that I’m just like that little girl, spiritually blind.” That man was converted then and there. 836 Correct Use Of The Eyes A bishop of the early church, who was a remarkable example of the virtue of contentment, was asked his secret. The venerable old man replied: “It consists in nothing more than making a right use of my eyes. In whatever state I am, I first of all look up to heaven and remember that my principal business here is to get there. Then I look down upon the earth, and call to mind how small a place I shall occupy in it when I die and am buried. I then look around in the world, and observe what multitudes there are who are in many respects more unhappy than myself. Thus I learn where true happiness is placed, where all our cares must end, and what little reason I have to complain.” —Foster There is a significant variant reading of this text in an old Gospel translation called the Sinaitic Syriac. When Jesus asked the man what he wished. Our common version says, “Master, let me receive my sight.” That is the answer we might expect. It would certainly be our answer, for I can imagine that of all the terrible afflictions of humankind, blindness must surely be one of the worst. But the Sinaitic Syriac version has it: “That I might see Thee!” Religiously, that is by far the most significant statement. Either way, recovery of sight for this man was seeing Jesus! An old Black preacher was once asked what he intended to do when he got to heaven. He bowed his head for a moment, then raised his dark face, wrinkled with the years, and replied, “I’m gonna sit down for a thousand years and LOOK AT JESUS!” If there is anything that our troubled old world needs more than this, I do not know what it is. “Lord, that we might see Jesus!” The good news of the gospel is that we don’t have to wait until we get to heaven to see Jesus. We can see him right here on earth. When we see those who are less fortunate then ourselves, when we forgive those who have wronged us, when we show love and kindness to all of God’s children - we see Jesus. To gaze upon Jesus is the way to be saved. Life is beautiful when we open our eyes to the sight of Jesus. The Blessings of Sight I read an impressive story about a blind man who lives on the streets of New York City. On a beautiful day in the month of May people were enjoying a spring morning. Their emotions were stirred when they came upon this blind beggar who carried a sign reading: "It is spring and I am blind." The blind man knew there was beauty all around him: spring flowers, blossoming shrubs and trees, newly-sprouted leaves, but he could only imagine how wonderful all that beauty was. It must be vexing to smell spring in the air but not be able to witness it or during this wonderful time of year to hear the rustling of Fall’s leaves but never see their brilliant colors. Do we fully appreciate the blessings of sight which God has given us? Are we moved to express gratitude for so wonderful a physical sense? Do we see the gift so graciously given. Harold H. Lentz, Preaching the Miracles, CSS Publishing. Adapted The miracles of life are all around us. We have to pray for God to expand our sight – to see all that God has in store for us. To see the opportunity in the bad news, to see the joy in the pain, to see the success in the struggle, to see the peace, in the adversity. No matter whether our blindness is physical or spiritual – there is always more for us to see in God’s light. The story of Bartimaues has a lesson for us all. The last sentence of chapter ten sums up all that has gone before. It says, simply, “And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the way.” (10:52) When the shepherds heard the Christmas message, they rose up and went to Bethlehem. When Peter, James, and John heard Jesus’ call at the Sea of Galilee, they left their nets and went off to follow Him. When Bartimaeus heard Jesus’ call, he rose up to to follow Him “on the way.” When we hear Jesus’ call... Amen. Other illustrations……. The Power of Observation Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, told a story on himself. He was waiting for a taxi outside the railway station in Paris. When the taxi pulled up, he put his suitcase in it and then got in the taxi. As he was about to tell the taxi-driver where he wanted to go, the driver asked him: "Where can I take you, Mr. Doyle?" Doyle was astounded. He asked the driver if he knew him by sight. The driver said: "No Sir, I have never seen you before." Doyle was puzzled and asked him how he knew he was Arthur Conan Doyle. The driver replied: "This morning's paper had a story that you were on vacation in Marseilles. This is the taxi-stand where people who return from Marseilles always wait. Your skin color tells me you have been on vacation. The ink-spot on your right index finger suggests to me that you are a writer. Your clothing is very English, and not French. Adding up all those pieces of information, I deduce that you are Sir Arthur Conan Doyle." Doyle exclaimed, "This is truly amazing. You are a real-life counter-part to my fictional creation, Sherlock Holmes." "There is one other thing," the driver said. "What is that?" Doyle asked. "Your name is on the front of your suitcase." It wasn't the powers of deduction. It was the power of observation. That taxi driver's lenses were clean enough to observe what was going on around him. Billy D. Strayhorn, From the Pulpit, CSS Publishing Company, Inc. Let Me See When my wife and I were in Tanzania, we felt like socio-economic minorities for the first time in our lives. At worship, we were the only white faces in a sea of black. In the market, we weren't merely the only Caucasians; we were among the few wearing shoes! Everywhere we went, we were the wealthy, healthy ones. When we were approached by a roving gang of small children rushing toward us in Mlafu, we assumed they would beg for money. My wife clutched her purse, and I felt for my billfold. Here came the poorest of the poor! And when the children finally reached us, do you know what they asked for? They asked, "Will you take my picture? Will you take my picture?" And when we had snapped several photos of these beautiful children, they began to squeal with delight "Now let me see it! Let me see what you see!" Ultimately, that was the request of the blind man that Jesus met on the road outside of Jericho that day. The man simply wanted to see what everyone else saw. But the real miracle that day is that, when the man gained his sight, he chose to follow Jesus. He was not satisfied to merely see the sights, to find familiar faces and places in his hometown. He wanted to see the world from Jesus' point of view ... to see the people and the places and the problems and the possibilities that Jesus saw. Steven Molin, Sermons for Sundays after Pentecost (Last Third):The Final Exam, CSS Publishing Company, Inc. Treat Life as a Miracle Wendell Berry has suggested that "to treat life as less than a miracle is to give up on it." Well, today, eagerly, painfully, obediently, Bartimaeus refuses to give up on the miracle called life, the miracle called faith, the miracle called Jesus. He jumps up and grabs the guts and the grace of the Christian life. And he calls us to do the same. Susan Andrews, How Eager Are You? The year 1983 marked the five-hundredth anniversary of the great reformer, Martin Luther, whose stature increases with time. Found by his deathbed, scrawled in German and Latin, was this declaration: “We are beggars: That is true.” This statement may have inspired D. T. Niles to say, “Evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar where he can find a piece of bread.” Not a sweet roll and a cup of coffee, but a bite of the staff of life—bread! The church is a fellowship of beggars, receiving and offering love, support, and hope. Committed Christians acknowledge their dependence upon God and their interdependence on one another. They are always in the bread line, if not receiving, then giving.