Reflection: "Our Faith Makes Us Well"What a wonderful story we have this week from the Gospel of Mark!
The short form is: a blind man, forced to beg because of his disability, hears that Jesus is coming. He has faith and he shouts out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Jesus hears him, calls him, heals him and immediately, the man regains his sight and follows Jesus. Isn't that just the best story you've ever heard - a story of restored sight, of one who advocates for himself despite all the naysayers, a story of one who finds community in the companionship of Jesus' followers? "Let me see again!" the blind man says and Jesus ensures that he does. So, here's my question: Is seeing all it's cracked up to be? I only ask because of what's been happening with Jesus' disciples to this point. After half-healing another blind man on the first attempt a couple of chapters earlier (it actually took two attempts to restore that person's sight), Jesus works just as hard to open the eyes of the disciples. When they were in Caesarea Philippi, he tells them that "the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the religious authorities, and be killed, and after 3 days, rise again." Upon hearing this, Peter rebukes Jesus., because Peter’s faith is weak – he’s not well - he cannot see. Then, when they were passing on through Galilee, Jesus tells the disciples again that the Son of Man will be betrayed, killed, and will rise from the dead. "But," Mark tells us, "they did not understand and were afraid to ask him." They still couldn’t see. Yet again, as they are going up to Jerusalem - where he will be betrayed and killed - Jesus tries one last time to show the disciples what is about to transpire: The Son of Man will be handed over, be killed and rise from the dead. In an odd response to Jesus' words, the brothers James and John ask him for the honoured positions, the right- and left-hand seats, when Jesus comes into his glory. You can almost hear Jesus sighing, because James and John still don't get it – they don’t see. It's easy to criticize the disciples for their inability to understand the things Jesus is showing them. But the things he's showing them aren't easy concepts to grasp. Suffering? Betrayal? Death? That’s not what’s supposed to happen to the warrior Messiah, the one who’s come to save Israel. They were at a loss to understand what Jesus was telling them. Come to think of it, what might any of us do if our beloved teacher told us these things? Some things are just too hard to grasp and are better left alone - so sometimes seeing isn't all it's cracked up to be. That's especially true in our life of faith, isn't it? It's much easier to focus only on the happy parts of faith - God's love for everyone, God's desire for our well-being. But faith doesn't involve only the happy parts, does it? A mature faith also engages the hard things...things like suffering, betrayal, and death, poverty, human trafficking, corporate corruption, climate change, hunger and domestic violence, etc. All types of faith can look on just the happy parts of life, but a mature faith dares to look at the hard parts, too. But really seeing the hard parts of life exacts a price on us, doesn't it? When we see the world's brokenness, we lose some of our innocence, we suffer and don’t feel well. When we see the world's brokenness, we feel compelled to do something about it. The Gospels depict Jesus as having spent a large proportion of his time healing people. Although, like the author of Job in the Old Testament, Jesus specifically rejected the widely held Jewish belief that sickness was God's way of getting even with sinners. He nonetheless seems to suggest a connection between sickness and sin, seeing seen sin as a kind of sickness. "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick;” he said. "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." (Mark 2:17) Ever since the time of Jesus, healing has been part of the Christian tradition. It's easy for us to criticize the' disciples for not seeing the truth that Jesus was showing them...but maybe their NOT seeing was a protective mechanism, a defence. Maybe deep down they knew that once they really saw what Jesus was showing them, they wouldn't be able to unsee it again. Once they understood what he was saying about the reality of the world, their lives were going to have to change. Once they understood that following Jesus would lead them to suffering, betrayal, and death - then their rose-tinted glasses style of faith would no longer sustain them. Maybe the disciples avoided seeing what Jesus was showing them because they knew that it can be dangerous. Yes, seeing can be dangerous - it can call into question everything we've ever believed. It can dismantle our faith, our theology, our worldview - seeing has the potential to devastate us. And yet, a big part of following Jesus is seeing things as they really are. Why else would he show his disciples not once, not twice, but three times, what was going to happen in Jerusalem? Seeing must be important to the life of faith. But if seeing is important to the life of faith and it also has the potential to devastate us, what are we to do? Do we keep our hearts open, but our eyes closed - or our eyes open, but our hearts closed? Is there some way as a person of faith to keep both our eyes and our hearts open? What I'm asking is, "How do we survive seeing?" Well, here's how I believe that Bartimaeus survived it: he started with Jesus. He said "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" First and foremost, Bartimaeus acknowledges Jesus and then he’s healed. First of all, Bartimaeus trusts in Jesus and then he sees. Before Bartimaeus looks at anything, Jesus becomes the context for everything he will see. After his healing, Bartimaeus won't see anything without thinking of the one who healed him: Jesus. Before the first ray of light hits the first molecule of either retina, Jesus becomes the context in which Bartimaeus will see everything. So, what does it mean to see everything in the context of Jesus? When we look at the world in the context of Jesus, it's true – we’ll see suffering, we'll see betrayal and we'll see death - it's unavoidable. The world is broken in so many places and a mature faith will look at those places, seeing them for what they are. But, as Jesus tried to show his disciples time and time again, when you look at the world - even at its ugliest, hardest, and most fragile - when you see the world in the context of him, you also see the power of his resurrection. Ok, you might have to look at the ugly, hard, fragile things for a long time before it happens, but eventually, always in the context of Jesus, you will see the resurrection of our Lord. How do we, people of faith, survive seeing the world as it is? I believe that we must follow the example of Bartimaeus: We have to begin with Jesus and we have to have faith that he will make us well again. Blessings……………..Pastor Rick
1 Comment
Lena Beryl Blok
23/10/2021 04:47:23 pm
Rick Thank you for your thoughtful message. It helped me,
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