Sunday, October 27, 2024
The Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost

What do you want me to do for you?

The Rev. Wendy Wilkinson, Rector
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
Katy TX 77450

Click to watch video

“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus had asked James and the John the same question. Last Sunday we heard how James and John walked up to Jesus as they were walking to Jerusalem and said to Jesus, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” (Mark 10: 35) Jesus replies, “What do you want me to do for you?” In a classic case of discipleship failure, they want to have the positions of importance in the Kingdom of God, to sit at Jesus left and right hand in his glory. Now, after stopping in Jericho, Jesus and his disciples are continuing their journey to Jerusalem.

As they are leaving the city, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, is sitting at his usual place on the side of the road. He has heard about Jesus and calls out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And the crowd, who knows Bartimaeus and sees him sitting by the road begging everyday, tells him to be quiet! He is one of the local beggars, like the men and occasional women we see on the median strips around here. Don’t bother the famous Rabbi and healer with your concerns, the crowd is telling him, just be quiet! But Bartimaeus just yells out louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus hears his cry for help and tells the crowd to tell Bartimaeus to come to him. So, this blind beggar, who the people know by name, throws off his cloak and leaps up to go to Jesus. Jesus looking at Bartimaeus asks him the same question that he asked his disciples a few days before, “What do you want me to do for you?” The man that no one wants anything to do with, replies, “Rabbi, let me see!” Jesus said to him, “Go your faith has made you well.” No touching, no words of command to demons, just “your faith has made you well.” In Greek it says, “Your faith has saved you.” And immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way. (Mark 10:52)  That way being the road to Jerusalem.

Let’s take a moment and look at what is happening in this story beyond the surface level. Jesus and his disciples are being accompanied out of Jericho on the road that leads to Jerusalem, the place of Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection. In this passage in Greek, the word for road is the same as ‘the way.’  The crowd and disciples are following Jesus on “the Way.” The way that will lead to new life in Christ. But at this moment they don’t have the eyes to see what will shortly transpire as they walk the way with Jesus. James and John are expecting Jesus to be glorified, but the glory of the cross is not what they can “see.” They will shortly enter Jerusalem with the crowd crying, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!” (Mark 11: 10-11)  The title that blind Bartimaeus gives Jesus is the same one that will shortly be proclaimed by the crowd as they enter Jerusalem. In Mark’s Gospel the blind beggar is the first person to call Jesus, Son of David.

Bartimaeus’ reaction to the call of Jesus is to throw off his cloak, his cloak that symbolizes his security and protection from the elements in his old way of life. Unlike the rich man who turned and walked away from following Jesus on the way because of his need for his possessions that gave him security, Bartimaeus without hesitation throws off his sense of security and leaps up to come to Jesus. Remember that as the disciples began to follow Jesus on the way to Jerusalem, the Gospel said that, “they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid.” (Mark 10:32) Here the blind man, who is known by the residents of Jericho as the son of Timaeus, leaps up and comes to Jesus. His is the opposite response of the fear of those who began the journey to Jerusalem with Jesus. Bartimaeus is the one example in the Gospel of Mark of faithful discipleship. Throughout the gospel Mark has shown how the disciples, even those like James and John who have been with Jesus from the beginning of his ministry have fallen short.

A major theme of the Gospel According to Mark is discipleship failure. Here finally, as Jesus prepares to enter Jerusalem, Mark has a blind beggar, the invisible person that no one wants to be associated with stand up and see Jesus for who he truly is. The one on the margins is the person who demonstrates the faithful discipleship that Jesus has longed to see from his inner group.

In fact the crowd that thought they were following Jesus, tried to prevent Bartimaeus from receiving the healing that led to his new life. They had told him to be quiet. How often do those who think they are following Jesus prevent others from knowing Christ, as the crowd attempted to do to Bartimaeus? How often has the church gotten in the way of a person’s coming to Christ. There is the saying, people come seeking Christ and we give them the church.  We constantly have to ask ourselves, are we like the crowd, trying to protect Jesus from those we think are unworthy or are we willing to hear Jesus say, “call him here!” and lead those we may not want in “our group” to Jesus?

Jesus asked his disciples, “What do you want me to do for you?” And their response, like the crowd’s was focused on what was the cultural norm, in James and John’s case it is what will lead to importance in the world’s eyes. To sit on either side of the King! When Jesus asks the same question of Bartimaeus his response is the desire to see and in receiving his sight Bartimaeus ‘sees’ Jesus for who he truly is, and leaving everything behind follows him on the way that will lead to life now and forever.

When Jesus asks us, “What do you want me to do for you?” are we concerned with our own image and how the world sees us? Or are we willing to be transformed by Jesus and then follow him on the way that will lead to life? I’m sure Bartimaeus did not have an easy journey, just because he could now see. In fact his lively hood had been taken from him, since he could no longer beg as a blind person. When we truly follow in the Way of Jesus there will be challenges and suffering, but also a new way of being in the world. One of the functions of a disciple is to bring to the church’s attention the needs, concerns and hopes of the world. It may be a challenge for us to be the Body of Christ in the world but following Jesus is not easy, it is a narrow way that leads to life. It is not the way of the world, but it is the way that leads to life now and in the life to come.