The Future is so bright, I gotta wear shades!

As I sit down to write these for lines, the sunlight is drifting in my office window for the first time in many days. It is almost blinding! Been thinking a lot about windows, eyes and light this past week. By enlarge it has been about the light that Bar-timaeus experienced after a time of darkness. We are not told in the Gospel lesson this week that “Bart” heard that Jesus the Rabbi was passing by, walking up the hill and out of the City of Jericho on his way to Jerusalem and the Cross.

The way that the first couple of sentences are constructed, it makes me believe that Jesus spent at least a night in the city. He preached a sermon, called people to come and healed those who were brought to him. And because of the things Jesus said and the things Jesus did, Bart knew who he was looking at. That’s why, has Jesus passed him by on the street that morning, know that Jesus was going to Jerusalem and what would happen there, Bart saw his last chance walking away from him and so he began to shout, “Jesus of Nazareth,  Son of David, have mercy on me.” People, wanting to listen to Jesus and not bother with this man, or worse have this man bother Jesus, tried to quiet and subdue him. Such action, knowing that his salvation was walking away from him, up that hill, caused Bart to shout all the more, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

And Jesus stopped. With a smile on his face, Jesus says to the people, “Call him.” What a role reversal! Those who had tried to keep him away and to keep him quiet are now being told to call him and to bring him to Jesus.  They communicate the news to Bartimaeus that Jesus is calling him and he immediately jumps up sheds his cloak and leaving all of his meager possessions behind nothing, is led to Jesus by those who had tried to silence him.

Jesus asks a simple question of Bartimaeus, “What do you want me to do for you?” The question is not dissimilar to the one he asked of James and John last week, who proceeded to demand power and position in the kingdom when it came in its fullness. But instead of asking for many things, Bartimaeus asked for only one thing: “Teacher, let me recover my sight.” Jesus responds with a simple word, Go your way, your faith has made you well.”

As some will know, I went through a sickness many years ago and there were lots of concerns, even after the worst had past... would he be able to work again, would he be able to see properly again? I don’t like to talk about it much because what people hear and what people see is the pathetic figure of a preacher boy laying in a hospital bed not know whether he would live or die. Much live that man on the side of the road, there was a moment for me when, knowing I was in the presence of the Master, I said to him, ”Master, if it is time... then I surrender. Let’s go home.”   The answer must have been something like what Bartimaeus heard, “Go your way, your faith has made you well.”

Faith, and for that matter prayer, are not about what you can get God to do with your words or your own spirit, but rather what God can do through your life as you move forward in your path. We might be tempted to think that what God is doing is about us... it isn’t. It is about God and his kingdom and what he is doing for his people. It is about us, as a community of people that are trying as best we can to live out what he asks of us so that the world might see him in us.

And do you know what he did with his sight and his life in the days after the healing? Bartimaeus followed Jesus: to the city, to the upper room, to the cross and the grave and saw him rise again. And he was heard to exclaim, “The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades.”

Jason+