Jeremiah 31:7-9 I will guide them by a smooth path where they will not stumble.
Hebrews 7:23-28
We have a High Priest a high priest, holy, blameless, undefiled, separated
from
sinners, and exalted above the heavens.
Mark 10:46-52
Go; your faith has saved you.
‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me’.
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I
love the story of Bartimaeus.
In
the unlikely setting of a dusty road outside the city of Jericho, what unfolds
shows the sheer supernatural power and capacity and desire of Jesus, ‘to open
the eyes that are blind’ (Isaiah 42.7).
Bartimaeus
could not see and, on Jesus’ declaration that his faith had saved him,
‘immediately his sight returned and he followed Jesus along the road’ (Mark
10.52).
That’s
breath-taking: a soul saved, insight given and a disciple made.
I
wonder, do we pray enough for this sort of thing to happen in our own day, in
this place, for people we engage with, for ourselves?
Bartimaeus’
experience is set within the context of faith: this is so much more than
Specsavers!
So,
there’s another level on which to see this encounter.
Jesus
asks Bartimaeus, ‘what do you want me to do for you?’ (a nice contrast with
James and John last week who say to Jesus, ‘we want you to do anything we ask
of you’ [Mark 10.35]).
Bartimaeus
has already shown his faith; unrecognised by the crowd.
Bartimaeus
was calling out in a very particular way, ‘Jesus, Son
of David, have mercy on me’.
That
phrase is not random.
Bartimaeus,
who is blind at this point, can see something more vividly than all those in
the crowd whose eyes function perfectly well.
‘Jesus,
Son of David, have mercy on me’. Let’s explore that prayer of invocation.
Jesus.
Devotion
to the Holy Name of Jesus is a longstanding one: ‘O let the heart beat high
with bliss’, says a medieval hymn, ‘Yea, let it triumph at the sound | Of
Jesus’ name, so sweet it is, | For every joy therein is found.’
The
name of Jesus literally means ‘God saves’.
As
the angel said to Joseph:
[Your wife, Mary,] will
bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from
their sins.’ (Matthew 1.21)
Bartimaeus’
cry is first a plea to be saved.
His
blindness is existential and spiritual as well as literal.
So
he says, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me’.
‘Son
of David’.
That’s
saying, ‘you, Jesus are the are the Messiah, the anointed one of God; you are in
the line of David, yet a greater shepherd-king than he; you, Jesus, are the
fulfilment of God’s promise, revealed by the prophets, throughout the ages’.
Bartimaeus
is touching deep things here and revealing a faith that perhaps he didn’t even
know he had.
‘Jesus,
Son of David, have mercy on me’.
Have
mercy on me.
‘Mercy’
is such an important word.
It
can sound like abject submission or an appeal against judgement.
But
it’s not like that.
The
word ‘mercy’, in the Greek of the New Testament, has the same root as the Greek
word for oil, olive oil, to soothe and heal.
That’s
why we sing in the Liturgy, ‘Lord, have mercy,’ or sometimes in the original Greek,
‘Kyrie, eleison’, and ‘Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the world have mercy upon us’, that is to say,
‘Lord, soothe me, comfort me, take away my pain, show me your steadfast love’.[1]
Bartimaeus
is calling on Jesus’ power, through the Holy Spirit of God, to anoint and save
and heal him: to restore his sight, and give him insight.
Bartimaeus
was shouting this out to Jesus on that dusty road.
But
Bartimaeus is shouted down.
We
live in a shouty world.
The
crowds today – on social media, on TV, in the wider culture - shout down faith
in Jesus Christ: okay, be a Christian if you like, but whisper it amongst
yourselves, don’t speak into the public square, it’s a private matter.
And
there can be a shouting match going on in our souls: sometimes a voice within
shouts down faith: ‘be quiet, don’t bother Jesus’.
In
faith Bartimaeus knew his need for healing, soothing, saving, have his sight
and insight restored: he had to call out.
Never
let the shouty crowd - those who are hostile to, or sneering about, your faith -
drown out your call to Jesus; don’t allow the shout, or whisper, within stop
you from calling to him.
Jesus
stands still, bringing peace and tranquillity to a noisy, busy, dusty world.
Our
call to Jesus comes now in prayer, and it is no accident that one of the
ancient prayers of the Church, much used by
Christians of the East, is known as ‘The Jesus Prayer’, the gently
repeated words, echoing Bartimaeus’ words, ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the
Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner’.
Jesus
hears Bartimaeus: he hears you above the hubbub of a shouty world; he hears you
in the stillness of prayer.
Jesus
stands still to listen and to hear, so whisper with Bartimaeus: ‘Jesus, Son of
David, have mercy on me’.
That
prayer is a cry of faith, a cry that will be heard, a cry that will restore our
sight, insight and vision.
On
regaining his sight, Bartimaeus followed Jesus on the way.
Bartimaeus
prefigures another man who prayed that his sight would be restored, and that
was Saul, blinded on the Road to Damascus.
On
regaining his sight, Paul, as he became, followed Jesus on the way and was
commissioned, as we are, not to shout down the message of salvation, but to
shout it out!
As
Jesus said to Paul in a vision:
‘I [am rescuing] you
from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their
eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan
to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those
who are sanctified by faith in me’. (Acts of the Apostles 26.17-18)
That
is the promise to Bartimaeus, to Paul, to you, to me.
Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on
us,
restore our sight and open our eyes, O Lord, that we may see the wonders of
your law.’ (Psalm 119.18)
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