What Do You Want?
Mark 10:46-52
October 29, 2006
If you could have anything on earth, what would it be? What do you want most of all. What is your dream? What would make you incredibly happy? Do you know what I want? When I retire, I want a green metal-flake “Champion Elite” Bass boat with a Cannon Speed-N-Temp Monitor, Tournament 480 Max fishfinder, fully automatic live well, 36 gallon fuel tank, 24 square foot casting deck, 82 lb. thrust trolling motor, trim switch on the steering wheel, Sea Star Hydraulic steering, and a 200 horse outboard motor.
Perhaps there is more to life than a bass boat. In fact, we can take a lesson in the important things in life and living from an old, blind beggar in the gospel of Mark.
It was at the very tail end of his ministry when Jesus and the disciples were in Capernaum, on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. Knowing that the time was coming for him to be delivered up and handed over to the authorities in Jerusalem, they headed south to Judea; to the eastern shore of the Jordan River.
Once there, he had a discussion with some Pharisees over the issue of divorce; he gathered some children to him to illustrate the attitude necessary to be welcomed into heaven; he instructed a wealthy young man that the key for heaven for him was to give all that he owned to the poor.
Then they set out from Jerusalem, climbing the steep mountainous road from the river to the capital. On the way, they passed through Jericho, a city which had an ancient history even then. As they left town, they passed by a blind beggar by the name of Bartimaeus. He heard the commotion that always seemed to follow Jesus. My guess is that someone told him who was coming, so when Jesus walked by him, he called out, “Son of David, Jesus! Mercy, have mercy on me!”
One of the things that Toni and I like to do in the summer is get away for a couple of days to Chicago. We find a hotel close to Michigan Avenue. It is fun to walk up and down the Miracle Mile and window shop. I honestly can’t believe that I just said that. But we have a good time. We don’t buy stuff because it’s too expensive. We don’t even eat there. Once we stopped in to the restaurant at the Drake Hotel. After I paid eight bucks for a bowl of tomato soup, we decided that we would look for other places to eat. Usually we head on over to Perillos down on Ontario Street. It’s cattycorner from the Hard Rock Café and is the home of the world famous Chicago hotdog. Or we find a smaller restaurant over on Rush Street or State Street.
One interesting thing that always happens is this. We will be walking along, looking in all the store windows. We’ll stop in at Neiman Marcus or Lord and Taylor. I’ll wonder why anyone would pay eighty-five bucks for a shirt. Then I’ll be taken out of my daydreaming by a homeless beggar on the street. We don’t like to be confronted by beggars, mostly I guess because we don’t like to be reminded that there are people like that among us. It is hard to keep our minds focused on the glitz and glamour of Michigan Avenue when a haggard, smelly homeless person asks you for a dollar. I don’t like to be shaken in my affluence. I don’t like to be reminded that - despite what I tell my Staff-Parish Committee - I am rich indeed.
The Michigan Avenue homeless (they move down to Lower Wacker Drive in the winter) are an intrusion into my comfortable, self-centered, fairly arrogant lifestyle. I think that is what Bartimaeus represented to the Disciples that day in Jericho. He was an intrusion. They were doing important stuff, and there he was by the side of the road, shouting and demanding attention.
The crowd with Jesus acts as though Bartimaeus is indeed an intrusion. When he shouts for Jesus, they hush him up. The louder he shouts, the louder they try to keep him quiet. Perhaps they were feeling that, if beggars have to be seen, as least they don’t have to be heard.
But blind Bartimaeus won’t be deterred. He causes a ruckus until he is noticed. “Son of David, have mercy on me!” He doesn’t care about what other people think. He knows that the Son of God is passing by and he will not be content until he meets him, face to face. That sort of determination and intention puts many of us to shame, doesn’t it?
“Son of David, have mercy on me!” This is a backward looking title that evokes memories of King David and the promises of a Messiah who would come to sit once again on his throne. In fact, the very next recorded incident in the gospel is of the triumphant ride into Jerusalem, when the crowd sings their hosannas at the coming of the King, the Son of David. This blind beggar of Jericho gets a jump on all of the other proclaimers of his Messiahship.
Bartimaeus is not intimidated by the crowds. He is not worried about what others may think. He is not at all concerned about the persecution he might face because of his profession of faith. He simply cries out, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus hears him, and stops. “Call him over,” he says.
Now I wasn’t there, but I can imagine the scene. I imagine that the crowd, which had probably been fairly noisy and boisterous, suddenly got silent as stones. Think how Bartimaeus must have felt.
Do you remember that commercial for an asthma medicine that stars Jerome Bettis? Bettis, The Bus, (as I would have to explain to my wife) is the recently retired running back, and future Hall of Fame inductee, for the Pittsburgh Steelers. A kid is walking through a tunnel at a stadium when he meets Bettis. Bettis tells the kid that he doesn’t let asthma keep him from performing on the athletic field. As the kid walks away, Bettis calls him back. He turns around and Bettis throws him his jersey. The kid can’t believe that this great football player would pay any attention to him at all.
I don’t know if Bartimaeus felt the same way when Jesus called him over. If he did, it would have been magnified a thousand times because he wasn’t meeting just an athlete or a rock star, but the very Son of God. I imagine that he awestruck at his opportunity to meet Jesus.
Even though he can’t see where he is going, he makes his way over and stands face-to-face with Jesus. “What can I do for you?” Now there is any number of answers Bartimaeus could have given to that question. He was after all, a beggar. He could have asked for a hundred dollar bill or the numbers to the winning Powerball jackpot. Since a beggar was at the lowest end of the social ladder, he could have asked for respect and dignity. He is not able to work, but must just sit and beg. He could have asked for a job. I have a feeling that he was aware of the sins he had committed in his life, so he could have asked for forgiveness. But he said, “Rabbi, I want to see.”
Jesus looked at him and said, “On your way. Your faith has saved and healed you” (10:52). The man’s sight was immediately and completely restored, and he followed Jesus.
What a contrast. Remember the rich man who wouldn’t let go of his riches and so refused to follow? Remember the Disciples who were afraid when Jesus told them how difficult it was going to be to enter heaven? But Bartimaeus exhibited none of that hesitation or fear. He fell in line immediately and followed Jesus down the road. We have no way of knowing this, but I want to believe that Bartimaeus was one of those along the road shouting hosannas as he rode into Jerusalem.
There is a phenomenon in religious circles that is as old as religion itself. So often, religious folks are content to be simple consumers of religion. They will sit on the sidelines, but never get into the game. In the modern church, things haven’t changed much except that we now pay professionals to do our ministry for us. “That’s what we pay the pastor for” we hear time and time again. Somehow we have come to believe that the pastor is the only one who can teach; the only one who can lead; the only one who can pray; the only one who can visit; the only one who can preach. It is consumers of religion who are content to sit on the sidelines and let the professional staff do all of the heavy lifting. Ministry involves all of us.
Bartimaeus understood that. Immediately after he regained his sight, he followed. He wasn’t content with just new eyes and a warm, fuzzy feeling. He wanted to be given sight so that he could get in on the action.
Jesus asked Bartimaeus, “What can I do for you?” I wonder what our answer would be if he asked that question of us. What would happen if Jesus were to give us the one gift we desire more than others?
This is really a stewardship sermon. I guess that it’s like a joke. If you have to tell people that it’s a joke, then it isn’t a very good joke. But this is a stewardship sermon. Next week will be our Consecration Sunday when we will come forward and place our commitment cards for 2007 on the altar. So this sermon is a call to recognize that everything we have comes from a gracious God.
God hasn’t asked us lately what he can do for us. He already knows, and has given us everything we need. The question is, “What are we going to do with everything he has given?” Will we selfishly just take it without a backward glance at the giver? Or will we recognize our responsibility to use what we have for God?
I have been planning this sermon for weeks. I was going to say this. “Calvary church does not have a money problem. We have all the money we need. We have all the money we will ever need. It is still in your pocket. All you have to do is give it.”
Throughout your life in the church, you have heard sermon after sermon about the tithe being the biblical standard for giving. There is no getting around that. That is the expectation of God, that we give back to him the first 10% of our income as a grateful response of a faithful heart.
I know that there are many people in every church who say that they can’t afford a tithe. My response is this: If you can’t afford a tithe, then you have to get a handle on your finances. You have to look at the ways that you are spending money and the things on which you are spending. If you can’t afford a tithe, then you probably have some work to do in money management.
I am speaking from experience here. It was years before Toni and I made the decision to tithe. She tithes to her church and I tithe to mine. We took a long hard look at our checkbook and our finances and realized that they were both in a mess. Our priorities were all out of whack. We were running paycheck to paycheck with no financial plan, up to our ears in debt. The decision to tithe allowed us to get a handle on our finances, take a long hard look at our priorities for spending, and become much better money managers. The end result was that, even though our giving to the church increased significantly, our family’s financial status became clearer and much more stable.
I have been doing a little research. Did you know that in our zip code – 46819 – the median household income is $55,103? In 46809, the income level is lower, but is still $46,783. Using the lower figure, our church, which has 184 giving units, would have an income level of $8,608,072. Do you see where I’m going with this? A tithe on that is over $860,000.
Did you know that a family of four can apply for reduced priced lunches in the Fort Wayne Community Schools if their income is $37,000. If everyone in our church met that standard, our income would be $6,808,000; a tithe of which would be over $680,000.
But we are an older congregation, you say. There are many of us who are retired and on fixed incomes. I talked with one retired couple that told me that they make $23,000 a year from their Social Security. If everyone had that level of income, our combined church income would be $4,232,000; a tithe of which would be over $400,000.
So you see, we don’t have a money problem here at Calvary church. We have all the money we need. We simply need to give it.
After all of that, I need to continue to say that money is not the point. In fact, I don’t want you to give money to the church – unless you can do it with a huge grin on your face and overflowing joy in your heart. We don’t need your money if you are grumpy when you give it. The Apostle Paul wasn’t just whistling Dixie when he said that God loves a cheerful giver (II Corinthians 9:7).
What I want for this congregation is for everyone to experience the sort of joy known by Bartimaeus when he had his sight restored. He didn’t think of himself, but simply followed on the way of Jesus. He wanted nothing more than to see Christ more clearly, love Christ more dearly, and follow Christ more nearly – day by day.
When we take the time to recognize and admit all that God has done for us, I don’t think we have a choice but to follow on the way. Bartimaeus wanted his sight restored so that he could join in on the action; so that he could walk along the way and be part of the crowd that was following Jesus. He wanted to hit the road with the Son of God. When we hit the road with Jesus, we will discover that giving becomes a joy.
What do you want out of your life? God is waiting for us to receive the joy that he has to give. All we have to do is open ourselves up to it and prepare to receive it. And when our eyes are opened to the blessings we have been given, it will be impossible to keep us quiet. That joy will be reflected in every aspect of our lives: how we treat our spouses and children; how we greet the teenager behind the checkout counter at Wal-Mart; how we interact with our co-workers; how we feel about the poor in our midst; and yes, how much we give to the church.
Christ has invited us to walk the path of discipleship; a path of service and spiritual growth. That is the path walked by Bartimaeus. Are you willing to join in?
