Mark 10:46-52: Open our Eyes Lord

Presented to the Nipawin Corps 03 May 2009
by Captain Michael Ramsay

This past little while we have done a lot of things and been a lot of places. You know I was in Calgary and we just returned from Winnipeg and before going to Winnipeg we were in Jackson’s Point, Ontario, which is about an hour out of Toronto – maybe more.

We were there for something called Captains’ Institute. Captains’ Institute is where you get together for a few days with people that you went to CFOT (seminary) with. It is a good chance to talk, listen, pray, and find out the sort of things that God is doing in the lives of people that we used to spend so much time with, people with whom the Lord has already allowed us to enter into this sort of spiritual interconnectedness through to Him. Collectively, we can always come to know God more and this time was a time to really share so that we might apply that knowledge individually and in our new ministry contexts. It is a lot of fun.

We had the opportunity to share stories about our ministries and offer assistance to our colleagues. I have this one session mate – a friend – Captain Stephen Holland who is currently posted in Nova Scotia. He is a great man with some sage advice that I would like to share with us today.

Now I must confess to you here that sometimes I have forgotten things – things I should know. I have called people on the phone before and not only forgotten why I was calling but have completely forgotten who I was calling. I remember once last year – I teach an evangelism practicum for the Nipawin Bible College – I was walking with a student of mine who I see every week and not only see but who I talk to, pray with, invest in his life and then when I had to introduce him to someone… I just couldn’t remember his name. I got to the point where I was squinting as I’m staring in his face even…nothing…it wasn’t coming.

Captain Holland, Stephen, my friend from Nova Scotia has a story: Stephen and his wife Karen are posted to Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. It is a small community, not unlike our own and one day a new lady (named Karen) came to town and called up Stephen’s wife, Karen, and said that she would like to come to church. Well when she got there – Stephen told me – he asked the new lady her name. She said ‘Karen’

‘Karen, that’s my wife’s name,’ said Stephen, ‘Karen, that should be easy to remember.’ So he welcomes her, invites her to have a seat and then goes over to one of the other ladies in the church and asks her to go and introduce herself to the new lady.

‘What’s her name?’ she asks.

‘Debbie’, Stephen answers.

It appears that I am not the only one bad with names.

One of the things that we did at the retreat was a spiritual activity known as ‘Lectio Devina’[1] – It is a neat activity where we reflect on various passages of scripture and look for and listen to what the LORD is telling us and then share this in a group.

Stephen was in my group (as were Captains Ashley Bungay of Nfld and Debbie VanderHeyden who is posted in BC) and the passage that we looked at was Mark 10:46-52. We read through this a number of times each time seeking an answer – in silence – to a number of questions and then sharing those answers with each other. We were to listen for a word or phrase that struck us from the passage. We were to meditate on that word or that passage in our own life. We were to seek the Lord as to an appropriate response and then we were to pray for each other. I will read now the passage we read from earlier (Mark 10:46-52) but this time in the New Living Translation:

46 Then they reached Jericho, and as Jesus and his disciples left town, a large crowd followed him. A blind beggar named Bartimaeus (son of Timaeus) was sitting beside the road. 47 When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus of Nazareth was nearby, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
48 “Be quiet!” many of the people yelled at him.
But he only shouted louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
49 When Jesus heard him, he stopped and said, “Tell him to come here.”
So they called the blind man. “Cheer up,” they said. “Come on, he’s calling you!” 50 Bartimaeus threw aside his coat, jumped up, and came to Jesus.
51 “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked.
“My rabbi,” the blind man said, “I want to see!”
52 And Jesus said to him, “Go, for your faith has healed you.” Instantly the man could see, and he followed Jesus down the road.

Stephen and Debbie, relating to this periscope, each had profound revelations from the Lord about how those of us in ministry relate to others. In respect for their confidence, I won’t tell you what they said but I will tell you what the Lord taught me through them.

In this story that we are reading, Jesus is busy. His disciples are busy. They are doing the work of God. They are traveling the countryside and the Judean townships spreading the work of God. They are busy.

I don’t know if any of us ever get so busy that we just don’t feel like we have time for anyone. We’ve just finished tax time: that is a busy time for some. The snow has finally melted so seedtime and harvest are right around the corner for some and, of course, Susan, the kids and I are moving to a new community with new friends and new ministry awaiting us, needing to get everything ready here for the future and preparing ourselves for the people who are waiting for us there while we are already starting to miss everyone here. It is an emotional time. It is a busy time.

When Jesus is busy with a large crowd and his disciples traveling to Jericho, there is a street person. There is this beggar. He is just sitting there and then as Jesus and this crowd come near. He just starts to shout at them. He starts to yell. He shouts! He shouts, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”[2]

I don’t imagine that he just called this out a couple of times or in a quiet and an orderly fashion (vs. 47) at all because it says that many of the people rebuked him and told him to be quiet but he shouted all the more (vs. 48). Can you imagine if you went to a gospel jamboree (or a Nickleback concert!) or to hear a famous evangelist and he is coming near and you’ve taken time off work and camped out for days and he’s finally coming near and you are trying to see and hear what he is doing and there is this smelly, dirty street person just yelling at the top of his lungs right when the teacher is coming by? Right when you actually have a chance to hear him in person. Some marginalized person is yelling “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

It must have been quite annoying for them and not for just one of them, not for just a couple of them but many of them. Many of the people who were following Jesus told the beggar to ‘knock it off!’ as it were. They told him to ‘be quiet!’ and they rebuked him (vs. 48) all the more! He was getting in the way of their seeing and hearing Jesus! “Be quiet,’ they said. ‘Stop it!’

But Jesus heard him and Jesus stopped. Jesus is the one who stopped (vs. 49). He listens to the man. Jesus asks the noisy beggar what he wants him to do for him (vs. 51) and then Jesus does it (vs. 52). Jesus is busy. The people with Jesus are busy. Jesus takes the time to listen, to hear what the man wants and as the man comes to God in persistent, noisy, confrontational faith, Jesus gives him what he asks for.

In our lives: when someone interrupts us in our busy lives, when we see that annoying person who can just grate on everyone’s nerves, when we are in a hurry, how do we treat the people God sends to us? Do we take the time to ask the people who we come across in life how we can help them or do we just brush them aside? When we are busy and our children or grandchildren want us to read the Bible to them, when we are busy and people knock on our doors with a question or a concern do we open it to them? Are we open to them? What do we do? What do we do?

Captain Ashley Bungay, from our group, she pointed out the profound truth from the text to us that God encourages us even when times are difficult. She noticed that – Verse 49 – the people say to the man, as Jesus is calling him, “Cheer up.”[3]

There are times when life may seem difficult when we need to be offered the comforting words of ‘cheer up.’ Our new appointment[4] and Nipawin are both now in the process of saying good-bye to Officers who love them. We Officers in both places are in the process of saying good-bye to church families whom we love.

We will miss you all here. God has taught me so much from many of you. He has taught me and He has loved me through letting me study the Bible with you; He has let me share in counting kettle money with you and then re-counting it when the numbers are different. He has let us come into many of your homes and hearts and lives. He has let me get to know you over coffee or a game of cards or on the trips down to men’s camp. God has blessed me so much getting to know all of you.

God has blessed our children through their friends, Bible study, mentors and Rebecca will miss horseback riding and for the third time after two years in my daughters’ lives they are leaving their friends behind and as a parent, this hurts a little.

We love you. We love the way the LORD is blessing you all here and we love the way that there are many faces here today that were not here when we arrived a few short years ago and we pray that somehow in our time here, it is not only the four of us who are walking even closer with the LORD; we pray that many of you are as well and that you will continue to walk a little closer to the Lord. There will probably be cadets coming here this summer who will need your love and encouragement for their season here, just as we will seek the love of the Lord through our new friends in our new appointment.

This brings us to what struck me initially about the ‘Lectio Devina’ exercise and the text in Mark that we were looking at. Truthfully there were two things that struck me. One was that the Lord took mercy upon those who called upon his name and I trust that He will also take mercy on those of us here in Nipawin and in our new appointment and in the place where the Officers from there are going and I trust as well that He will have mercy on all of us who are affected by loved ones moving on.

But also faith: God calls us to step out in faith. Bartimaeus stepped out in faith. Even though Bart couldn’t see what was happening. Even though Bart couldn’t possibly see what lay ahead. Even though Bart wasn’t able to see the Lord when He was right in front of him. Even though those around him were telling him NOT to cry out to the LORD. Even though those around him – who were also seeking the Lord – were trying to prevent Bart from coming before the Lord. Even though people in the crowds following Jesus tried to stop this humble man from reaching Him. He called out. Bart called out to the Lord.

And when Bart called out – even though he could not see the Lord – when Bartimaeus called out, the Lord could, would and did see him. The Lord loves him. The Lord has mercy on him and the Lord says to him, “Go, for your faith has healed you.” Bart’s eyes are opened and he in that moment follows the Lord down life’s road.

This message is for me and this message is for us. For now we see through not only the eternal glass darkly, but we also only have a blind man’s view of our immediate future here. We do not see right now where God is in this. We do not see what Jesus is doing. We do not see what lies ahead. We cannot possibly see that but what we can do is call upon Jesus. What we can do is call upon Jesus over and over again. What we need to do is to not take ‘no’ for an answer from any who would want to discourage us from seeking the Lord in faith. What we need to do is to call persistently on the Lord in this time of transition and in the times ahead and as we do, I have faith that He will heal us; He will open our eyes and He will make it so we too can see Jesus.

Let us pray.

Open our eyes Lord, we want to see Jesus.

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[1]Cf. http://www.meditationforchristians.com/sec2pt8.htm: Lectio Divina (divine or holy reading) is a principal practice of Benedictine spirituality. True to its biblical origins, the monastic life seeks above all a listening heart wherein God’s Word — God’s self-communication — is made manifest in Christ, in the scriptures, in the human heart and in the heart of the cosmos. Lectio Divina is a method of approaching scripture in order to listen to the depths, seeking to encounter Christ, the Word, through the power of the holy Spirit, hidden in the words of the text.
[2] Walter W. Wessel. The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Mark/Exposition of Mark/V. The Journey to Jerusalem (8:31-10:52)/O. Restoring Blind Bartimaeus's Sight (10:46-52), Book Version: 4.0.2: The title he used to address Jesus-"Son of David"-is messianic (cf. Isa 11:1, 10; Jer 23:5-6; Ezek 34:23-24). It was not an unambiguous title. In Mark's Gospel it is used only here (twice) of Jesus and in MK 12:35, where Jesus himself uses it in connection with the title "Christ."
[3] Walter W. Wessel. The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Mark/Exposition of Mark/V. The Journey to Jerusalem (8:31-10:52)/O. Restoring Blind Bartimaeus's Sight (10:46-52), Book Version: 4.0.2: “The word translated "Cheer up!" is tharsei. It occurs only seven times in the NT (Matt 9:2, 22; 14:27; Mark 6:50; 10:49; John 16:33; Acts 23:11), and six of the seven are from the lips of Jesus. The exception is here.”
[4] For various reasons, I can’t name the new location of the community we are going to on-line yet. I mentioned it in the sermon for sure and our heartfelt prayers are definitely extended to our new church family. We look forward to meeting them.