Your Alarm's Going Off...

Your Alarm’s Going Off…

 

Mark 10:46-52

10:46 They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside.

10:47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"

10:48 Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"

10:49 Jesus stood still and said, "Call him here." And they called the blind man, saying to him, "Take heart; get up, he is calling you."

10:50 So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.

10:51 Then Jesus said to him, "What do you want me to do for you?" The blind man said to him, "My teacher, let me see again."

10:52 Jesus said to him, "Go; your faith has made you well." Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

 

 

What goes through your mind when your alarm goes off in the morning? 

 

Of course, now that I’m retired, I rarely have to set my alarm any more, but when I do, a lot of “processes” are kicked into motion—pretty much the same ones that governed my “working” life. First, the brain kicks into high gear and processes the answer to this question: “Do I HAVE to get up right now?” If the answer is “No,” I hit the snooze button. And in those few moments before the brain nods off again, it answers a second question: “How many times can I HIT the ‘snooze’ before I HAVE to get up?” I was always pretty good at then hitting “snooze” exactly the number of times the rudely-awakened brain deduced I could before having to get up!. I hated the occasional necessity of getting a new alarm clock, as my brain had to be trained to respond to the new alarm’s sound. That took awhile, and in the interim, I often missed the required ques, and either slept in and had to rush getting ready for work, or I bounced out of bed prematurely, and left myself too much loitering time. Another interesting alarm fact: I use my cell phone as an alarm when on vacation, but never use it while I’m at home, even though it is right beside me on my nightstand. Why is this? My wife says it’s because I’m NUTS, but I think it has to do with the satisfaction of hitting that “snooze” bar on my alarm clock. Since there is no actual “button” to snooze the cell phone, I have to LOOK at it to touch the snooze feature, and that is too jarring for a work day. It’s OK for vacation, but there is a supreme satisfaction with dramatically swinging my left arm WAY over my head in a pronounced arc, and landing its index finger perfectly on that “snooze” bar, just like clockwork. (Sorry.) 

 

So, let’s look at the “alarm” that goes off in today’s lectionary passage…

 

This has to be one of my all-time favorite passages in the Bible, or at least in the gospel’s telling of the story of Jesus and his encounters. Our protagonist—introduced by name, Bartimaeus, including the fact that he is “son of Timaeus”—is blind. He has heard about Jesus and his miracle-working power, and got wind of the fact that he will be passing by. He begins calling out like an incessant alarm clock going off, and people in the crowd try to hit his “snooze” bar. Bartimaeus would have none of it. He cried out even louder, “Jesus, son of David, have MERCY on me!” His wakeup call worked—Jesus heard him, and beckoned him: “Call him here.”

 

The crowd behaves more like Job’s “friends” playing “good cop, bad cop” in this narrative—first trying to suppress Bartimaeus, then bringing him the message that “Jesus will see you now.” But it is the unique way the message was communicated that caught my attention. I’m doubting that what we have here is an historical retelling of the event. Instead, like much of what we read in the gospels, a deeper, underlying message is being shared, whether by the gospeler or later editors who “polished” the story. Let’s look at the three-part message supposedly delivered by members of “the crowd” to Bartimaeus: “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.”

 

Here is another “alarm” going off in the story. The answer Bartimaeus receives for his cries is very powerful, and addresses far more than just a simple “Jesus will see you now.” Let’s start with the first phrase, “Take heart.” If you look this up in Bible commentaries or even just Google it, you will read much that has been written about a common unction in scripture, the simple words, “Take heart.” We find it in John 16:33, for example: 

 

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

 

We could explore the Greek wording, and read all of those commentaries, but for our protagonist today—blind Bartimaeus—the exclamation could best be translated: “Bartimaeus, THIS is your lucky day!” All of the other charlatans you have visited to gain your sight? No more. All of the superstitious “medicine men” you have paid to rub some stupid ointment on your eyes? Nope. The times you have sat in the town square as a beggar, asking the passersby for help, with no one coming except maybe to drop a coin into your basket? No more. Why? Because THIS is your lucky day, blind Bartimaeus! The only one who is actually be able to save you is coming, and he has heard your cries! 

 

Maybe seen in this light, we can understand why this “Take heart” phrase is so popular in the scriptures, often when an epiphany is about to happen. Prolonged suffering wears anyone down. Anyone. And the constant cries of the one in need continue to drain away the life force of the sufferer. However, if spoken emptily as just a token, like “Hang in there!”, “Be patient,” or even worse, “Have faith,” which carries an accusation that the one suffering either HAS no faith, or that their faith is somehow inadequate, fall like salt in the proverbial wound. But when the words “Take heart” are coupled with the promise that a remedy is at hand, they become words of hope. The words of Jesus in John 16:33, “I have overcome the world,” energizes the “Take heart” that precedes it! Someone has come to rescue you from your plight! Don’t you wonder how Bartimaeus took that “Take heart” someone in the crowd spoke to him? And don’t we really believe that it wasn’t actually a member of the crowd that spoke it, but the Lord Jesus speaking it directly into his spirit? Bartimaeus called out to Jesus, and it was most likely Jesus who spoke the quiet, yet so hopeful words, “Take heart, Bartimaeus, TAKE HEART! Your greatest dream is about to come true!” In your darkest hour, Dear Ones, have you, too, heard these reassuring words in your spirit? Have you, too, heard the “still, small” voice of the Master whisper, “Take heart!” Maybe the next words you heard were something like “Your redemption draws nigh,” or “You are not alone; I am with you!” The latter is the most enduring promise of God to humanity in the whole of scripture—that God will be WITH us!

 

For Bartimaeus, the next phrase he heard was “Get up!” For something good to happen to him, he had a part to play—he had to GET UP and go to Jesus. Had he either listened to the discouraging word of the crowd to shut up and stay put, or doubted what came after the “Take heart,” he would have most likely remained in place, and in his blindness, and we would never have heard his story. Down through the ages, countless sufferers have been encouraged, comforted, and even healed because of the story of “Blind Bartimaeus.” Children in Sunday Schools have learned the story of the man who GOT UP and went to Jesus and found both faith and sight. We share this story with our children because we our deepest heart hope it will encourage them to find faith AND sight, in life. All because Bartimaeus got up. We all like to hear the “Take heart” message, especially when we are experiencing those times of the highest anxiety in our lives, but too often we miss the encouragement that follows—“Get up!” Or, maybe the anxiety itself has robbed us of the ability to “get up.” This is one powerful reason the church of Jesus Christ exists—to help each other when we don’t have the energy to act on the commands and promises of our faith. Helping others to “get up” and to go to Jesus is a noble mission for Christian disciples, and one that may be rewarded by reciprocal support from others in the community (the “crowd”) when it is we who need help getting to our proverbial “feet” and going to Jesus for wholeness and healing. 

 

The most exciting part of this “alarming” triad is the final one: “He [Jesus] is calling you!” If this was purely a humanistic story, “Take heart; get up” might be the whole message. Not that these two psychological encouragements are bad—they certainly are not. Occasionally, in more simple crises or affairs of life, we just need to be thusly encouraged to turn our attitude toward a more positive direction (“Take heart”) and then participate in our own recovery (“get up”). But in today’s narrative, we have the assurance that God participates directly in our relief. “He’s calling you” was the good news Bartimaeus needed to hear. He “sprang up” and found his sight through a wonderous healing affected by Jesus, himself. 

 

We could spend lots of time exploring the ways “he is calling you” can apply to us, our spiritual journey, and our life. That God is an active participant in all of this, and not just a bystander, or “power” that we must convince to act on our behalf, that God COMES TO US through God’s call, is good news for us, even as it was for Bartimaeus. God’s love for humanity is why God seeks us, to renew and reconcile our relationship with our Creator, to wipe away the negative effects of the sin that has separated us from God and too often, from each other, and to “heal our wounds,” in the language of Isaiah 53. The story of the healing of “Blind Bartimaeus” is a microcosmic metaphor for what God is doing in the Christ Event, and the fulcrum phrase of the story, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you,” is likewise a microcosmic statement of the whole of the gospel promise and its call to believe. As we step up (“get up”), God calls us to a meeting that will change our lives and begin a process of transformation, to be reunited to our Creator, restored to right relationship with God, and empowered by God’s Spirit to participate in a restoration of the created order and with each other in the human community. In the words of an ancient story, we are reminded that right now, in our time, and in our lives, something wonderful is afoot in God’s realm. “Take heart, Dear Ones, get up! God is calling us!”

 

Now, if that isn’t a “wake up call,” I don’t know what is! Amen.