Scriptures: Job 42:1-17, Psalm 126 Hebrews 7:23-28 Mark 10:46-52
Today is Reformation Sunday.
We celebrate Reformation Sunday
on the last Sunday of October, when we remember that Martin Luther, an
Augustinian monk, nailed a list of 95 theses, 95 opinions in which he disagreed
with the Roman Catholic church of his day. Nowadays, he probably would have
posted them to his wall on Facebook, but instead he posted them to the cathedral door in
Wittenberg, Germany – and, as we’d say today, his post went viral. Copies eventually made their way to Rome, and
the Pope was sore displeased. While
Luther had no intention of leaving the Roman Catholic Church, in 1521 Luther
was excommunicated, and declared a
heretic and deprived of the protection of law. Despite all this, Luther’s opinions spread,
and inspired other reformers, such as John Calvin, whose teachings inform the
Presbyterian church, and Ulrich Zwingli, Zacharias Ursinus, and Caspar
Olevianus, whose teachings inform our Reformed tradition. As often happens, the reformers’ convictions
about God’s grace quickly became entangled with secular politics, and there’s
no need to recapitulate all the religious wars and other ugliness that
ensued. Now, nearly 500 years after
Luther’s act, it would appear that some quarters of the Catholic Church itself
has come to accept the validity of at least some of Luther’s teachings,
particularly Luther’s teaching that we are justified by grace through faith[1] –
a central affirmation of Lutheranism and of Protestantism in general, and a
strong contrast to the teaching of the Catholic church under Leo X. But in 1999, in a joint declaration with Lutherans,
the Roman Catholic church affirmed that teaching. It’s notable that in a 2011
visit to the monastery in Erfurt, German where Martin Luther had lived, Pope
Benedict XVI noted his appreciation for Luther’s deep faith, his focus on
Jesus, and his emphasis on the importance of Scripture. Pope Benedict said that
the question that occupied Luther: “What
is God’s position toward me, and where do I stand before God must, in some way,
become our question too.”[2]
Where do we stand before God? Our Gospel reading is instructive. It takes place as Jesus and the disciples are
making their way to Jerusalem. We’re
told that they entered Jericho. The next
thing we’re told is that they were exiting Jericho. We’re not told what happened in Jericho,
except that as Jesus and the disciples were leaving Jericho, a large crowd was
following them. We’re also told that a blind beggar,
Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. No doubt he heard the noise from the crowd,
asked someone what was causing all the commotion, and was told it was Jesus of
Nazareth. And Bartimaeus saw his chance: Mark’s gospel tells us that Bartimaeus
started shouting “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!” “Son of David”….where did that come from? It would seem that for a blind man,
Bartimaeus had uncommon spiritual vision, to understand that Jesus was not just
another traveling healer, but the Messiah who was promised. Many around him tried to shut him up and
suppress him, but instead Bartimaeus cranked up the volume: “Son of David, have mercy upon me!” Jesus stopped and said, “Call him here.” Some in the crowd told Bartimaeus, “Take
heart, get up; he is calling you.”
Throwing off his cloak – which he would have used for warmth, and also
to collect the coins tossed his way – he sprang up and came to Jesus. Jesus asked Bartimaeus, “What do you want me
to do for you.” Bartimaeus replied, “My teacher, let me see again.” And Jesus said to Bartimaeus, “Go; your faith
has made you well.” We’re told that,
“Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.”
Where do we find ourselves in this story? Do we find ourselves among the disciples, who
in this story are in the background, following Jesus and taking in all that is
happening? Do we find ourselves with Bartimaeus,
along the side of the road, needing healing?
Do we find ourselves among in the crowd telling Bartimaeus to shut his
pie hole and let Jesus be on his way?
Where do we find ourselves in this story? As it happens, this questions sounds
strangely like the question that Pope Benedict said was of such importance to
Martin Luther: “What is God’s position
toward me, and where do I stand before God.”
Martin Luther would likely have located himself as sitting
next to Bartimaeus, a blind man in need of healing. Blind man in need of healing, sinner in need
of grace – the emphasis is on our need, and on Jesus’ power to save. Before God, we are all of us broken and in
need of healing; all of us sinner in need of saving – and it’s well to remember
that our word “salvation” is related to our word “salvage”. All have sinned and gone astray, and the
creation itself groans in bondage, and Jesus is doing a salvage operation on a
global scale. Despite our brokenness, God
loves and values us so much that God is willing to do everything possible to
save us, to bring us back to wholeness.
Sometimes we forget who we are, and instead of sitting with
Bartimaeus, we take our place with the crowds shouting for Bartimaeus to shut
up. We in the church are supposed to be
leading people to Jesus, but sometimes we get in the way, particularly around
people who don’t meet our specifications for what a church member should look
like and sound like. Not only in our own
lives, but on a global scale, throughout history the church has gone through
periods of complacency and false pride, when we forget just how
moment-by-moment dependent on God we really are. The Reformation took place during one of
these moments, and there have been many others, in this country when slaves and
their supporters shouted from the side of the road for liberation, and the
mainstream church tried to shut down the conversation, when women and their
supporters shouted from the side of the road to express the reality that they
are fully created in the image of God just as men are, and the church tried to
shut down the conversation; when poor people and black and brown people and
immigrant people and people with disabilities and gay people shouted from the
side of the road for mercy, shouting that the church was failing to fulfill its
mission toward them, and the church tried to shut down the conversation. In all these cases, like the crowds, the
church tried to shut down the conversation, and in all these cases, like
Bartimaeus, those on the side of the road cranked up the volume instead. And that persistence has brought results,
although one hopes that all struggles will not take the nearly 500 years that
it took the Catholic church to recognize at least some truth in Luther’s
writings.
It’s interesting to contrast the requests that people have
made of Jesus in our Gospel readings over the past three weeks. The nameless rich young man asked Jesus what
he must do to inherit eternal life, but when Jesus told him he had to leave his
wealth behind, he was unwilling to follow.
James and John requested seats at Jesus’ right and left hand in glory,
requests they were unworthy to make, and Jesus refused them. Bartimaeus requests restoration of his
eyesight, and it is granted to him.
Unlike the rich young man’s inability to leave his wealth behind,
Bartimaeus did not hesitate to leave his filthy beggar’s cloak behind; somehow
he knew he would not be needing it again.
Jesus’ question to Bartimaeus is Jesus’ question to us: What do you want me to do for you? In order to
answer, we need to recognize our own need, our own brokenness. And we too may have beggars cloaks that we
need to leave behind, behaviors and attitudes that have enabled us to get by in
our brokenness, but that will not be helpful in the new life to which Jesus is
calling us.
After Jesus healed Bartimaeus, we’re told that “immediately
he regained his sight and followed Jesus on the way. May God grant us spiritual vision to see all
that God would show us. May we have eyes to see our neighbors who need healing,
and who are calling us from the side of the road. May we help them and not ignore them. And where Jesus leads, may we follow. Amen.
[1][1] http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/documents/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_31101999_cath-luth-joint-declaration_en.html
[2] http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/world-news/detail/articolo/papa-pope-el-papa-germania-germay-alemania-ecumenismo-ecumenism-8346/
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