Calling All the Children Home

            Jeremiah was known as a prophet of bad news. He was living at a time when the people of Israel were not following the way of life that their faith called them to. Israel was declining, people were worshipping the agricultural gods and goddesses of Amorites and Canaanites, the leaders were not looking after the poor and the widows, but growing rich and protecting their power. They were building their comfort on the backs of the poor. The descendents of the slaves who escaped from Egypt had strayed far from their humble roots. Jeremiah came speaking the word of God and predicting the downfall of Israel at the hands of the Babylonians. And it came true as Jeremiah predicted. The famous invasion of the Southern Kingdom of Judah came and the people were hauled off as slaves to exile in Babylon where they could not sing the Lord’s song. But with Israel in chains and defeat, Jeremiah now changed his tune. He began to preach God’s love and forgiveness and promise to the Israelites that they were being called home. Jeremiah tells them that God is saying, “I have always loved you, so I continue to show you my constant love. Once again I will rebuild you. Once again you will take up your tambourines and dance joyfully….I will bring my people from the North and gather them from the ends of the earth. The blind and the lame will come with them…they will come back a great nation.” Jeremiah is telling them that though they are in defeat and lying on their faces in the mud, that is a very good position from which to see God. When we have no wealth or success to fall back on, we are left with only God. God was calling them back from exile, and now, in exile, humbled, they were in the position to hear God.

            Bartimaeus, the blind man who is given his sight by Jesus in our story today is one who could see Jesus clearly. This story is juxtaposition with another story in chapter 10 or Mark if the rich young man. Bartimaeus is sitting by the road as usual with his beggar’s cloak that identifies him as a blind person in need of alms, when Jesus comes along. He hears it is Jesus and he immediately starts yelling and making a big commotion, “Jesus, Son of David (Messiah), have mercy on me!” People attempt to quiet him down, but he just yells all the louder. He is convinced that Jesus has the power to heal him if he can just get Jesus’ attention. Jesus does hear him and calls him over. Bartimaeus springs up, leaving his beggar’s cloak, his means of survival, by the roadside, and goes to Jesus.  Jesus asks him what he wants, his sight of course, and Jesus tells him your faith has made you well. Bartimaeus is immediately healed and follows Jesus.

            Compare this to the rich young man we discussed a few weeks ago.  This man comes to Jesus seeking to follow him, but is told he must first give away his many possessions and he is unable to do so. He had much to lose, too much to lose and he couldn’t hear Jesus or follow him.  So who can see Jesus? Who can hear his message and follow him? Ironically, it is the blind man. The rich young man can’t see Jesus because his security and comfort are in the way. Bartimaeus has had the world’s security ripped away from him and he has nothing. Nothing is in the way. Like the exiles in Babylon, Bartimaeus is now ready to hear the message of faith and to follow. Bartimaeus is the Prodigal Son, eating with the pigs who recognizes it is time to go home.

            What does it take for any of us to hear and see what Jesus offered? So often people deepen their faith only after there has been a cataclysm in their lives: prison, war, and the terror of battle, a life threatening disease, a tragedy or death of a loved one, a nervous breakdown, a recovery from addiction, retirement or some other transition. When we have the false security of the world torn away we can begin to see that true security is available with God. A drowning man will let go of the treasure his holding and that is pulling him to the bottom of the ocean to hold on to a rope that will pull him to the surface. That’s what we need to do. Let the false security we are clinging to sink to the bottom, we don’t need it anymore. We prop up our lives with a smoke screen of money, jobs, busyness, meeting, church work, alcohol and drugs, and other idols of our own making, all the stuff of the false self that Thomas Merton talks about. We need to let go of it all, and grab the rope of faith that is being dangled down.

            Traditionally, the Buddha delivered a famous sermon called “The Fire Sermon” several months after his enlightenment. In it he urged 1,000 of his followers to give up attachment to the false self, to all the senses: the eyes, the tongue, the intellect and such ways of finding comfort and understanding in this world. He said that all the usual ways we perceive and understand the world are,  “burning with the fire of greed, with the fire of hatred, with the fire of delusion; it is burning with birth, aging, and death, with sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair.” In Merton’s commentary on the Fire Sermon he said that we must not be like people standing in a burning house thinking we are safe because we have a dictionary and are busy looking up the definition of a fire extinguisher. We are instead to choose life, to choose to seek our way out of exile, out of a false sense of security and comfort, ripping ourselves free of the false security of this world.

            Henri Nouwen says we all have a terminal illness called life. We are so vulnerable. I have 25 to 35 years of life left on earth, maybe a little more, maybe less. If you are younger than me (50) you might say, “Well, he’s older, I have more time than that. If you are older, you have to say, “Well, I have a little less time”. But we all have just this little bit of time on earth, than all the security and money in the world won’t save us. Why am I being so morbid? I’m not really saying anything you don’t already know, I just think we shouldn’t wait until we have a tragedy or a crisis to start seeking out our only true security. We need to rip off the beggar’s cloak we are wearing that provides us with our survival and tear after Jesus. Maybe you have already had the blinders torn off your eyes by some catastrophe and are already on your way. But many of us are thanking our lucky stars we haven’t had a catastrophe, but we are deluded. We should not be celebrating.

            Bernie Siegel, the cancer doctor and philosopher says that when we win the lotto we say, “Hurrah, call my friends and we’ll have a party”. But when something bad happens like cancer, we band together and say, “O no, this is bad, but together we can get through it.” He says we have to reverse that. When we win the lotto we should say, “O no, this is bad, but together we can get through it”, and when cancer strikes, we should say, ‘hurrah, call my friends and we’ll have a party.” Life is not what it seems. Let us learn from Bartimaeus, the blind man who was the only one who could see.