Follow After
Lessons learned from my friend Bartimaeus (guest preaching at Monument Pres GJ)
Last Sunday, I had the great privilege of guest preaching for a beautiful congregation at a church just minutes up the road from my house. This was my third time worshiping with and sharing a message with Monument Presbyterian Church. It is always a wonderful time. I did have a bug crawling in my hair to start things off, so if nothing else, you may want to watch the video to see how calm and cool I was in handling that! Many blessings to you all, and Happy Summer.
The Healing of Blind Bartimaeus
Mark 10: 46-52
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. 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!” 48 Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
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.” 50 So, throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. 51 Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher,[a] let me see again.” 52 Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately, he regained his sight and followed him on the way.
Let’s Pray
Good morning and happy Father’s Day to the dads in the crowd. I want to take just a minute though to acknowledge that days like this can be a bit tricky. So, if for some reason the circumstances of your life create a tenderness around the celebration of dads, I just want you to know you’re not alone and it’s okay to experience this day in whatever way you are experiencing it. God’s in it with you.
With that said, I’d like to ask you a question this morning…
If Jesus was on Instagram or Facebook, do you think you’d follow His account? Ok…not so serious, but it’s something interesting to think about when thinking about the concept of following. I wonder how many likes he’d get for memes from the sermon on the mount? “Calling someone an idiot is just as bad as murdering them?” “If someone slaps you unjustly, well turn your face and offer the other cheek for a second unjust slap.”
I wonder - how many thumbs-up likes would Jesus get right now for a post that said “Love your enemies.” Not so long ago, I was pretty invested in creating a social media following, but for the last year I’ve felt more and more inclined to stop socializing in social media spaces.
The shift in my desire around that space coincides with a major shift in my spiritual life and the idea of what it looks like in the 21st century to follow Jesus.
About a year and a half ago I applied to and was accepted into the Transforming Center’s 20th Transforming Community or TC20 for short. The Transforming Center was founded by Ruth Haley Barton a little over 20 years ago as a place for Christian leaders to tend to their souls so that they can bring their transformed selves into the areas in which they lead. The commitment each leader makes as a participant in a transforming community cohort is to seek Spiritual Transformation by attending quarterly retreats to learn about a spiritual discipline and then to enter into that quarter with intention to practice that discipline within the context of life and ministry. When I share about TC20 people often ask, what exactly is spiritual transformation?
The TransformingCenter aligns pretty closely with the definition you’ve often heard provided by Robert Mulholland and defines spiritual transformation as the process by which Christ is formed in us… for the glory of God, for the abundance of our own lives, and for the sake of others. In April of 2024, I attended the first retreat for our cohort and have since attended four more.
This morning, I’m excited to share with a story of how God has met me on this journey through scripture and some of the lessons I’m taking into my everyday ordinary life as a leader in my home and in my community.
During quarter one, we spent time exploring, contemplating, and living into spiritual desire. Did you know that the question Jesus is quoted most often asking is along the lines of “What do you want?”
Over the course of TC20’s first quarter (mid April - mid August 2024)we were invited to spend time in seven stories from the new Testament in which Jesus asks someone what it is they want him to do. The story of a blind beggar named Bartimaeus was one of these seven stories. In May I spent a week studying and interpreting tiny segments of Bartimaeus’ story. In June, I entered into the story with the guidance of a practice for discerning desire found in Ruth Haley Barton’s book Sacred Rhythms. In July, I revised and reflected on the story and in August, I preached my first version of this sermon.
And even before we were set free to study the scripture on our own, Ruth taught using this story during that first retreat in April. It was there that she pointed out that at the end of Bartimaeus’ encounter with Jesus, Jesus tells him to “go” and yet Bartimaeus upon regaining his sight makes the choice to “follow him on the way.”
Perhaps that phrase has always caught your attention, or perhaps like me this is the first time you are noticing that instead of regaining his vision and leaping away to experience the freedom of sight, he CHOSE to place his footsteps in the imprints of Jesus’ sandals.
That initial noticing turned into one of my great ponderings over quarter one. One of the days I spent with Bartimaeus last summer was a day I found myself neck deep in desperation, grasping for hope that only God could give. What happened that morning was an encounter with the King and a gift of new sight that is changing how I live.
In Sacred Rhythms, Ruth lays out practice exercises for each of the spiritual disciplines. In the practice for the chapter on Desire, you are to contemplate the story of Bartimaeus’ healing with some questions designed to help you find yourself and your desire in the story.
Interestingly, N.T. Wright’s commentary on this story in scripture also includes encouragement to discover yourself in the story. In TC20, our community was given a list of questions to consider as we read through and studied the seven scriptures.
Today’s message developed over the time and space set aside to return to the story of Bartimeus and to ask these questions again and again.
I’d like to share with you some of the questions that took me deeper into the story over the course of time.
If you’d like, you can hold onto one these questions as you listen – take it home with you – chew on it awhile. Each of these questions was important on my journey through this story. The ones I was drawn to and the ones that I initially resisted. In the exploration of what we resist, we can find some compelling sources of desperate desire and the invitation to turn those places over to God so that God can do what only God can do.
Here are some of the questions:
- Where do you find yourself in this story?
- Can you hear Jesus’ invitation to you to express your desire directly to him?
- Where do you find yourself resisting this question?
- How do you respond to Jesus when he asks?
Others you might consider if none of those resonate.
- Are you able to feel Christ’s compassion for the parts of you that yearn for something you do not yet have?
- Are you able to be compassionate with yourself?
- Who attempts to silence your desire?
- What aspect of your desire is something only Christ can accomplish?
- What does your desire or longing have to do with following Jesus in the work he is already doing in your life?
For today, just hold onto one. Maybe the one that you feel most drawn to. Maybe the one you are most resistant toward.
Before I enter into the contemplation of today’s story, let’s consider the setup to the story. Bartimaeus shows up in the middle of chapter 10, which falls in the middle of the Gospel of Mark. It follows on the heels of another one of the stories in which Jesus asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” The one in which James and John ask Jesus if they can sit on his right and left in places of honor as God’s Kingdom is glorified on earth.
That request turns into a conversation about leadership and another one of Jesus’ messages that might not get a high number of likes. Jesus tells the disciples and the crowd following him that to be the greatest, you actually have to be the least. And that he came to serve the people.
And even before that conversation, there’s this description of the crowd that is with Jesus being a bit worked up by the “scary” things that Jesus is telling them.
So here we are, watching as Jesus and this crowd, which includes his disciples, is leaving the city. There on the outskirts of Jericho sits a man who is blind. We don’t know how long he’s been blind, but the text tells us that it hasn’t been his whole life. However, it’s probably been quite a while. He’s found a spot that has allowed him to survive on the generosity of others. And his life is not one of glamor but of humble desperation. His daily residence is the exiled outskirts of this city. Exiled for a condition that is not within his control.
Sounds about right. How often does exile feel within our control?
One noticing I had about this text is that this blind beggar is known by name: Bartimaeus. His family is known: he is the son of Timaeus. He is a beggar on the outskirts of the city, but he is known. And he is apparently listening.
“When he hears that Jesus is near,” he begins to get loud. He shouts out, “Son of David, have mercy on me.” This heart cry is telling of Bartimaeus’ inner faith.
Calling Jesus “Son of David,” Bartimaeus is claiming to believe that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah. This beggar’s shout is, in fact, a heralding for the King.
Bartimaeus greets greatness and then lets the deep desire of his heart proceed forth. “Have mercy on me.”
What does that even mean? Have mercy on me? Show me your mercy? Mercy is a character quality of God, named by God’s self. In Exodus 34:6, God tells Moses ‘The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”
Mercy is the compassion or forgiveness shown especially to an offender or to one subject to one’s power.
Mercy is a blessing that is an act of divine favor or compassion.
Mercy is compassionate treatment of those in distress.
Mercy and compassion are tied together in every definition. So then let’s consider the definition of compassion as well:
Compassion is that feeling that arises when you are confronted with another’s suffering and feel a deep desire to relieve that suffering.
Can you imagine Bartimaeus’ cry? The Lord of Heaven and Earth is a few paces away, and his compelling cry: Jesus, Messiah, Lord of All – show me your steadfast love, pour your kindness over me, relieve my suffering!
Have you been there? In touch with your own suffering or your own longing ache enough to cry out to Jesus for relief?
Bartimaeus’ cry doesn’t just reach the ears of Jesus because Jesus is not walking this path alone. He is surrounded by disciples and a large crowd. They too, hear the cry of Bartimaeus.
It is these Jesus followers who offer the quick reaction. “Many sternly ordered him to be quiet.” This phrasing is different in various translations of the text. One version states they “warned him to be quiet”, another, they “rebuked him”, yet another, they “hushed him up”.
It got me thinking about a 2025 crowd encountering this kind of cry that held such desperation and hope. A cry that was certain to interrupt the teacher who was on a mission. How might a crowd of Jesus followers today, determined and sent with a purpose, react to this heart cry of a beggar? The words that come up are “They told him to shut it.”
Yikes. What is it that drives a person, even a follower of Jesus, to attempt to shut down the cries of desperate desire in another? Who is it that tries to silence the cries of my heart?
Do you find yourself here? Even followers of Jesus can try to silence the desperate cries from the needy places. Maybe like me, you might be discovering that it isn’t the cry of another, but you are shushing your own places of desperation and hope.
Here we can learn something beautiful from our friend Bartimaeus, for he is undeterred. Even when people are trying to quiet your voice, it is okay to shout loudly for Jesus – to cry out for Jesus’ kindness. Don’t hesitate to implore Jesus for his abundant loving kindness to meet your deepest need. He’s listening.
Bartimaeus cries out again. It’s a repeat. “Son of David. Have mercy on me!” Bartimaeus’ continued cry shows us a willingness to release to God the desperation that arises from a place of exile we find ourselves in. Perhaps when we become aware of our own places of desperation and hope, it will help us begin to recognize them in those around us.
It is after the second, louder cry that Jesus acts. And I love how Jesus responds to Bartimaeus’ shout in the midst of this “we’ve got more important things to do” crowd.
The text tells us. Jesus stood still. He stopped moving. When the desperate cry of a precious person reaches him, Jesus stops moving. Jesus teaches us how to stop. How to listen to what is needed. How to move with compassion. And how to be with and for the people we find ourselves living amongst.
And then he calls Bartimaeus to himself.
The next sentence shows that at least some in the crowd are quick to follow Jesus’ request. The voices saying “shut it” are now silenced as the invitation to approach Jesus is passed to Bartimaeus. “Take heart, get up, he’s calling you!” Now that is exciting and Bartimaeus doesn’t disappoint – his cloak is thrown off, he springs up and he goes to Jesus.
And then it’s the voice that speaks light into the world: “what do you want me to do for you?”
Jesus wants to know what Bartimaeus is crying out for. What he wants. What he desires. And Jesus wants to know about that for you and for me too.
Bartimeus was in touch with what he wanted. He doesn’t hesitate. “My teacher, let me see again.” Light into his personal darkness. A longing so many of us can understand metaphorically at least. Let me see. Give me vision out of this desperate place.
And Jesus reuses a phrase we’ve heard before in scripture. “Go; your faith has made you well.” Some versions of this phrase say, “Your faith has saved you.” N.T. Wright says the word ‘saved’ refers to physical healing, but for any early Christian it would carry a deeper meaning – one tied to spiritual saving as well as physical healing.
He says, “again we see that’s why anyone, even those normally excluded from pure or polite society, can be saved. Faith is open to all; and often it’s the unexpected people who seem to have it most strongly. And faith consists not least in recognizing who Jesus is and trusting that he has the power to rescue.”
And this is the point of the story that’s been sticking with me these many months. The text says that immediately Bartimaeus regains his sight. It’s been a LONG time since he had seen anything. The world came back into focus. Colors. Faces. The walking path. He was empowered to go wherever he wanted to go without assistance. Bartimaeus had only known being blind for years. His everyday ordinary life was spent in darkness. He had been begging and dependent on others for a very long time. And here we see his choice upon healing.
He didn’t race away to get back to it. He didn’t “go” to figure out how to live without support or with others untied to Jesus. Instead, he chose to follow the healer. The one who heard his cry and stopped moving to understand it better. The one who showed him dignity when all the other voices told him to shut it. It is likely that Bartimaeus wasn’t quite sure how to do life in this healed way: sighted and free. So, who better to learn from than Jesus? And so he followed Jesus to learn how to live in this new way.
Last June, I found myself in a story of exile. I found myself entering into the practice exercise found in Sacred Rhythms exactly one year ago today. The grief of loss that accompanied my experience weighed me down. As I sat on my deck, I thought about how I would get Jesus’ attention for my desperate hope that developed through this exile experience. Here is an excerpt from my journal:
“Jesus! Friend. Do you see me? Do you hear me? Help me!!!! I am desperate for your love and care. I am frustrated by my own neediness. I hold hope that maybe this time I’ll be healed. So much sorrow is tied up in this need. God, don’t you hear me? Don’t you hear me????”
And then I wrote the next line from the text.
Jesus stopped. Jesus stood still.
“Call her here,” he said.
And that morning on my deck, Jesus asked me the greatest question of trust. “What do you want me to do for you?”
Jesus trusted me to know what I wanted, what I needed, what I was desperate for Him to know. And so I told him. I got real. I got vulnerable. I took a risk. The risk that I would say what I needed and NOTHING would change.
But something changed. My grasping fingers began to unclench, and the ache that I had been clinging to was lifted. It was released. Entering into that process wholeheartedly helped me learn how to give my desperate desire over to God. And when the ache lifted, so did the feeling of darkness that had settled upon me in this experience of exile. And I could see better.
Plenty of what I cried out for didn’t change. Our world is full of great unfixable situations. Things that you and I can’t tackle on our own – even if we can see them more clearly.
Yet through that experience, I like Bartimaeus found myself realizing that I don’t really know how to live with my healed up heart quite yet. I need to follow someone who knows how to listen and hear. To stop moving. To be moved with compassion. To forgive. To try a new way. To lead with love.
This scripture came alive on a Saturday afternoon. God provided learning and love through an encounter that happened 2000 years ago. In my Q1 reflection paper for TC20,
I wrote these words: I sensed that I could move again, that my sight was being restored. And it was up to me to decide how and where to place my feet. I could “go” and figure it all out on my own - running back to the gardener for soil tending and advice when I thought it was needed. Or, I could place my foot on the path He was creating and I could follow. Like Bartemeus, I could choose to learn how to live with the newness of my sight by following the one whose hand restored my vision.
In the year that I’ve lived since, I’ve been learning what it means for me in my contexts to follow in the footsteps of Christ. The spiritual practices I get to learn and embed in my life through TC20 are integral to walking this path one footstep at a time.
One of today’s lectionary readings is Romans 5:1-5, which says that we should boast about our afflictions or our suffering. That when we suffer, we develop endurance,, and that endurance produces character and character produces hope.
On Friday morning, I read these verses in the First Nation’s Version of the New Testament, which I was introduced to in quarter 4. I couldn’t believe the language line-up so perfect for writing I wrote a year before, and I want to close today with these words
~ Romans 5:3-5 ~
But we must also find joy in our sufferings on his behalf. For we know that when the trail gets rough, we must walk with firm steps to reach the end. As we walk firmly in his footprints, we gain the strength of spirit that we need to stay true to the path. This gives us the hope we need to reach the end of the trail with honor. All of this is because of Creator’s great love that has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is his gift to us from above.”
Let’s pray.