Silencing of Bartimaeus

Sermon Oct 25 2015 from Heather Rodenborg on Vimeo.

Below is my sermon text based upon Mark 10:46-52

Mark 10:46-52

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. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 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.” So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, “What do ou want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

There is a lot going on in this scripture this morning. You have Bartimaeus who is blind and the only source of income he has is from begging. You have Jesus who is gaining followers and clout because of his teachings and the miracles that he is performing. You have the disciples who have been following Jesus. And then you have the crowd, the many, who are following Jesus.

            Bartimaeus heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth who was approaching and passing by. We aren’t told what it was that he had heard about him, but it was enough for him to shout out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” We can only assume that Bartimaeus had heard the stories of Jesus, he had heard about the miracles that he was performing throughout the land, and had faith that this was that Jesus. He couldn’t see him, he didn’t know what he looked like, but he heard that it was him and had faith in Jesus. I can only imagine what he was probably feeling and thinking, but it was probably something to the effect of, “This is my chance. This could be the man I heard about. This could be the one who has healed others. This is my moment to meet him, to talk to him. I have to do something!” And Bartimaeus did something, he shouted out to Jesus, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

            When Bartimaeus shouted out to Jesus; however, he upset the homeostasis of the crowd. Then the “many,” whomever they were, they didn’t just tell Bartimaeus to be quiet but they “sternly” ordered him to be quiet. Did they do this because he was blind? Did they do this because he was an outcast? Did they do this because he was a beggar living on the margins of society? I would guess it was because of all of these. They wanted to silence Bartimaeus. They didn’t want him interrupting Jesus, they wanted him to be quiet and remain in his place.

            Why? Because this is what we do. We keep silent, and we urge others to the same. We keep silent because it would require taking a risk. We risk rejection, we risk confrontation. Every day we engage in conversations in which we weigh the risks of what we say or what we ask. I’ve sat with families in the ICU in which family members have disagreed regarding the plan of care for their family members. Some have disagreed and/or had questions about the extent of treatment they should allow to take place. Others have been afraid to ask the doctor questions because they don’t understand the treatment. And others have wondered, silently, whether they were doing the right thing for their family member. They have remained silent because of the fear of rejection and/or risk that they take in asking questions; engaging in conversation. In this, they are allowing their fear to silence them. We can’t let our fear win. We can’t let our fear silence us.

We also can’t be those in the scripture who were trying to silence Bartimaeus. When we force others to remain quiet because it could cause us to become uncomfortable, we silence their voice, and we reject them and their experience. Those that were trying to silence Bartimaeus that day, were rejecting him and his experience. This type of rejection continues to take place today in our society. I’ve seen the voices of those without homes being silenced, voices of young people of color who are being silenced, and the voices of women being silenced.

I can’t tell you the number of veterans who I have spoken with who have felt like their voices were being silenced. My father-in-law, for example, fought in Vietnam. Many veterans, such as himself, had their voices silenced by the public when they came back. They didn’t feel supported because they fought in a war in which our country lost. People didn’t want to listen to their experiences.

Take a moment and think about the ways we silence one another, even when we don’t intend it. In group therapy, for example, I know a few counselors who don’t allow kleenexes to be passed to the person who is crying. The reason for this is simple. By giving a person who is crying kleenexes, we are telling them to clean up their tears. Tears make people uncomfortable, but it’s a normal human reaction to pain and suffering. In letting tears falls, we honor the tears and honor the person.

But it’s not just limited to tears, look at the way our society handles grief. When you lose a family member, you are lucky to even receive one week off for bereavement. After that week, your employer expects you to come back to work and not be grieving anymore. Your grief is being silenced. And even in that, we don’t speak about it because we often silence ourselves.

The way in which we solve silencing ourselves and others is realizing our worthiness. But realizing our worthiness isn’t always easy. The greatest challenge for most of us is believing that we are worthy right now. We can’t believe this because we set unrealistic goals for ourselves. We believe we will be worthy once we have lost 15 pounds. We will be worthy once we become and stay sober. We will be worth once we get that dream job. We will be worthy once we are able to hold our marriage together. Or,we will be worthy once our parents finally approve. This is not the way in which God works. This isn’t the way in which God measures our worthiness.

We are worthy because God loves us unconditionally. Bartimaeus knew his worthiness, he knew he was loved by God, and he didn’t let those around him that day silence him. He had faith and courage that day to call out to Jesus. And in his calling out to Jesus and overcoming fear and silencing, he made everyone around him a little bit better and the world a little bit braver. And he allowed Jesus to use him for something bigger and better then he would have ever imagined.

Be a Bartimaeus, overcome whatever fears maybe silencing you. Overcome anyone who maybe silencing you. End the silencing of others. In doing so, you will become a little bit better and make the world a little bit braver.

Amen.