Let Me See

They told him to be quiet. They told him to keep to the margins, to stay away, to not interrupt. But he kept on shouting. Now here is the amazing part: Jesus asked him what he wanted. I know, you’re thinking, what is so amazing about that? He was shouting for attention. Of course, he is going to know what he wanted. But I have found that isn’t always true. Sometimes the loudest shouters don’t really know what they want. They only know that they aren’t happy, or aren’t getting their way, or are forced into some change, some position that they don’t want. So, they may be able to answer Jesus if he asks them, “What don’t you want?” Or “Why are you unhappy?” But Jesus doesn’t tend to ask what is wrong; he asks what would make it right? What do you want me to do for you?

Bartimaeus didn’t hesitate. Let me see again. Not, solve all my problems, or make bad things or bad people go away. Let me see again. Then from there, I’ll follow you. From there, I’ll let your will become my will as I daily search out the path that you would have me walk. Let me see again, so that I can be about the business of opening eyes to who you are and what you have to offer this world that clings to its blindness. Let me see again, so that I can find you whenever I need to.

We’ve been walking with Jesus through the tenth chapter of Mark. And now we’re at the end, watching blind Bartimaeus receive his sight. And we wonder what we’ve missed along the way. Would we have been among the hushers when the beggar at the gates of Jericho started shouting that day? Or would we have seen him as Jesus saw him? Not as a problem to be solved or an issue to be debated, but as a man with agency, with the ability to decide and determine and choose.

“Let me see,” Bartimaeus declares that sunny day outside the walls of Jericho. Maybe that should be our cry too. Our prayer and our hope. Maybe that should be our spiritual discipline this fall. Take a walk around the neighborhood where your church sits. What do you see? What draws your attention? What shouts to you as you pass? Let Jesus open your eyes to the familiar and maybe see it a whole new way.

Look at your building. Sure, it is familiar and welcoming to you and yours. But is it accessible to all? Is there an invitation in the art and the color and look and the feel of the place? Is there something that speaks not only of your story and your faith, but something that looks familiar to the community around you? Does the face of Jesus that you project resemble you or them or both?

It comes down to whether we are among those who are telling the outsider, the stranger, the marginalized to be quiet and not disturb the status quo, or whether we choose to be those who say, “Take heart, he is calling you.” Take heart, this message is for you. This hope is for you, and not just for us. Sure, we have blindnesses that need to be healed as well. Yes, we need to hear the voice of Jesus calling us and asking us what we need. We are a part of those to whom Jesus has come. But we often – knowingly or unknowingly – hoard that message, that voice, that partner with whom we walk as though he were our special possession and not the one who came to the whole world. Like James and John in last week’s text, we want to claim places of honor as our right.

What walking with Jesus teaches us is that we aren’t the ones guiding the path. We aren’t the ones who are determining where to go. We’ve surrendered that responsibility when we decided to follow him. Bartimaeus saw that. We could learn from one who was blind but now sees. Because he asked. Let me see.

Rev. Dr. Derek Weber, Director of Preaching Ministries, served churches in Indiana and Arkansas and the British Methodist Church. His PhD is from University of Edinburgh in preaching and media. He has taught preaching in seminary and conference settings for more than 20 years.