We all are inspired when an individual overcomes great odds and accomplishes extraordinary things.
A television program preceding the 1988 Winter Olympics featured a group of skiers being trained for slalom skiing. We’re talking alpine skiing here, not water skiing. For those unfamiliar with alpine skiing, the skill known as slalom involves skiing between poles spaced close together thereby causing quicker and shorter turns. You’ve seen skiers zigzagging between flags down a hill. That’s slalom.
The unique thing about the skiers being trained for this particular slalom event filmed for television is that all of them were blind. Traversing a slalom course is difficult for skiers with normal vision, but for blind individuals it might sound impossible. It is not. Paired with sighted skiers, the blind skiers were taught on the flat part of the course how to make right and left turns. When that was mastered, they were taken to the slalom slope, where their sighted partners skied beside them shouting, “Left!” and “Right!” As they obeyed the commands, these skiers were able to negotiate the course and cross the finish line, depending solely on the sighted skiers’ word. It was either complete trust or utter catastrophe. (1) I don’t know about you, but I find that inspiring. It is also a magnificent example of what it means to live by faith. Their sighted partners shouted, “Left!” or “Right!” and they obeyed. So they succeeded.
We all are inspired when an individual overcomes great odds and accomplishes extraordinary things. Some of you remember the story of Erik Weihenmayer. On May 24, 2001, Erik made history as the first blind man to ever climb the world’s tallest mountain, Mt. Everest. Erik, who has been blind since age 13, is an accomplished athlete. His blindness has never held him back from a challenge, even one as dangerous as the Mt. Everest expedition. According to his wife, Ellie, Erik’s biggest obstacles are the little things in life. For instance, Erik and Ellie have a baby daughter named Emma. Emma has made life a little more complicated for Erik, because she leaves her toys all over the floor. For the man who climbed Mt. Everest, it is a challenge to walk through his living room without tripping on a toy. (2)
Some of you young parents can relate to that, sighted or not.
To me, stories of extraordinary accomplishment are almost always stories of faith. To accomplish anything worthwhile in life, we need faith in ourselves and our own abilities, faith in others and faith in God.
Here is the good news about faith. Faith makes a difference in life. Faith is important to us socially, intellectually, financially, physically, and spiritually. I say spiritually, because there are people who have their names on church rolls who do not have faith. If you have faith, said the Master, you can move mountains. Not even a lot of faith, he said. Even the faith of a mustard seed will do (Luke 17:6). Faith can change your life. Take the case of the blind man in today’s Gospel lesson.
We don’t know his real name. Bartimaeus simply means the Son of Timaeus. Bartimaeus was a resident of Jericho and he made his living the same way almost all blind people in that dreadful time made their living, begging. Nothing else was open to him. So, there he sat by the roadside asking for alms. One day a large crowd of people came down the road toward him. He couldn’t see them, of course, but he could hear them, and it was evident there was a purpose behind their journey. They were following a well-known teacher, a Jesus of Nazareth. Bartimaeus had heard that this Jesus had extraordinary power, so when Bartimaeus heard that it was Jesus passing by, Bartimaeus began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
This made his friends uncomfortable. Bartimaeus was making a scene. Some said he was making a fool out of himself, but Bartimaeus wouldn’t be quiet. He shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Then something quite remarkable happened. It’s not remarkable to us, but it was to Bartimaeus’ friends. Jesus stopped and said, “Call him,” referring to Bartimaeus. So those with Jesus called to Bartimaeus, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.”
What follows next is beautiful. Mark tells us that “throwing his cloak aside, [Bartimaeus] jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.” No hesitation. No embarrassment. Just unbridled enthusiasm . . . and faith.
“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him.
Bartimaeus said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” I’m sure Jesus knew that, but he wanted Bartimaeus to say it.
Listen to Jesus’ answer to Bartimaeus’ request. “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately Bartimaeus received his sight and, says Mark, he followed Jesus along the road.
“Your faith has healed you,” said Jesus. Bartimaeus could see because of his faith. Think about that for a moment. Through faith powerful things can happen. Do you understand that? Faith moves mountains.
Faith caused Bartimaeus to seek Jesus’ help in the first place. The problem of many disadvantaged people is that they have no hope. How many times on the news when they are giving the unemployment statistics have you heard them say, “This does not include the large number of those who have given up looking for work.” That’s a terrible thing to give up.
Bartimaeus could have easily done that give up. Nobody would have blamed him. He could have accepted his fate as a non-seeing person in a society unequipped to help him overcome his disabilities. He could have thrown up his hands and said, “Everything’s against me.” He could have gone into a shell and let his circumstances overwhelm him, but he did not. Many people with far more blessings than Bartimaeus have given up.
Ian Fleming was the author of the James Bond novels, which, of course, have been made into a series of hugely successful movies. Fleming became fabulously wealthy. Yet shortly before his death, Ian Fleming said, “I’m now . . . ashes, just ashes. You have no idea how bored one gets with the whole silly business of life.”
Ernest Hemingway was another famous and wealthy writer who came to the end of his life in despair. He said, “I feel like a burned-out tube in a radio.” He took a gun and shot himself in the head.
Many psychologists and psychiatrists are now saying that the higher a civilization is, the higher the suicide rate will be. The suicide rate is very high in the U.S. People who kill themselves see no way out they come to believe that there is no reason to live. Helen Keller, who, like Bartimaeus was blind in her eyes, but not in her soul, put it like this: their “eyes are full of light but [they] see nothing . . . Their soul’s voyage through this enchanted world is a barren waste.” (3) How sad to see people with every advantage whose journey is a barren waste. How sad to see people who have given up.
Bartimaeus heard that a man was passing by who could possibly help him and Bartimaeus quite literally leaped at the opportunity. I hope that whatever your situation is today, you aren’t among those who have given up. Giving up is the antithesis of faith, and it is self-fulfilling. It was faith that caused Bartimaeus to seek help.
And it was faith that caused Bartimaeus to speak up. When he heard that Jesus was passing by, Bartimaeus began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” His friends were embarrassed by his behavior. Nice people don’t make scenes, do they? Yes, and a lot of nice people end up spending their lives beside the road begging. Have you ever heard the expression, “The squeaky wheel gets the grease”? There is a time for speaking up.
There is much truth in that little verse in James (4:2) that says, “You have not because you ask not.”
In 1962 a 14‑year‑old boy by the name of Robert White wrote to President John F. Kennedy’s personal secretary, Evelyn Lincoln, requesting the President’s autograph. Within a few weeks Evelyn Lincoln honored the boy’s request by sending him a facsimile of Kennedy’s signature in the mail. That began a relationship of correspondence that lasted 33 years. Impressed with White’s passion for presidential history, Mrs. Lincoln gave him thousands of documents and mementos. She saved whatever could be saved (including even the doodles JFK drew during meetings). Today, Robert White, now 51, boasts the largest private collection of Kennedy memorabilia in the world, over 50,000 items. Receiving begins with the courage to ask. (4)
“You have not because you ask not.” It was faith that caused Bartimaeus to seek Jesus and it was faith that caused him to speak up and ask for help.
It was also faith that caused Bartimaeus to leap up and come to Jesus. Notice that Bartimaeus called Jesus, “Son of David.” Bartimaeus was one of the first Jews to recognize that Jesus was the one spoken of by the prophets. Bartimaeus was a believer, not a cynic. Many people heard about Jesus and did not respond to him at all, but Bartimaeus believed that he was who he said he was. That’s always risky being a believer. Such people always run the risk of being deceived by false messiahs. But at least believers are open to the possibility that there is more to life than what they can see and hear. Many people today are settling for sterile lives, lives with no real power because they have limited themselves to what they can touch and what they can see.
It was faith that caused Bartimaeus to seek help. It was faith that caused him to speak up and it was faith that caused Bartimaeus to leap up and come to Jesus.
And it was faith that healed Bartimaeus’ eyes. So-called faith healers have given faith a bad name. They have preyed on the innocent and used the possibility of healing to line their own pockets. That does not change the fact that there is healing in faith.
The eminent Swiss physician and author Dr. Paul Tournier in his book, A Doctor’s Case Book, gave many examples from his own experience of people who were healed by the power of faith. In one instance he told of a girl whom one of his friends had been treating for several months without much success for anemia. As a last resort his colleague sent her to the medical officer of the district in which she worked in order to get his permission to send her to a sanatorium. A week later the patient brought word back from the medical officer. He had granted the permit, but he added: “On analyzing the blood, however, I do not arrive at anything like the same figures as those you quote.”
Tournier’s friend, somewhat put out, at once took a fresh sample of the blood, and rushed to his laboratory. Sure enough, the blood count had suddenly changed. “If I had not been the kind of person who keeps carefully to laboratory routine,” his friend said, “and if I had not previously checked my figures at each of my patient’s visits, I might have thought that I had made a mistake.” He returned to the patient and asked her, “Has anything out of the ordinary happened in your life since your last visit?”
“Yes, something has happened,” she replied. “I have suddenly been able to forgive someone against whom I bore a nasty grudge; and all at once I felt as if I could at last say ‘Yes’ to life!”
Tournier comments, “Her mental attitude was changed and the very state of her blood changed along with it. When her mind was cured, her body was also on the way to being cured.” Then Tournier quotes St. Thomas Aquinas: “Grace flows from the soul to the body.” (5)
No doctor can tell you how much effect the mind has over the body. We know the mind can destructively affect the body. Hospital rooms are filled with people who would not have been there if they had had the proper attitudes and habits. But we do not know how much healing power there is in having a strong faith. Bartimaeus was in the presence of Jesus. That means that the power of faith was strong and immediate. Bartimaeus was healed immediately.
Of course, Bartimaeus didn’t have anywhere else to turn. There were no well-trained medical doctors, no laser surgery, no corneal transplants. If Jesus were here physically today, he might not put as much emphasis on healing people as he did then. After all, modern medicine can heal many people. Still, all healing comes from God whether it comes from modern medicine or whether it comes through prayer.
The point is that where we are spiritually can affect our physical bodies. If we have let burdens like stress or resentment or despair overwhelm us, it will be more difficult for the body to do its healing work. If we will work on our faith trusting God, letting go of anxiety, practicing forgiveness, believing that there is help for us often that will be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Bartimaeus trusted Jesus and he was healed.
And one thing more, faith caused Bartimaeus to follow Jesus after his sight was restored. This is the most important part of the story. Many people pray for healing, but after the healing they are no different spiritually than they were before. But not Bartimaeus. When the scales fell off his eyes, they also fell off his soul, and he followed Jesus from that day forward.
Sometime back a major news service carried this item which I quote: “After six years of blindness, Charles Gilman has his sight back. Now he plays an exciting game of matching faces with voices which originally were only ‘fleshed out’ by his own imagination. ‘It’s like being born again,’ he said.” (6)
Bartimaeus’ experience was like being born again, both physically and spiritually. It was faith that kept Bartimaeus from giving up. It was faith that caused him to ask for help. It was faith that caused him to leap up and come to Jesus. It was faith that healed Bartimaeus’ eyes. It was faith that caused Bartimaeus to follow Jesus after his eyes were healed. Bartimaeus wasn’t just another beggar. He was a man filled with faith. Pray that God would give us that kind of faith. That kind of faith moves mountains.
1. Reverend Jim Pye, http://www.sermonsplus.co.uk/Mark%2010.46‑52.htm.
2. “A Couple of High Climbers” by Carole Bula, Time, June 18, 2001, p. 62.
3. Dr. R. L. Hymers, Jr., http://www.rlhymersjr.com/Online_Sermons/12-02-01AM_TwoPairsOfEyes.html.
4. Spirit, November 1999. Cited by Greg Asimakoupoulos in Leadership magazine.
5. Cited by William Barclay, And He Had Compassion (Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 1976), pp. 43-44.
6. Illusaurus