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“What Do You Want Me To Do For You?”
Luke 18:35-43
Preached
on Sunday March 7, 2004
by
Rev.
David G. Carpenter
at The Presbyterian Church in Morristown
Have you ever given someone a really lame excuse
for something that you just didn’t want to do? I’m assuming
that I am not the only one in this room who has at times been amazed
to find my mouth automatically, almost without my consent, launching
into some elaborate ludicrous explanation of why I can or can’t
do something. Well, a few years ago I stumbled across a hilarious article
that was published in Seventeen Magazine (I promise, this is not my
normal reading material). What I am about to read to you are, in fact,
actual absentee notes, excuses for missing school that were used by
students to schools around the country and then submitted to Seventeen
Magazine by the schools that received them for this article.
They include:
- Dear Mr. Ricardi, my son is under a doctor’s
care and could not take P.E. yesterday. Please execute him.
- To whom it may concern, Please excuse Cynthia for
being absent. She was sick and I had her shot.
- Please excuse Tom for being absent on Jan 28, 29,
30, 31, 32 and 33.
- Mrs. Alberto, Please excuse Nancy for staying home
yesterday. The doctor said that her lungs were too full to be outside.
Dear Mrs. Scott, Please excuse Danny for being. It was his father’s
fault.
Well, today we continue our journey toward Holy Week by looking at
a short little story that is tucked
into the middle of Jesus’ journey toward Holy Week as he made
his way from Galilee up to Jerusalem for His Passion, Crucifixion
and Resurrection. It is a little story that seems to be dropped in
here out of the blue for no apparent reason. It is only a couple of
verses long. Most of the commentators say very little about it. In
fact, in many ways it feels like a bit of a sidebar that has been
slipped into an otherwise very dramatic procession toward the cross.
Why is it in here? Jesus has just finished teaching some very important
parables, talking to the rich young ruler, predicting his passion
and death as He is passing through Jericho, the very last town, last
stop before his grand entrance into Jerusalem. He is getting very
close and as he gets closer we sense an increasing buzz about this
man. The crowds are getting bigger and bigger, the anticipation is
beginning to build, and every little interaction that Jesus has seems
to be getting more and more focused and more and more meaningful.
And then suddenly, they’re passing through Jericho and out of
nowhere this blind man, our friend who is named Bartimaeus in Mark’s
version of the story, yells from the side of the road, “Jesus,
son of David, have mercy on me!”
Now, as short a story as this is, there really are only a couple of
things that stand out. The first is that Bartimaeus calls Jesus, “Son
of David”; Jesus’ Messianic title. That’s significant
because it tells us that the people were beginning to understand who
Jesus was and it marks the transition into the beginning of Jesus’
open claim to being the Messiah. In fact, it is particularly relevant
here because Luke is pointing out a great irony, one of the major
themes of the Gospels. It is NO coincidence that the VERY verse before
we meet our blind Bartimaeus, Jesus was trying to help his disciples
understand what was going to happen to him when they reached Jerusalem
and all that He was going to have to go through, but the disciples
didn’t have a clue what Jesus was talking about. They just don’t
get it. (READ vs. 31-34). So here is this theme again that we mentioned
on Ash Wednesday of the disciples getting it but not really getting
it.
So, on the one hand, we have the disciples who have been with Jesus
every step of the way, have seen everything that Jesus has done but
still don’t get it and in the very next verse we meet a blind
man, who has never met Jesus before, has obviously not seen a thing
that Jesus has done but he does get it…he understands…and
as a result his life is changed forever.
The second thing that stands out is Bartimaeus’ persistence.
Even in a large crowd of people, he has no qualms crying out shamelessly,
“Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” It is almost embarrassing,
like, “Where is this guy’s sense of dignity?” In fact,
the people who are around him get mad at him and tell him to be quiet.
And so what does he do? Do you remember? He cries out even louder
and with more determination and desperation than the first time, “Jesus,
Son of David, have mercy on me!” It is interesting, that the
Greek word used for shout is actually changed between verses 38 and
39. In verse 38, Luke uses the Greek word (eboasen) which describes
an ordinary loud shout to attract attention. But in verse 39 he changes
the verb to (ekrazen) which speaks of a much more instinctive, deep
emotional scream, almost an animal like cry. Bartimaeus was desperate…and
determined…and single mindedly passionate to come face to face
with Christ. For all of the things Bartimaeus didn’t have he
did have a deep sense of his need and that drove him relentlessly
and unswervingly toward Jesus and for all of the things that he couldn’t
see, he could see that Jesus was the only one who could heal him.
And the third thing that sticks out about this story is that weird
question that Jesus asks so often … the question that, again,
we touched on Ash Wednesday, “What do you want me to do for you?”
Can you even begin to imagine being blind? We’ve all wondered
what it would be like, haven’t we? We’ve all played pin
the tail on the donkey, swung at a piñata blindfolded, stumbled
around the house at night in the pitch dark and wondered what it would
be like if that ever became a never ending way of life for us. Those
of you who are familiar with Dave Lawrence’s story know that
he had to face the very real possibility of blindness head on. When
I was a little child the prospect of going blind scared me to death.
I think I had heard so many wonderful but vivid stories about Helen
Keller that I had it stuck in my mind what it might be like, how terrifying
it would be to be blind and deaf…but blind particularly. I used
to actually have nightmares about it when I was a kid.
Well, here in our story we have someone for whom this nightmare is
his reality. And he is successful in capturing Jesus’ attention.
He is brought over to Jesus and then Jesus goes and asks him that
crazy question, “What do you want me to do for you?” Now
obviously Bartimaeus is not me, thank God, but if it was me hearing
that question, I don’t think I would have been as gracious as
Bartimaeus. I would have been thinking, “Are you kidding me right
now? What can you do for me? Isn’t it obvious? Look Jesus, I
thought I was the blind one here. It doesn’t take an Einstein
to see what is wrong with me...I’m blind! You know, like, can’t
see anything, carried by my friends, tripping over stuff kind of blind?
Surely no one would choose to be blind! My life is a mess!” But
fortunately Bartimaeus isn’t me and instead of unloading on Jesus
with a sarcastic response, Bartimaeus simply and humbly says, “Lord…I
want to see!” And Jesus heals him immediately, right there on
the spot. Bartimaeus receives his sight, he follows Jesus and just
as quickly as it started, the story ends and Luke moves on to Zacchaeus.
You know, on the surface, it might sound like a crazy question, “What
do you want me to do for you?” but the plain and simple truth
is that Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves. Another famous
incident where Jesus asked this same question was with the lame man
who had been lying crippled on the steps of the famous healing pool,
Bethesda, for thirty-eight years in the 5th Chapter of the Gospel
of John. Jesus also asked him if he wanted to get well, but unlike
Bartimaeus, the man in Bethesda started rattling off a hundred and
one excuses why he had been there all those years and yet had never
been healed. “Well, every time the waters are ready, I don’t
have anyone to carry me down so someone else gets in first and I just
have to keep waiting”. And Jesus’ response before healing
him is, “I will need to know if you REALLY want to be healed.”
You see, it’s not always easy to be healed, to be made whole,
to be radically changed from within. It is a scary business that takes
guts … and determination … trust … and faith.
There is a great story about a man named Jack who was walking along
a steep cliff one day when he accidentally got too close to the edge
and fell. On the way down he managed to grab a branch which was precariously
sticking out from the side of the cliff. He looked down and in horror
realized that the canyon fell straight down for over a thousand feet.
He couldn’t hang on forever and the wall of the cliff was too
steep for him to have a chance at climbing back up. So out of desperation,
Jack began yelling for help, hoping that someone passing by might
hear him and lower a rope or something. “Help! Help! Is anyone
up there? Help!” He yelled for hours but nobody heard him. Finally
just as he was about to give up and let go, he heard a voice. “Jack,
can you hear me?” “Yes, yes! I can hear you. I am down here.”
“I can see you Jack, are you all right?” “Yes, but
who are you and where are you?” “I am the Lord Jack, I am
everywhere.” “The Lord? You mean God?” “That’s
me.” “Oh God, please help me! I promise – if you get
me down from here, I’ll stop sinning. I’ll be a really good
person, I’ll go to church and I’ll serve you for the rest
of my life.” “Easy on the promises, Jack. Let’s just
get you down from there, then we can talk. Now here is what I want
you to do, listen carefully.” “I’ll do anything God,
anything at all, just tell me what to do.” “Okay. I want
you to let go of the branch.” “What, are you kidding?”
“Just let go of the branch you have to trust me, I have you,
you’ll be fine. I promise.” There was this long silence.
And finally Jack yelled, “Help! Is there anyone else up there?”
It is scary to let go of our branches and to trust God. Jesus meets
us everyday offering us exactly the change and the healing that we
need but he also knows that change is very hard and can be scary at
first and very few of us are going to have the courage and to seize
it. Even Bartimaeus…you would assume that receiving your sight
after being blind your whole life would be an overwhelmingly joyful
experience. The first sight of a tree or the sky, being able to look
for the first time into the face of your family … how incredible.
But the reality is that if we were to talk to an optometrist we would
discover that even something that seems as obviously wonderful as
receiving your sight can, at first, be an unpleasant experience. Experts
say that the first thing that happens to a person who has just received
their sight for the first time is complete disorientation, a disorientation
that is much more severe than losing our sight or becoming blind would
be. The person immediately finds them self incredibly dizzy and falls
down to the ground. They can’t walk. In fact, it is all they
can do to open their eyes. And after that, the person usually gets
sick to their stomach and throws up. You know, it wouldn’t be
at all unreasonable for a person who just received their sight for
the first time to conclude that sight isn’t all that it is cracked
up to be.
Sometimes it is easier to remain where we are. At least our branch
is familiar. Just imagine Bartimaeus trying to get home after his
healing. His wildest dreams have come true, he can see! But he doesn’t
know his way back home and the people who normally carry him have
taken off because they assume he doesn’t need their help anymore.
He wouldn’t recognize his own house if he bumped into it and
wouldn’t know his family if they walked past him on the street.
And how about a week later? Bartimaeus would have a whole new set
of problems. His family wouldn’t be taking care of him anymore.
He used to beg for a living but obviously no one’s going to be
giving money to blind beggar who can see. So it is assumed he will
be getting a job, but what can he do? He better think of something
quick or he will starve to death. His friends don’t come by to
help him anymore; he’s expected to become responsible, to take
care of himself. Who could blame him if he were to start wondering
if he had made the right decision asking Jesus to heal him?
At least he knew how to handle things and get along when he was blind,
but how does he handle things now that he can see?
And suddenly Jesus’ question begins to make a lot more sense,
“What do you want me to do for you? Do you really want to get
well?”
Each of us stands just at the very edge of what God has in store for
us. The Christian life is the most challenging, the most exciting,
the most enriching journey we could ever hope to embark on and yet
the truth is that most people, even most Christians, will become content
to only flirt with the very periphery of what we have been intended
for. So why is this strange little story about a blind man named Bartimaeus
in here? I think it is here because both Luke and Mark know that from
where Jesus is standing we are all blind. We can’t see the nose
in front of our faces. And He knows just how easy it is to become…comfortable
in the relative familiarity and ease of our sightlessness. There is
so much more that Christ is longing to give us but to be healed would
mean to grow and be stretched and challenged in ways that we are not
entirely sure we are ready for. Jesus stands before you with a blueprint
for your life that is grander, more exciting and challenging than
anything we could ever begin to imagine But He also knows how much
we like to keep things just the way they’re good for us or not
and so he asks us, “What do you want me to do for you? Do you
want to be healed?” It is actually a very good question.
Are you experiencing all that God has for you? As we walk through
this season of Lent I’ve asked you to spend some time thinking
about what parts of your life you are deliberately holding back from
God. We all have them, these little closets that we know God wants
to get into. If you were to give God full, unmitigated control over
your life, what would change? What would look different? Would you
do something different with your life? Would it be the way you treat
someone? Would it be your priorities, or your habits, your finances
or your friendships? What would it be? What areas of your life is
God just waiting to get a hold of?
You know, in my purer moments, I’m jealous of Bartimaeus. I wish
I had that kind of shameless desperation to be healed. Most of the
time I have managed to convince myself that I have it all way too
together and under control to ever be in need let alone desperate
for anything. I wish I had Bartimaeus’ urgency, his passion,
that kind of humility that comes from admitting we don’t have
it all together. Humility is the beginning of trust and Christ is
asking us to trust him. To let go of the branch, no matter how scary
it is and say, “Lord, I am totally yours. Heal me, make me whole,
do with me what you want.” Because the truth is that figuring
out what we need is not the hard part. Having the guts to ask for
it, that’s where things get sticky. “What do you want me
to do for you?” It may be the most difficult and the most important
question Jesus will ever ask us. Let us promise ourselves that we
will not slide through this season or slip past these next six weeks
without giving Him an answer. AMEN.
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