From Discipleship to Apostleship

From Discipleship to Apostleship(2)

Mark 10:46-52

Once Helen Keller said: “There are none so blind as those who refuse to see.”

Today’s story is not just about Bartimaeus. No, it is more than that; it is about a journey for all us. It is journey from discipleship to apostleship. As I said in the Armenian sermon, this is the last event before the entrance of Jesus to Jerusalem.

Jesus is teaching his disciples to become apostles. Moving from one class to another class of learning. Moving to maturity in “seeing” things differently.

Let us examine again the story and find out the kinds of blindness.

1. There is the literal blindness of Bartimaeus .

Obviously, I have not been physically blind. But I lived in Beirut, and there were times when the light went off and suddenly we are completely surrounded by darkness.

At night, when you cannot find the light and you are walking to an important room, you can feel what blindness is. It is just terrible. Your feet bump into things, you fall. You may lose your direction. What a terrible feeling of not having the joy of seeing, not having the opportunity to see.

Yet, this man, whose name is Bartimaeus, is an interesting man of faith. He said to Jesus, “Son of David, have mercy on me” (10:47).

Son of David? We do not hear such a name in the Gospel of Mark. We hear such a name for Jesus in the following chapter, when Jesus enters Jerusalem.

This means that Bartimaeus recognizes Jesus as Messiah.

Please notice, when he was not heard, he repeated “Son of David.”

Persistence, crying out again, not giving up. These are important factors in our search for sight from God.

Let me give you other examples for the Bible of people who were persistant:

The Syrophoenician woman will not give up hope that Jesus would heal her daughter even though she is not a Jew and Jesus initially refuses her (7:24 – 30).

Jairus must ignore the mockery of the mourners that Jesus could do nothing for his dead child (5:35 – 43).

The four Friends must force their way through a crowd and a roof to bring their paralyzed companion to Jesus (2:1 – 12).

The leper and the woman with the flow of blood must disregard laws that forbid them from having contact with Jesus to receive his help (1:40 – 45; 5:25 – 34). ¹

We can see that time is important in all these events. Call and Wait. Call, pray and wait for the Lord.

2. There is the blindness of the Disciples. They loved Jesus, they followed him, yet spiritually they were blind.

John, the son of Zebedee, who was so interested in prestige, position, and power, saw something new in front of the cross. He saw the two criminals were next to Jesus, one on the right and one on the left side. He started to connect things. And all the disciples had a different sight after the resurrection. When the Holy Sprit visited them, they were empowered by God and they became not just disciples but apostles: people who have mission.

To be admirer of Jesus is not enough. Following Jesus is not enough. Coming to Church is not enough. The followers were there; they were disciples. They were learning, but not seeing. Imagine, they were an obstacle in front of the blind man. They did not allow the poor beggar, Bartimaeus, to come to Jesus. This worries me. I wonder if I am an obstacle for others. I wonder if our words or our attitudes toward the weak, the poor, the unwanted will be obstacles between them and God.

Two weeks ago, I saw the news that a very beautiful church in downtown San Francisco opens its doors for the homeless, and offers shelter in the church at night. Many came and they slept in the church every night. Many came and saw the love and the concern of the church. They saw Jesus there, through the hands of the people who did not care if the pews would smell bad, or if the homeless would do harm to the church building. They took that risk, because they did not want to be an obstacle to people from seeing Jesus.

A man complained to his pastor that he would leave the church if the church did not provide a corner for the handicapped. He complained that the wheelchairs people are brought forward to the front of the church, and that view is not allowing him to worship God properly. This man is spiritually blind.

When I was serving in Beirut at the Emmanuel church, I had a member in the church who loved to play the piano whenever we had a banquet. She was in her 40s but mentally she was like a small child. She had some physical problems, too. She was not the best in music, but she was willing to play the piano. Some of the members did not like seeing her playing. I challenged the church and I said, “If the church is not the place for encouraging such a girl, tell me where? What did we learn from Jesus?”

3. The third kind of Blindness is in us.

You see that Bartimaeus was literally blind, could not see physically. The disciples did not have the knowledge and they were blind. We, who have both eyes and knowledge, do not have the Godly vision and sight.

We don't see the precious gift of life itself. Life can be wonderful. It should be. It can be. But it won't be until we open our eyes and come to Jesus and see things differently.

When Lebanon was in war with Israel, I heard a story which happened between a Palestinian and a Jew. A Palestinian man lost his eyes. He was waiting for new eyes from a donor. In those war days, an Israeli man dies and his parents donate his eyes. It happens to be that the eyes of this man match the eyes of the Palestinian man. The operation takes place successfully. When they tell the Palestinian man about the donor, he goes to the donor’s house, embraces the family and tells them he has new sight. He now sees things differently.

Well, Jesus did this operation long time ago on the cross for us. He was crucified and resurrected so we can have new eyes, new eyes to see life differently. New eyes to see our sin and bring it to God for healing.

Bartimaeus, after his healing did not go home. His healing was made whole. His eyes were seeing, but most importantly, his soul was renewed with a new vision of Jesus in his life. He followed Jesus. He was not one of the twelve, yet he was a new unofficial disciple of Jesus who became an apostle.

Today we all are called to be apostles for Christ. People with a mission.

AMEN