"Open My Eyes, That I May See"

22nd Sunday after Pentecost, B

October 28, 2012

Reformation Sunday

Foreword: Today is the celebration of Reformation Sunday, which celebrates Martin Luther’s nailing of his “Ninety-Five Theses” on the door of Castle Church, Wittenberg, Germany, on October 31, 1517; which started the Protestant Reformation. This Sunday is part of a “Season of Saints”, which ends on the celebration of the Feast of All the Saints (November 1 or the first Sunday of November).

Introduction

Today, we celebrate Reformation Sunday (Filipino: Linggo ng Repormasyong Protestante), in which we remember when Martin Luther nailed his “Ninety-Five Theses” on the door of Castle Church, Wittenberg, Germany, and started the Protestant Reformation. We should note that Martin Luther did not intend to separate from the Roman Catholic Church, but to reform it from within. In the same way, Methodism (which is not a product of the Reformation but is Protestant in theology) did not intend to separate from the Church of England but to reform it from within.

The driving force of the Protestant Reformation is justification through faith (or, justification by grace through faith, giving it a Wesleyan emphasis) as sent forth in Roman 1:16-17:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, “The just shall live by faith”.

Today is not a day to engage in anti-Roman Catholic polemics. Recently, the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Foundation issued a “Joint Doctrine on the Doctrine of Justification by Faith” (see the document on the Vatican's website here). (Both parties agreed that justification is by faith; but they also “agreed to disagree” on certain points of the doctrine). Rather, we should focus on the Gospel reading for today, which is quite fittingly, the healing of blind Bartimeus (Mark 10:46-52), which can be seen as a picture of how the “blindness” of humanity can only be healed by faith through the power of Jesus.

I. The blindness of humanity

A. Physical blindness. The Gospel reading begins with a description of Bartimeus ben-Timeus (his name is given in both Aramaic [bar-] and Hebrew [ben-], both meaning ‘son of’ Timeus): “sitting by the roadside begging”. Now, blindness in the Bible is not evil per se: In John 9, there was a certain man who was born blind, not because of his sins or of his parents, but so that the power of God be made manifest in him (v. 3). Nevertheless, blindness is a condition in which one cannot enjoy the fullness of life. Therefore, Bartimeus, a blind man begging at the roadside, is a picture of human hopelessness without Christ!

B. Spiritual blindness. “Blindness” is a word used in the Bible to describe a life of unbelief and sin:

In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. (2 Corinthians 4:4)

      Not only is ha-Satan, the god (small “g”) of this world, the source of spiritual blindness, but also our own pride as well.

And when some of the Pharisees with him heard this, they said unto him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said unto them, “If you were blind, you should have no sin; but now you say, ‘We can see,’ therefore, your sin remains.” (John 9:40-41)

      --which means, if one does not admits one’s guilt (“…but now you say, ‘We can see,’…”), one is still guilty of sin.

II. Coming to faith through hearing

A. Faith comes through hearing. The good news is, while the blind cannot see, they can still hear! There is plenty of evidence that those who are blind may have lost their sense of sight, but their other senses, like hearing, have been heightened. When Bartimeus heard (ἀκούσας akousas, ‘he heard’) that it was Jesus of Nazareth who passed by, he cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Mark 9:47).

      I have always wondered why Romans 10:17 (“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”) uses the word ῥήμα rhēma, ‘spoken word’ as in δὲ  ἀκοὴ  διὰ  ῥήματος  Χριστοῦ  (de akoē dia rhēmatos Kristou) instead of λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ logos tou theou, ‘the written word of God’ (e.g., John 10:35, which talks about the Scriptures). But I have come to realize that rhēmatos theou does not mean verbalizations of desire (“faith declarations”, as those who believe in the “Prosperity Gospel” say) but the preaching of the Word of God!

      When Bartimeus heard that it was Jesus who was passing by, he called him “Son of David”—a Messianic title; meaning that Bartimeus not only believed that Jesus was a “teacher” o rabbi (ραββουνι rabbouni, v. 51), but the Messiah himself!

B. Hindrances to faith. As Bartimeus was calling out to Jesus, the crowds told him to shut up. Is this not the same with us, when the world tries to silence our confession of faith? But Bartimeus continued to cry out to Jesus (John Wesley noted, “But let those who feel their need of him cry the more; otherwise they will come short of a cure.”—Note on Matthew XX:31). Bartimeus could not come to Jesus, so Jesus came to Bartimeus:

Then Jesus stood and commanded him to be called. And they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! Get on your feet! He is calling you!” (Mark 10:49)

      In the same we, by our own power, we cannot come to Jesus, so it is Jesus who comes to us! 



III. Encounter with Jesus.

A. An encounter with Jesus does not leave people unchanged. Finally, when Bartimeus and Jesus come face to face, Jesus asked the blind beggar, “What do you want me to do for you?” If Jesus asked as what do we want him to do for us, what would we ask for? The blind man said, “Rabbi, that I might see!” (v. 51)

     Jesus then said, “Go, your faith has healed (σέσωκέν sesōken) you.” Immediately (eutheōs, a word often used in the Gospel of Mark), he received his sight. This is a picture of when Jesus comes into the life of a person: “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the glory of God, which is in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:5).

B. An encounter with Jesus brings healing and salvation. Now, the expression “your faith has healed you” is convention language (that is, how ideas are "conventionally" expressed ina given language) in the Bible. It is not faith that literally heals, as if the power is inherent in us: but it is the power of Jesus that heals. Just like healing, salvation is by grace through faith (cf. Ephesians 2:9): It is our part to have faith, but it is God grace that saves. (The word for ‘salvation’ and ‘healing’ in the New Testament is just one word: sōzō.)

C. An encounter with Jesus leads to discipleship. The Gospel reading ends with a simple statement: “And he followed (ēkolouthei) Jesus in the way” (v. 52). It was the way to Jerusalem, where Jesus would enter triumphantly seated on a donkey and his followers bearing palm branches—and ultimately where Jesus would be lifted up on the Cross. An encounter with Jesus leads to following Jesus, even unto death.