Proper 25 :: Jeremiah 31:7 – 9 / Psalm 34:1 – 8, 19 – 22 / Hebrews 7:23 – 28 /Mark 10:46 – 51
This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, October 24, 2021.
“HAVING LITTLE TO OFFER,
BUT JUST ENOUGH”
(Homily text: Mark 10:46 – 51)
Let’s
ask ourselves this question, as we hear the familiar account of the healing of
the blind beggar, Bartimaeus: “What does Bartimaeus have to offer the Lord?”
By
the conventional wisdom of many people in that day and time, the answer would
most likely be: “Not much!”, or perhaps “Nothing at all”.
After
all, Bartimaeus was blind, and because he was in that condition, and in
particular, because he’d (apparently) lost his sight at some point in his life,
many people in Jericho probably regarded him as a notorious sinner, someone
who’d managed to offend God in such a way that he’d been abandoned by God. It’s
possible that the residents of Jericho regarded Bartimaeus as a nuisance, a
“throw-away” person they’d just as soon ignore, hoping that, if he was out of
their sight, he might also be out of their thinking and noticing. I think their
attitude is reflected in their repeated statements telling Bartimaeus to be
quiet.
We
can’t be entirely sure about these observations, but they seem to be in
agreement with the attitudes of many in that age. We can be sure that blindness
and the status of being a sinner were connected. Consider, as an example, the
comment that Jesus’ disciples make upon discovering a man born blind: They ask
if it was the fault of the man himself, or of his parents, that he was born in
that condition. [1]
What
then, does Bartimaeus have to offer to the Lord? Just two things: Himself and faith.
Bartimaeus
has nothing else to offer but himself, and his faith in the Lord’s ability to
help him out of his condition. Bartimaeus comes to Jesus empty-handed, except
for these two things that he possesses: Himself and his faith in the Lord
In
truth, what Bartimaeus offered Jesus is the very same thing you and I have to
offer: Ourselves and our faith. All else that we may think we have to offer is
beside the point, if we consider how our relationship to the Lord begins. It
has to begin in the same way that Bartimaeus’ relationship began: By offering
ourselves, in our broken down and spiritually poverty-stricken condition.
For
if we’re honest with ourselves, we are unable, as Bartimaeus was, to help
ourselves. Surely St. Augustine of Hippo[2] would agree: He maintained that we are so spiritually hampered by our
inheritance of the stain of sin to even be able to see ourselves for who we
truly and really are. So, Augustine says, we must depend on God’s grace (being
defined as “God’s goodness and favor toward us, unearned and unmerited”), a
grace which must come before we are even aware of it, [3] a
grace that softens up the soil of our hearts and which permits God’s work to
begin in us.
This
is a self-emptying process, a “zero-sum” proposition, the only beginning place
for us in establishing a relationship with God. We come to offer a possession
each of us has, ourselves. We come, offering to God the conviction that He can
help us out of our condition, just as Bartimaeus did.
Such
a self-emptying act is one that must be repeated time and again as we make our
way through life. Our baptismal rite affirms this, as we are asked, as the rite
unfolds, the question, “Will you, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return
to the Lord?” We answer, “We will, with God’s help.” Notice the presence of the
word “whenever”. Not “if”, but “whenever”. We in the Church are quite realistic
when it comes to acknowledging our own waywardness.
It
simply won’t do to try to stand on some spiritual platform we may have created
for ourselves, in an attempt to attain to God’s holiness. For, in truth, we
have nothing to stand on, nothing that is stable, nothing that will support us.
All we have to offer is a hand up to God, asking Him to redeem us and to clean
us up. In offering that, we are offering little, but we are offering enough for
God to act to deliver us from our deplorable and helpless condition.
AMEN.
[1] See John’s Gospel account, chapter nine. In the case of the man born blind, the disciples’ question reflects the fact that the man was born in that condition, pointing to a possible failing on the part of his parents. In Bartimaeus’ case, however, since he’d apparently lost his sight at some point in his life, the assumption might well have been that it was his own failings that brought about his condition.
[2] Augustine lived from 354 – 430 AD, and is regarded as being the foremost theologian of the western Church. He had to deal with the heresy known as Pelagianism, which maintained that we human beings have all the ability we need to be able to bring about our own salvation.
[3] The technical name for this sort of grace is Prevenient Grace, a grace that literally “comes before” we are aware and able to receive it.
