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The Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost

I was never blind like Bartimaeus, who we read of in our Gospel today, but I was born with a strabismus, or crossed eyes, which made my vision very weak. Many of my early memories involve going to pediatric ophthalmologists and children’s hospitals for surgeries. After multiple surgeries, my left eye became strong but my right eye became a lazy eye. I wore patches on my left eye to try to strengthen my right eye.

I assumed wearing giant paper sunglasses for dilated eyes was a normal part of life, and that every kid tried to find ways to take off patches when their parents weren’t watching. Let me tell you – I hated those patches. Sometimes I wore the ones that look like band-aids, but I much preferred the pirate patches – partly because they were cooler, but mostly because I could pull them off when no one was watching. Little of that process was fun, and there were a million things I would have preferred to be doing as a small child. But now I am grateful for my parents relentless commitment to seek out the best doctors and work through years of surgeries, appointments, and therapies. I’m grateful that they pursued what they knew I needed because today I can see.

Today’s Gospel passage ends a section in which the theme is spiritual blindness. The section began with a healing of another blind man, and since then there have been multiple instances of Jesus predicting his death and describing the upside-down nature of the kingdom of God, and each time his disciples don’t get it. They cannot see Jesus for who is is, cannot see what he has come to do. And then, just before this passage, James and John come to Jesus with a request, and Jesus asks them the same question he asks Bartimaeus. “What do you want me to do for you?”

James and John are leaders among the disciples. John is his closest friend, and James is among the three closest to him, along with Peter. Of all people, surely they should understand Jesus, understand what he can do for them, understand what the kingdom he is bringing is all about. But they ask to sit on his sides when he comes into glory. They want power, prestige. And Jesus tells them that they do not understand what he has come to do, who he is called to be, and who they are called to be.

But now Jesus asks Bartimaeus, “What do you want me to do for you?” Now Bartimaeus is not a follower of Jesus, and he is blind and a beggar, both signs in their time of not being blessed by God. But Bartimaeus calls Jesus “Son of David.” Although he is blind, he is able to see something that others cannot. And he answers Jesus’s question. “My teacher, let me see again.” Bartimaeus knows what he wants, what he needs, what in fact the disciples have needed all along. He wants to be able to see.

Maybe it seems like a silly question, even offensive or ridiculous. Asking a blind man what he wants. But it is not. And I believe it is a question Jesus is asking us, now and always. “What do you want me to do for you?”

The question reminds me of a story I heard on one of my favorite podcasts, called The Moth. It was told by a man named Greg from New York City with cerebral palsy. He was visiting a friend in Georgia and they wondered into a televangelist’s church. Immediately people saw Greg walking with crutches and brought him up to the pastor. The pastor started rubbing his legs and saying ‘Get the devil out of your legs.’ Greg was cynical about the man’s ability to heal, but afterwards had something profound to say about the experience. He said that when the man was rubbing his legs, he was thinking, “Stop. Wait. Who are you to decide that I need to be healed of this? Can you make me less neurotic? Can you get me a better job? But not this. This just isn’t at the top of my list.”

Too often we associate healing miracles with certain physical conditions. Especially if someone has an external disability, we assume we know what their problem is that they want fixed. But I think that often these are the very people who can teach us something about wholeness, and what in us needs most to be healed. Because we all are in need of healing, and Christ is asking us, “What do you want me to do for you?” God wants to make us whole, but will not force healing on us.

In the Gospel passage, it is actually Jesus’ disciples that most need to be able to see, but they do not know it. And so they do not ask for the thing that he knows they need most. Is the same true of us today? If Jesus asked us what we want him to do for us, would we have an answer?

Do we want to be healed? Do we really want to see? Sometimes it may seem like a silly question, but it is not any more ridiculous for us than the blind man. Being able to see means that we will have to open our eyes to things that we would rather not see. We will have to change our lives and our actions based on our new vision.

The truth is that there is a lot that I do not want to see. There are many days that I do not want to open my eyes to those who are struggling because I do not want to take the time to help,or do not know how to help. I have things to do, and sometimes they are even good things, or I really just don’t want to be bothered. Sometimes I’m tired and overworked and I just would rather not see the problems around me because I know I will feel guilty if I don’t do anything about it. I do not want to see the things that I contribute to, that will ask me to give up something comfortable about my life. I do not want to see the factories where my clothes are made and the living conditions of those who make them. I do not want to see how much food and water I waste while others die for needing both. I do not want to see how unequal things are here in our town for people of color and white people. I do not want to see what has caused the anger and rage that seems to be boiling out in parts of our country.

It is much easier to not see, to live my life, and to talk to people who think like me.

But it is not the way of the kingdom of God. And doing so means that I will miss seeing the beauty of what God dreams for us.

Do we really want to see as God does? Because if we want our eyes to be opened, we will see things that are hard to stomach. And we will be changed.

But we will also be opening our eyes to see the beautiful possibilities that are all around us, seeing the glorious creatures that stand before us every day – people created by God, Christ in front of us to seek and serve. And we will see how much we are part of each other; our eyes will be opened to how connected we are, and how wonderfully God made us. We will have our eyes opened to the beauty of the world and all that God dreams it can be.

But we must be willing to have our eyes opened. We must want to see. We must want to be healed. And we must be willing to leave our cloak, whatever previously kept us warm and safe, behind, and run after this one who can make us able to see.

My experience, physically and spiritually, has been very different from Bartimaeus. My vision was not given in a moment – it came because of years of effort by my parents, doctors, nurses, and some acquiescence on my part.

I have found this to be true of my spiritual journey too. There have been many times when I could not see a way forward, when I could not see anything good in someone, when I struggled to have vision of a future that was hopeful, but each time God opens my eyes to see things I did not before, and learning to see this world in new ways. And each time, like the blind man, I am offered new life – new possibilities I only dreamed, or could not even dream of because God has a way of seeing that is greater and more beautiful than I could have even imagined. There hasn’t been one moment when God gave me perfect vision, but there have been many moments where I can look back and say “I was blind, and now I see.” 

Too often we think miracles must happen only like the one we read in our Gospel, but God’s work of healing happens in different ways. What is true for all of us is that God wants to heal us. Whether it is in a moment or over a lifetime, we are still being asked if we want to see. And we must answer, we must know what it is that we long for God to do for us. Because this God still works miracles, still will open our eyes in ways we never imagined.

And when our eyes are opened, then may we do the same as Bartimaeus – leave everything behind and follow the one who has made us see.

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