Quinquagesima February 7, 2016
Quinquagesima
Luke 18:31-43
February 7, 2016
“What Do You Want Me to Do For You?”
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
You know all the old questions like, “What would you ask a genie for if you had three wishes?” And then, of course, you have to stipulate that you can’t ask for more wishes. But those are always kinda fun wondering what we would ask for if we could wish for just about anything. What’s usually at the top of the list? Money.
In today’s Gospel reading, you have a similar situation. One blind man, a begger named Bartimaeus, gets to ask a genie for a wish. Only He’s not a genie. Genies aren’t real. No, this is Jesus, Lord of heaven and earth. God of God, and Light of Light. He’s the real deal. And He asks this one blind man, “What do you want me to do for you?” There it is. You’ve got one wish. One request. Ask Him anything.
And Jesus’ disciples are frustrated because they think the guy just wants money. When the guy was crying out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me,” the disciples were trying to shut him up. You know how it is. They get sick of people asking for money. Just like you and I. We get sick of phone calls for money. Everybody wants money. But not this blind man, Bartimaeus. He doesn’t want money. He wants something better from Jesus.
See, money just isn’t worth that much. The world says money is king of everything. I love watching the Super Bowl as much as anybody else and I can’t wait for tonight’s game—but that is one big money show. $5 million to get a commercial spot during the game. Over 150 million people watching on TV. Wow, look at all that money! But tomorrow morning it’s gone and over. Then there’s the race for President. Hillary Clinton has raised over 160 million dollars. Jeb Bush over 150 million. Wow, those are some good beggars. But for what? Advertising? Wow, is it really worth it? Jeb has about zero chance of getting the nomination.
Bartimaeus says no, guys, it’s not worth it. There’s something much greater and more important than money. When you’ve got Jesus, King of Kings, in front of you—there’s much greater and better things to ask for. Money wasn’t what this blind beggar asked for—he asked for mercy. And when Jesus calls him over and says, “What do you want me to do for you,” Bartimaeus goes for the real gold—“I want to see again.”
Sometimes you and I are guilty of expecting far too little from Jesus. Bartimaeus isn’t going to mess around asking for something little—He wants to see again. And that’s exactly what Jesus gives him. But, of course, it’s more than just physical sight, you see. Because Jesus tells him, “Your faith has made you well.” It wasn’t just that Bartimaeus could see again, but that he now saw Jesus, His Savior. He saw and believed in the Guy who didn’t just give him some spare change—but gave Him eternal life in heaven.
So if we’re going to ask Jesus for something, let’s start with this, “Jesus, I want to see.” God’s Word uses blindness and sight as a way to teach us what it means to have faith in Jesus and to be saved. Like the hymn Amazing Grace, “I once was blind, but now I see.” What we call “conversion” or “regeneration” is being able to see. Seeing things for the way they really are. To see God for who He really is. And to see how God loves us and saves us from our sin. So let’s kneel by Bartimaeus and say, Jesus, have mercy on me. Let me see.” Because seeing, faith, is the greatest gift we can ask Jesus for.
“Jesus, let me see.” Let me see how great Your love is for me. How great is Jesus love that He knew exactly where He was headed and still went there? He’s telling His disciples at the beginning of the reading, “Look, guys, we’re going to Jerusalem and I’m going to be delivered over to the Gentiles, mocked, shamefully treated, spit on, flogged, and killed.” But the disciples were blind. They didn’t see it. They didn’t see His love.
“Jesus, let us see that great love You have for us.” Any one of us, if we knew that we were headed somewhere to be arrested, mocked, beaten, and crucified—we would run the other way as fast as we could. Think about the great love that Your Savior Jesus has for you, that He knew exactly what it was going to cost to save you and give you life in heaven and He went and did it anyway. He knew it would cost Him great suffering and death. But He went for you. He loves you.
To see that love of Jesus is to have faith. That’s what you and I really need. Money can’t buy you happiness, but the love of Jesus will give you more than happiness. It will give you eternal joy.
We also want to see what our real problem is—what my real need is. That’s always the first step in any recovery, isn’t it? Seeing the real problem. Bartimaeus saw that his real problem wasn’t a lack of money. His real problem was his sin and He believed Jesus was his Savior. Our real problem doesn’t have everything to do with other people. We like to blame all our troubles on everybody else. Our real problem doesn’t have to do with lack of money or lack of opportunity or lack of the right degree or pedigree. Our real problem doesn’t have to do with how evil the world is and how badly it treats us.
Our real problem is ourselves. It’s our pride, our greed, our selfishness. Our real problem is always thinking that we can fix our problem. We can’t. We can’t make enough money to buy forgiveness. We can’t work hard enough to earn it. We can’t do enough good to make up for the bad. We need to see the real problem—we need to be forgiven.
That’s exactly what Jesus wants you to ask for. Mercy. Forgiveness. Salvation. He loves you and that’s what He came to do for you. He came to give His life on the cross so that you may live eternally.
Jesus is here with us today again to answer our prayers for mercy. Just like the blind beggar Bartimaeus, we get to ask Him for sight. Jesus works through His Word and through the Lord’s Supper to give us faith to see how great His love is. To see how He has given us the greatest gift we could ever ask for—salvation.
Finally, what we see when God opens our eyes in that His Word is always true. The disciples didn’t believe Jesus when He was talking about going to Jerusalem to die and then rise from the dead. They couldn’t understand it and they ignored it.
Bartimaeus, on the other hand, believes God’s Word was true. He believed that Jesus was the Messiah that God had promised and he believed that Jesus could give him sight. He believed that Jesus was the Savior of the world just as God’s Word had promised.
That’s the faith we ask Jesus for. To see that God’s Word is always true. No matter if our hearts tell us different. No matter if the world tells us different. No matter if even our friends or family tell us different. God will never lie. He cannot lie. He is the truth.
So then, we ask for eyes to see His truth. Take, for instance, the truth that we heard from 1 Corinthians 13 today about love. The love of God for us abides forever. There’s nothing more important than that. Nothing greater we could ask for. If we don’t have love, then we have nothing.
The Holy Spirit gives us that love of Jesus. Love is patient and kind; it doesn’t envy or boast; it’s not arrogant or rude. Love isn’t like us who are quick to get revenge and quick to think far too much of ourselves. No, love is Jesus who patiently carries our sins to the cross to take the punishment. Love is Jesus who isn’t arrogant or boastful but humbly takes all the mocking and beating and crucifixion. Jesus, help us to see Your great love for us.
We learn something from this blind man, Bartimaeus, today. He shows us faith in Jesus. To expect the best and greatest from Jesus—to expect salvation and forgiveness and life everlasting. And to see things in truth—to see the great love that Jesus has for us and to see that God’s Word will always be true.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.