We're all blind beggars
"Rabboni, the blind man said, "I want to see." Jesus said in reply, "Be on your way! Your faith has healed you."
Mark 10:52
An organist was performing a concert on an antique organ. The bellows were hand-pumped by a boy who was behind a screen, unseen by the audience. The first part of the performance was well received. The audience was thrilled by the organist's ability at the keyboard of that old instrument. After accepting the applause and taking his bows, the musician walked off-stage triumphantly. As he was passing the boy behind the screen he heard him say, "We played well, didn't we?" To which the organist replied, "What do you mean, we?" After the intermission, the organist again seated himself at the console and began to play. But nothing came out. Not a sound! Then the organist heard a voice from behind the screen say, "Now do you know what 'we' means?"
When music comes into our life it is always because someone is pumping the bellows. The blind beggar in today's Gospel Lesson could not restore his own sight. You and I could not give birth to ourselves. We cannot love or be loved in isolation. We are dependent creatures. We cannot manufacture "abundant life" out of our own individual resources.
Everywhere there are people who are in need of healing of one kind or another; physical, emotional, spiritual. You can't heal them, of course. But you can be an instrument of the healing power of God, a channel through which the healing is given. We all know the experience of people coming into our lives who only take from us, and we feel diminished and depleted and broken by their presence. But there are other people who come into our lives who are a healing presence, and we feel restored and renewed and replenished simply by their being with us. Jesus' men and women are called to be that kind of people. We are to be the healing presence in the lives of others wherever we go, Jesus commands. One of the reasons we have come here today is to receive the Grace to be a healing instrument of God. There is really nothing to compare with it: to feel the healing power of God within you; to feel yourself becoming more and more a channel through which God's healing power touches the lives of people who are hurting.
There are always, in any congregation, some folks who are really hurting. They need to know that the healing power of God is always working in everyone's life. There is no situation, be it illness or difficulty at work or a destructive relationship or whatever, in which God's healing power will not take over, if we will allow it. There is no catastrophe that the healing power of God will not overcome ultimately.
A woman and her husband were going on a fiftieth anniversary cruise. The trip was planned by the wife who had been very much concerned about her husband. He had been working very hard and was badly in need of rest and refreshment. Before the couple left, the wife gave her husband's secretary strict instructions: "My husband needs complete relaxation, so no matter what happens at the office, do not write or try to reach him by telephone. I don't want anything to upset him." The cruise began quietly and peacefully. But when the ship stopped at the first port, a letter was waiting for the husband. It was from his secretary, who wrote, "Our first catastrophe happened this morning. But I will not write to you or call you about it."
Part of the Good News of the Gospel is that God's healing power is present to us even in the worst catastrophes. Even in our darkest moments -- especially in our darkest moments -- the light breaks in and the way opens and you know that God is acting in that situation to make all things new.
In this Sunday's Gospel, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus cries out, "Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me ... I want to see" (Mk. 10:47,51). Jesus replies, "Be on your way! Your faith has healed you" (Mk. 10:52). Immediately, the blind beggar's sight is restored and he begins to follow Jesus.
Today's blind beggars come in many forms: "Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me ... I begin to clean the house and before I'm half finished the dust is beginning to settle again. What's the use. I prepare a meal, and while I'm doing it I'm thinking of a menu for the next meal--and the cycle continues, and no one really cares. I was considered important when I was raising the children, but they're on their own now. They have gone and my importance left with them. I don't feel very worthwhile anymore. Whatever money I have is what is handed to me by my working husband. Whatever importance I have is due to the position he has achieved. I feel useless. I'm a blind beggar."
"Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me ... I spend most of my time in my senior citizen's apartment. The children don't call very often, they visit hardly at all. Most of my friends are dying off. I'm no longer able to work, no longer able to contribute. I feel useless. I'm a blind beggar."1
Today's blind beggars are imploring God and man to give them sight -- a new vision of life. What they need, first of all, is a new vision of themselves. Perhaps you have seen the confusing button many people have been wearing. It reads, "PBPGINFWNY," which stands for, "Please be patient ... God is not finished with me yet." Today's blind beggars need to know that God is not finished with them yet, and that He has promised to complete the job.
Picture yourself as a priceless diamond in the rough. God works away on you, buffing and polishing, grinding and filing. The diamond is being shaped according to the perfect plan He has for you. But at times the process is definitely irritating. The one who frequently feels inferior -- like a blind beggar--is the one who concentrates on the part that isn't finished rather than on the part that has already been shaped. God is working on you -- He just hasn't finished.
If you have come here burdened with that "horrible, no good, very bad day" feeling, if you are feeling like a blind beggar, then hear the Psalmist's song of hope:
O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness, that my soul may praise You and not be silent. 0 Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever (PS. 30:2,8,11-12).
