WWJG?

“WWJG?” was preached at Sunnyside Presbyterian Church on Sunday, October 28, 2018. Inspirations for this sermon include scripture, biblical commentaries, stewardship season, youth-led worship, and church ministry. 

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Mark 10:46-52

46 They came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48 Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 49 Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” 50 So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. 51 Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.” 52 Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

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You know that acronym, WWJD? We teach it to children as a moral compass. WWJD? What would Jesus do? Honestly, we probably ask it for ourselves sometimes, or at least we should. What would Jesus do? Answering that question points us in the direction of being more Christ-like and doing the right thing.

Well, here today, I figured we could change one letter of that acronym and pose the question that might inspire us during stewardship season.

WWJG?

Now I googled this to make sure this acronym wasn’t already taken, and to my surprise, it was. WWJG—Walk with Jesus Gang. Not what I meant, Google. And although I like the idea of walking with Jesus, I meant something else by this acronym.

WWJG? Why would Jesus give?

To answer this question, we must understand what is happening in our Gospel reading today.

This passage – the healing of Bartimaeus – is the second blind man Jesus healed in the Gospel of Mark.

Now this is… interesting. Jesus healing a second blind man in the Gospel of Mark is interesting. And it’s not just my opinion. Biblical scholars and commentators write again and again that this passage is different, uncanny, even odd…

The Rev. Dr. Sarah Hinlicky Wilson actually poses the question in her commentary, “Was Mark feeling quite well the day he jotted down this one? Had he eaten something funny..?”

To understand why this passage is.. “interesting,” – to understand why scholars thought Mark was feeling a bit off that day this story was recorded – we must understand some of the characteristics of the Gospel of Mark.

Like the other Gospels, Mark records Jesus’ life: his miracles, betrayal, death, resurrection, and commission. However, Mark’s Gospel is very brief, by far the shortest of the four Gospels. In fact, it’s nearly half as long as the Gospel of Luke. Every word is intentional. Every word has purpose. The entire Gospel is told in rapid succession; there’s no time to stop and breathe or waste time on the fluffy details. No, the Gospel of Mark is a quick, urgent, bold message about who Jesus is and what Jesus did.  Even in our short passage today, we see the word “immediately.” “Immediately Bartimaeus regained his sight and followed Jesus on the way.” This is one of no less than forty times the word “immediately” is used in the Gospel of Mark. As I said, this is an immediate Gospel with immediate details on what Jesus did in his ministry.

In a way, I’m betraying the Gospel of Mark by spending time explaining the characteristics of it. If I stayed true to how this Gospel was written, this moment would go something like, “Pastor Taylor went up into the pulpit, read our scripture passage, and immediately returned to his chair.”

I apologize to those of you who would prefer for me to do that, but I can’t, not today, not with this passage. The Gospel of Mark, where every word is written intentionally, purposely includes two stories where blind men are given their sight. That in itself is odd.

This means that Mark didn’t include this passage to show that Jesus could heal the blind. He did that first back in chapter eight. No, this passage was included for a different reason.

Which brings us to another reason this passage is interesting. In it, nothing goes wrong. Now this is weird, especially for Mark’s explanation of how the crowds reacted to Jesus. From the very beginning of this Gospel, people were convinced that this version of Jesus was either crazy or demonic. In Mark 6, Jesus is even momentarily defeated by the “unbelief” of all the people he encounters. In Mark 8, during the healing of the first blind man, Jesus has to attempt it twice for the man to be able to see clearly. It is more common for Jesus and the people to experience complications than it is without in this Gospel.

But there are no complications here. Bartimaeus, the blind man, has great faith in Jesus and because Jesus heals him completely without error. And although people initially told the blind man to be quiet, they were okay with it once Jesus called him over. No one thought Jesus nor Bartimaeus were crazy or demonic; this moment was going to be okay. And then, to make this story even more perfect, Bartimaeus, now with his sight, followed Jesus along the way. Jesus didn’t even tell Bartimaeus to follow him as a new disciple, but that is exactly what Bartimaeus does. He joins Jesus in his ministry.

Let’s go back to our question: WWJG? Why would Jesus give?

Now that we understand how “interesting” this passage is, let’s attempt to answer that question.

The Gospel of Mark included a second story of Jesus healing a blind man, not to show that Jesus had the power to do so and not to show the people the error of their ways, but because something else is happening. Why would Jesus give? This passage shows us Jesus gives not because he has to but because he can. Hear this revelation again. Jesus gives because he can.

This is relevant to us Sunnyside, right here and right now. Sometimes we give because we feel that we have to give. We know that we are called to give our time, talents, and tithes. Without giving, the church would cease to exist. Sunnyside would cease to exist. Without time, without talents, without tithes--our community of faith would cease to exist. Let’s be frank. We know we have to give.

But dare I say it… right now we don’t really have to…

Right now we’re not in a bad place, we don’t have to give. But why would Jesus give? Jesus gave because he could. Sunnysiders, we give because we can.

Zach Brenner, one of our youth, mentioned in his sermon last week that we are all the future of the church. This is the truth.

I love that Sunnyside is so generous when it comes to building the foundations of a Christian life for our children and youth. But we can’t just say youth alone are the future of the church. Because the other truth is, we don’t know what the future holds. We don’t know what the lives of our children and youth will look like in the future nor what the church will be.

As I said, when Jesus gave Bartimaeus his sight, he didn’t do it because Bartimaeus was the future of the church. However, Bartimaeus became part of the future of the church because when Jesus gave to him his sight, Bartimaeus had to the opportunity to do so. But also, to be honest, when the first blind man was given his sight by Jesus, he went home; he didn’t follow Jesus along the way.

Sunnyside, we give because we can. We give to follow Christ. We give because we want to create opportunities within the church for all people to follow Christ, here in the present and for the future.

We give because we believe in what the church and its ministry does for us and does for the world. We give to glorify God.

We give because we offer safe spaces for our children and youth to ask deep questions, to be vulnerable, to grow in their relationships with one another and with God.

We give because we want a place for our entire community to come together, to greet one another in the name of Christ, to share a meal with one another, to drink poorly caffeinated church coffee together. We give so families outside of our community of faith can also share a full meal together, whether it be at Hope Ministries or through our food pantry.

We give so that we have a place to gather on one of the best days of our lives, to celebrate weddings and love and covenantal commitment and the vows that people make before God and the people of God.

We give so that on the worst days of our lives we have a place to come to grieve the death of a loved one, whether it be the death of our grandparents or our parents or our spouses. We give so we’re not alone in that; so others are not alone in that. We give so that all have a place to be reminded of the hope promised in the resurrection.

We give to watch babies be baptized, to see God claim that child as God’s own through the waters of grace. We give to be united with every saint of every time and place through the Lord’s Supper, through the body broken and the blood shed, through the bread and cup that holds sacred mysteries.

We give because the church can provide space for those who mourn and question what is happening in the world. We give so that people of the transgender community know that they too are made in the image of God. We give so that people like Matthew Shepherd, who twenty years ago was murdered through a hate crime because he was gay, finally have a place to rest. We give so that when eleven lives are taken at a shooting at a synagogue, we can be reminded that the neighbors we are called to love also may be Jewish.

We give because sometimes the pain of the world is too much to handle alone. We give to be in community and to form holy friendships. We give so we can support and be supported by one another.

We give because we can. Through the good and the bad, we give because we believe in the ministry of the church. We give because Jesus gives.

Amen.

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