28 May 2015
You’d think Jesus would’ve seen Bartimaeus sitting there, or
something. But he didn’t or, at least,
he didn’t appear to be interested in Bartimaeus. Jesus was leaving Jericho and there were
still people there who needed to be healed!
I imagine Bartemaeus was maybe filled with hope when he realized it was
Jesus passing by, and yet, maybe he was anxious, too, when he knew that Jesus
was heading out of the city; he was going away.
And so he cried out, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me!” That’s all he had to do. He just had to call on Jesus by name and say
he needed help. And Jesus was right
there. Jesus is always right there. That’s one of the greatest gifts of the
Ascension and Pentecost: Jesus is always right here. But the initiative
to make the connection with him is up to us.
It takes faith to sit in our darkness, and yet, still believe
that Jesus will hear and answer us. When
there are senseless killings in the world, it takes faith to say: “Jesus, I
still believe in you.” When others get
us down, or when we get ourselves down, it takes faith to say, “Jesus, I
believe in you. Help me.” When we doubt our faith, when we doubt our
leaders, when we doubt our calling in life and the choices we’ve made, it takes
great faith to sit there in our darkness, in our blindness, and say, “Jesus, I
trust in you.”
Jesus opens our eyes and ears to see and hear his
presence. He opens us to see what’s beyond
the surface of everyday life. There’s
the old saying: “In every cloud there’s a silver lining.” Well, Jesus helps us to see the silver lining
. . . if we have faith enough to call
on him . . . if we take the
initiative.
Every now and again we may feel that Jesus is far away; that
he’s left the city; that he’s making somebody else’s life brighter, but not
mine. And it’s right then that we call
out, “Jesus, son of the living God, have mercy on me! Jesus, come to me.” And he will.
He will.
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