Jesus Fit the Battle of Jericho

Jeremiah 31:7-9; Psalm 126; Hebrews 7:23-28; Mark 10:46-52.

“As Jesus and the disciples were leaving Jericho, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout.”

If you are of a certain age and went to Sunday school, you probably know what happened the last time the Bible records shouting outside the walls of Jericho. The story has a great kid’s song, so you might even still remember it. It’s in Joshua chapter 6. The people are entering the Promised Land, and the city of Jericho has retreated behind its walls and closed the gates. The city is taken, not by an armed attack, but by a week of parades with trumpets, and then at a signal the whole people began to shout, “And the walls came a-tumbling down.” It seems that shouting outside of Jericho is remarkably effective at bringing down walls and furthering God’s kingdom.

In the time of Jesus, more than a thousand years later, Jericho was the last stop on the pilgrim’s route to Jerusalem. Just one more day’s journey, about 15 miles, mostly downhill. So, as Jesus and his disciples and many other pilgrims were on their way to Jerusalem for the Passover, Jericho was filling up with visitors passing through, making their last stop before the final leg of their pilgrimage for Passover. Like a modern airport the day before Thanksgiving, crowded, full of energy and anticipation and maybe a little bit of tension.

And of course many of those on their way to Jerusalem that Passover would have known about Jesus. Many of those who will leave Jericho that day for the final leg of the trip to Jerusalem will be the same people who will be waving palm branches and marching behind Jesus on the donkey when they arrive in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Perhaps on that particular day there was even more anticipation and tension in the air than normal, as Jesus and the disciples and the crowds make their way out of Jericho.

And along the road where the pilgrims will pass, just outside the city of Jericho, are the beggars. With the Passover travelers coming through, probably a busy day for those in need of alms. And then, just outside the city walls of Jericho, the shouting begins. One of the beggars, a blind man named Bar-Timaeus (the Son of Timaeus), begins to shout: Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.

This is the first time in Mark’s gospel – here, just a day’s journey to Palm Sunday, getting toward the end of the story – that someone calls Jesus the Son of David. David, the king who unified Israel and established Jerusalem as its capital. David, the king who administered justice, a man after God’s own heart. David, the king who looked out for the the needy and the poor, the people who were left out, like blind beggars, and brought them into the family of God. David, the man of war, who against all odds defeated the feared Goliath and all of God’s enemies.

Bartimaeus knows why Jesus is going to Jerusalem. The Son of David is going to Jerusalem to become its king. The promised kingdom of the Messiah is at hand – the king who will be a true Son of David, the king who will do right by the blind beggars and all who have been impoverished and trodden down and treated unfairly, the king who will defeat today’s Goliaths before whom we have been cowering in fear. The God who once brought down the walls of Jerico is on the move again, and this time it’s going to work. Bartimaeus knows, and he is ready for God to act.

Many in the crowd tell Bartimaeus to be quiet. Shouting outside the walls of Jericho has often been dangerous. Yelling about the Son of David in an occupied land is definitely dangerous. The crowd does not simply want Bartimaeus to be blind, they want him to be mute as well. But Bartimaeus knows the time for God to act is at hand, and he is going to keep shouting, here outside the walls of Jericho, shouting even louder. Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.

Then Jesus stops, calls him over. “Take heart,” they tell Bartimaeus. “Get up, he is calling you.” Of course the Son of David will do right by the poor blind man. And so Bartimaeus jumps up, and – I think this detail is significant – he throws off his cloak and comes to Jesus. Apparently, the practice of beggars in the time of Jesus was to spread their cloaks for people to drop money in, and at the end of the day they would roll up their cloaks and gather what they had received. As Ched Myers says, the cloak is “the tool of the panhandler’s trade,” and at the call of Jesus, Bartimaeus throws it aside and goes to Jesus. And I think we are meant to see the contrast with the rich man who was unwilling to cast off any of his many possessions in order to follow Jesus. After all, for a blind man in the middle of a crowd, he might have worried how he was going to get his cloak back, if it turned out he needed it again. But Bartimaeus trusts in the future that Jesus is calling him into.

And when Bartimaeus reaches Jesus, Jesus asks him a question. “What do you want me to do for you?” What do you want me to do for you – the same question Jesus has just asked James and John, as we saw in last week’s gospel reading. “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asks the blind beggar Bartimaeus. And maybe the answer is obvious, but maybe it’s not – and in any case, Jesus wants to hear Bartimaeus say it.

“My teacher,” he says, “I want to see again.” God is on the move, God is about to act to make the world right for blind beggars like me, and I want to see it. I want to be part of it. I want the kingdom now. And Jesus tells him, “Go. Your faith has made you well.” And immediately he regained his sight and began to follow Jesus on the road to Jerusalem.

It’s interesting that the text does not say that Jesus gave him back his sight. The words of Jesus, read literally, are simply an observation: “Your faith has made you well.” The encounter of Jesus and Bartimaeus results in Bartimaeus regaining his sight, but Jesus does not claim any agency in this wonder. According to Jesus, it’s the faith of Bartimaeus, which Jesus has provoked, that has healed him and restored his sight.

And what is true of Bartimaeus is true for any of us – if we trust that God is active and at work and that the kingdom of God is close at hand, if we trust and believe this and are willing to take risks, like throwing off our cloaks, because of our trust in God – then our eyes will be opened. We will see what God is doing, with our own eyes. And once our eyes have been opened to see how God is working in the world, restoring, healing, knocking down walls, opening eyes to the reality of what grace can do – then we will do what Bartimaeus did, and follow Jesus on the road to Jerusalem.

And in Jerusalem, as Bartimaeus expected, Jesus the Son of David will become the king of the kingdom of God. Many thought that the Goliath he was going to slay was the power of Rome, but it turned out otherwise. Many were surprised and shocked a week or so later, when the Son of David was taken outside the city walls of Jerusalem, stripped of his human dignity, his cloak taken from him and raffled off among the soldiers, and put to death. Jesus saves us from the ultimate fearful Goliath, the fear of death itself, by becoming like Bartimaeus.  And trusting in the power of God, as Bartimaeus did, to restore all things and make them new.

When the kingdom of God comes on earth as it is in heaven, there will be no blind beggars and no one will be put on crosses.  But until then, the faith of blind beggars and the trust of those unjustly crucified can open eyes to the presence of the kingdom that is already here, for those with eyes to see it.

The last time there was shouting outside the walls of Jericho, walls came a-tumbling down. A people of faith, a ragtag bunch of escaped slaves who have been wandering in the desert for decades, put their trust in God’s promise and accomplished something they could never have done with their own power. Now, a single human being, a blind beggar, a nobody as far as this world can tell, shouts outside the walls of Jericho, eyes are opened, cloaks are thrown off, and the kingdom of God becomes still more visible. This same God today hears the shouts of all the outsiders in every city and every place, and to those who trust God grants the grace to see the fulfillment of God’s promises and God’s peace