Thursday, October 29, 2009

Praying like beggars and sinners

Mark 10:46-52


For the last three weeks now we have been reading through Mark 10.  


Both of the first two stories, the rich man and James and John's request to sit at Jesus right and left hand in his glory, included Jesus saying strange things about the way God's Kingdom reverses the order of things.  In the first story Jesus tells us that the first will be last and the last will be first.  In the second story he tells us that who ever wish to be great has to be the servant and the slave of others is greatest of all.  


These first two stories are remarkably similar.  In the first we saw the rich man who was unable to lay down his great wealth in order to enter God's Kingdom and then in last weeks story we saw the disciples, who because they HAD laid everything down think that they are now in a position to request places of honor in God's Kingdom.  


Jesus' response to both audiences was that God's Kingdom turns over everything you think you know about how things work.  


Stories about God's Kingdom do not sound like the stories about other Kingdoms -- stories of the rise of the Roman Empire or stories of Kings and Queens fighting and making war to claim the throne or stories of presidential hopefuls working the campaign trail and the politics that it takes to get them to the White House.


In fact when laid side-by-side this story of Jesus’ Kingdom w/ these other stories of how kingdoms and governments are made and run and exercise their power it becomes like a really obvious game of "One of these things is not like the others."


And tonight's Scripture is that story, that story of what God's Kingdom is like and what it looks like for the first to be last and the last to be first.  


The story of the rich man and the story of the request of James and John are stories about getting it wrong, stories of what it looks like when people confuse God's Kingdom w/ the way the power structures of the world work.  


Tonight's story is a story of what it looks like to respond faithfully to Jesus and the Kingdom that he brings.


As this passage begins Jesus is @ it again -- he's on the move, go-go-going. Remember he is on his way to Jerusalem, to the cross.  He comes into Jericho and the very next sentence he is leaving Jericho.  Jesus can't stop now, he knows what lies ahead and he has set his face toward Jerusalem.

Nothing can get in his way, nothing can distract him, nothing can slow him down... nothing... that is except... a blind beggars cry for MERCY!


"Jesus, Son of David, have MERCY on me!"  Over and over he cries out for mercy, "Jesus, Son of David, have MERCY on me!".  Those around him are trying to quiet him but he just cries all the louder for Jesus to have MERCY on him, "Jesus, Son of David, have MERCY on me!".  He knows he has no right to Jesus' time or attention, he has no claim or demand that he can use as leverage -- he's not like the disciples, he has not given everything up to follow Jesus; he is in no position to expect that Jesus will take time for him -- he's not like the rich man whose possessions and position of privilege might seem to afford him an audience w/ Jesus.  This man is a poor blind beggar and all he can do is cry out for MERCY.  


But the determined, cross-bound Jesus hears this blind beggars cry and the most unexpected, backwards thing happens: Mark tells us, "Jesus stood still."  Jesus stops!  At this poor man's cry for mercy Jesus stands still and calls for the man.  We can't get Jesus to stand still in this gospel, he is always on the move and all the more so now that he has told his disciples the destination of their journey.  


But when we read this story of Jesus in light of the whole story of Scripture it is no surprise that Jesus stops at this poor man's cry for mercy.  God ALWAYS does this.  


In the story of Cain and Able God's words to Cain is that God has heard Able's blood cry out from the ground, that this one who is a victim of violence and can no longer defend himself, God acts because he has heard his blood cry out.  Again in the story of God's rescue of the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt, when God appears to Moses God says to him, "I have heard the cries of my people, their calls for help."  A large portion of the Psalms, the prayer book of God's people, are filled w/ God's people crying out, "Have mercy on us!", "Save us!", "Come to our rescue!", "You alone can save us from this pit, from death, from our enemies!"  And the author of Hebrew, when writing about the death of Jesus says that like Able's blood, Jesus' blood cries out to God and speaks a better word, a word of mercy on our behalf.  


God always hears the cries of people for, "Mercy!"  God's people are not those who don't need mercy, because they don't sin, aren't tempted, and are generally really nice people.  The people who God calls his own, the people for whom God stops, are those who see themselves in light of who God is and know that all they ever have is a plea for mercy.  


And in this regard the story of Blind Bartimaeus is a story of what Jesus means when he says the first shall be last and the last will be first.  Bartimaeus is obviously last and least in this story, a blind beggar sitting on the road side at the feet of everyone else as they try and hush him, and yet he becomes the first -- the first to respond faithfully to Jesus and the Kingdom he brings because Bartimaeus can not even pretend to deserve or belong, he has no right to this Kingdom and hangs completely on whether or not Jesus will be merciful to him.    


John Wesley said it this way, "The holiest of people still need Christ, because God doesn't give anyone a supply of holiness, but only that kind of holiness that comes moment by moment."  


And what he meant is that we never get to a place where we become un-needy, where we have been Christian long enough that we earn a position of being able to relate to God in a way that isn't a cry for mercy, where we have stopped committing all the really big sins and are in a place where we can say to God, "Hey look, I gave up all those really fun sins for you, so give me whatever I ask for.


In Luke's gospel Jesus tells a story a lot like this one.  He tells the story of two men who go up to the temple to pray.  The one is a Pharisee, you know a part of God's people, someone who is a really good person, keeps all God's laws and even so other laws that we made up cause they sound like things God might say.  The other is a tax collector, you know a sinner, you don't like the tax collector because they are Jews who work for the Roman empire who tries to run your life, they are stealing from you, growing their bank account and getting in good w/ the enemy, not a good person!

They both pray.


The Pharisee sees the Tax Collector and kind shakes his head as he begins to pray, "O, God, I thank you that I am not like others, I am not a sinner, not like this Tax Collector, but I fast, I pray, I tithe.  At the same time the tax collector stood far off and fell down to the ground, beating his chest he cried out, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner!" 

 

And Jesus says, I tell you the prayer that God heard was the tax collector's, the sinner’s, the one who’s last is first and NOT the Pharisee!


And over the years the people of God have struggled to respond to this story.  And maybe you can relate.  What do you do when, most of the time, you don’t feel like what this story says is true?  What do you do when you don’t feel like a blind beggar or a hated tax collector?  How should we respond when we feel like our sins are small and mostly harmless and that we’re good Christians, that we aren’t really needy and poor before Jesus, we just need a little guidance here and there?  


One way that Christians have tired to respond faithfully to this is to take the prayer of the tax collector and make it their prayer and to cry out over and over, “Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!”  They call it "The Jesus Prayer."  And down through the years, as early as the sixth century, groups of Christians have said this prayer over and over and over, and in doing so, learn the truth that each of us sits before Jesus as a poor, broken, sinner and the only hope we have is in the depth of mercy we find in our savior.  


Perhaps you can make this prayer your prayer this week.  Let your this prayer become as regular to you as your breath.  As you breathe in pray: "Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God."  And as you breathe out pray, "Have mercy on me, a sinner."  And take it up again w/ your next breath, over and over.  As you pray let may you see the truth about our Savior – that He is rich in mercy and full of grace and in light of Him discover the truth about ourselves – that we are but poor beggars before the Lord.  



"Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God,

Have mercy on me, a sinner."


"Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God,

Have mercy on me, a sinner."


"Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God,

Have mercy on me, a sinner."




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