Your Faith Has Made You Whole

“Your Faith Has Made You Whole”  Mark 10:46-52; Hebrews 7:23-28

 

    How do people become Christians?  I like the word mystery for that explanation.  I know we have catechisms, doctrines, theologies, and confessions of faith which our church subscribes to.  And they can be helpful.  But is there a danger in too much detail?  I think there may be.  The bigger question is as we discussed last week is that God is Sovereign ( our King and Creator & Provider) in all His ways and He does things we cannot explain.  Human words are inadequate sometimes.  It may be an experience or how someone treats you that is important.  It may be you are at the end of your rope so to speak….

 

    Today’s Gospel lesson about Bartimaeus is such a story for us.  First, he realized he a need.  Now that is where true religion begins or a path to wholeness if you will.  He was blind.  Imagine that!  Some of us never get to that point where we realize we have such a need for God .  And I am telling you something you already knew.  People we know are sufficient in their lives and until some kind of crisis hits, a need , they have no need for any spiritual lives.  So the mystery of God working thru circumstances, people, weather, or a crisis intervenes.  Then they realize much like Bartimaeus that they are blind.  This blind Bartimaeus sat “ by the highway begging.” 10:46  Unless we get to that point of realizing we are blind and are beggars we will not need God. 

 

   Secondly Bartimaeus cried out for help.  “ He began to cry out, and say , Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me.”  10:48   At some point the light came.  The light of Christ literally came upon him and he realized Jesus was there.  The people tried to shut him up.  “ And many charged him that he should hold his peace”   Nice crowd wasn’t it?  That did not stop Bartimaeus. He kept crying for help.  “ he cried the more a great deal.”  “ Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.”  Then Jesus called him.  “ And he, casting away his garment, rose , and came to Jesus.”  10:50

 

    The work of conversion Thomas Hooker said is “ the Almighty power of God …is the most mysterious of all the works of God”  In this story of Bartimaeus we see this so clearly.  Jesus asks him after the call, “ What will you that I should do unto you?”  Bartimaeus had a need for sight and He knew that Jesus was there.

 

     So thirdly, Bartimaeus had a need, cried out for help and then the final thing is that he took the grace and love that Jesus offered to him.  He wished to have his sight.  He could not see .  Jesus was able to give him sight , and Jesus gave him his sight.  “ Your faith has made you whole.”  The faith he had was God’s gift to him.  That made him whole in so many ways, not just physically.

 

     Today is Reformation Sunday in many churches today.  We celebrate the work of God and granting faith to His people.  We are needy just like Bartimaeus.  We have seen our need and accept the gift that Jesus offers.  The message can be confused.  It is clear.  By faith we are accepted and not for anything else we may do or offer to God, our good deeds or our accomplishments.  God breaks thru the fog of unbelief and the maze of the world to rescue us from our sin.  How do we explain it?  I am not sure we need to.  What we know is that Bartimaeus was blind , but now he sees.  This is a picture of our regeneration, or being born again as it were from above.  “ And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.” 10:52

 

    Today we celebrate faith.  Faith is believing but not seeing as it says in the Hebrews.  It is going on in our Christian lives when we do not understand or have all the light we need.  It is a faith that sustains us in all of our lives, and all the way to the end of them as well.  This faith is spiritual and will not be taken from us.   We can rest in that faith.  We can rest in the care that God provides us on a daily basis.  It is unseen.  But it is eternal and holds us in the balm of His hands.  Whatever we are going thru now is small compared to the eternal glory we will have with Christ when we see Him face to face.