Mark 10: Human Need and God's Compassion

So we have been going through Mark, the book of Mark, through the lectionary, which is a series of passages for us to follow.

And so the lectionary has us going through Mark, and we get to this chapter in Mark, this story in Mark, and it's been this middle section of Mark.

This is the last story in the middle section of Mark before the last whole last section, last third of Mark, which is all about Jesus going into Jerusalem.

And so Mark has making sort of his final point here, and it's in total contrast to the story last week.

So the sermon last week, the sermon this week, they go hand in hand.

Now, this morning, I what I want to talk about, what the passage talks about is need.

It talks about human need.

And what's underneath a lot of what we do is need.

And before you get so tough and act like you don't have any need, you know this word.

I need you to turn the paper in on Friday.

I need your TPS reports on Friday with the cover sheet.

It needs to have the cover sheet on it.

I need you to fold the laundry.

I need you, I need you to go to Kroger for the third time this week.

I need you to do that.

I need a break.

Right?

I need some money.

I need a friend.

I need, I need, I need, we know this word.

Maybe you maybe you've been to Home Depot.

Your plumber said, hey, I need you to go pick up a part for me.

It's a PRV.

I need you to pick up a PRV.

You didn't want to act like you didn't know what he was talking about, so you just nod along.

You figure you'll figure it out when you get there.

You walk in Home Depot, nice lady's there, right?

Hey, how are you?

Can I help you out?

You say, My plumber said, I need to pick up a PRV.

And she gets her phone out and starts to Google.

Not a good beginning, right?

You're like, I could have done that.

And so you say, hey, I got it, no problem.

So you head to the plumbing section, right?

And you get to the plumbing section, you don't know what a PRV is, you don't know what it stands for.

You know nothing about this.

But you see like three aisles of parts, right?

Just millions of parts, 22 sizes of every single part, and you start down the aisle and you're reading every little box and you can't figure this out.

And you're wasting time.

It's your lunch break and you're due back at work.

You're getting more and more frustrated.

Now you're Googling PRV and you figure out, okay, it's a pressure reducing valve, but still you're like, where is this at?

There's no workers, you're getting more and more.

You need help, right?

You know this feeling.

Particularly in Home Depot, a lot of times you know this feeling, but in other places as well, you just need some help.

And so finally you walk out of that area, you go into the hardware section, hey, I need help.

You found a guy.

You're like, I need a pressure reducing valve.

You say, Oh, aisle 12, halfway down on the left.

You're like, I got it, good, I can remember that.

I need you to take me.

I need you to take me.

I need you to pull it out of the box, I need you to put it into my cart.

I may need you to take me out the parking lot and buckle me in, but I need you.

We know this feeling of need.

I'm helpless.

I can't do this.

I need help.

This is this beggar in this story, this blind beggar.

I need help to see, see, I can't solve the problem.

Like there's something going on.

I can't, I can't figure it out.

I don't know where to go, I don't know who to ask, I don't, I don't know what to do.

And so today's text is a shift from last week's text.

Last week's text, James and John thought they knew everything.

They thought they could see, and when they get asked the same question, what do you want me to do for you?

They say, hey, give us the position, right?

I want to sit at the left, I want to sit at your right, give me a position, because if I have a position of greatness, I'll be satisfied, I'll be fulfilled, everything will work out.

They thought they could see, they couldn't see.

Now, this guy, he's blind, and yet he actually knows something.

And so these two stories are in contrast.

Let's reread the story, Mark 10, verse 46.

Mark 10:46

Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, he was sitting by the roadside, so we know he has a family, he has some history, and when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.

Many rebuked him, telling him, Be silent.

But he cried out all the more, son of David, have mercy on me.

So the guy has nothing to offer.

He's a blind beggar.

He has nothing to offer.

He's an outcast, he's poor, he's lowly, he's needy, and yet his need, his need overwhelmed his pride.

His need overwhelmed the possibility of rejection or fear of shame, just the fact that he was in touch with his need.

What would your life look like if you were not driven by your fear of shame?

Or pride?

Or rejection?

What might life look like each day if we were overwhelmed with sight of our need, but also God's forever goodness to you?

So of course this guy yells out, son of David.

This is the guy in the hardware section of Home Depot who can finally help you figure out what the PRV is and where it's at, right?

Like this is the person who can help you.

So yes, I'm crying out.

This beggar is crying out.

But then the disciples, they're saying, no, no, no, shut up, shut up.

You're saying son of David, and that's like a term of the Messiah.

And so this could have been a this could have been a bad scene.

This guy could have gotten killed for making this proclamation.

And yet Jesus welcomes this man.

Point number one is this our need is inescapable.

Our need is inescapable.

A few years ago, a Harvard graduate, Jordan Gandhi, she wrote this article called Depression and Despair at Harvard.

Here's what she wrote.

During my four years at Harvard, I contemplated committing suicide no less than three times.

It wasn't until I almost failed a class during my senior year that I realized I struggle with depression.

So, right away, isn't that interesting?

We get the thing that we think will solve everything in us.

I mean, if it's not Harvard, I mean, what better position can you get in our country, right, than being at Harvard, right?

Last week we talked about Michael Jackson.

He had it, right?

And it wasn't enough.

This week it's a girl at Harvard.

I mean, you're at Harvard.

You've made it.

You have the thing, the position you want, the thing that should deliver and it doesn't.

Our need is inescapable, she continues.

Those words themselves, I almost failed, are almost unbearable to write.

My guilt and shame was exasperated by my faith.

I converted from a once militant atheism to Christianity during my freshman year.

Though this faith often gave me courage, humility, and joy, I found that during my senior year, the desire to share the faith that helped me so much made me hyper-cognizant of how I was portraying my beliefs to others.

Each of my failings seemed to suggest not only that I was personally weak, but also that I was disappointing God with my failure to be a good witness to others.

Even though I believed Christianity initially because I recognized my own weakness and guilt, it felt like a personal failing that I hadn't gotten around to being perfect yet.

So, now maybe you're not depressed, maybe you are, but we all know personal failing.

Right?

We all know what it is to have a relationship we can't fix.

Or to have part of us that we can't seem together, get together, like a temper that keeps flaring, right?

Anger you can't control, lust you can't control, greed you can't control, and you're sort of like, I don't know, you don't know what to do with it.

A child you can't quite get their behavior together, a parent, you can't quite get their behavior together.

Or you keep trying to build a record of good enough, but it doesn't quite outweigh what you feel like are personal failings.

Or maybe you're trying to work yourself into that prime position and it's not working out, and so you live in despair, or maybe you got to Harvard, or you're Harvard, whatever that is, and it's still not enough.

The point is, is human need for absolution of sin and acceptance of our varying beings inescapable.

It's inescapable for me, it's inescapable for you.

And it's not because you're different.

Right?

It's so easy to live in isolation of thinking, oh, I feel this way because I'm different.

No, no, no, no, no.

You feel that way because you're like everybody else.

The story continues, and Jesus stopped and said, Call him.

And they called the blind man, saying to him, Take heart, get up.

He is calling you and throwing off his cloak.

He sprang up and came to Jesus.

And Jesus said to him, What do you want me to do for you?

And the blind man said to him, Rabbi, let me recover my sight.

So apparently he once had sight and he lost it.

Can you imagine how much you would want that back?

And Jesus said to him, Go your way, your faith has made you well.

And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.

So this whole section of Mark is about human need and divine compassion.

And Mark finishes it off, this section, with this story.

Point number two, point number one, human need is inescapable.

Point number two, God's compassion is our rescue.

Imagine Jeff Bezos shows up at your house.

Jeff Bezos of Amazon, right?

Follow with me.

His boxes are on your porch, but imagine he shows up, he's on your porch, right?

Like at this point, they sell fresh produce, like they're like they're researching space travel and like health care, right?

I mean, they've got everything.

They got it under control, right?

We don't have to worry.

And imagine he shows up.

I mean, this guy has wealth, he has connections, he he has everything to solve, the whatever your problem is.

And imagine he gets to you and he says, What do you want me to do for you?

And what do you say?

Well, uh, free prime?

No, right?

No, no.

Like, that's low bar stuff, right?

Like he ain't saying free prime if J Jeff Bezos is showing, right?

I mean, you're not even saying like an ending gift card.

You're not even doing that, right?

What you probably would say is like, sign your stock over to me, right?

That's a pretty good one?

I thought about it for a little bit.

It took about an hour of my week.

What would I say to Jeff Bezos?

Sign your stock over, right?

Because what would this mean?

What would this mean, right?

It means you could stop work.

You could choose your work.

You could pay off any debt you have.

You you could provide.

You could provide for your your children, maybe your parents, you could provide for some friends.

Every weekend you could go wherever you wanted to.

And at the end of that, you're not really asking for money, I don't think.

Just like I don't think James and John were asking for position.

Right?

You're just asking for the thing that you think will deliver you.

Right?

That's what we use money for.

Or position or power or sex.

It's the thing that will deliver you.

It's the idols.

It's the little God, the little g God.

I don't think Jeff Bezos is gonna show up at your house, right?

But this is the question Jesus asked.

What do you want me to do for you?

Right?

And James and John took their shot, like, like, right?

I mean, the equivalent of us saying to Jeff Bezos, like, sign your sock over, right?

I mean, they're saying like give us the best position possible so we can be seen, known, powerful.

And the blind beggar gets the same question and he says, I just want to see.

I just want to be able to see.

Right?

And this is this difference between uh help me be seen and help me see.

Right?

And so much of our lives are governed and defined by us just like help me be seen, help me be affirmed by someone, maybe a parent or a friend or a neighbor or a group of people or a lot of people, help me be seen and affirmed, or the path of Jesus, help me to spiritually see what is real in this world.

What is true and noble and admirable?

Help me to see these things.

And so I wonder: are your prayers filled with requests of all the ways God could make your life better?

Right?

The next great thing will finally, finally make you fulfill, feel absolved of your sin, of your anxiousness, fear?

And then how is that working?

Like how is that path of prayer and spirituality working out for you?

Because we usually think if we face our weakness, we'll live in shame, and then if we live in shame, then automatically we've got to live a life of hiding, pretending, and performing, right?

But the path of Jesus is if as we face our weakness, we get to live in the gospel that the grace of God, Jesus' work on the cross for us, for our absolution and acceptance, our sin put upon him, his righteousness put upon us, living in that space, then we get to move toward freedom because we're saying, help me see.

Not I need to be seen, but help me see.

So then what if prayer, what if prayer became more about, God, I want to see.

Help me to see.

Like, not always like get me in the right position, get me the right amount of money, get me all, like, but like help me to see all of this clearly, that that would be my first desire.

And what if out of that came gratitude and request in submission to his lordship?

And what if life was all about the desire to see rightly in a world where distraction and illusion dominate?

Point number three, last point.

We see and live by faith in Jesus, not by works of the world or works of religion.

We see and live by faith in Jesus, not by works of the world or works of religion.

So the beggar has nothing to offer.

He has nothing of this world to offer, right?

He has no money, he has nothing to offer in this situation.

He has nothing of religion to offer, he has no religious merit, he's not somebody in the hierarchy of the religious world.

He has nothing.

He's just a blind man.

He has nothing to offer except his own death to his ability.

And Jesus says, Go, your faith has healed you.

Right?

This is what Paul is saying when he says, by grace through faith you are saved.

The lady from Harvard finishes her article with this.

So remember, at this point, wherever I left the article off, she's done, right?

Like, she's done.

She sees the position she's in.

That she is in need.

And she writes this You see, I believe in a God who loved each and every one of us so much that he himself came down to die on the cross that we might be freed from our sins, freed from our guilt, freed from death itself.

I would venture that he loves because that is who he is.

And you can't change who he is.

He didn't love me more for going to Harvard.

He didn't love me more for my success.

And so he couldn't love me less for not being perfect.

My brothers and sisters, may you live in the great grace of having eyes to see what truly matters.

Let's pray together.

God, we thank you for this great message that's tied to last week.

For us to be people who desire to see, not to be seen.

God, would you reorient our hopes?

To rest in you, to see what is real in this world and all the ways the idols don't deliver, position does not deliver, money does not deliver, sex does not deliver, power does not deliver.

They're just part of this world, but they do not deliver.

God, would you give us eyes to see that we are in this world, but we're not of it?

We're absolved by you, accepted by you, defined and governed by you.

And would you help us to trust more in your lordship?

We thank you that your grace is bigger than all of our sin that we do not always see rightly.

And so we confess that this morning.

We do not always see.

We desire things we shouldn't.

We're so often James and John and not this beggar.

We think we need to be people that have our acts completely together, or at least pretend to be.

When in fact we're the beggar the whole time.

Give us eyes to see that we are people of inescapable need.

And yet your rescue, your grace to us in Jesus is fully sufficient.

In his name we pray.

Amen.