Begin with Prayer:

 

Find a place to be comfortable and awake. Center yourself. Visually imagine placing your concerns in God’s hands. Let them go, for at least the next few minutes!

 

Continue with Praise:

 

This Sunday we would open with Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing – You can sing this or another song that is close to your heart or say the words.

Verse 1 –
Come Thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace
Streams of mercy never ceasing call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount I’m fixed upon it, mount of Thy redeeming love.

 

Prayer for a Pandemic

May we who are merely inconvenienced remember those whose lives are at stake.
May we who have no risk factors remember those most vulnerable.
May we who have the luxury of working from home remember those who must choose between preserving their health or making their rent.
May we who have the flexibility to care for our children when their schools close remember those who have no options.
May we who have to cancel our trips remember those that have no safe place to go.
May we who are losing our margin money in the tumult of the economic market remember those who have no margin at all.
May we who setting in for a quarantine at home remember those who have no home.
As fear grips our country, let us choose love.
During this time when we cannot physically wrap our arms around each other, let us yet find ways to be the loving embrace of our God to our neighbors.
Amen

 

Read Mark 10: 46-52

 

46 They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48 Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 49 Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” 50 So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. 51 Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher,[g] let me see again.” 52 Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

 

 

Context:

 

It is no mistake that this story follows on the heels of the request of the disciples for extraordinary glory. Bartimaeus asks for simple ordinary wholeness. Read verse 45 for the purpose of Jesus’ mission.

 

For Discussion/Thought:

 

At this point, share with your family, maybe do a video chat with friends, or call a friend or fellow church goer and talk through this passage. Next week we will offer a video option.

 

1. Bartimaeus is the only person healed in the Gospel of Mark who is called by name. Why might that be?

2. What is the image of Bartimaeus “sitting on the side of the road?” Was might it mean? Explore the words: sidelined and marginalized.

3. Jesus is called “the Nazarene”. It is reminiscent of what Samson is called. Jesus, even more so than Samson, is God’s powerfully anointed.

4. The rich man called Jesus “good teacher”. Jesus’ responded back with a challenge. Bartimaeus calls Jesus “Rabbouni”. This is a term reserved in scripture for God. THE Teacher! What other ways might you say this?

5. Observation: The crowd, for the first time in Mark, wants to stop people from getting to Jesus. Jesus had silenced the crowd because he didn’t want them to spread false and premature confessions of who he is. Here, Bartimaeus is not silenced. He knows who Jesus is, and what he has come to do, “Have mercy on me!”

6. James R. Edwards in his commentary on Mark writes: “In humble trust Bartimaeus asks not for wealth, power, or success, but only for sight; he asks not to be superhuman, but simply human. For the well, normalcy may seem the bare minimum, but for the ill and troubled normalcy is God’s greatest gift.” Jesus says, “Go, your faith has healed (saved) you.” Name those “normal” things you take for granted. Health, hearing, sight, thinking, walking, almost any “normal” behavior we believe is a right. What would change if you regularly thought of normalcy as “God’s greatest gift?”

7. Bartimaeus received his sight. He proved at the beginning he had more insight than the disciples. He knew who Jesus was.

8. Bartimaeus acts on his new eyesight and “follows Jesus on the road.” Bartimaeus began “sitting on the side of the road” and the story ends with him “following Jesus on the road.” What is the difference?

9. Note: “Faith that does not lead to discipleship is not saving faith. Whoever asks of Jesus must be willing to follow Jesus…even on the uphill road to the cross.” – Edwards

 

Prayer:

 

Ask God to allow the thoughts this text has prompted and the words you have spoken move from you head and lips to your heart and hands. How might you follow Jesus?

 

Benediction:

 

Say these words to yourself and each other.

“Conversations will not be cancelled.
Relationships will not be cancelled.
Love will not be cancelled.
Songs will not be cancelled.
Reading will not be cancelled.
Self-care will not be cancelled.
Hope will not be cancelled.
May we lean into the good stuff that remains.”
Amen.