+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen. 

One of the more inventive shows of television’s so-called ‘golden age’ was The Twilight Zone.  In one episode an antique dealer, nearing bankruptcy, acquires an old wine bottle.  He discovers a genie inside it.  The genie grants him four wishes.  “What do you want me to do for you?”

The antique dealer doesn’t believe the genie’s promise to grant him four wishes.  So first he puts the genie to the test and asks him repair a broken glass cabinet.  In an instant, the glass is restored.  The second wish is the standard ‘give me a million dollars.’  To his credit, the antique dealer gives away thousands to his friends, and then the IRS shows up to collect its share.  The antique dealer is left with $5.

Trying to avoid being burned again, the antique dealer wishes to be the leader of a powerful nation where he can’t be voted out of office.  The genie turns him into Adolf Hitler in his final days.  The antique dealer, now hiding in a bunker with a vial of cyanide, has to use his fourth wish.  He wishes that none of this had ever happened, and he finds himself back at his shop where he promptly breaks the glass cabinet.

The moral is typical of a genie story: be careful what you wish for; there are always unintended consequences; your life with all of its troubles is better than you think it is; power, control, and wealth won’t solve all of your problems and make you happy.  Good, solid advice, and we recognize it as such, but don’t always find ourselves following it. 

In last week’s gospel, the scene just before today’s, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus, scheming and calculating how to achieve worldly power and glory. (Mk 10:35-45)  Like us, they were treating our Lord like a genie.  Jesus seemed to play along with them, “What do you want me to do for you?” 

James and John wanted to live above their ordinary circumstances, but really their vision and their aspirations are quite little, narrow, small, unimaginative.  They want things genies provide – wealth, power, comfort, notoriety; they don’t want the big things – purpose, hope, joy, peace, humility, friendships.  James and John want more, but more of what?  They don’t enjoy and appreciate what they have; they don’t see that they’ve already got a lot of the big things.

When the other disciples heard about the furtive social climbing of James and John, they got angry. (Mt 20:20-28)  Their anger, their indignation, their jealousy suggests that the other disciples saw Jesus essentially the same way – as a means to achieve their worldly ambition.  All of the disciples are seeking the wrong things.  They’re following Jesus, but they don’t get the true nature of his ministry; they don’t get the cross.  Jesus calls his disciples to service and sacrifice and humility – that’s true greatness.

In today’s gospel, we might suppose that Bartimaeus, the blind man, also approaches Jesus as a genie, but if so, Bartimaeus gets far more than he bargained for.  Bartimaeus calls out to Jesus, “Have mercy upon me.”  Jesus responds with the same words he had spoken to James and John: “What do you want me to do for you?”  Bartimaeus asks to receive his sight. 

Unlike James and John, Bartimaeus doesn’t want recognition and importance and worldly glory.  He wants healing; he wants to see.  Jesus does this for him.  Jesus gives him vision.  But this physical healing is only part of the story.  Bartimaeus not only received his sight; he also began to follow Jesus in the way.  Bartimaeus’ blessing includes receiving his sight and finding direction and purpose in life.  Bartimaeus didn’t ask for a new orientation in life, but Jesus invited Bartimaeus to follow him, and Bartimaeus did.

Bartimaeus, the blind man, saw the light.  The disciples, who see physically, don’t see spiritually.  The irony is even richer.  Many of the disciples have left everything and followed Jesus; they’ve developed an intimate relationship with Jesus.  James and John are part of his inner circle.  Bartimaeus is an outsider – just one of the crowd.  Yet, Bartimaeus shows the disciples, those close to Jesus, faithfulness in action.  It’s yet another shocking scene attacking conventional religious piety and teaching us that we need to seek and to welcome the outsider and to learn from him.

Bartimaeus, the outsider, is a model disciple for us.  He allows nothing to get between him and Jesus.  People rebuke him when he calls out to Jesus.  Bartimaeus cries out to Jesus all the louder.  He courageously risks the scorn and ridicule of others.  Bartimaeus is a beggar, dependent upon the crowd, his fellow townspeople.  They’re his meal-ticket, and he’s risking it.  He even casts away his garment – his coat, his only shelter.  He leaves all that he has.  He follows Jesus in the way – ‘the way’ is Mark’s code word for ‘the cross.’  Bartimaeus is willing to bear his cross.

To disciples like us, who pray and sacrifice and work and give for Jesus, it reminds us of how much holiness exists outside of the Church and of the importance of seeing God’s favor and presence in every person we meet.  It reminds us that faith and holiness can be found in unlikely places, in unassuming people.  It reminds us that our spiritual well-being depends upon being outward looking and receptive, open to surprises.  

If Jesus were to ask us, “What do you want me to do for you?”, how would we respond?  After hearing this gospel, I hope that I would answer that question not by thinking about what God can do for me, but by thinking about what can I do for God.  What do I need to see?  What do I need to be a better follower of Jesus?  What do I need to bear my cross? 

I need more than I can say, more than I know, but I know that God’s already providing for me, and one essential way he provides for me is through Christian community, through our parish family.  Bartimaeus amazes me because he comes to Jesus even though the people around him rebuke him when he calls out to Jesus.  To be faithful, I need the support of friends, which I have here.  For the vast majority of people, the life of faith begins with belonging to a community, then comes believing, and finally there’s behaving as God would have us.  That last part especially we never fully experience. 

James and John were at the center of the community of disciples.  They belonged.  They clearly believed Jesus. But they didn’t behave like him.  They were trying to out-maneuver their friends, seeking prominence and preference, trying to be served, instead of serving.  As self-centered, as appalling, as their behavior was, let’s remember they’re saints.  To be a Christian, belonging comes first.  That’s the most important thing. 

We can’t be Christians alone.  We experience God and know his love through other people.  We frequently say that relationships require a lot of hard work.  We mean that relationships require sacrifice, that is thinking of others first, doing things we don’t want to do, living with good humor, forbearing one another, putting ourselves in another’s place, refraining from insisting upon having things our own way.  We recognize the truth that our own well-being is intimately connected and dependent upon the well-being of other people.

Timothy Radcliffe tells the story of someone who wrote to a famous rabbi. He wrote:

I would like the [rabbi’s] help.  I wake up each day sad and apprehensive.  I can’t concentrate.  I find it hard to pray.  I keep the commandments, but I find no spiritual satisfaction.  I go to the synagogue but I feel alone.  I begin to wonder what life is about.  I need help. And the [rabbi] just sent the letter back underlining the first word of each sentence.  And it is always the same one, ‘I’.1

The surest way to become lonely, despondent, joyless is to focus on yourself.  It is the opposite way of the cross.  The cross, self-sacrifice, leads to being connected with others, to knowing God’s love, to feeling joy.  The cross leads to resurrection.

When we live the cross, not only as individuals, but as a community, then we’re being true to our calling, then we’re most authentically the body of Christ.  How do we make Jesus credible in our world?  How do we show people God’s love?  How do we evangelize?  By believing the gospel and living it.  By believing the cross and living it.  Then we’re part of God’s healing presence, and we’ll all see the light.

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen.

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