Preached at Holy Cross, Seend
Hebrews 7. 23-28; Mark 10. 46-52
“…he began to cry out, and say, ‘Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.’”
A very elderly, blind, man busking in Chengdu by playing the erhu, a two-stringed, bowed, instrument which has a reputation for being difficult to play. © Gerry Lynch, 6 October 2024.
When I was on holiday in China a few weeks ago, I saw a very elderly, blind, man busking on a pedestrian bridge in the city of Chengdu, one of these Chinese cities that many people have never even heard of even though it has a larger population than London. He was playing an instrument called the erhu, a two-stringed instrument not entirely different from a violin, which my Chinese friend told me was known to be particularly difficult. He was playing it beautifully, little noticed by most of the Sunday shopping crowds that walked past, and completely invisible to the throngs of mopeds and buses passing below.
How often we miss what is truly valuable and extraordinary in the world, because it is in the hands of those not considered important.
This morning’s Gospel story works on many levels, some of them very clear from even a simple reading, and some of them less obvious. Let’s look at some of the less obvious things. The first thing to notice is how the blind beggar first speaks to Jesus—“Son of David, have mercy on me”, he cries. “Son of David”. That’s interesting, because it’s not a term that Mark uses often in his Gospel. That should lead us to ask whether its use here must be significant.
Firstly, it identifies Jesus, obviously, as a descendent of David. Now, this is interesting, because unlike Matthew and Luke, Mark doesn’t start with his Gospel with a family tree for Jesus, but instead jumps straight into the action with John baptising Jesus in the River Jordan. More than this, however, Son of David was one of the titles that Jews of the time used to refer to the hoped for Messiah, a king who would deliver them from foreign occupation and usher in a truly godly kingdom characterised by fairness and justice.
So, this desperately poor, disabled, man has realised a profound truth about Jesus which those around him are blind to, and they don’t have the sense or patience to listen to what he’s saying.
How often we miss what is truly valuable and extraordinary in the world, because it is in the hands of those not considered important!
The beggar identifying Jesus as Son of David seems even more significant when we consider at what part of Mark’s Gospel this story takes place. The setters of our Sunday readings don’t follow any of the Gospels simply from start to finish, so we need to take the time to find out. The first sentence of this morning’s reading tells us this happened in Jericho. This is a long way from Galilee, where Jesus grew up and where most of His healing miracles took place. Instead, this story takes place not far from Jerusalem.
We know in fact it takes place right at the end of Jesus’ last earthly journey, from Galilee to Jerusalem, for the very next incident in Mark’s Gospel is Palm Sunday, when Jesus will enter the Holy City as a King, in a way that would lead many who saw it to believe He was the Messiah. It would begin a week when Christians believe Jesus was indeed made king of an eternal realm, which upends all conventional understandings of power and glory, to which he would be crowned with a crown of thorns.
So, in Mark’s telling of Jesus’ life, this is the final important encounter Jesus has before Holy Week, and the culmination of that life. I bet that wasn’t obvious when you heard me reading it a moment ago. Only this blind beggar has an inkling of how significant Jesus’ presence in Jericho is.
Here’s another interesting thing. Up until this late point in Mark’s Gospel, whenever someone has worked out who Jesus truly is – or when some thing has worked that out, for it is often the demons that do – Jesus orders them to tell nobody. Here, it’s other people who silence the blind beggar when he reveals the truth about Jesus. Now, having almost reached His objective, Jesus is happy for people to know that He is the Messiah, the “Son of David”—but, for the most part, they aren’t listening.
As well as all these subtleties, there’s also a very simple way of reading this story, and it’s just as valid and important—and that is to take it as a lesson in how to pray.
The first thing to do is to pray for a clear vision of Jesus Christ, like the blind man had, for if you have that, then all sorts of other things will fall into place of their own account. If your vision of Christ is clear, you will pray for the right things for your own life, for those around you, and for the world.
The second thing is to be honest about what you want to ask God for—you never know, you might even get it! Jesus asks the blind man what he wants and he replies simply “let me see again”. Of course, we should pray for others: for people we love and for the whole world. Praying for ourselves, instead of only ever praying for others, can feel selfish. But the truth is that when we pray too little for our own needs, we’re not being generous with our prayers, we’re living in denial about how dependent we are on God. There’s also no point trying to pretend to God that you’re more selfless than you really are. Maybe your prayers are too selfish or too stupid, sometimes – I know mine are – but if your relationship with God is an honest one, then God will be able put you on the right path, more or less, in the fullness of time.
Thirdly, don’t just pray for the things you absolutely need, but for fun things too. Jesus Christ came to give us life in all its fullness. I pray to God for little treats all the time! Remember, God always sees what is in our hearts anyway, much more clearly than we often do ourselves.
Fourthly, like the crowd trying to hush the blind beggar, you’ll find plenty of people wanting to demand you pray for other things – or, in this day and age, to stop praying at all. Be courageous if others are distracting you from what you really feel called to pray for. None of us finds it easy to plough our own furrow entirely in life, to go our own way. But a lot of problems in the world today are caused by people looking over their shoulder and being afraid to stand out from the crowd. Don’t pray for what you think other people think you should – pray for what’s in your heart
What happens if you and pray for the wrong things? I do sometimes. Even earthy priests, I can assure you, are prone to getting things wrong or praying for the wrong thing. But as our Epistle from Hebrews reminds us, Jesus is the perfect priest forever. He prays for you always. Trust that He can make up for what is lacking in your prayers.
For Jesus Christ makes the blind see. Even you! And He is the Son of David, the Messiah, whose kingdom is not one of power and political control, but one of love and wisdom, a love and wisdom that is often found among in the hands of those not considered important, where the clever and respectable won’t look. It is that kingdom that we are called to be citizens of.
Now glory and honour be to the Holy and Undivided Trinity, the Father who made us, the Son who redeemed us, the Spirit who sustains us, this day and forevermore. Amen.
Top image: Christ Healing the Blind Man of Jericho, Lucas van Leyden (1531), now hangs in the Hermitage, St Petersburg.
