Mark 10:46-52
The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Langworthy, preaching
July 27, 2025
If we’re not careful, we become irresolute reactors in life rather than purpose-driven actors for life. If we fail to bear in mind our life’s main purpose, take responsibility for its fulfillment and pursue it aggressively, we become people who are carried along this way and that by the flow of whatever current takes hold of us – whether it be our crowd, our mood or our circumstances. We let such forces direct our course to too great an extent. We let a compliment send us over the moon and a criticism send us into a cave of gloom; a good night of sleep make us kind and a bad one make us mean; nice weather fill us with praises to God and a wobbly Internet connection fill us with complaints.
We do well to ask ourselves: What good things do I have to have in order to “be good” with my life. What bad things put me in a bad place? What gives me the sense that my life is overall on the right track?
We also do well to ask ourselves: What do I need to do to keep my life right and to make it all the more right? How do I seize each opportunity to fulfill my purpose? How do I aggressively seek that goal with some of the dogged determination and full-throttle effort of, say, Tom Brady?
Seven-time Superbowl champion Tom Brady is likely the greatest quarterback of all time. A year ago last June, in his acceptance speech at his induction into the Patriots Hall of Fame, Brady spoke about how hard it was to pursue his life’s main purpose. He woke every day at six to train, knowing his friends were sleeping in and eating pancakes; he sweated in heavy gear working out in 90° heat, knowing his family was lounging at the pool or the beach; and he pushed himself in two-a-day practices, knowing that though he was already battered, bruised and exhausted, he had to face another day of getting hit by players way bigger than he.
Brady said, “But know this: life is hard. No matter who you are or where you’re going, there are bumps and bruises and hits along the way…Success and achievement require overcoming adversity…To accomplish anything, you don’t have to be special; you just have to be what most people aren’t: consistent, determined and willing to work hard, with no shortcuts! Look at my teammates! You can’t find better examples of those who embody the work ethic, integrity, purposefulness and drive that it takes to be a champion in life.”
And Jesus said, “Narrow is the gate and hard is the way that leads to life, and those who find it are few”; and those who gain His kingdom “seize it by force” – that is, by zealous resolve, intense focus and unrelenting effort.
Blind Bartimaeus, the last person healed by Jesus in Mark’s Gospel, embodied those qualities. He was bold, resolute and aggressive in grabbing hold of God’s grace.
Jesus had just passed through Jericho, 18 miles east of Jerusalem, and was pressing on to enter the city of David for what we’d later call Holy Week. He’d been repeatedly talking with His disciples about His impending suffering and their call to follow His example. Luke in his Gospel remarks how at the time the disciples were blind to what Jesus was trying to get them to see, noting that it was to them “hidden” so that they “understood nothing”. Blind Bartimaeus saw more clearly than they!
Old Bart provided for himself by the means common to the blind of his day. He sat at the side of a major thoroughfare and begged those passing by for charity. Because he’d heard the chatter about Jesus’ healings, he jumped into action when he caught wind of Jesus’ approach. He shouted at the top of his voice for Jesus to grant him His “mercy.” When those around him sternly ordered him to shut up, he shouted all the louder and more insistently.
Alas, how often do those who are sighted but blind in spirit try to suppress and silence those who’ve been incapacitated by life or by society. Yet, such folks are often the most open and receptive to Jesus and hence those for whom He can do the most!
Jesus always had an ear, eye and heart attuned to the needy. Thus, while He was set on proceeding to Jerusalem, He interrupted His journey and took the time to talk with Bart. Bart was pointed and forceful in his asking of Jesus; and Jesus responded by giving this brassy, brazen, intrusive, impudent, pushy, pestering man his miracle – and, though Jesus told him he was free to go on his way to enjoy life as a sighted person, Jesus welcomed him as a disciple who, Mark’s account of this miracle says, “followed [Jesus] on the way”, and who, Luke’s account says, did so “glorifying God” and moving others to “praise God” with him.
So, how might we imitate Bart’s aggressiveness and grab hold of God’s grace by daring to hope as wildly as he, seeking Jesus with the same initiative and determination, and being that bold in asking of Jesus?
Jesus promised that if we seek, we will find. Like Bart we don’t have to seek Jesus all that well; we just have to apply all we’ve got to it – and trust Jesus to bless us, despite our faulty approach, as we put our faith, not in our doing things right, but in His doing things right.
Jonathan Edwards had a list of 70 resolutions by which He meant to pursue his life’s main purpose. Above that list he wrote, “Aware I am unable to do anything without God’s help, I humbly entreat Him to enable me by His grace to keep these resolutions.”
God’s help is our hope, for we need His help even to avail of His help. We can only put in sufficient effort if He’s behind it, supplying us with the strength and resolve we need. We can only seek God because He’s already found us and empowered us to seek Him.
The challenge then is to make Him our main purpose – that is, to seek Him as a cherished, life-long friend more than as just someone from whom we can get stuff. He will then become our deepest reward; and pleasing Him, our biggest payoff.
In 1940 Clarence Jordan founded Koinonia Farm in Americus, Georgia, to demonstrate to the Jim Crow South what racial unity and collaboration can accomplish. The Klu Klux Klan hated what was happening on the farm and one dark night, in 1954, burned down all its buildings but Jordan’s home. Amidst all the shouting in the attack, Jordan recognized the voice of a local newspaper reporter. The next day, while the rubble was still smoldering, that very reporter showed up to write a story about the arson. He finally found Jordan out in a field, planting seeds. He said, “I heard the awful news and I’m here to write about your closing your farm.” Jordan said not a word in reply but just kept planting and hoeing. The reporter kept prodding, at last saying, “You’ve got two Ph.D.’s, you’ve put 14 years into this farm, and now there’s nothing left. Do you think you’ve been successful at all?” Jordan then straightened up, looked him in the eye and said, “You just don’t get it, do you? You don’t understand us Christians. We’re not about being successful, but about being faithful.”
Will you imitate Jordan and Bartimaeus, and by God’s grace aggressively pursue wild and maybe impossible dreams, leaving the results up to the Lord for whom nothing is too wonderful?
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