Friday Morning in Ladera: Jesus and Blind Bart

Friday mornings are the best!

I am constantly surprised at how many kids are excited to wake up an hour, or more, earlier than usual and come hang out at Founders Park before school. This last week I have been meeting with different youth workers from different churches in the area, and can say that what we are experiencing here in Ladera is both unique and special. Kids are coming for more than the doughnuts, that much is for sure! Getting a chance to talk about Jesus with so many kids on Friday mornings is something I look forward to all week.

Nolan and Ben being goofy

This morning's game was a brainchild of Grant. He made a square in the field using cones and then had kids line up side by side around the perimeter. He would then say something like, "If you are wearing shorts, cross the square!" Kids would have to try to move to the other side of the square without touching anyone.

Grant demonstrating the "sumo strut"

It got a bit more interesting when Grant started telling the kids how they had to get across the square. My personal favorite was the "sumo strut" where kids had to walk like a sumo wrestler as they made their way across the square.

"Cross the square if you are a girl!"

Today after breaking up into small groups we read and talked about the time Jesus healed a blind beggar named Bartimaeus. Over the past few weeks we have been looking at the way Jesus sees people in contrast to the way others see them. This is another one of those stories... its also another story of Jesus healing someone and making it possible for them to have a more full and real life. I am beginning to see these stories as a picture of what Jesus does for everyone. He ALWAYS leads us into a more full and real life. Sometimes its as obvious as restoring actual sight, and sometimes its different but just as real and powerful.

Best way to start the day.

In this particular story, found in the Bible in Mark 10:46-52, Jesus, his entourage of people following him around, and a big crowd from the local city are leaving a town and have an encounter with a man we called Bart. Bart was blind, and because the options for a blind man were extremely limited back then, he was a beggar. He was set up on the entrance to the town and would most likely call out asking people for money whenever he heard them passing by. He would be pretty similar to the people posted up on the off ramp at Crown Valley... but it seems that he may have been a little more persistent than just sitting quietly with a sign.

Its probable that Bart had been in this spot for years, possibly for most of his life. This was who he was,  the blind beggar at the entrance to town. That was his identity, the life he knew, and how everyone else saw him.

As he heard a big crowd passing and then that Jesus was a part of this crowd he started to call out. By this time Jesus had a reputation, and people were hearing about everything he had done. So, when Bart heard that Jesus was in the crowd he started calling out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"

I imagine that he wasn't bashful about it, but that he was loud, and even a bit obnoxious. People in the crowd following Jesus began to yell back at Bart, demanding that he be quiet, but the more they yelled at Bart to be quiet, the louder Bart yelled for Jesus.

Bart was blind. Bart was a beggar. Bart was nothing. He was a bother, something to be put up with, something to be tolerated. He was barely a person, and for sure not someone that should be bothering someone as important as Jesus. Didn't he know his place? Perhaps he had a reputation for being one of those beggars that was a little more aggressive than the others, maybe he was just persistent enough to make people feel uncomfortable... and to have someone like this YELLING at someone like Jesus, not acceptable. Didn't he know his place?

How often do we see people this way. How often to we put labels on the people we see and them treat them as whatever label we gave them. From the people at the corner, to the person behind the register, to the person at work, or church, or the other parent at your kids' games... how often do we treat them as a thing, and not as a person.

How often do we just accept the labels that others have given us.

For kids, this is very real. They may live out of several different labels depending on where they are. At home they may be one way, at school a totally different way, and then still another when playing sports or doing something else. The kid that is an awesome soccer player, might have confidence on the soccer field, but the second he steps on campus at school, where he isn't known, or isn't seen as a star player, be totally different.

The way people see them, or even just the way they think people see them, has more to do with the way they act than they know. I would say that, to a certain degree, this is true of adults as well.

Bart was over it though. He wanted something different, and he wasn't afraid of making a seen.

And Jesus stopped.

In all the commotion, all the yelling and pushing, people probably trying to just hurry Jesus along so he wouldn't be bothered... Jesus stopped.

Jesus heard Bart. Jesus saw Bart. He didn't see the blind beggar, but the man.

Jesus told the crowd, "Tell him to come here." I love this. Jesus made the crowd turn and treat Bart as a person. Jesus didn't go to Bart, but told the crowd to ask him to come be part of the group... and the crowd's reaction to Bart was a 180 from before. "Cheer up!" they said, "Come on, he's calling you!"

And now Bart had a choice. He could get up and leave his entire world behind. Or he could stay in his comfort zone. I often overlook this. As Bart got up, threw aside his coat (the symbol of a beggar) and began to make his way towards Jesus, he was leaving behind everything he knew. For a few moments, he no longer had an identity. What would happen once he got to Jesus? Would Jesus heal him, or would Jesus just say some encouraging things and then leave Bart to find his way back to his spot? But Bart got up. He was desperate enough to give it all up in order to get in front of Jesus. This was big faith in a person he had never seen, but only heard of.

Once Bart got in front of Jesus, Jesus asked, "What do you want me to do for you?" Without hesitation, knowing exactly what he wanted, Bart replied, "My Rabbi, I want to see!" He went big! Not, "Jesus, could you give some money," or, "Jesus, could you help me out..." but, "I WANT TO SEE!"

Jesus' reply? "Go, for your faith has healed you." Instantly, Bart could see. Instantly, Bart had a new identity.

But Bart did not go, Bart stayed and followed Jesus down the road.

Jesus saw Bart. The whole time. Jesus restored Bart, gave him a more full life, and let him and everyone else see that Bart was a person, that Bart was worth Jesus' time. Jesus feels the same way about each of us. He sees us the way we truly are, VALUABLE BEYOND OUR LABELS, better than what others think, and worth enough that Jesus gave his life for us.

Just like with Bart, Jesus invites us into our true identity. It might mean that we have to leave the identity others have given us, the identity we have lived most our lives out of behind, or even the identity we have spent years creating, but what lies on the horizon is FAR BETTER than what we leave behind.

Freedom awaits!

A life lived being truly human, truly loved, and truly loving. Its not always comfortable, its not always easy or safe and secure, but it is free, and it is better than any life anyone else could give us. Jesus speaks truth into our lives, he said that  if we follow him, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." This is the truth that we are loved as we are, that we are more valuable than we are told, and that we can have a full life in Jesus. Its not a life of rules and regulations, but a life of purpose and love and adventure.