Blind Man’s Tears

Scripture

As Jesus and his disciples, …. were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus …., was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! ‘Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me! ‘Jesus stopped and said, ‘Call him.’ So they called to the blind man, ‘Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.’ (Mark 10:46-49 NIV)

Blind Man’s Tears

My musical companion recently is Billy Bragg’s song “Mid-Century Modern”. It opens with;                            

Have mercy on us Father, who live through this age of storms
We barely have the time to bind the wounds caused by our shattered norms
The credulous are on crusade against reality
And freedom's just another word for acting with impunity
It's hard to get your bearings in a world that doesn't care
Positions I took long ago feel comfy as an old armchair
But the kids that pull the statues down they challenge me to see
The gap between the man I am and the man I want to be 

There’s a longing here from a grizzled veteran of decades tilting at social issues in his music that is tempered by his own experience of the gap between his rhetoric and his reality. If you are at all like me, you share that reality – advocating for love and loving imperfectly. 

When we were exploring the story of the blind man yelling at Jesus “Have mercy on me,” a friend said he may have been weeping because those around Jesus tell him “Cheer up” when he gets a positive response to his cries. 

He desperately wanted to see. Perhaps we desperately want to reduce the gap between the person we are and person we want to be and shedding the odd tear might be good for our soul. Some passion in our prayers for change in us and in our world toward justice and mercy is a good way to emulate the blind man. 

A Prayer for Today

Loving God sometimes I think we can take you for granted and not be engaged in our conversations with you like the blind man did. “Lord Have Mercy” is in our liturgies and in our music – don’t let our passion get lost in the repeating of the lines …… for Jesus’ sake