We open your copy of the scriptures to Mark chapter 10, if you’d like to follow along. Mark chapter 10, starting at verse 46. Wrap up chapter 10 this morning. Mark chapter 10. Before we hear from the Lord, let’s ask his blessing upon the reading and reception of that word. Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, we do ask again this morning, be with us by your spirit. And by your word, and we pray, Lord, that you would open our hearts, that word would this morning, by the power of your spirit, we pray that through the spirit that we would hear the voice of our good shepherd, Jesus, speaking through this his word. And Lord, we pray that it would cause us to praise you and to live according to your word and to be thankful to you for all that you have given to us in Christ and we seek to live our lives in devotion to him. Father, we thank you and we praise you. We ask all these things through that same Christ, our Lord, and all God’s people said, amen. Amen.

Mark chapter 10, starting at verse 46. Please give your full attention, this is the word of our God. And they came to Jericho, and as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples in a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. And when he had heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, He began to cry out and say, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And Mary rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stopped and said, call him. And they called the blind man. They called a blind man, saying to him, Take heart, get up, he is calling you. And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up, and he came to Jesus. And Jesus said to him, What do you want me to do for you? And the blind man said to him, Rabbi, let me recover my sight. And Jesus said to him, Go your way, your faith has made you well. And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.

The word of the Lord Amen, may He add His blessing upon this His Word. You may be seated.

I wonder if you’ve ever been asked the question, what is Christianity about? In ancient times, the answer to this question by some was thought to be cannibalism and incest. I don’t know if you know that. In the first century, that’s what they thought of Christians because, of course, they ate the flesh and blood of Christ, and they called each other brother and sister, even if they were married to them. So they had these misconceptions about what Christianity was. In modern times, it’s been sought to mean many things. Decades ago, it was all about ethics, right, the social gospel. The important part was doing and morality and that other stuff, miracles and virgin birth. It took a backseat. That wasn’t the important stuff. It was actually just your doing, your morals. In more modern times, That question has been answered or put forth an answer in the prosperity gospel, right? Health and wealth or living your best life now, you’ve heard this phrase, I’m sure. But what is Christianity about? When you think of that question, what is it that I’m called to do and to be as a Christian, as a follower of Jesus Christ? What sort of things cross your mind when you think of that? What does that look like to you? Many today teach that the Christian life is really about just making your present life better. or that God could come and help you with your stresses and your family and your work and so on. In this scenario, God is there really to help you live a victorious Christian life as defined by the American ideal of a good life. Or is there something that we are to expect when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and begin to walk in his ways? We need to be cautious, of course, of the influences around us and of our culture’s influence on our thinking about this, and we need to realize, recognize the danger and to be cautious that we no longer see the cross for what it is without it becoming off-putting to us and accept beliefs that keep us from being uncomfortable. It’s possible that a life shaped by the cross is just so foreign to our own way of thinking. Because again, of the culture that we’re steeped in, we’ve been raised in, that it’s not only that it’s uncomfortable to hear, but it’s unrecognizable to us at core when we think about it. What does it mean for us to live as followers of Christ, to live our lives after the cross, or to take up our cross and to die daily? We have something very similar to this theme in the book of Mark. In the past three chapters, you’ll remember, Jesus has been speaking about his death, and in very clear terms. He hasn’t been speaking in mysterious language, but very upfront, and he’s been saying to his disciples very clearly, the Son of Man, I will die and suffer, and in three days I will rise again. And yet in three different episodes, chapters eight through 10, he gives them the same language with all the clarity that he can give. And the disciples are unable to understand that even the most basic level of what he means. And it’s not that they’re just too dumb or too thick headed, that this is just beyond them. It’s that they have such a mindset of the way that things are supposed to be, that to have that information come to them is just completely unintelligible. It conflicts with what they are expecting, how things are supposed to be. You can’t be the Messiah and tell us that you’re going to go and suffer and die, and you’ll be betrayed by your own people and be hung on the Roman cross. Their efforts to make sense out of this is too difficult for them. and therefore they still argue things like who is the greatest or where they will sit in the kingdom and why it is that children need to shoo away from him, from the master. There’s been no doubt that Mark has gone through great pains to lead them on this path of discipleship and to show us the way of Christ, and he’s done so by putting before us the idea that the first will be last, the least will be greatest, and the one who is servant of all will be ruler of all ultimately. And if you want to understand the way of the cross, and you have to understand these very things, leaseness and lastness and lostness, and to embrace the way of life as a central identity of the one that you follow, and your central identity now is one of his followers. And then we come seemingly out of nowhere into this healing story where blind Bartimaeus receives his sight. And again, it seems at first pass just to be a very basic, run-of-the-mill gospel healing, right, where Jesus comes, and a condition is made known to him, and he sees the condition, and he has compassion, and he heals the man, and they go on their way. And yet there are several things that Mark points to that he highlights in this text that should refocus our attention and make us ask the question, is this just an ordinary healing story? Are we to be gaining something from this story, this particular healing that goes beyond it? Is there meaning that’s beyond or beneath the physical healing that he’s trying to get his disciples and us, by way of extension, to understand, something deeper through this physical healing? Well, there are several keys, as I said, in this text that let us know that likely a lot more than just a physical healing is taking place and being communicated to us. And so if we look at the text, you’ll see that it comes in somewhat of a strange place in the Gospel of Mark if we’re following the flow, right? This is the very last healing in the Gospel of Mark, and you won’t see another one. But you’ll also remember that this is the first healing we’ve seen in three chapters. And we’ll come back to that, but why, we ask ourselves, why the need to give us another healing and another healing of a blind man? We’ve already seen a healing of a blind man. We’ve already established that Christ is the one who was to come to heal the blind. Why in such a short gospel as Mark does he give us two, two healings of blind men? Why does he do so in the manner that he does? And also it comes to us in an interesting place. It comes to us after the successive teachings of Christ saying, this is what it looks like to be a disciple, right? There’s been this mode of teaching going on where Mark has framed his whole story that he’s been telling in chapters 8 to 10. He’s framed those stories around two different healings, and both of them have blind men. And in between those two blind man healings, we have three predictions of Christ’s death, three misunderstandings about those predictions, and then Christ correcting those misunderstandings by explaining to the disciples, this is what it looks like if you want to follow me. This is what the life of a disciple looks like. This is the kind of Messiah that you will serve. You also see that these two healings, these two healings of the blind man in Mark’s gospel, they come to us in a very similar manner. You’ll recall the first healing where Christ touches the blind man, and you’ll remember that he touches him, and he heals him, and he says to him, look up, what do you see? And the man responds, I see men like trees walking. And you’ll remember, it’s the only healing in the gospel where Christ has to do something a second time. And so he touches the man again, and now he receives his sight fully, with full clarity. And we remember as we look at this story, at that story, that it was very apparent that Mark was doing something with this first healing that went beyond just the physical healing of the blind. He was trying to use that first healing as a parable, as a sign, you’ll recall, as we went through that passage. Because remember, right next to that story, Jesus says, who do men say that I am? And Peter says, you’ll recall, in that famous confession, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus said, blessed are you, Simon, you see, as implied by you see. He doesn’t use those words, but that’s what he’s saying. Flesh and blood have not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And the very next thing that happens, Christ says, the Son of Man must suffer and die. And Peter says, no, Lord. And Christ rebukes him, saying, get thee behind me, Satan, for you do not know the things that you’re speaking of. And Mark uses this healing of the blind man as a parable, saying, you who are following Jesus in this way, right, these disciples, yes, at one level you see thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, but it will require a second touch from Christ for you to see clearly, because until you can understand that this is the Messiah, yet will die and be crucified for sinners, until you can understand that second part, you’ll never see the mission clearly. You’ll never understand it as you should. So this first healing that we’ve gone through already is a parable, right? Not that it didn’t happen in history. It did. Not that it wasn’t an actual, physical, living human being. He was. But Mark places it there to say, here’s the teaching. Let me show you a sign by Jesus. Read the signs rightly, because in this sign, you’ll see something that needs to happen to these other men who are in the text. And so with that background, we see this morning something very similar going on. Not only do we see that it comes to us in an interesting and odd place, that there are only two healings of blind men in Mark, right? The first one is a sign of the two healings. framed the section about Christ dying and is predicting his death and the disciples misunderstanding. But also, this is the only section in Mark that really takes up this theme of Jesus on the way, right? Jesus on the way. We discussed this before, that phrase on the way. It’s something that was introduced at the very beginning of Mark’s gospel, you’ll remember. The very first verse is when John the Baptist says, prepare the way for the Lord. And Mark has taken that phrase and he’s used it in great abundance here in chapters eight through 10. And Mark does so in a more focused way than any other gospel writer and anywhere else in his gospel. Mark is trying to say that this way has been prepared by John the Baptist. It’s the way Jesus is walking at present. And we’ll look at that a little bit later. So all of this, It’s just preparation to say that in this healing, while very real, very historic and truly physical, has behind it a lesson, a parable, a symbolic meaning. And what is that symbolic meaning, right? We have to ask. I think we see even from the Old Testament reading that we heard this morning that the Bible makes plain that blindness, not just physical blindness, but blindness as a metaphor is a spiritual condition. through the prophets, and in particular with Mark, the prophet Isaiah. Blindness was a condition that came upon Israel, Isaiah tells us, because they would not heed the wisdom of God. Instead, they followed after the way of idols. And so because of that, you’ll remember God judged them, saying to them, hearing you will not hear, seeing you will not see. You want to follow after idols? Then you shall be like them. You will have eyes that don’t see, you’ll have ears that don’t hear. And then it begins to speak of the nations as a people who are wayward, walking in darkness, walking in blindness. So the nation Israel is called blind because they will not heed the wisdom of God, and they will not walk in his ways. And furthermore, they’re called blind in Isaiah’s gospel, as in our Old Testament text this morning, because God offers them a way of salvation that they cannot understand and they will not receive. Again, for instance, in the prophet Isaiah, God tells them that he’s going to raise up Cyrus, you’ll remember, to be to them a kind of deliverer. And the nation wants nothing to do with that method of salvation. That way of God’s deliverance is not wise to them. Therefore, they cry out to idols once more. And God calls that action, that refusal to accept his way of salvation, he calls it their blindness. And so Isaiah 42, 16, I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know. In paths that they do not know, I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them. Right? So you notice when God looks at the nation in their current condition, and when he says, someday I’m going to come and reverse your condition, someday I’m going to come and restore you, the way that he restores them He says, I will take blind men, and I will lead them on the way. I will take them out of darkness, and I will lead them to light. And that restoring part of what he’s using as a metaphor for salvation is that he will undo the blindness of Israel that they’ve been plagued with because of their unbelief. He will give them back sight and refusal to listen to his word, the wisdom of God, and how they view his saving work as foolish and too weak for their needs. So what does that have to do with this text? I hope you can make some of the connections just in outlining it for you, right? Notice what we have. We meet Israel again, and we find Israel again, how? Resisting God’s ways and God means and methods of salvation. They’re not following God as he is in their midst, this one who’s in flesh in Jesus Christ. Yet instead, they’re resisting the very salvation that he offers. And you’ll notice that in Mark, 4 Mark, the ones that he’s talking about aren’t just the Pharisees out there, the scribes and the high priests, you know, the bad guys. As blind as they are, and they surely are blind. But Mark is saying the disciples themselves currently have blindness that will not allow them to view the way of God. that it has come to save them as wise, and they’re still rejecting the way of God, and he desires to lead his people. Over and over, Christ says, I will die, and they say, well, who’s gonna be the greatest? And he says, I’m going to the cross, and they say, who can sit in the seat of prominence? Thou art the Christ. But don’t die for sinners, right? They do not see, they do not understand. They have yet to perceive what God is doing in the world and how his salvation is coming to restore them, to deliver them. And so Mark is giving us this parable as a prototype of the example of what the right response to the ministry of Jesus Christ is and should be at this present time in Israel. What does real discipleship look like? What would it look like if blinders were removed and the disciples were actually to actually take God on his own terms and his own word and to agree with his way of salvation and to acknowledge that it was indeed wise. This is not just a healing, you see. It’s teaching. It’s a parable.

The Blind Man’s Condition

And so the first thing we want to see from our text this morning, from verse 46 and following, is the blind man’s condition, the blind man’s condition, this condition of Bartimaeus, this blind beggar. We see that Christ, as leaving the area of Jericho, And that may just seem like to us a passing comment. And in one sense, it is. Obviously, we’re just getting a location, right, a geographical description. This is where he was, and this is where he’s departing to. But what’s so important about this particular mention is that this is the last time any location will be mentioned in Mark that is not specifically about Jerusalem and Christ’s arrival there. This is the last place he will leave until he comes to the city to which he was destined to do his work. He’s leaving Jericho, but in leaving, that means he’s beginning a journey to a very particular city that has a very particular purpose when he gets there, namely Jerusalem and the cross that awaits him when he arrives. And so from this point onward, you will only hear the location of Jerusalem spoken of. He’s approaching, he’s arriving, he’s settled, and so on. Jesus is leaving. this location in chapter 10 for an appointment he has with the Christ and the culmination of all of his work. And he’s leaving. As he does so, we encounter this blind beggar named Bartimaeus sitting by the roadside. Right? Sitting by the roadside. And that’s a perfectly legitimate translation. that he’s sitting by the roadside. Literally, it says, the way, sitting by the way, actually. And again, the way we’ve talked about in the past, the same phrase that Mark has used throughout the gospel to speak of a very specific thing, and that is John the Baptist has come to prepare the way of the Lord. And you’ll remember in the Old Testament, that way, that road, that specific journey that they were taking, was when God would come back to Israel. He would deliver them and walk with them through the desert. He would lead them back into the promised land and would lead them as a great warrior, this one who would come, God himself, and he would lead his people victoriously back to their place of salvation. He would lead them on a brand-new exodus. It’s what is promised throughout the Old Testament. And this blind man, we are told, is sitting beside the way. And the only reason this is important is that this text will end with him, what? It ends with walking on the way, walking on the way. It’s very clear that Mark has framed this whole, the whole of his story around this idea of blind Bartimaeus first on the side of the way of the road. He’s not a participator, he’s on the outside, he’s not along this journey. But it will end with him walking on the road on the way, following Jesus, the Messiah that has come. And this man sitting beside the road, we see is blind. He’s destitute. He’s needy. And then we hear the cry. We see the condition of the blind man.

The Blind Man’s Cry

Then we hear the cry of the blind man, the blind man’s cry. Jesus, Son of God, Son of David, have mercy on me. And it’s interesting that the very first mention in all of Mark’s gospel of Jesus being a Davidic son is right here from this blind beggar, the first one to proclaim this. And what’s fascinating about this is that the very next story we have, we’ve come to, will be called the triumphal entry, right? This is when he’s actually entering in, where the whole of the crowd will cry out with one voice. And remember what they say. Blessed be the coming reign of our father, David. Right? And that title, Son of David, has so much history in it. What it’s talking about is that great covenant promise, you’ll recall, where God said to David, one of your sons will sit on the throne of Israel forever. And the great hope of Israel after all these centuries is that that day would arrive once more when God will raise up his nation and enthrone a son of David who will rule over Israel and over all the nations. Blind Bartimaeus is there acknowledging, pointing out, I believe you, Jesus, are that particular person in history. The very thing that’s been very hard for the rest of the characters in this text to grasp and to comprehend, this blind man, though he may not have great sight, has wonderful insight that this one who was passing him is the promised one of God who has come to deliver Israel. And he knows at a certain level, the promises of Isaiah 42 and other places that part of this ministry of the servant of God, part of this ministry of the son of David to come was that the blind would be given their sight. And so he can figure this, these calculations in his mind enough to say, I do believe that this one, this one is the coming of the son of David. I believe that that means he can help me in my present condition. And the blind man sees Jesus in a way that the disciples have yet to fully grasp. He has a clarity that the others are still lacking. And the crowds hearing him cry out, they try to silence him. But it doesn’t stop him in the slightest. The text tells us that he called out all the more, son of David, have mercy on me. That’s the cry of the blind man.

The Compassion of the Savior

And then notice next the compassion of the Savior. What’s the text say next? It’s very beautiful in response. It just says, and Jesus stopped. Upon hearing this cry, and Jesus stopped. That’s the reaction of your Savior. All of the crowd, all this commotion, all the lies before him, waiting for him, all this to come in his life, and he hears the cry of one lone blind beggar, and it’s enough for him to stop everything, to halt, that he’s doing and calling for him. And so he tells his disciples, go get him, bring him to me. And they say, take heart, the master has called you. And then he comes to Jesus, and Jesus says to him, what do you want me to do for you? What do you want me to do for you? Now, where have we heard that question before? Of course, we’ve heard it right before in the previous story, right? When John and James come to Jesus and they say, Master, we have one thing that we want you to do for us. And Jesus says, What do you want me to do for you? And he repeats that same question to blind Bartimaeus. And notice the radical difference in the nature of these answers to that question. James and John said, Well, we want preeminence. We want the best seat in power. Blind Bartimaeus says, I just want to be whole. I just want to be fully human. I know that you’re the son of David who’s come to restore all things, and I just want to be restored. Won’t you please give me my sight? Rabbi, let me recover my sight, it says. In that language, recover my sight, something that was gifted as one made in the image of God as the son of Adam. He says, I want that back. I want wholeness. And I believe that you’re the one who’s come to bring that, the one who’s restoring all things that can do this very thing. And he asks him, as one who believes is able to give it. And Christ simply responds, go your way, go your way. And then our translations say, your faith has made you well. Literally what it says there is your faith has saved you. Your faith has saved you. And again, Mark’s operating on two levels, and it’s very intentional. This sort of faith is the faith that saves. And then you’ll see the final point in the text, right? If that’s the blind man’s condition and his cry, and then Christ’s compassion, right, the hearing and stopping and healing, notice next is the believer’s call, the believer’s call that seemed to force itself upon blind Bartimaeus. In verse 52, it says, And Jesus said to him, go your way, your faith has made you well. And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way. And again, the story begins how? It begins with him on the side of the road, on the side of the way, and it ends with him following Christ on the way. And that word follow is the same, very same thing that Christ says to his disciples when he says, you come, follow me, and I’ll make you fishers of men. and here blind Bartimaeus, without receiving that call, somehow knows instinctively, this one who has made me well, now my disposition in life, the whole of my life is to follow him and walk the way that he’s walking. And you know, on a physical level, right, he’s just, he’s literally following him down the road. But where does that road go? Where does this particular path that Christ is walking end? Mark’s already given us all the foreshadowing, and it’s part of the gospel, part of the narrative. The music that we hear in our minds regarding this particular story would be a dirge. It’s a dark hour. Christ is headed to his death, of course. And Bartimaeus gladly stands and walks right there with him down that same path. I will go on the road to the cross with you. This one who has shown me mercy is worthy of my following him to his very own sufferings. Incredible thing. And so what do we take from all of that? What do we take from this? We must see when we read this text that it shows us very clearly our greatest problem. And our greatest problem, according to this text, according to the way that Mark, by the Holy Spirit, has very intentionally framed it. Mark is telling us the story of what happened in this particular point in history, but he’s writing it to a church afterward, and he’s intending to teach them something. And part of what he’s saying is that our greatest need is our blindness to God’s actual way of salvation, that we, as men and women, have a blindness to how God actually seeks to save us. And to us in our human condition, the cross makes no sense whatsoever. In our flesh, our reaction is not, oh, that just falls right into place, right? Now, surely we can make theological sense of it as we read the text and we categorize things and see what’s going on, right? Sin has its consequences. God, in his wrath, has promised to judge those who sinned against him and are at odds with his holiness. And yet beyond that simple theological reality, the cross doesn’t seem to comprehend for most of us in our fleshly thinking, right? Christ has been, remember, Christ has been teaching us for the past three chapters that that cross doesn’t just conform his body to it. The cross will conform his body on earth to that same shape as well, right? And namely, that is what, as we’ve been learning these chapters eight, nine, and now 10, that is to become least, and last, and lost, and servant of all, is the very shape and nature of the cross. And that, humanly speaking, makes no sense to us, right? Or reflexive and instinctively makes no sense. We can understand that Jesus came to rescue us, and a lot of people believe that that’s the whole of salvation, right? He came, and now I don’t have to be punished. Close the book. Truly, that’s a glorious fact. It is true. But it is a partial truth of what salvation encompasses. Jesus has come to deliver us, yes, from sin and from its punishment. But he’s also come to shape us and to reform us. And the shape that that life takes is the shape of a cross. And for us as people in our world and our culture and our time, we’re so used to self, self, self everything. Making sure that everyone’s function in life is to please me. Jesus is saying the way of salvation means me giving up my power for the sake of your salvation and you joining me in that very same life. All lifelong, daily taking up your cross and following me. We have a hard time understanding that those who are forgiven in light of the cross of Jesus Christ are then called to live a whole life under his shadow. So who is blind in this text? Who’s Mark talking to? Notice the blind are the disciples who think that the cross is not necessary for the Messiah. Just come and do your thing and we’ll be at your right and left hand ruling. But even more than that, even if they could understand that the Christ must be crucified, they don’t get the consequences of that crucifixion. The consequences are what? That you don’t argue anymore about who is the greatest. You don’t seek self-promotion. Those sorts of things have to die with the Messiah on the cross, because a crucified Messiah has a people who are living, living in a way that looks a lot like the cross that took him. So who’s blind? Those who say that they believe in Jesus Christ and yet reject a life that embraces the suffering and the self-denial that the cross brings in this life. And it really should give us pause when we hear things like, you can live your best life now, or even the premise that any and all struggles and all sufferings in this life must be bad and eliminated. No negativity, no frustrations. We don’t like that. We can’t have that. So it shouldn’t surprise us when churches who market this kind of thing have people who come for a time and then they say, I’m done with this because it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work. All because they were told that the Christian life was a self-improvement program or tool. And Christ has said, no, the Christian life is a self-denial reality. But in that self-denial, we’ll see that there is a certain life that comes. The cross for the church in this text, remember, is becoming least and last and lost and becoming servant of all and being willing to suffer with Christ in order to honor God and to serve our Savior in our lives. I mean, think about this. Maybe the reason there’s been studies and papers written on this, maybe why we have a lot of anxiety in our current generation is because we think we have been promised a life free from trouble. And the sooner we get rid of that idea, the sooner we’ll stop following that sort of lie. The sooner we believe in Mark saying, yes, the way of the Christian is the way of the cross. Then we’ll be able to embrace our sufferings for what they are. Then we’ll be able to much more fully and joyfully to give our lives away when we realize that this is the actual way of our Savior, and this is the way that actually leads forth to life. So if that’s our greatest problem, Notice our greatest need, right? In the midst of that problem, according to our text, is what? It’s mercy from our King. It’s mercy. Our greatest problem is our blindness to how God has chosen to save us, and the life that follows flows from that. Our greatest need is mercy from the King. What do we do if we’re selfish and we hate the thought of having a life that’s shaped by the cross, right? We have an aversion, and we do in our flesh, that’s all of us, to a cruciform life. We’re plagued with this. We all struggle with this problem. Some of you are better at it than others, but yet all of us struggle with a sort of selfishness in a way to avoid any sort of suffering or cramping of our comfort or our desire or our control in our lives. So what if we find ourselves there when we realize this sort of blindness that Christ needs to correct? What do we do? Well, according to the text, you do what blind Bartimaeus did. You cry out for mercy. Son of David, have mercy upon me. He was at least able to recognize that this one had a certain power within him. He was the one who had come to do God’s job in the world of restoring his people. And so he threw himself at the Savior, undeterred by the taunts of the crowd, telling him to shut up, to be silent. He raised his voice all the more to Jesus, knowing that only this one can give the sort of healing that somebody like him needs. And so for us who come with an aversion to the cross, we cry out to the Savior, who’s able to give mercy to those who are indeed blind. And our greatest hope is that Christ does give to those who ask. Christ stopped what he was doing. He’s halted by the question, by the cry of the blind man. He was not annoyed at the cries of Bartimaeus. He loved hearing his voice of a son in need of help. And he stopped what he was doing, and he called him to himself and freely gave to him whatever he wanted, because what he wanted was clearly in line with the will of God, making this man whole and restored to the image of God. And this is what God desires to do in us to restore us to his image, that image that we have seen clearly in the person and work of Jesus Christ, that self emptying, that self giving God is working that work within you if you belong to him. What gets us to keep walking that cruciform path is what? It’s the hope that there’s a merciful Savior who gives sight to the blind daily as they seek to follow after him and taking up their crosses. And you see, it’s the mercy of the Savior, the goodness of this Christ, who did not turn from the path that was set for him, but was driven along by the power of the Spirit and was willing to give himself as a sacrifice for you, that you might be made whole and new. It’s that goodness that should give you the trust to turn yourself towards him and to give your life away freely to him, knowing that it’s only when you die that you truly live.

Let’s pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, we praise you for this, your word. Lord, we thank you for The work that you’ve done, we thank you for calling us out of blindness, Lord, and the promise of sight. We pray that we would indeed heed the words of this passage, and that we would truly follow you, and that we would cry out to our Savior in the midst of our own selfishness and self-importance, Lord. When we struggle to believe and to live this truth, Lord, we pray give us the faith to do so, to believe what you say about us, Lord. And we would truly, with comfort and joy, die to ourselves in the service of others for your glory. We ask this all in Christ’s name. Amen.