“THE SON OF DAVID HAS MERCY”
Saint Luke 18. 31-43
Quinquagesima: 22 February Anno Domini 2009
Fr Watson SSP
What happened to Jesus-the blood and gore soaked tree-from a blood and gore pulped Body-was not by bad luck, political expedience or random chance. What occurred on Calvary was by Holy design. The Lord's substitution for your badness was a good He chose while in the Communion of the Blessed Trinity and was freely assumed before the foundation of the universe or the creation of time.
What occurred outside the gates of Jerusalem had been predicted by the Hebrew Prophets for two-thousand years prior to the third decade of the 1st century in the "Year of Our Lord." The Son of Man was (and still IS) a designation signifying that the God of the Israelites, the God that appeared in the fiery cloud over the Ark, was now the self-same God in, with, and under human flesh and blood-real flesh and genuine blood. The Christ of God is the second and perfect Adam, for His humanity can be traced back from His Mother, the Ever-Virgin all the way to Abraham and back to Adam himself.
Why was the God/Man betrayed by His friend and disciple into the hands of the Romans? Why did the pastors in Jerusalem, Judea's guardians of the Old Testament hate this gentle truth-speaking healer? Why did someone Who loved the world, loved His enemies, loved the pagans, and loved…even you…have to be ridiculed, blasphemed and spit upon? Because of the sin that men do, yes, but because of the sin that men are-that you are!
Because men are blind is the reason that the Lord came. Because men are deaf, lame, cancer-ridden, artery-hardened, and filled with puss is the reason Messiah went up to Jerusalem. Because you are not only troubled in sight but cursed in spirit is the reason for the seasons-all the seasons of the Lord's Incarnation, Work of Law-Keeping and Work of Slave-freeing.
Your old-nature sits in the Jericho called Shawnee, Lawrence, or Olathe, blind, cold, hungry and impotent. Your works, your accomplishments, your plans, programs, resolutions, and hidden agendas bring nothing but decrepitude, death and damnation. The reason your Lord rarely gave "Law" sermons by simply pounding on the Ten Commandments is that the Law works, i.e. has its effects on sinful flesh, whether preached specifically, sequentially and "school-marmy" or not. The wages of sin is death for both Christian and pagan. But for the non-believing "old Adam" be he Hindu, Heretic or Heathen, the wages go on and accrue, bringing eternal death and everlasting damnation. But for you, for the Holy Ghost-faith-created Christ-follower, whose "old Adam" is daily drowned, the earthly death still occurs yes, but the end result is resurrection to glory, eternal bliss, beatific vision and triumphant eternal joy. The Christ did not have to preach a two-part homily to the blind beggar mentioning trespasses in thought, word and deed, because the Law of Nature (which is where the Decalogue ultimately ply their trade) had already crushed the man in contrition: "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" His cry for help is both a confession of faith (that the Nazarene named Jesus is the long-promised and waited for Messiah, the Son of David) and a heartfelt praying of the Kyrie-"Lord have Mercy" Kyrie Elieson.
This faith, which is already a gift of Christ, then receives all the other benefits which faith grasps onto when placed in "its" hand. The man from Jericho was blessed to have his vision restored. This mighty act of healing was as much for the crowd as it was for Bartimaeus. Jesus would have the man seeing perfectly for "world without end" no matter what, but the immediate sight was for the benefit of the believers and almost-believers in the crowd-that they might give glory to God, and come to realize that this Rabbi was God!
When the Spirit works on you, whether on Sunday or during the week, taking the Commands of your Maker and showing you that you fail, not because your resolve is weak, but because you're broken and bereft of the inner righteousness that Adam had at Creation, then the Holy Ghost immediately ushers you into the waiting, embracing and grace-filled arms of Jesus. The Shepherd's embrace is so-grace filled because there is so much cleansing blood gushing from those palms, that blessed brow, and that riven side. But the blood doesn't stain you red and icky, but bestows upon you the fragrant scent of Easter Lilly and the Shining White Robe of the King Himself. He was scourged so that your flesh will be restored and made better than youthful. He was buried on the Third Day and rose again so that you, who have already been buried with Him in your Baptisms, might rise at the last day to be with Him in a way that's even better than this morning. You, like Bartimaeus, have received your sight through His Word of Forgiveness and Life, and you join the host of the Church Militant in singing the Kyrie, knowing full well, believing full well, that after the Kyrie, always comes the Feast. You see, and you know that you are made well. You glorify God by receiving Him-
In the Name of The Father and + of The Son and of The Holy Ghost