Jesus certainly has the best lines of all the words recorded in the gospels. And it is great to hear them, to listen to them, to let them soak in. “Be not afraid” – are the words that come most often from his lips. “Come to me, all you who are weary.” Who hasn’t drawn comfort from that? “I am going to prepare a place for you, so that where I am, you also may be” gives us hope about our eternal destiny.
But every so often, the words that the crowd speaks also can be important for us. In Mark’s narrative of the Gospel, ‘the crowd’ usually functions in two ways – it either helps people to Jesus or it hinders their approach to Jesus. In today’s gospel, it actually does both. Scholars have noted in this regard that the role of the crowd parallels the role of the church. The church is meant to help people get to Jesus. Sometimes it does that well. Other times, not so much. Yet they tell us, it is important to hear the words of the ‘crowd’ as words that are addressed to us as believers.
So, what does it mean to hear the crowd say to us, today: “Take courage; Get up, Jesus is calling you.”
Take Courage. Sometimes courage looks like trusting in the fact that God made you good and made you for a purpose. It is my favorite line in any catechism – Why did God make you? Because He thought you would like it. And he thought your friends would like it too. And yet, too often we don’t trust that, don’t lean into that truth. “Take Courage” – the deepest truth about who you are is that you are loved beyond measure. In my college and grad school years, my good friend Mary Morton would, when I was struggling with that belief, tell me to ‘repeat after me.” “I” (I) “am” (am) “Loved” (urrgh! – loved) “Unconditionally” (Do I have to say it…. Unconditionally.) It was never easy, but through her patient loving of me, I learned to trust the Good News of God’s love for me.
Sometimes courage means to stand up in a relationship and speak the truth in love, even when it is difficult. Or to seek/offer forgiveness. Or to leave behind a mask that once protected you, but now keeps you back. Or to learn to trust that love is real, even when you haven’t seen much in your own family. Take courage – you are loved unconditionally
Get up. I think of those words as ‘morning words’. As in ‘time to get up.’ Yet, it is easy to sleep walk through life. To not make a stand. To follow willy-nilly the currents of life and society. Get up invites us to do life differently. To make a commitment to change this world that you and I walk in. Get up, there is work to do.
Jesus is calling you. “Gulp!” “Really? Me, Lord? Can’t someone else volunteer Lord? Isn’t that what campus ministers are for? Or priests? Besides, it’s someone else’ turn.” Maybe. But what if the Lord is calling you? How can you turn him down?
Bartimaeus, the man to whom these words were first addressed by the crowd, is in my opinion the most courageous man in the gospels aside from Jesus, because at that threefold command, he tosses aside his cloak, (pardon the pun, but he’ll never see it again. He doesn’t even know what it looks like) comes to Jesus and asks for the grace to see. We are told that he follows Jesus ‘en te hodos’ – On the Way – which is Marcan shorthand for being a disciple. May we follow his example and do the same.
This week, write those words on your mirror – let them be the screen saver on your computer; put them in your planner. Hear those words addressed to the crowds as words addressed to YOU…
Take courage; get up. Jesus is calling YOU…