i don't think you even recognize the loss of control

and i don't think you even see it in yourself

The holy Gospel according to St. Mark the 10th chapter!

Daylight Savings Sunday. Easily the worst Sunday of the year!

You all half-awake, half-asleep. Perfectly grumpy!

Barely here.

And I want to shake you awake!

Get you a little more lively.

And in so doing, I prove I am a lot like James and John…

…You might remember on Ash Wednesday we reviewed one of Luther’s finer theological points; God’s proper work and God’s alien work.

Quickly: God’s proper work is, in love, raising and restoring us.

& God’s alien work is, in love, humbling us and taking us down a peg.

The reason God works in a way so foreign to God’s character is because as sinful creatures, we regularly fool ourselves into believing we are alright on our own, thank you very much. 

So God, in love, will come and show us otherwise, so that when we’ve been humbled we will be ready to look to God!

God who’s proper work is to raise creatures who’ve been laid low.

And so, as it turns out, perhaps your grouchy demeanor this morning, is God’s alien work, at work on me.

Show me that Sunday morning doesn’t depend on me or my efforts, it depends on God.

God who loves nothing more than taking a group of half-awake, half-asleep sinners and giving to them the fullness of God’s love!

…Isn’t that what’s happening in today’s scripture?

Two portraits of discipleship. 

One exemplary. The other, not so much…

On the one hand, there’s James and John. 

And by now, it’s not unreasonable to expect big things from them.

They were among Jesus’ first called disciples. And today’s scripture beings with Jesus’ third and most explicit passion prediction!

But, for all that, they’re just as clueless as ever. They still think all they and creation need is a mere repair job. 

So when Jesus talks of reversing the old curse by giving his life, James and John figure he’s speaking in metaphors, or something.

Eager to show Jesus they really get it, they pull him aside and request reserved seats of honor in his winner’s circle.

Jesus, though, has to reassure them that, although they clearly don’t know what they’re asking for, they will get it. 

In due time…

…And contrast their dimwittedness, with blind Bartimaeus.

Blind Bartimaeus, the beggar gets word that Jesus is part of a crowd traveling to Jerusalem.

Seeing his chance, he starts causing a commotion. Yelling out, “Son of David, Jesus, have mercy on me!”

Embarrassed by his lack of composure, the crowd tries to shush him. But ol’ Bart has his sights set on something better than a good reputation!
Instead of taking the hint and acting respectable, Bartimaeus just starts shouting all the Louder!

“Son of David, have mercy on me!”

…And how does Jesus react to such a humiliating display?

• He stops dead in his tracks.
• Tells the crowd to call Bartimaeus over.
• Asks him, word for word, the very question he posed to James and John when they asked him to give them whatever they asked for.
• AND, declaring the whole episode faithful, Jesus gives Bartimaeus even more than he asked for!

“Go, your faith, has made you well,” Jesus says.

And the very first thing Bartimaeus does is put that faith to use!

He doesn’t listen to Jesus! He doesn’t go. Instead, he follows! He follows Jesus to Jerusalem, and therefore, to the cross.

…You see, in these two opposing portraits, we get two depictions of faith. And, Just as Martin Luther spoke of God’s two kinds of works, so Luther spoke of our TWO kinds of righteousness.

You see, as human creatures we have two ways of being.

The first is before one another, the Latin is ”coram hominibus." Before humanity. 

And in this case, our righteousness is active. 

In other words, we put forth effort to do the right thing.

But, the other kind of righteousness, “coram deo,” before God, is a passive righteousness. 

In other words, we don’t do a rotten thing! It’s all God’s work! Be it proper or alien.

The trouble, though, starts when we get these two roles mixed up. 

After all, God doesn’t need our good works, does God? No, for God to be God, God is perfectly fine all by God’s self.

Our neighbors, however, do need our good works, and that’s what they’re for; active righteousness.

When we start applying our active righteousness to God, though, things go sideways real quick. 

First of all, our good works are for our neighbor, not God. God is perfectly fine without our little good deeds.

Secondly, in trying to get God to count our good works for heavenly merit, we objectify our neighbors. We don’t do good by them for their sake, we do good to them for our own! 

Not very good. Huh?

Finally, and most importantly, as Luther put it, applying our active righteousness to God, is making a liar out of God. 

It’s, in effect, saying to God, “I know you’ve promised me salvation, but I don’t know if I can trust you, so I am going to hedge my bets and make a deposit into the hedge fund of salvation.”

But to come at God like this, is to be as blind as, not Bartimaeus, but James and John.

James and John still think following Jesus is about their effort.

But Bartimeaus, all by having his life fall into such dire straights that he’s reduced to begging, can see that all we come to God with is empty hands!

Which means, maybe, the more sleepy you are this morning, the better! The more passive you are, the better! Because being passive before the Lord is how you are righteous before the Lord!

So maybe our job this morning isn’t to try and cajole ourselves awake, but to give thanks for a God who can use corpses like us!