Bartimaeus named by Mark leaving Jericho, crying out Son of David have mercy on me, throwing off his cloak and following Jesus
46 They came to Jericho. As he went out from Jericho, with his disciples and a great multitude, the son of Timaeus, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the road.
47 When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out, and say, “Jesus, you son of David, have mercy on me!”
48 Many rebuked him, that he should be quiet, but he cried out much more, “You son of David, have mercy on me!”
49 Jesus stood still, and said, “Call him.” They called the blind man, saying to him, “Cheer up! Get up. He is calling you!”
50 He, casting away his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.
51 Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “Rabboni, that I may see again.”
52 Jesus said to him, “Go your way. Your faith has made you well.” Immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus on the way.
Pharisees testing Jesus on divorce, Moses permitting certificate of divorce, hardness of heart, what God has joined together no person is to separate
1 When Jesus had finished these words, he departed from Galilee, and came into the borders of Judea beyond the Jordan.
2 Great multitudes followed him, and he healed them there.
3 Pharisees came to him, testing him, and saying, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?”
4 He answered, “Haven’t you read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female,
5 and said, ‘For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall be joined to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh?’
6 So that they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, don’t let man tear apart.”
7 They asked him, “Why then did Moses command us to give her a bill of divorce, and divorce her?”
8 He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it has not been so.
9 I tell you that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries her when she is divorced commits adultery.”
10 His disciples said to him, “If this is the case of the man with his wife, it is not expedient to marry.”
11 But he said to them, “Not all men can receive this saying, but those to whom it is given.
12 For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven’s sake. He who is able to receive it, let him receive it.”
Pharisees questioning Jesus on divorce, hardness of heart, whoever divorces and marries another commits adultery
1 He arose from there and came into the borders of Judea and beyond the Jordan. Multitudes came together to him again. As he usually did, he was again teaching them.
2 Pharisees came to him testing him, and asked him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”
3 He answered, “What did Moses command you?”
4 They said, “Moses allowed a certificate of divorce to be written, and to divorce her.”
5 But Jesus said to them, “For your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment.
6 But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female.
7 For this cause a man will leave his father and mother, and will join to his wife,
8 and the two will become one flesh, so that they are no longer two, but one flesh.
9 What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”
10 In the house, his disciples asked him again about the same matter.
11 He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife, and marries another, commits adultery against her.
12 If a woman herself divorces her husband, and marries another, she commits adultery.”
God created male and female, it was good, not good for man to be alone, two becoming one flesh
1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
1:2 The earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep and God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.
1:3 God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
1:4 God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness.
1:5 God called the light “day”, and the darkness he called “night”. There was evening and there was morning, the first day.
1:6 God said, “Let there be an expanse in the middle of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.”
1:7 God made the expanse, and divided the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so.
1:8 God called the expanse “sky”. There was evening and there was morning, a second day.
1:9 God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so.
1:10 God called the dry land “earth”, and the gathering together of the waters he called “seas”. God saw that it was good.
1:11 God said, “Let the earth yield grass, herbs yielding seeds, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with their seeds in it, on the earth”; and it was so.
1:12 The earth yielded grass, herbs yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, with their seeds in it, after their kind; and God saw that it was good.
1:13 There was evening and there was morning, a third day.
1:14 God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs to mark seasons, days, and years;
1:15 and let them be for lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth”; and it was so.
1:16 God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He also made the stars.
1:17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light to the earth,
1:18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good.
1:19 There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
1:20 God said, “Let the waters abound with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the sky.”
1:21 God created the large sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed, after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind. God saw that it was good.
1:22 God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
1:23 There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
1:24 God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures after their kind, livestock, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind”; and it was so.
1:25 God made the animals of the earth after their kind, and the livestock after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind. God saw that it was good.
1:26 God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
1:27 God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.
1:28 God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
1:29 God said, “Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree, which bears fruit yielding seed. It will be your food.
1:30 To every animal of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food;” and it was so.
1:31 God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.
2:1 The heavens, the earth, and all their vast array were finished.
2:2 On the seventh day God finished his work which he had done; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done.
2:3 God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy, because he rested in it from all his work of creation which he had done.
2:4 This is the history of the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that Yahweh God made the earth and the heavens.
2:5 No plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up; for Yahweh God had not caused it to rain on the earth. There was not a man to till the ground,
2:6 but a mist went up from the earth, and watered the whole surface of the ground.
2:7 Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
2:8 Yahweh God planted a garden eastward, in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
2:9 Out of the ground Yahweh God made every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
2:10 A river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it was parted, and became the source of four rivers.
2:11 The name of the first is Pishon: it flows through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
2:12 and the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and onyx stone are also there.
2:13 The name of the second river is Gihon. It is the same river that flows through the whole land of Cush.
2:14 The name of the third river is Hiddekel. This is the one which flows in front of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.
2:15 Yahweh God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it.
2:16 Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden;
2:17 but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good…
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Pastor Ray opened with a question about how we read Scripture, and the whole message turned on that question. He worked through three accounts of Jesus healing blind men near Jericho, showed where they appear to conflict, and then asked the congregation to examine the lens they bring to the Bible before they conclude it cannot be trusted.
What was said
The word hermeneutics came up early. Pastor Ray defined it simply as the lens through which you read Scripture, or any piece of writing. He used a Twilight Zone episode as an example: a book called "To Serve Man" looks noble until you find out it is a cookbook. The point was that what you assume going in shapes everything you see coming out.
The three gospel accounts of the healing near Jericho are the test case. Luke places the event as Jesus approaches Jericho. Mark says Jesus is leaving Jericho. Matthew mentions two blind men where Mark names only Bartimaeus. Pastor Ray did not wave these differences away. He explained that there were two Jerichos, old and new, that three eyewitnesses to the same event never tell it identically, and that Matthew's second man does not cancel Mark's Bartimaeus. His conclusion was that all three accounts are true, and the apparent tensions dissolve once you bring a hermeneutic of goodwill to the text rather than a posture of suspicion.
A hermeneutic of goodwill means reading with the working assumption that God is good, true, and unified, and that He intends the text for our benefit. Pastor Ray contrasted this with a Pharisaic hermeneutic, reading Scripture to confirm your own righteousness, and with the posture of a news consumer, kept perpetually angry so someone can sell advertising. He was direct: if you are determined to be upset with God's word, you will find reasons to be.
To illustrate what a hostile hermeneutic looks like in practice, Pastor Ray read aloud an email exchange with a traveler who had asked to stay overnight at the church. The church had offered a hotel room because a children's program was starting that night and they did not know the man. The traveler left angry and wrote a scathing message accusing the church of ignoring the poor. Pastor Ray responded at length, describing the church's actual record of care. The traveler's reply was harsher still. Pastor Ray held it up not to relitigate the exchange but to show how an expectation of rejection can make a genuine offer of help invisible.
The skipped passage, Matthew 19 and Mark 10 on divorce, came next. The Pharisees approached Jesus testing him, not seeking help for struggling marriages. Pastor Ray drew a sharp line between what Moses commanded and what Moses permitted. The certificate of divorce was a concession to hardness of heart, not God's design. God's design, Jesus said, was two becoming one flesh, and what God has joined no person should separate. Pastor Ray was equally clear that divorce is not the unforgivable sin and is not an ongoing condition. It can be forgiven, should be forgiven, and should be laid behind a person at the foot of the cross.
The disciples' reaction, that it would be better not to marry at all, showed how high the standard felt even to the people closest to Jesus. Pastor Ray's answer to them was the same as his answer to the congregation: two soft hearts are the way forward. Hardness of heart and pride are, he said, the same thing. Pharaoh's story is the cautionary tale, a heart that hardens until it becomes impenetrable.
Pastor Ray closed by tying the lens question back to where everyone actually lives. He asked whether anyone in the room has a relationship issue, with another person or with God, where a softer heart would change things. He also closed with Psalm 143 verse 10, praying that God would be like sandpaper on oxidized headlight lenses, buffing out the obscurity so that light can get through clearly.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
Pastor Ray described a 'hermeneutic of goodwill,' the idea of coming to Scripture trusting that God is good and wants to communicate something helpful to us. What has shaped your own default posture when you open the Bible, and where did that come from?
The three Gospel accounts of the healing near Jericho differ in details, and Pastor Ray said those differences don't shake his trust in the text. Have you ever hit a passage or a seeming contradiction that tested your trust in Scripture? How did you work through it?
Speaker 1Good morning, everybody. Hey. Hey. Just checking the mic. Alright.
Speaker 3Good morning. Good morning. What a glorious morning. Hey. Would you stand with me, and and we'll begin by worship.
Here's a good word from Psalm one zero seven to lead us into worship. It's give thanks to the Lord. He's good. His steadfast love endures forever. And then it goes on to say, let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble.
He's good. His love endures forever. He's our great redeemer.
Speaker 1Shall we
Speaker 3sing of it? Amen.
Speaker 2He led me out of the desert, brought me into his streams river of living water, turned my bitter
Speaker 1Y'all can have a seat. I've got a few announcements and we will see together what they are. Alright. There are lots of Bible studies that are going on all the time. Small groups and Bible studies, some meet here, some meet around town, different places.
There's a board in the back or the front, depending on how you look at things, out there in the vestibule that you can see a lot of different studies and the names and the numbers of the people who lead those. The open groups, there are a lot of them out there. If you want to, you can find a study, contact the leader and connect to those. Youth group is happening Monday. No, not Monday.
Youth group is happening. Middle school is happening Sunday, three to five. So that's at this afternoon, three to five here at the church. And high school is Thursday, 06:30 to eight. That is at the TMC, the tribe ministry center on Broadway, of across from a whole grocer near the Farm Bureau office there.
That's where the tribe ministry center is, 06:30 to eight. If you need to know how to get there, call us and we'll get you there. Jackson Hole Men's Alliance is the first Wednesday of each month. That was this path month. That is a great time, guys.
If you're an up early riser, you can get here 06:30 in the morning. It's a good time to eat together, meet together, hang out. Usually, one gal shares testimony or there may be a little sermonette in there, but it was fantastic. Richard shared his testimony last week and it was really good. Awana Club.
Do you wanna say something about that, Carl?
Speaker 3Yep. Yep. Awana is up and running, and tomorrow is Sparks parent night. So parents of Sparks kindergarten through second grade, you're welcome to come and join in and follow the kids through the night and see what a real the real Awana experience is like.
Speaker 1Okay. Fantastic. Sparks parents night tomorrow night, Awana, 05:45. If you wanna know more of what's going on, you can sign up for weekly church announcement emails at first b jackson dot org or just let us know and we'll sign you up. That works.
Am I forgetting something? I'm looking, seeing a hand. The batteries are dead on that if you're asking. Okay. Several of you did on the way in.
We'll figure that out at some point this week. If I don't figure it out by next week, we'll do it during the service. No. We won't do it during the service. Would you stand up?
We're gonna sing together the Lord's Prayer. It's yours.
Speaker 2And earth as in heaven, right here in my heart. Father, let your kingdom come. Father, let your will be done. It's yours. I'm yours.
I'm yours forever and ever. The kingdom is yours. Let's say, father. Oh, father, let your kingdom let your will be done. Under a thousand heaven right here in my heart.
Under a thousand heaven right here
Speaker 3I'm gonna pray with you. Lord Jesus, we thank you for the beauty of this morning and these songs that we're singing. Lord, they have meaning. They have meaning for us. Your kingdom come.
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven right here in our hearts. Thank you, God, for the grace that you're extending in our direction. Always that favor that you're showing in our direction. Prone to wander we are, and we know it. God, would you set our would we set our sights on you to look to you, to enjoy your presence.
In Jesus name, amen.
Speaker 2Healer forever born, savior and shelter
Speaker 3You can have a seat here for a moment. This is the the worship and giving part of the service. I'll invite the ushers to come on forward. We're gonna sing a song of gratitude. From first Thessalonians five, it's rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances.
Why is that? That's God's will for us in Christ Jesus. Before we sing, Ray, would you pray?
Speaker 1God, I thank you for this gathering this morning for having a place to come and just listen, Lord. Listen. Listen to other people agreeing and singing your praises. Listen to other hearts that are crying out for you, for whatever it is that they are hurting and lacking, Lord. I pray that you would feel that.
For Jacob, there was a lady that came this morning and prayed for Russ' nephew, Jacob, who was run over yesterday by his own truck working under it. And he's broken, Lord, physically, absolutely broken. I pray that you'd restore him to to health, that there'd be a testimony of your goodness that you would give him what he needs right now, Lord. For those who are crying out because they need a place to stay, Lord, may you be not just their metaphorical harbor or sanctuary, but that you would be providing them with a place to be and to be a part of what it is that's going on. In Jesus' name, Lord, I I pray that you would be using your body to do in this community what you would have us do, Lord, whatever it is.
And we don't presume to know without being in contact with you. Lord, would you show us by your spirit what you would have us do? May we be doing your will and your way here in this community, but extended to the uttermost parts. In Jesus' name, Lord, we ask that you would take all these offerings that we are giving back a portion of what you've given to us, saying that we trust you. We trust you that you're good and we know it, and we want for you to do your will and your way.
Lord, may it be so. In Jesus name, amen. For children's church downstairs, do not hinder them. Middle school and high school though, there is not a class downstairs for middle school and high school this week. Called both teachers called in sick with something, so you can pray for them.
But middle school and high school up here, children's down there. And today, today we're going to cover something, checking our lenses. Alright. This week, y'all know I work on junk all the time. Right?
I work on old cars and whatnot. And way back when they used to have glass lenses on the headlights, and you never had to worry about those things going yellow or fading or getting to where the light couldn't penetrate through them. But nowadays, they oxidize pretty badly and you can take a little sandpaper and a little bit of goo, a little bit of compound. And there are a lot of different ways. You see it on the Internet, people shining up these lenses and making them where the light can get through them.
Right? And where they don't look so cruddy and ugly and just yuck. I was doing that this week and contemplating lenses and how we and that's the truth. Was sitting there going, man, I wish these things would clean up. And sometimes they just won't clean up.
Those those happen to be irredeemable, the ones I was working on. But I think that we have a chance every once in a while to just buff out our own lenses and see how is it that we are viewing scripture. The word hermeneutics up there. Hermeneutics is the lens through which you see scripture or any other literary piece. Know, when you're looking at it, the one I thought, the example I thought, you remember the Twilight Zone?
It's a spoiler from like fifty something years ago. So there's one called to serve man. Do you remember that one? To Serve Man. And there's a book and it's called To Serve Man.
And I thought, wow, what a noble and lofty good this is, except it was a cookbook. Okay? That's not good. Ruined the whole Twilight Zone for you. It matters.
How you view scripture makes a big difference. We live in a society where we are bombarded with information. And if you take everything that comes at you broadcloth, just as it's presented to you, oh, what a confusing life you would live. Right? You have to test to see what is good.
And so skepticism is very, very common in our society. Doubt is rife in our society. So checking your lenses and seeing how am I viewing what it is that I'm viewing, and how am I taking this in. If you want to be upset about something, you will find something to be upset about. Right?
If you're looking for the good, then maybe you'll find that. Now last week we covered something, and I I will have to say, I myself am not primarily an evangelist. I'm I'm not. I did not even recognize last week was a very great evangelistic opportunity. Really.
I myself am and but a lot of people did respond. Now they called in. The invitation was not an altar call, but people called in and said, want that, which is if if one person says it, that's wonderful, but it was multiple people, which was great. I didn't recognize that because I'm primarily a pastor teacher trying to trying to help people if if they're asking for my advice to try to look for it biblically and bring them back in. Today, I'm more nervous than usual because I've got half as many slides and I want to stop in the middle of the slides and then talk about this hermeneutics, right?
I think that both of the passages, we're covering two different passages. One of them is the passage we covered last week, but it's also from Matthew and Mark. The other one is further back in Matthew and Mark. Luke doesn't mention it. And so it's just a chapter back, but we're gonna go back and pick up one.
That's the only thing that I've skipped. I'm trying to do this in chronological order, and I hit it a few weeks back and I thought this is not the Sunday for that. So we're coming back to it. Alright? Here we are checking our lenses together because hermeneutics matter.
So Harmony of the Gospels, this is the way we've been looking at scripture, allowing it to speak. We covered Luke last week, and we're gonna cover Matthew and Mark today. This is the passage from Luke. Now as Jesus was approaching Jericho, a man who was blind was sitting by the road begging, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. He was approaching Jericho.
Now I mentioned last week, this is an interesting one because of that. They told him that Jesus from Nazareth was passing by. He called out. So it's one guy, and it's as Jesus was approaching Jericho. So we came away from that with this application point.
A couple of y'all also called him and said, thank you for the application points. Tying the bow on at the end really helps me. Sometimes we need to just use the senses we have. He heard that people were passing by. When he heard what was going on, he inquired as to what's going on.
They said, Jesus is coming. He said, son of David, messianic title, have mercy on me. Sometimes we need to just use the some senses and faculties that we have and then call out to God for what we're lacking to be made whole. And that's what happened. So we're looking at Matthew and Mark, and in Mark, we see this.
And then they came to Jericho. Actually, that asterisk means it's a historical presence. And then they come to Jericho. It's a storytelling device. Then they come to Jericho.
And later as he was leaving Jericho, no, uh-oh, Luke said that he was approaching Jericho. And now Mark says they're leaving Jericho. Lies, intrigue. They didn't get their story straight. None of this can be believed.
Let's throw it all out. Old Testament, New Testament, everything. Wait a second. What are you what's your hermeneutic? What is your hermeneutic?
Do you believe Jesus loves me? This I know. Why? For the Bible tells me so. Right?
Do you believe that? Then you have a hermeneutic of goodwill. God is true and good and beautiful. He is unified. Father, son, Holy Spirit forever.
Good, true, beautiful, unified, transcendent. God is these things. Now, if we hit something and it causes us to go, why would he say that? Well, there's a pretty good explanation I mentioned in passing last week. Now Matthew and Mark are both writing to a primarily Jewish audience and have Jewish roots.
Old Luke is a Hellenist. He's a Greek physician. You know? And so there are two different Jerichos. There's Old Jericho that we saw the walls coming tumbling down just north of New Jericho that Herod built.
And so they can be leaving Jericho and approaching Jericho at exactly the same time. Oh, that sounds like you're just going too far there, pastor. Let's keep reading the story. Story says in Mark, and they come to Jericho. And later as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a large crowd, a beggar who was blind named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus.
Bar means son of and Timaeus, so that's a little redundant, it's there. But Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus was sitting by the road. And when he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Amen. Okay.
Many were sternly telling him to be quiet. We saw that in Luke, but he kept on crying out all the more and even louder. Son of David, messianic title, have mercy on me. Now did he know the depth of what son of David meant? Maybe.
We're we're not certain that he knew. I think that it it matters. I think that it makes a difference. He believed him to be the son of David. He'd heard about him maybe from someone who was formerly deaf, maybe from someone who was formerly blind, maybe from somebody we don't know.
Conjecture there. But he's ready to see, Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stopped and said, call him here. Don't stop him. Don't hinder him from coming to me.
Bring him to me. So they called the man who's blind saying to him, take courage and stand up. He's calling for you. And throwing off his cloak, he jumped up and he came to Jesus. That's nice little detail, Mark.
Thank you. And replying to him, Jesus said, what do you want for me to do for you? Just like he said in Luke. And the man who was blind said to him, Raboni, master teacher, I want to regain my sight. Same as in Luke.
And Jesus said to him, go. Your faith has made you well. And immediately, he regained his sight, and he began following him on the road. That's the same story. Right?
What is the point of that story? Sometimes we need to just use the senses we have, then call out to God for what we're lacking to be made whole. So let's read it in Matthew. Now if you read it in Matthew, it says as they were leaving Jericho. Now Matthew most likely was with them, but he's writing objectively one step back.
And as they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed him. That's common, especially since if you think about this, we're just a short time out from the cross, short time out from Passover. The crowds are starting to grow going up the hill from Jericho to Jerusalem, and this large crowd was following Jesus. And two people were who were blind sitting by the road, hearing that Jesus was passing by, cried out, Lord, have mercy on us, son of David. Still a messianic title, but it seems like, where's this guy come where's this other guy come from?
Well, this is Matthew's report. This is what he says. What is our hermeneutic? Are we looking at it and going, cannot be believed. Doesn't match the smell test.
I know better than the just believe stuffed broadcloth. I'm gonna reject this. Which one are you gonna reject? You're reject Matthew? You reject Mark?
Just because two people were there doesn't mean one of them couldn't have been crying out. Right? Let's keep going. As two people who were blind sitting by the road here and that Jesus was passing by, cried out, Lord, have mercy on us, son of David. But the crowd sternly warned them.
It's exactly the same. Right? To be quiet, and yet they cried out all the more. Lord, son of David, have mercy on us. And Jesus stopped and called them and said, what do you want for me to do for you?
Same exact verbiage, plural, you. They said to him, Lord, we want our eyes to be opened and moved with compassion. Jesus touched their eyes. It tells how in this one. And immediately, they regained their sight and followed him.
So what's the point of that story? Sometimes, we need to just use the senses we have, then call out to God for what we are lacking to be made whole. I like that it's a couple of people because it's an interesting thing. We know blind Bartimaeus. Well, Bartimaeus is only named in Mark.
Luke mentions this episode at the same point. Matthew mentions it at the same point. Sometimes when you think see things that seem to conflict, the stories are different enough you go, how could that have been? Happened twice, two different places. That makes sense.
This the point of the story here is this. And I'm not saying disregarded or one of them is not true. I'm saying all of them are true. I asked three oh, is there a policeman in the house? There is.
I know that there is one. Eyewitness testimony. Have you ever had a traffic traffic accident described exactly the same way by three different witnesses? Not even close. Right?
It's three different people moved by the spirit to share what it was that happened. I believe there were two guys. I believe one of them was named Bartimaeus. I believe they're between the Jerichos because I have a hermeneutic of goodwill. And I don't believe that God is lying to me.
I don't believe that Matthew is lying to me. I don't believe that Mark is lying to me. I don't believe that Luke is lying to me. I think that all of them are telling their story as moved by the spirit. And you know what?
God is able to use that if we will humble ourselves before the text, and it will allow for transformation in our lives. So what is my hermeneutic? I've mentioned it 12 times. I have a hermeneutic of goodwill. When I'm reading this, I am reading this with the idea that God wants to communicate himself to me and to you, I mean, in this job, obviously.
But my hermeneutic when I'm reading scripture is not one where I get to say, how am I so holy Lord? Let me count the ways. That is a pharisaic hermeneutic. I want to know that I'm righteous, and if I'm righteous, that means there are a lot of people who are not righteous. We hear that story of the tax collector and the Pharisee that Jesus tells.
We see it in Zacchaeus. I've covered that. We see Jesus presenting what is necessary for the rich young ruler, and he goes away sad, untransformed. Right? And he says that you have to accept this like a child.
Children trust. You know what? Sometimes children are taken advantage of because they trust, but children trust. And if we are to receive the kingdom of heaven, we have to receive it like a child. It has to be trusting.
And so hermeneutic of goodwill is that God is good, that he is true, that he is beautiful and to be desired, and he wants to bring us into that unity. It's transcendent and good. So what is my hermeneutic? It's a hermeneutic of goodwill. I believe that what he communicates, he does so in order to help me.
I believe he does it to help us collectively, and I believe that we need to see things in that way. We don't we don't have to read things with the same level that we watch the news. Okay? When we watch the news, there's an agenda there. I don't care if you think there's an agenda there or not.
There's an agenda there. They're selling soap. Okay? They want as many people watching as they possibly can get watching. And you know how you get people to watch?
Make them angry. Keep them angry. Let's read an email. Hello, pastor Ray. My name is blah.
God help me. I can't do it. I'm gonna be very clear with you. Your church let me down. Your leadership is gross to me.
There's no excuse for trimming your efforts to ensure that others are taken care of. I understand the Western church is capitalist and caters to clean people and tidy lives who pay off to the leadership. Your church is no different than so many other churches I've come across and asked to stay. We have people stay here all the time, by the way. We offer a room for the night.
And this guy was expecting us to say no and be ugly, and that's what he went away with. And it broke the hearts of everybody here. You and your team are not demonstrating God's will by protecting some kingdom you built all by yourself. It's a shame you're now included in the group of churches that curse themselves along my travels from my earnest and pure request to just safely stay overnight. I hope that all of your offerings are made and all the fake smiles are behead.
You remember that there was someone lowly that you overlooked. Not you personally. I never met the guy. Sadly, I write this email and I hope you think about it often. I'm closing and I bring to mind the mission statement posted on your website.
With all we are loving God and loving people through Christ. I guess if the effort I saw yesterday is all you are then surely y'all need a little more grace or you just take that statement off the website because it's not true. Is that heartbreaking? It is for me. It's absolutely heartbreaking.
And so I said, hey. I'm sorry that that was your experience, but perhaps when you came in, what you were expecting was for us to say no. We offered a hotel room here for the night because we had a kids program starting that night, and we don't know you. And we're doing our best to protect sixty, seventy kids that show up and 40 volunteers because we don't know you. We leave the doors open.
I passed along the word that you're welcome to use the bathroom in the kitchen for that night and and move along. The two guys that you talked to are servants of God. Frankly, I I have to say, you don't have any idea what this church, this is my response, has been through to advocate for the underprivileged. Your scathing review of us shows that. You don't you don't know how much we really do help the homeless population.
We don't know you don't know how much we help those with mental illness. You don't know how much we help immigrants. You don't have any idea how much we help addicts. You have no idea how many. We're open to helping passers by.
You don't know how many nights in hotels, how many gas cards for the journey, safe passage from abusive relationships, bus tickets upon request, or other items of local benevolence God's family here provides for folks who are having a hard time. You must realize that that you're speaking from ignorance. You had one interaction, and I think it was because you expected us to say no that you took away a no. I don't doubt you've had bad experiences at churches. I have too.
Both of those guys you spoke to yesterday were distraught by the way you reacted. We're accustomed to helping people in need every single literally, every single day. But you're you immediately took offense and you you went away angry enough to write. You've cast aspersions on their character and mine. As a church, standard answer is yes.
Unless there's a really compelling reason to say no, we say yes and we offered because of that. We routinely take care of people, car repairs, bike repairs, motorcycle repairs. I often provide vehicles to people that don't have them. If you want to be ticked off with the church, you're gonna be. If you wanna be ticked off with God, you're gonna be.
If you wanna be upset about God's word, you're gonna be. If you are looking into it and saying, Lord, in humility, I want you to show me what is wrong with me, and then I want for you to fix it. He will. Okay? I want for you to provide, Lord, all I want is to be made right with you.
Close with prayer. I pray God's spirit will lead you into understanding. I pray he'll even lead you into understanding how you might have misunderstood what was happening and jump to a conclusion, but I'll keep on praying for you. Response. Save the excuses.
You're obviously listening to the evil one. So so are those other guys. You never offered me anything. By your response, I can tell evil has gripped you. I won't pray for you because I'm not two faced, and I'll say exactly what you ought to hear.
You know you're wrong. Don't ever contact me again with that nonsense. You're a sorry excuse to God's service. Keep up your programs and all you brag about. Fill your time pacifying the fact that you're also a sad man who makes excuses.
Pathetic. I don't get a lot of those, but that is very hurtful, very hard. We really do want to do good. We really do. And sometimes because we're humans, we don't.
We sometimes we and but both of the guys that he talked to came to me before and said, I'm heartbroken over what happened. And you know what? God is heartbroken over what happens when he means something for our good and shares it with us just so here. Loving exhortation, admonition, rebuke sometimes. Here it is right here.
It will go well with you if you'll humble yourself before the text and allow for its transformation. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is available and will transform your life if you'll let it. But if you want to be upset, you're going to be upset. So this is the passage that I skipped a couple weeks ago, a few weeks ago, four or five weeks ago now. So we hit after this, we hit, let the children come to me.
After that, we hit the rich young ruler. After that, it was last week. Matthew 19, Mark 10 is right here. When Jesus Jesus had finished his words, he left Galilee, came into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. So he's in Perea.
Told you he's coming back from Perea when we got to last week. Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. Does he is he looking out for people? So far, he's healing people. And there are crowds, and it's not easy to have a crowd following you all the time, but he's gracious and good to them.
Setting out from there, Jesus went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan crowds gathered to him again, and he was accustomed. Once more, he began to teach them. So healing is emphasized in Matthew, teaching emphasized in Mark. And some Pharisees came to Jesus testing him. What's their hermeneutic?
Is it one of goodwill? Testing it. That is the the doubt of a skeptic or beyond that. It might just not be the doubt of a skeptic. It might be somebody who's attempting to tear someone down, nitpicking, naysaying, aggravating, testing him.
Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all? What do you say? I can't wait to cancel this guy. Some Pharisees came up to Jesus, testing him, and began questioning whether it's lawful for a man to divorce his wife. Testing him.
The hermeneutic was not one of goodwill. It wasn't a Pharisee that came forward and said, my wife and I are struggling. We're struggling, and I don't know how to fix it. That that's not what was said. They were testing him.
And so he answered and said to them, what did Moses command? Okay. You're the lawyers. Go back to the law. What does it say?
And they said, Moses permitted. What does he command and what is permitted? That's two different things. Did you notice? What did Moses command you?
And they said, well, Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send his wife away. That's he said, just gotta do the paperwork. As long as you do the paperwork, it's fine. But Jesus said to them, because of your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment. It's it's your heart not being soft is the issue.
And there has to be a way to go forward. There has to be. And so God in his mercy allows for a concession. So Matthew says, and he answered them, have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female? Humility before the text.
Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female and said, for this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall be come one flesh. So they're no longer two, but they're one. Therefore, what God has joined together, no person is to separate. Hey, that's not just in weddings. That's actually in the Bible.
God has made these two to literally fit together, figuratively fit together. Be together and be one. And so if God has made it that way, let's don't be separating it because that in itself is not humility before God or humility before the text. That is saying we know better than you. So they said to him, why then did Moses command her to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?
Why does Moses say that then? What's the hermeneutic? It's not one of goodwill. It's not one of goodwill. He said to him, it's because of your hardness of heart.
And he says your. It's because of your hardness of heart. This was Moses was a long time back. But he's saying it's because you're you're doing it again. Pharisees, y'all are you're doing it again.
Because of your hardness of heart, Moses permitted you to divorce your wives. But from the beginning, it was not this way. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, he does that in there, and marries another woman, commits adultery. There's something there, and I've heard this preached a 100,000 times. And I think that Jesus' intent was to say, listen, examine yourself.
Examine how it is that you receive what was written. Do you receive it for your good, or do you try to see what you can get away with? Commandment and permitted is a big difference. Yes. It is allowable, but it's not the best.
It's also not the unforgivable sin. Let me just say that right there. And it's not an ongoing sin that just keeps on going forever and ever. It is one that can be forgiven, should be forgiven, is one that should be behind you. If if you've gone through it, it should be behind you.
Laid at the foot of the cross, he throws it in the sea of forgetfulness, remembers it no more. Humility before God is necessary. Hardness of heart is the same thing as pride, to say, I know better. Jesus said, because of your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, God created the male and female.
For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and the two shall become one flesh. And so they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no person is to separate, not even one of you. The disciples said to him, if the relationship with the man with his wife is like this, it's better not to marry. This is the disciples.
These are not the Pharisees. This is behind closed doors. They're like, man, that's a high standard, Jesus. There's no way out. He said, hearts are the way forward.
Two soft hearts is the way forward. If the relationship of a man with his wife is like this, it's better not to marry. Jesus said, not all men accept this statement, but only those whom it has been given. And then the house of disciples again began questioning about them. He said to them, whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her.
And if she divorces her husband and marries another, she's committing adultery. Matthew, for the there are eunuchs who are born that way from their mother's womb. And then there are eunuchs who are made that way by people, servants. We see one of them in Acts where there's this eunuch that comes to Christ and is baptized. There are eunuchs who are made this way by other people as servants, and there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.
The one who's able to accept this, let him accept it. You know, in the beginning, it says in Genesis, and God created this, and it was good. And God created this, and it was good. And God created this, and it was good. You know the first place where it says something was not good?
It was not good for a man to be alone. And so it is the way that God has made to go forward, but there are other people who are called to a life of singleness, and that's okay. For the one who's able to accept it, let them accept it. What is your hermeneutic? I'm trying to throw a slide in at the end that kind of ties it all up with a bow.
This is a messy, sloppy life that we live, and God allows for us a way forward. Forgiveness is the way forward. I can tell you that. Forgiveness is the way forward. Forgiveness for you from God, that's your way forward.
Forgiveness from for you from God allows you to forgive other people and to not go forward just bitter and seething like that letter where he's so angry that the next interaction is tainted by it. Right? Are you trusting that God loves you? He does. He does.
Are you trusting that God loves you? Now he's made a way. Like I said, I'm not primarily an evangelist. I'm not primarily an apologist either. I'm primarily a pastor teacher, and what I see is hearts that bump up against guardrails, if there are guardrails.
Right? And if there aren't guardrails, they go over the cliff and need rescue. And so are you trusting that God loves you? Because he does. He has communicated that he does.
If you take a hermeneutic of goodwill, he wants my good. Jesus loves me. This I know for the Bible tells me so. I am weak, but he is strong. He's promised me the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead.
That's pretty strong. If I will just humbly submit. Are you trusting that he can and he will transform, I say, our lives. It's not just one blind Bartmead. It's two people.
Right? Can we say that he will transform our lives together if we will allow it? If we'll humble ourselves before him and his loving word, I could say his loving church. Other believers coming together, trusting that God intends our good for his glory. Are our hearts soft before God?
And if so, can we take a message that is as hard as the the teaching on divorce right there, that is as difficult? Can we take that and go, this is for my good. God help me to maintain a soft heart rather than being like Pharaoh. Pharaoh hardened his heart. Pharaoh hardened his heart.
Pharaoh hardened his heart. People jump on. God hardened his heart. God hardened his heart after he made it impenetrable hardening his heart. Do you have a relationship issue right now between people that a soft heart would help?
Do you have a relationship issue between you and God where you're saying, Lord, I don't care what it says. This is the way I feel, and this is what I want. And he says, I love you, and I'll be here when you get back. I think that's the last slide. That's my closing.
I'm obviously not an evangelist. I think that's the last slide. Alright. The altar is always open. Always, always, always.
And I'm around. Carl's around. Diane and Mick in the office are around. And Ray Espinoza is around. And so we would love to talk to you about Jesus.
We'd love to talk to you about what your particular issue is. But we're gonna try our best to do it with scripture, and we're gonna try our best to do it with the attitude of one soft heart ministering to another soft heart. God, I pray for the fellow who wrote that letter. I pray that you would break through his expectations with overflowing love and that his testimony would be one of transformation. And I pray for my hardness of heart.
Forgive me, Lord. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Psalms, one forty three ten.
Psalm one forty three verse 10 says this, Lord, teach me to do your will for you are my God. May your good spirit lead me on level ground. Lord, help us. Help us to to be clear lenses through which light can shine. Lord, would you buff out all of the oxidation and all of the obscurity?
Would you buff it out? Would you do it by your word, Lord? That's the sandpaper that we need. Would you do it, Lord, and restore us to brilliance, to your brilliance. Restore us.
Allow us to be a lens through which other people can see clearly who you are. May you soften our hearts and deal with our stiff necks when necessary. In Jesus' name, Lord, would you do your will and your way in our hearts and among us. Amen.
