LISTEN!
Mark 10:46-52
Sunday, July 8th, 2007
Pastor Bill

Now I know I’m one of the few people that do this (I’m trying to break the habit), I’m talking about this – You know how someone walks towards you and they ask, how’s it going? And then they just keep walking on, never really stopping to find out how you are really doing. Why do they even bother to ask?

When I read scripture, I often like to take myself back to the days when the passage was written. I imagine what the sights, the sounds, the smells, even the texture of the surroundings and what they must have been like. So in this passage, the story of Bartimaeus, meaning the son of Timaeus, I put myself in his sandals for a moment.

I am an outcast because I cannot see. Now bear in mind that in those days, the people of Israel were absolute nothings. The country was governed under the Roman Empire. Only 3 percent of the population ruled the land, they had everything. This was the Roman hierarchy, and they took everything from the remaining 97% of the population. Imagine, 97 out of every 100 people toiled under horrific conditions, to support Caesar. Now because I am blind and cannot see, I am unable to support a family, let alone myself. So I have been shunned by my own people. I’m a reject! a loser! I’m lower than the scum at the bottom of a cesspool. I’m even lower than a kid in boot camp!

As you know, when you lose one sense, your other senses become sharper. So I have a sharp sense of smell. The stench of my own sweat mixed with weeks of dirt constantly wafts up into my nostrils, reminding me that I am too poor to bath, and I never really learned how. Dry, arid air mixed with sand and dirt dries out my sinuses. And because I’m homeless, I live outside in the arid countryside most of the time. I suffer from many nosebleeds and sinus infections.

I can hear extremely well. Right now I hear the sound of many feet shuffling up the road. Sandals scrape and kick pebbles and rocks, disturbing the air and adding more dust to it. There is much talk, the crowd seems so care free and happy, and I wonder, “What is there to be joyful about?” But there is someone with them, I can here them call out his name. It is Jesus, that rabbi that I have heard many a traveler talk about as they pass along this road that I work as a paltry vagabond. From what I have learned, he must be more than just an ordinary rabbi. I think that perhaps he is the one that the prophets of long ago said would save us. I wonder if he can save even me. I wonder if he can give me sight. Something, I don’t know what, is telling me that he can. For some inexplicable reason, even after all these years of constant turmoil I believe he can save me! And so, I call out his precious name. “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

As usual, I am told to be silent, they always laugh at me and insult me. They try to hold me back from the Son of Man, the Messiah, my Lord and Savior. I’m tired of it, I feel that this is my last chance, so God gives me the strength to shout louder. Suddenly, Jesus does something no one has ever done before. He stops, stands still and he LISTENS… to me. Then Jesus does something even more extraordinary, he asks me what I want him to do for me. You can only imagine my sense of utter amazement. The King of Kings actually cares enough about me to LISTEN.

An interview with Dr. James Groopman (this can be found on the NPR website)

“Why do you think that doctors would be wrong that often?

Well, you know, it's very hard to be a doctor. We're working under tremendous time pressure, especially in the current medical system. But the reasons we are wrong are not related to technical mistakes, like someone putting the wrong name on an X-ray or mixing up a blood specimen in the lab. Nor is it really ignorance about what the actual disease is. We make misdiagnosesbecause we make errors in thinking.

What are errors in thinking...

We use shortcuts. Most doctors, within the first 18 seconds of seeing a patient, will interrupt him telling his story and also generate an idea in his mind [of] what's wrong. And too often, we make what's called an anchoring mistake — we fix on that snap judgment.”

In his book, How Doctors Think, Dr. Jerome Groopman reports the following story as disclosed by another doctor.

Ann Dodge had been sick for the past fifteen years. She had been to at least 30 different doctors. She had been losing so much weight that she only weighed 80 pounds. She had been diagnosed with anorexia nervosa with bulimia, so she had also spent quite a bit of time in at least three mental hospitals. Now she had irritable bowel syndrome to add to here multiple health problems. Her stomach always felt as if it were tied in knots, she continued to lose weight. Doctors were beginning to think that she was going to starve to death if he didn’t get on a strict diet. So was told to eat mass quantities of carbohydrates like pasta bread and cereals. She only got worse, and now she constantly vomited. Her fiancé finally insisted that she see one more doctor.

Ann walked into Dr. Falchek’s office, and right from the get go he seemed different from other doctors to Ann. He looked her in the eyes, steadied her elbow and walked her to a chair across from his desk. And then he did something that none of the other doctors had ever done before. Instead of looking at her twelve- inch mountain of health records, he pushed them aside and asked her what had been going on with her life… and he LISTENED. He not only listened to her words, but he listened to her emotions, he watched her behavior, he was obviously interested in what she had to say. I am happy to report that Dr. Falchuk did indeed determine a proper diagnosis fo Anne. Evidently she had celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder, in essence an allergy to gluten, a primary component of many grains.

The point of this story is that because Dr. Falchuk took the time to really listen to Anne, he was able to correctly diagnose her, thus saving her life. But he didn’t just hear her words; he paid attention to the “textures of her life,” kind of like studying the textures of a text in the Bible.

In their book, For Men Only, a Straightforward guide to the Inner Lives of Women, which is a follow up to the national best seller, For Men Only, the authors through careful studies and thorough interviews suggest to men that LISTENING to their wives or girlfriends is crucial to a successful relationship. Following is a common scenario:

1. She seems to need a listening ear.

2. You care, so you say “What’s up?”

3. She reveals what’s bugging her.

4. You care, so you try to help.

5. She reacts with, “Obviously, you don’t care!”

The point is this, “she just wants you to LISTEN! Now is not the time to fix anything, she wants you to focus on her feelings, not the problem.”1Isn’t it funny how we all have this natural tendency to fix another person’s problems, so we concentrate so thoroughly on the solution, that we fail to understand the needs of the person or persons we are trying to lend a hand to, so in the end we often fall short helping them.

Of course, how can we listen to people, if we do not listen to God? And how can we listen to God, if we do not listen to people? God asks us to be still and listen to God. But do we do that? How many times have we prayed to God, expecting God to work out the results as we want? All too often, we have it all figured out, and if we don’t get what we ask God for, we believe God has not listened to us. But that’s not really listening to God is it?

Take a moment, be still and read Psalm 46. Like Jesus, this Psalm calls people to make a decision. That is, it invites its HEARERS to enter the reign of God, to live in dependence upon God, to find ultimate security in God rather than in self or in any human system or possessions. But if we do not listen to our brothers and sisters.. how can we show them that we are serving a God that LISTENS?

1Shaunti and Jeff Feldhahn, For Men Only, a Straightforward Guide to the Inner Lives of Women, ( Atlanta, Multnomah Publishers, 2006), 102-104. I would recommend this book to any man in a relationship, likewise, there is one for women entitled, For Women Only. Please let my beautiful wife, Dawn know that I recommended it.