Matins Devotion: Monday, June 2
Every now and then, I hear people talk about how they don’t go to church anymore because they were hurt by people in the church. They used to go but then people at their congregation were cruel and judgmental. They wanted to belong, but they were treated like outcasts, told they weren’t good enough, made to feel small and worthless. Now sometimes these claims are true. There are people who have been legitimately abused and horrifically mistreated. And sometimes these are just slanderous lies from people who wanted to find any excuse they could to stop going after they were rightly rebuked for their sins.
But wherever one falls on the spectrum, the solution to the problem is the same. You just have to keep crying out. That’s what we see in this blind beggar who hears that Jesus is passing by, the man Mark’s Gospel identifies by the name Bartimaeus. Bartimaeus is, in a sense, hurt by the church. He’s rebuked by those following Jesus simply because he’s doing what Christians should do. He’s crying out for mercy. And yet, what does Bartimaeus do? He refuses to shut up. He cries out for healing regardless of whether anyone else likes it.
Be like Bartimaeus. If you have been legitimately hurt by those who were supposed to love you and lead you for Jesus, don’t quit crying out. Keep going to church. Keep receiving the sacraments. If the forgiving blood of Jesus is your eternal possession, and it is, then the ears of Jesus are eternally open to your cries, no matter how much twisted sinners may try to silence you.
And if you’re blaming others for your lack of interest in hearing the word, get over yourself. Quit playing the victim. Run to the One who was a victim and a victor upon the cross. Don’t blame others for your own unbelief. You can’t transfer your guilt onto someone else like that. So run to the only One upon whose head your sins could be transferred, the One who took the punishment for your sins, the One who endured them all upon the cross to win eternal life for you.
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