Mark 10:46~52 - “Your faith has healed you”

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“What is the first...(in your faith)?”

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-Reformation Week - October 2001

- About ‘precondition of faith - the faith of one’s own is the first condition of salvation’ in Mark 10:46~52

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Mark 10:46~52
46 Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus), was sitting by the roadside begging. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" 48 Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" 49 Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." So they called to the blind man, "Cheer up! On your feet! He's calling you." 50 Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. 51 "What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked him. The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see." 52 "Go," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.
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Against the selling of indulgences by Pope Leo X October 31 1517, Martin Luther, who was then the mere monk, posted 95 revolutionary theses on the gate of the Wittenberg University castle chapel. We call this the beginning of the Reformation.

The medieval society of feudalism in Europe didn’t have power concentrated to kings. Earthly powers didn’t have a unity but was in divided pieces against one another. While, the Catholic Church was in a unified system of power all over Europe. This network was not only religious but also political.

The Catholic Church was universal above regions and nations all throughout Europe, forming a unified system of trans-state and trans-nation.

By the time of highest influence of the Catholic Church, 1/4~1/3 of the whole Europe belonged to churches and its religious houses. The Pope even had the authority to appoint or sanction the kings of earthly states.

Emperors and kings and feudal lords collected taxes away from peasants upon every pretext as if by force, while Catholic churches too collected church tax, tithes and others as if by squeeze. As this situation was outside the church, the situation inside the church too had a big problem of its own.

The first characteristic of Catholic Church service in the Middle Ages is, they led service terms in Latin. It was the ages in which Common members of church had to be content with ‘just seeing instead of hearing sermons.’ You can easily understand if you imagine yourself listening to a foreign-language-speaking priest’s sermon without an interpreter.

The second is the service rite in which they worship God, adore the Christ and the most adore the Holy Mother. Even now, the Catholic has the prayers said by the name of Mary go abreast of the prayers said by the name of saints.

The third is the idea that sins are forgiven by good deeds. The saying that sins are forgiven by good deeds is from the ‘doctrine of supererogation.’ This doctrine says Jesus and Mary not only have supererogation through good deeds but also so-called saints have big supererogation, and that this virtue not only saves oneself who did good deeds but also he can impart it to others. (See 1 Corinthians 3:10~15)

Under the advocacy by the Pope that it is available to draw off part of saints’ supererogation to exempt common believers from sins, indulgences began to be given to the soldiers of the Crusade and charitable persons.

Because, since already back in 9th century, there had been the institution that the soldiers who died in the war with unbelievers were exempted from purgatorial punishment through confession before death, the issue of indulgences spread more widely.

The indulgence doctrine that was improper from the beginning began to fall from grace according as the Papal court use it to supplement its financial deficiency. People who participated in the war bought indulgences with money to be forgiven. Indulgences given to persons who pilgrimed to Rome were bought with money. And later, even indulgences for the dead were brought about.

This way, the Catholic in the Dark Ages got out of a true nature of Christianity into corruption and depravity, like ‘religion without criticism,’ ‘idolized God,’ and ‘the Bible turned into a magic spell’ under the absolute power of the Papal court.

To take a count of depravity (not present but 500~700 ago),

1) Pope John XXII accelerated depravity of Catholic doctrines by collecting various kinds of taxes and selling indulgences.

2) Pope Alexander VI condemned Savonarola who opposed the institutionalizing of concubinage as unorthodox and burned him at the stake.

3) Pope Leo X was a gambler who enjoyed hunting and entertainment.

4) The Papal court kept itself by selling various kinds of holy orders and imposing heavy taxes.

5) As clergymen fell lowest in educational level, so Catholic churches leaned toward ignorance and stupidity.

At the time, an enormous amount of money was needed to extend Catholic churches of the Papal court, especially the Saint Peter’s Cathedral. For this money, indulgences were used.

It was the ‘Fugger’ family that was allowed to assume exclusive charge of selling indulgences in Germany. 1/3 of sold indulgences’ sum was the share of sellers. In such situation, they were so preoccupied with selling theirs to any amount, deceiving ignorant folks into buying indulgences in any faithless or unbiblical words by any means hook or crook.

For example, “See, here is an indulgence. This single sheet can pardon your sin and your parents’ as well. Don’t you hear the groaning and suffering sounds in the burning fire your parents are making? ‘Dear child, we gave birth to you. We had raised you with great efforts. We are in this burning fire. While, are you there living in comfortableness? Please let us live. Please come rescue us. Why don’t you buy the indulgence and let us get out of here, right now?’ Don’t you hear them crying and screaming? Are you a beast?! Are you willing to turn your face away from your own parents?” It was this way of selling. Then, how harassed and deceived would the ignorant people in those days have been?

Where theology is wrong, there could any touching sermon foster evildoing. Indulgence theology was misled as if to be the passport to Heaven. Such misdoing was being implemented under approval of the Pope.

As Christianity run downhill to corruption, the clamor for correction was more and more heightened among even priests. Since already before the Reformation, John Wycliffe who was a court priest in England, Jan Hus who was up to president of the Prague University the capital city of Bohemia, Savonarola in Italy who was an administrative official at Florence after practicing religious austerities in a Dominican monastery and many other reformers anonymous had been treated as heresy because they shouted ‘Only the bible is the only standard of faith.’

Driven as heretics, their total property was confiscated, and they were even burned alive at the stake, while they shouted for ‘the authority of the Bible’ against the Roman Catholic. At long last, Luther posting 95 revolutionary theses on the gate of the Wittenberg University castle chapel October 31 1517 sparked off the Reformation.

It was hard for common people to read as Martin Luther’s theses were in difficult Latin language at first. But a lot of people who had discontent towards already as corrupt religious circles as could be translated Luther’s theses into easy German to be readable by common people and passed them around, which instantly led to a lot more people’s responsive sympathy. At length, the bloody war of the Reformation began. (Rampancy of a religious war and the pest took 1/3 away from European population for a single century. So much, one should keep in mind the Reformation was some campaign of radical reform that brought blood.)

As years passed by, the movement requesting the Catholic to reform which was triggered by the 95 theses of a mere monk Luther diffused into more and more religious branches of the whole Europe. The Reformation movement divided into denominations of Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, English Reformist, Anabaptist, etc., according to how they viewed the Bible and sacramental ceremonies. But the common points among these denominations and leaders were

1) God’s Absolute Sovereignty (Sola Gratia)

2) Bible’s Absolute Sovereignty (Sola Scriptura)

3) Justification by Faith Alone (Sola Fidei)

4) Every Believer’s Priesthood (Missionarihood of All Believers).

Still now, the reformist churches who have carried on the tradition of the Reformation adopt ‘God’s Absolute Sovereignty, Bible’s Absolute Sovereignty, Justification by Faith Alone, Every Believer’s Missionarihood’ which religious reformists originally shouted as identity of their churches.

Most Korean churches too reveal their identities, expressing “they adopt reformistism.” Meanwhile, Every believer’s Priesthood is very difficult to settle down within the church where Confucianism is deep in their Korean tradition (See 1 Peter 2:5,9).

We should recognize the ‘diversity’ of duty at 1 Corinthians Chapter 12, 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy and the like are not the discrimination of class but they are enumeration of ‘order’ for the keeping of church community. ‘Every human being being equal in front of God’ is a fundamental sprit underlying in constitutions of constitutional democracies.

In old times, discrimination in race, sex and status was acknowledged. King, aristocrats and down to self-employed persons were classified as free citizens. (At the time of the reformation, slaves and free citizens were clearly divided. The equality cried out here was only applied to free citizens. ‘Gentleman’ in England wasn’t titled to free citizens until the Bourgeois Revolution in 17th 18th century later than the Reformation. As to freedom and equality mentioned last centuries, see the video of ‘Amistad’ for reference.) As time went by, the status broadened more down to peasants, slaves and women, developing the concept of equality modern times.

As in the bible, there are some characters for whom God’s power is specially endowed and some places where prayers are powerfully answered. However, there are occasions where some worldly believers ignorantly apply the knowledge of prayers and power which prevails in shamanism or unidentified temples to the church inside, saying ‘somebody or some place is mysterious,’ ‘is miraculous,’ ‘is masterful,’ ‘is efficacious,’ ‘is productive,’ etc.

Rather than God chooses special power according to place, God taught in the Bible is ‘omnipresent’ God who is everywhere, and consoling and working God on occasions where each of His people looks for Him sincerely in each of their own lives (See Isaiah 55:6∼7, Isaiah 59:1, Isaiah 61:1, Matthew 23, Mark 28:20), namely, God who is working equally without discrimination for every persons of His own.

There is no other condition. The spirit of repentance in the heart of sorrowfulness and earnestness towards every persons apart from whether high or low of status, in other words, ‘faith alone’ is the command of ‘Know God’ that the Bible speaks.

If one links the above words down to the saying “...by distinguished service of Jesus’ precious blood on the cross, a Christian has gotten out of his status of sinner,” of which a Christians might hear numerous times ears off, each and every human being is a precious being who can equally get near in front of God, regardless of any status of condition such as gender man or woman, age young or old, wealth rich or poor, rank high or low and appearance goodlooking or ugly. And this is the fundamental spirit of ‘Every Believer’s Priesthood.’

Jesus came down on the earth to do God’s work. As means to imply he is the Messiah whom Israelites had so earnestly waited for, he demonstrated numerous wonders and miracles to his disciples. In this process, we hear Peters confessing, “You are the Christ, and the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16, Also see Mark 8:27~30, Luke 9:19~21).

Healing stories are extraordinarily many, among marvels bestowed by Jesus and afterwards his disciples. To put it another way, it means so many people were not rich enough to see a doctor in their diseases and troublesomeness in those times. When those helpless, ill and disabled persons were healed by Jesus or Jesus’ disciples, the most frequently used words are “Your faith has healed you,” or “He or she has the faith that deserves salvation.”

Modern times, numerous people try to be healed upon the power of God. It is his or her faith that is the most important at this time.

It is not a prayer retreat famous for its productiveness, not a minister’s fingertips wellknown for its power, either.
But it is one’s own faith alone.

There are many things that cannot be helped, even if man does one’s best.

So is prayer. I saw many cases in which things aren’t yet accomplished, for all the efforts one endeavored and prayed. Out of grace, pity, compassion and generosity, God commiserates with us in His freedom. His power touches a person. And an earnest request for such opportunity is the fundamental prayer for healing.

The most important words in today’s text Mark 10:46~52 as well are 10:50 ‘Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus’ and 10:52 ‘Your faith has healed you.’ When Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jericho, a blind man Bartimaeus sitting by the roadside hears Jesus of Nazareth passing by and cries out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Yet instead of helping the pitiable blind, the disciples interfere, “scolding at him and saying ‘Be quiet’.” See 48, however, the blind man Bartimaeus appeals for help, ‘raising his voice more loudly.’

Setting an aim and praying, there should be many obstacles in front of us. Stopping on the way while we pray – after setting a period – is also an obstacle to oneself.

Look at the blind beggar!

Chapter 50 expresses, ‘the man of blind eyes jumped to his feet and came to Jesus’ throwing even his cloak (a whole property to him and a big value at the time) aside. This was the faith in Jesus which the blind man had. In spite of being blind the whole life, he jumped to the feet and came to Jesus. To this action of a blind man Bartimaeus, Jesus responded, ‘Your faith has healed you.’

This text tries to describe Bartimaeus’ faithfulness deeply, rather than the miracle itself that happened.

The blind man’s best action for the cure of his disease rather than accounting for his fate could finally change his fate. Bartimaeus who thought his status of living the whole life as a blind beggar to be his fate had his fate changed by the strong faith ‘Only Jesus of Nazareth who is a descendant of David can help him.’

Now I will wrap up.

Where Bartimaeus shouted, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’, there was obstacles to stand in the way. Among the obstacles to praying when we pray, too, there are inwardly such as philosophy, reasoning, skepticism and unbelief, and outwardly such as disability to come close to Jesus because of our private situation outwardly. Such factors have always been. However, only to a person who believed the gospel Jesus taught with all one’s sincerest heart, Jesus responded to the prayer saying, ‘Your faith has healed you,’ or ‘I see he has faith enough to be healed.’

One’s own faith is the first condition of salvation.
The salvation here indicates being released from not only soul but also from desperate bodily situation. Refer to Luke 1:46~55, Luke 4:16~21, Isaiah 61:1~3.
Opinion of spiritual salvation is a Bible interpretation much later generation gave.

Lose and absorb yourself in the middle of God’s mercy and compassion, and hang uttermost into it. Healing of a disease on the earth has no 100% sure answer. For all the efforts such as prescription and treatment in the most acknowledged hospitals, patients’ blood-and-tears endeavors, natural therapy emphasizing physical revival of the body along with a good diet, prayer with hands laid on head which is often done in the church, resolution prayer, prayer in unison, etc., only a limited number of people are in fact cured of diseases.

This is reality and the situation at present.

Pease remember, among a lot number of beggars and blind men, only Bartimaeus and few persons experienced salvation at the time of Jesus.

You and me are Christians.

I am not telling people to be sure of their diseases are healed by praying, Rather, I am telling you to embrace an opportunity so that God’s grace may bring a miraculous healing, while you are hanging into God’s compassion, grace, mercy, goodness and freedom (See John 5:2~9). Also, please be yourself who embrace the opportunity of God’s answer, ‘Your faith has healed you!’.

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Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1)

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