Cries for God’s Wholeness

In Mark 10, Bartimaeus didn’t stop crying out for help when he heard Jesus was nearby even though others tried to “shush” him. Jesus said, “Your faith has made you well.”

What do you think was the faith of Bartimaeus? How did it make him well? And what happens when we deal with illnesses or other difficulties that Jesus cannot make well?

The word used here for “made well” is the same as the word for “saved.” Being saved can also be understood as being made whole. Jesus seeks wholeness and healing for us, and we can keep drumming our prayers for that into God’s ears (as Luther says in the Large Catechism). How do you experience wholeness? Do you ever find wholeness even when some part of your life is not totally fixed?

Beloved of God, these past two years have been filled with many hardships that you may be feeling in body and community. Wholeness is what we seek, and yet the gospel doesn’t promise a fix. How do we seek wholeness even when we see and feel so much brokenness around us?

I believe this is an important reason why Jesus took on our flesh and entered into our hurting world: to be with us through it all, even through the cross. On this side, we are still like Bartimaeus, courageously crying for wholeness. We continue our cries for God’s wholeness.