Do you look for the Resurrection of the dead and the Life of the world to come? Is that what you wait for, long for, and pray for? — The Life of the world to come, when there will be no blindness, and no paralysis, no aching bones and muscles, no ugly cancer cells eating the life out of your body from the inside-out — the Day without end, full of life and light and joy in the Lord your God?
To be and to live as a Christian is to look for that Resurrection of the body and that Life in both body and soul in the presence of the Holy Triune God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And if, by His grace, you are looking for that Resurrection and that Life, your hope shall not be put to shame or disappointed, because Jesus of Nazareth is here, the incarnate Son of God, your merciful and great High Priest. He has drawn near to you here, that you might draw near to God in Him.
He is the Son of David, Bartimaeus has it exactly right. Descended from David according to the flesh, according to the promise God had given, conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, He is your Brother in the Flesh. He has a Body of flesh and blood, just like you. And into His own Body He has taken all your sin, borne its full weight, and suffered all its consequences. He knows your hurt, He knows your hunger, He knows your weakness and pain, your fatigue, and your tears. He has become like you, and He has been tempted and suffered in every way like you, save only without any sins of His own, in order to save you, to fill you with His Life in both body and soul.
For all of that, He is and remains the one true God, begotten of the Father from all eternity, God from God, Light from Light, very God of very God. All that belongs to the Father belongs to Him. And now He has become Flesh, and He draws near to you in the Flesh, to be and to serve as your High Priest, the one Mediator between God and Man, perfectly uniting God and Man in Himself, in His Body. Thus has He given Himself for you, sacrificed Himself and shed His Blood for you.
The incarnate Son of God, great David’s greater Son, has thereby conquered death for you and all the sons and daughters of affliction, because He has made Atonement for the sins of the world. He has redeemed you and all the children of men by His Cross, He has reconciled you to His God and Father in the righteousness of His Resurrection, and He has made right all that was wrong.
And even as He draws near to you here, tabernacles with you, and gives Himself to you here within His Church on earth, He is also seated at the Right Hand of His God and Father in the heavenly places, where He has made a place for you, now and forever. The One who has taken your place — the One who shares your flesh and blood, who bore your sins in His own Body and died your death upon the Cross — He is the One who is risen from the dead, who lives and reigns forever. He has entered into the true Holy of Holies, eternal in the heavens. He has taken His seat at the Right Hand of the Father because His work of Atonement and Redemption is perfectly completed. And yet, as your High Priest, He ever lives to make intercession for you before the Throne of God.
This is one of the most amazing and astonishing things, that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, always lives to pray and intercede for you in the presence of His God and Father. He’s doing so right now, even as He is also here with you in His Church on earth, in the Liturgy of His Gospel. Both here and there — with God and with you, as surely as He is both God and Man — He stands for you, steadfast and eternal. His Priesthood never ends, and so shall your Life and Salvation never end.
The Son of God is praying for you, ever and always. And the Father hears His prayer and receives, not only His prayer, but you along with it in this beloved Son, Christ Jesus. For He has done all that He has done, and He still does what He does, in order to bring you to the Father in Himself.
It is in and with and through Christ Jesus, and by no other way or means, that the Father gathers His people from all the nations of the world, from all times and place. It is in and with and through Christ Jesus — by the Word and Spirit of Christ Jesus — that the Father calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies His children to be His holy people, a royal priesthood, named with His own Name.
Take courage, then, and have no fear. Know that God Himself is for you. He does not condemn you for your many sins, though you surely deserve nothing but punishment, but He raises you up from the dust of the earth, from sin and death, to live the New Life that is yours in Christ Jesus.
Don’t lie there in despair. Don’t imagine that there is no hope or help for you. Don’t withdraw into yourself. But stand up, and draw near to Jesus in His Gospel; for He is calling for you.
“Come unto Me,” He says. If you labor and are heavy laden — if you know your sins, your needs, your hurts and sorrows, your frailties and afflictions — come to Him, and He will give you rest. Draw near to Him, and follow Him. Live by faith in His Word, as a child of His God and Father.
He has made you God’s own child by the washing of the water with His Word and Holy Spirit in your Holy Baptism. Those are the quiet waters to which God calls you and along which He leads His people; and that is the straight and narrow way by which you live and walk as His dear child.
Do not wander away from those waters, for they are your daily cleansing, your forgiveness and sanctification, your life and health and strength and every blessing. Though it seems very simple, too good to be true — and though you cannot see it with your eyes or discern it with your senses in this mortal body and life — yet, listen with your ears, and know that it is true. The Lord Jesus is here with you and for you in the Church and Ministry of His Gospel. Come to Him, and live.
He has taken His stand for you here. He has planted His feet here on earth, right here on the corner of Milton and Dale, in order to receive you to Himself — no less so than He did for Bartimaus. When Jesus heard that poor man calling, He stopped, and He said, “Call him to Me.” That Word of Jesus, that was that man’s courage. And the Word of that same Jesus, calling for you, is now your courage, also. It is His Word that raises you up from the dust and the dirt on the side of the road — that raises you up from death and the grave — to live and walk with Him as a Christian.
He has taken His stand for you here, to receive you to Himself; and as I said, even now He sits at the Right Hand of God, the Father in heaven, interceding for you. So, consider what that means: As the Lord Jesus is here with you, and the same Jesus is seated at the Right Hand of His Father, then right here is where you draw near to God. Right here is where you live in His presence.
Repent of your sins, therefore, and turn away from all that is not right in your life. Throw off your old self, as Bartimaeus threw off his cloak and got up. You are called to something new and real. You are called from out of your darkness and death into the Life and Light of God in Christ Jesus. So, rise up, draw near, and call upon the Name of the Lord who loves you and calls you to Himself.
If you are threatened with despair, call upon His Name. If you are crushed by more than you can handle, call upon His Name. And if you think you have everything handled, call upon His Name.
You do not have what it takes to live by yourself. But you do have such a Savior who invites you, teaches you, and commands you to pray; who has also promised to hear and answer your prayer.
His Word reveals and makes plain the way things really are. His Word exposes your sin for what it is and makes known your desperate need for Him, sitting there on the side of the road, blind, or lame, or deaf and mute, or even in good health but sinful nonetheless, and dying in your ignorance of God — which is real blindness — unable to see the Lord as He is, to know and trust in Him.
But as surely as God’s Word exposes your sin and shame and desperation, so surely does His Word also open your blind eyes to see and know the Lord Jesus, to follow Him, to love and trust in Him, to cling to His forgiveness in faith and confidence, and to find all that you need in Him alone.
The Word that He speaks to you is the Word of His Cross, which is both Law and Gospel. It does crucify and kill you, but it also makes you alive. It wounds you to the core, but it also heals you from the inside-out. The One who speaks to you is the One who has borne your griefs and carried all your sorrows — your blindness, your lameness, your deafness, and your muteness, your hurts and pains and disappointments, your frustrations — all of that, He has borne it in His own Flesh.
All of the sin and death that lives in your body and soul, He has taken all of it upon Himself, and He has nailed it all to the Cross in His own Body, in frailty, weakness, and pain. And yet, it is by His innocent suffering and death, by the shedding of His holy and precious Blood, that He has made Atonement forever, for you and all the world. He has done it. He has made Peace with God.
This fallen, sinful world is no longer under the wrath and judgment of God’s Law, but is now made new in Christ Jesus, reconciled and at peace with God, because He has taken all the fallenness and brokenness, all the sin, death, and damnation upon Himself, and still He has persevered in perfect faith and love. He did not turn away from His God and Father, but continued to call upon and trust His Father, even in the depths of judgment and under the condemnation of the Law — punished for the sins of the world. In all things He remained faithful and righteous and holy as your Savior.
And you know that God has vindicated Him. His Sacrifice was not in vain. For God raised this same Jesus from the dead. The very One who bore your sins and died in your place, God raised Him from the dead. He lives, He lives, who once was dead, the Lamb who has been slain for you.
Therefore, you also are raised from death to life in His Resurrection. Your home and your place are not in the ground, under judgment, or in hell. Your home and your place are with God. Thus are you seated with Christ Jesus in the heavenly places by faith in His forgiveness of your sins.
You are vindicated in Him. You are holy and righteous in Him. There is no condemnation for you in Christ Jesus. None. That is your courage to stand up and come to Him. And you shall not be put to shame or disappointed, for you bear the honor of Christ as a beloved son of God in Him.
That’s what “Bartimaeus” means, “a son of honor.” And what a joke it must have seemed, as he lay there on the side of the road, blind and begging. And when he would go to Jesus, everyone told him, “No! You can’t go to Him. Sit down and shut up!” But Christ Jesus says, “Call him to Me.”
And the same Lord Jesus calls you to come, as well. He has brought down the walls of hostility, as surely as He once brought down the walls of Jericho in the days of old. And He has defeated all of your enemies, every last one of them. But you He has saved. As He once rescued Rahab and her family when He brought down the walls of Jericho, so has He saved you from sin and death.
So, pray to Him in faith and confidence, in the sure and certain hope of the Resurrection and the Life everlasting. Call upon His Name as a beloved and well-pleasing child of God in Christ Jesus. Not as though you have to twist His arm or convince Him to help you, but because He is your Life and your Salvation, and He has come in mercy to raise you up and save you in body and soul.
Stand up, and take courage. He is calling you to Himself. Call upon His Name. And as you pray, so also live by faith in Him, in love for Him and for your neighbor. So let your life be your prayer.
As Bartimaeus was called to faith and received his sight by the Word of Jesus, he set out to follow Jesus on the Way of the Cross. In short, he became a disciple, a Christian. Now, you also follow Christ Jesus, wherever He has called you and stationed you to serve in this body and life on earth. Do what He has given you to do. Where that means bearing the Cross for your neighbors, give thanks to God that He counts you worthy to do so. And where it means suffering for His Name’s sake, rejoice that you bear such a Name. And if you die because you are a Christian, give thanks to God that you live because you are a Christian, because you are in Christ, and Christ lives in you.
The Way of the Cross can seem futile and foolish, like marching around a city for six days in a row, wondering what’s going to happen. But trust the Word that God has spoken, and know that at His Word you are raised up and you live, as Christ is risen from the dead and lives forevermore.
In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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