To See or be Seen
Keith McFarren
June 14, 2026
Mark 10:46-52
    I want to take a minute this
morning to reflect back on our lives.
Think for a moment about your early years…about growing up at home…your
family…your parents…your brothers and sisters…the things you did together.
    Then think for a
moment about the years after you left home.
Think about the family that you’ve produced.  Think about your spouse…your children…your
grand and great grand children.  Think
about all the things you did together as a family.  Think about the jobs that you’ve had.  All the friendships you’ve developed.
    Now with
everything you’ve thought about…your growing up family and the development of
your own family, your spouse and your children etc. and all the things that you
did together…what if you had lived your entire life and went through all of
this that we’ve just talked about…and were totally blind.  You’ve never once seen the light of day.
    Let’s go a step
further.  If you were totally blind and
you had the chance to see three things that you have never seen before, because
you were blind…what three things would you want to see?
    Helen Keller, the
woman who lived her life in not only silence but in darkness as well, wrote a
magazine article called Three Days to See.  In the article she listed three things she
would like to see if she had the opportunity to do so.
    One the first day
she said that she would like to see the faces of all her family and friends.
    Day two would be
spent seeing nature.
   The third day, she
said, would be spent in her hometown of New York City, watching the people and
the way the city operates.
    She concluded the
article with these words:  “I who am
blind can give only one hint to those who can see – Use your eyes as if
tomorrow you were stricken blind.”
    As bad as it would
be to be blind in the 21st century, it was much worse to be blind in
Jesus’ day.  In the first century,
blindness meant that you were doomed to living a life of poverty.  You would be reduced to begging for a living
with no hope of ever getting beyond that point.
You lived at the mercy and the generosity of other people and unless
your blindness was the type that would eventually self correct there was no
hope whatsoever for a cure or a successful life.
    Little wonder then
that one of the signs of the coming of the Messiah was that the blind should
receive their sight.  As a matter of
fact, when Jesus first announced his ministry in the synagogue he said, “The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me.  He has
sent me to recover sight to the blind.”
    I’ve told you before that
sometimes it’s easier understand the scripture reading if we understand the
reading that takes place before it.
Today’s reading is no different.
To help us understand this mornings scripture reading we need to look at
the story that appears just before this one.
    On their way to Jerusalem,
two of Jesus’ disciples, James and John, who were brothers, asked Jesus for a
special favor.  They wanted a very
important, high ranking position in his kingdom when he defeated the Roman
Empire and established his kingdom here on earth.
    Even after traveling and
living and hearing him talk for three years, they still did not fully
understand who Jesus was, why he had come or why he was going to Jerusalem.
    After three years of hearing Jesus teach
about love and caring and compassion toward others, we can see that all they
really cared about was their own personal power.  What they really cared about was being seen
as important people.  After three years
of hearing Jesus teach about servanthood all they really want is status, power,
and prestige.
    Beggars like Bartimus were a
common sight in first century Israel.
Anyone who couldn’t work because of a physical disability like blindness
ended up being a beggar. God’s law commanded that people were supposed to take
care of needy people like this.  
    But this blindness was
different.  Being born blind was
considered a curse from God because of sinfulness within one’s family, so it
was easy to push these people aside and overlook them because of who they were
and what their families had supposedly done.
    Bartimus was a pitiful
looking man.  A dirty man.  A man lacking hygiene.  A man sitting there beside the road with his
legs crossed Indian style with a piece of material spread out in front of him
to catch the coins that were tossed his way by people who felt sorry for him.
    He could see absolutely
nothing, but his voice was so loud and so strong and he kept shouting in the
direction of Jesus at almost an embarrassing level.  And the more the people around him tried to
keep him quiet…the louder he became.
Here was a man who wanted nothing more in his life than to see Jesus.
    And when Bartimus heard
Jesus say “bring him here,” the blind man went wild…he jumped up, threw his
money aside, and ran toward the sound of Jesus’ voice
    Jesus is the man of the hour
– he’s already a hero because all of Israel believes he is going to overthrow
the entire Roman Empire and establish the Kingdom of God right smack in the
middle of Israel.  
    And now this national hero
is asking Bartimus what kind of a favor he wants.  If Bartimus was smart he’d be asking for the
same thing James and John asked.  He’d be
asking for notoriety and power and a place at the head of the kingdom of
God.  
    But Bartimus is
different.  You see, he doesn’t want
power.  He doesn’t want notoriety.  He doesn’t care about being seen by the rest
of the world.  All he wants is to be able
to see.  All he wants is to see the world
around him.  Of all that he could have
asked Jesus for, this is all he wants.
    To see…or to be seen.  That’s the choice we have.  What the humble Bartimus wants…or what the
ambitious, power hungry brothers, James and John, want.
    These are options that we
all face. We can focus on ourselves…or we can focus on God wanting to see what’s
going on in God’s world.  
    We can feed our egos…meaning
life is all about us.  Or we can feed our
souls…meaning that life is about the Kingdom of God.
    Do you want to be seen?  Or do you want to see?  Do you really want to see like Bartimus
wanted to see?
    Are you willing to be
changed?  Or better yet…do you want to be
changed?  Are you willing to be changed…are
you willing to be transformed and then through this God given spiritual
transformation see the world through the eyes of God?
    Mitch Albom, one of America’s
top sports writers has been around a lot of football players and basketball
players in his life and he’s seen his share of big men over the years.
    But he wasn’t ready for
Henry Covington, the giant of a man who met him outside the rundown, junky
looking Pilgrim’s Church in downtown Detroit.
Rev. Henry Covington was a big man.
He stood over 6’4 and weighed in at over 400 lbs.
    At the time, Albom was doing
research for his new book, “Have a Little Faith” and dropped by Pilgrim’s
Church to learn more about how the small Pentecostal Church was working with
the homeless community in downtown Detroit.
    Albom says that he expected
to meet people from all walks of life there that day, people scarred by life on
the streets or behind bars, but he never expected to find one of those people
in the pulpit.
    In his book, Albom takes a
look at the twisted road that led to the transformation and redemption of Henry
Covington and describes a dramatic sermon that Covington preached that not only
showed his vulnerability to his congregation but to the world as well.
    “Amazing Grace…I coulda been
dead…Shouda been dead!  Woulda been dead!…His
grace…saved a wretch.  And I was a
wretch.. You know what a wretch is?  I
was a crack head, an alcoholic, I was a heroin addict, a liar, a thief.  [I was blind.]  I was all those things.  But then came Jesus…[and Jesus helped me to
see.]  Elkhart Truth, Oct. 23, 2009, D1,
pg. 1.
    Life was all about Henry
Covington.  It was all about the
booze.  It was all about the drugs.  It was all about feeling good…about the high’s
that he could get.  It was about lying
and stealing and cheating and hurting other people…all so that he could get
what he wanted…all so that he could have what he wanted.
    And so like the beggar
Baritmus, Henry Covington sat along side the road of life, totally blind, and
missed everything going on around him.
    Think a moment about how
Bartimus gained his sight.  And maybe we
should look at how Henry Covington came to see as well.  Jesus says it was simply about faith…the
blind man’s faith opened his eyes.
    When our eyes are opened to
God’s love and God’s salvation it’s like something deep down within our souls
rises up and pulls all the loose parts within us together to make us
whole.  That’s what happened to Paul when
he met Jesus on the road to Damascus…“Instantly, something like scales fell
from [his] eyes, and he regained his sight…” Acts 9:18
    It’s called faith.  Faith in Jesus can open your eyes.  Faith in Jesus can bring about a total
spiritual transformation in your life.
It can open your eyes to the Kingdom of God – to the beauty of God’s
grace and God’s love and to the knowledge of forgiveness and everlasting life.
    So we look at Bartimus…and
we look at Henry Covington…two men who spent a good portion of their lives
sitting along side the road of life…living in darkness…unable to see…blind to
all that was going on in God’s world.
    But Jesus opened their eyes
simply because they believed…simply because of their faith.  And what they saw was a world full of love
and a world full of compassion and forgiveness.
What they saw was a world that offered them eternal life – life for
today and life for tomorrow, all spent in the kingdom of God.
    And just as came to Bartimus
and Henry Covington, Jesus comes to us and Jesus will open our eyes to see the
kingdom of God if we believe in him.
Jesus will open our eyes to the kingdom of God simply because of our
faith.
    Helen Keller said that if
she could see she would like to see family and friends and the world around
her..but she knew it would never happen.
    Yet the story of Bartimus
tells us that it can happen.  Both
the story of Bartimus and the story of Henry Covington tells us it will
happen if you want it to.  
    Jesus can open our eyes to
see the kingdom of God…to a world full of love and compassion and
forgiveness.  Jesus will open our
eyes and all we have to do is believe…all we have to do…is have a little faith.