15 March 2024

The Look-Away Gospel

by Michael Nixon | 15 March 2024 |

Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus … was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more…. “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.

In author Janice Shaw Crouse’s article entitled “The Loneliness of American Society,” she writes:

The secular humanist view that human existence is disconnected from any higher power and from responsibility for anyone other than ourselves gives a certain freedom to make one’s own rules, but there is a price to pay for this freedom. Gone is human dignity. Gone is mankind’s special connection to the Author of beauty, truth, or goodness. Ultimately, we are “free,” but autonomy is just another way of being alone.

This lack of community has seeped its way into Christian circles—but actually, it’s nothing new. The story of Bartimaeus is an amazing example of this phenomenon: people surrounding Jesus who are so intoxicated by what they can get from Him that they overlook the needs of others right in front of their face.

When it comes to issues of justice and advocating for the needs of the other, we seem to think it is okay if we decide to look the other way. Focus on the gospel, we are told. Jesus is going to fix all of this and make all things new. After all, this is all a result of sin and there is nothing that we can do to fix it. So just preach the gospel and look the other way.

But is this the way of Jesus?

Keeping it complex

Institutional religion tends to think of people as simple-minded, so the law must be very complex to protect them in every situation. Jesus does the opposite: He treats people as very complex—very nuanced. He assumes people are different in religion, lifestyle, virtue, temperament, and success, so He keeps the law very simple in order to bring them closer to Himself.

A legal expert put Christ to the test in Matthew 22 by asking:

Teacher, which commandment in the Law is the greatest?” Christ replied to him, “’You are to love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind.’ This is the first and foremost, and the second is like it: ‘You are to love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hangs everything in the Law and in the Prophets” (Matthew 22:35–40).

If I were to say this apart from Jesus’ authority, you would rightly accuse me of being simplistic, naïve, and reductionistic. Yet Jesus’ approach takes the risk of allowing people the freedom to be themselves and to love God according to the shape of their own heart, soul, body, and mind!

Jesus does not give much of an endorsement to social control. For Jesus, it is all about union with God, others, and what is, however it presents itself. Jesus embraces both diversity and communion.

Jesus hears and sees

In Luke’s recitation of the story, Jesus preps His disciples for their encounter with Bartimaeus. Luke 18 begins with Jesus sharing the story of the unjust judge while they’re walking. Jesus is setting the table for them: God will give justice to His children who cry out day and night. He will address their needs and restore them. If an unjust judge can be worn down to the point where they finally buckle and deliver justice, how much more will Jesus work through us to deliver justice to the others around us?

If you could not see Bartimaeus, he made sure that you could hear him! Biblical scholars compare his shouting to an animal cry. When those in the crowd tried to silence him, he cried even louder. Unashamed, unrestrained, in need of healing from our Savior – he cried out until he was truly heard.

Unlike the others in the crowd, Jesus didn’t merely hear his cry. Jesus saw his need. And when Jesus saw his need, He instructed the same people who had been telling Bartimaeus to quiet down to bring him closer.

Jesus was inviting them into an opportunity to truly see Bartimaeus – quite possibly for the first time. Perhaps they had seen him at that spot on the roadside, but they had never considered that his condition could be any different. They may have participated in some acts of charity – perhaps a food bank, or a soup kitchen, maybe they even donated some articles of clothing – but they never considered that his restoration could be possible.

Herein lies one of the insidious effects of the look-away gospel, and it happens to us all, at some level today. We hear these loud, undiplomatic, and very annoying screams from the others around us, and it is often disruptive to our comfort zone and sense of security.

The look-away gospel meets chants of “Black Lives Matter” with the dismissive retort that “No, all lives matter” and does not engage with the people behind the chants in order to understand the pain behind the peaceful protest.
The look-away gospel is silent on gender discrimination in our church as women continue to be denied the full recognition of their calling.
The look-away gospel does not engage in the difficult, nuanced, and at times, uncomfortable conversation around how we can create a framework that makes our institutions safer and more inclusive.
The look-away gospel sees a homeless person around the corner and assumes that they put themselves in that predicament without considering that perhaps they are a veteran with PTSD who has been left behind by the government and citizens that they fought to protect.
The look-away gospel only advocates for religious liberty as applied to the members of their own denomination.
The look-away gospel grows numb to the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza as thousands of innocent men, women, and children are massacred as punishment for heinous crimes that they themselves did not commit.
The look-away gospel does not allow room for Gen-Z’rs and others to be honest about their doubt and ask relevant questions about their faith because if those screams were entertained for too long, we might remember that we have questions and doubts too.
The look-away gospel looks at the Bartimaeus among us and yells “Be quiet!” Don’t upset our equilibrium – our comfortable reality, contrived as we know it to be. Be quiet. Let’s maintain unity—we’re one people after all, aren’t we?

Seeing our own blindness

When we allow ourselves to truly examine those in need, something unexpected then takes place: we end up seeing ourselves. Seeing the other enables us to discover our own blindness.

Adventists need to have our sight restored. The members of our movement were not always blind in this area. There were several believers who were engaged in the most pressing political issues of their time. Abolitionists, temperance activists, anti-war advocates, among other provocative and highly polarizing issues.

This reclamation of our prophetic heritage that was indelibly tied to the most pressing issues of the day can be best exemplified through our commitment to not look away – to never look away – from the atrocities that occur all around us.

Don’t look away when you hear about incidents of sexual assault, rape, and abuse, particularly as promulgated by powerful men in our church against vulnerable women and children.
Don’t look away when yet another unarmed person of color is gunned down or beaten to death by those called to protect and serve.
Don’t look away when the historically marginalized, oppressed, and vulnerable are pushed out of their dilapidated and broken-down communities by opportunistic investors who are interested in investing and revitalizing their neighborhood – but have no interest in their benefiting from that investment and revitalization (some call this gentrification).
Don’t look away when individuals are denied basic human rights in the name of a gracious and loving God.
Please don’t look away when corruption and self-interest poison our global political atmosphere to the point that rational, civil discourse is nowhere to be found.
And don’t look away when other religious minorities amongst us are being persecuted for what they believe in as we hold on to our narrow view of what religious liberty means.

Bartimaeus began to follow Jesus down the road after his sight was restored, and one of the more significant milestones that happened next in the ministry of Jesus was His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which marks the beginning of Christ’s passion week. Who knows but that Bartimaeus witnessed the gruesome death of his sight restorer on a Roman cross?

We need our vision to be restored. We are Bartimaeus, on the side of the road, in need of a reminder of what this Gospel thing is all about. And when our vision is restored, we will see not just one another, but our Crucified Savior.

Michael Nixon serves as the Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging at Beacon Health System in Northwest Indiana. Prior to this, Michael served as the Vice President for University Culture and Inclusion at Andrews University. In his spare time, Michael loves to travel and spend time with family and friends – especially his daughter Noa, who is currently in 3rd grade.