We can find the Old Testament particularly confusing. People’s names are
unfamiliar. At least if they were called Bob and Frank and Susan and Jane we
might at least remember more easily who is who. And then, how do we
remember which are place names and which are people’s names? It’s just as
confusing as if someone in the future were to study the UK. As well as a
Newcastle in the North-East, there’s also one next to Stoke-on-Trent, and
another one in Wales. In Birmingham there is a place called Hollywood. Over
in Lincolnshire there is a place called Boston. And not so far from us, heading
over into Buckinghamshire, you can come across signs for Gibraltar. Put
everything in a foreign country, with unfamiliar names, customs and places,
and no wonder we struggle with the Old Testament.
And the history of the Old Testament impacts the New. Just imagine that
someone, or perhaps a group of university researchers, had managed to produce
a time machine, complete with all the gadgets you might need, to visit the first
century AD. If you’ve seen the film Back to the Future II, then you know the
perils of changing the course of the past and having a drastic impact on the
present and the future. So the team decides to send you, not to the immediate
time of Christ, but just shortly afterwards. You’re going, with your carefully
researched 40s clothes (that’s the forties, not the nineteen-forties), to speak to
eyewitnesses who saw the miracles of Christ. But you get there, and the auto-
translation feature doesn’t work. It can’t decipher what they are saying.
Finally you work it out. The clue’s in today’s first reading! The people who
programmed your auto-translate device failed to take into account that the exile
of the people of Israel referred to in today’s first reading would affect how they
pronounce some of their words! It says: “See, I will bring them back from the
land of the North”. Change the vowel sounds from Oxford to Leeds, and, there
we go, problem sorted.
So having made a few blunders with the people of Israel in AD 45, you decide
to go back and try again, and you hear some amazing testimonies of all sorts of
healings: back, spine, hands, head, all sorts. But what was the impact? Well, it
really was like the parable of the sower. Some heard Christ speak, but went
back to life as normal with no real change, apart from their medical condition.
Some followed enthusiastically for a while, until persecution and ridicule came,
and then they too went “back to normal”. Whilst others became real witnesses
for Christ, although it wasn’t always plain sailing. But one of them says to
you, getting started was the hardest part. But look at Bartimaeus. It took faith,
hope and courage for him to be healed. He needed faith and hope in Christ,
that Christ could heal him and that He would heal him. Courage, in speaking
up in the face of all those who told him to keep quiet. Then, after he was
healed, he didn’t just sit back down again and let Christ go past. He left
everything behind and followed Him.
At this point, you begin to go into your own thoughts. What if Bartimaeus
hadn’t made that decision? What if he had been afraid? What might this new
way of life involve? What might it cost? What will my family think? The
people from my town?
When we follow Christ, it’s easy, isn’t it, perhaps as we get a little older, to be
less impulsive and to want to stop and count the cost first. Following Christ
does have some high costs, and some people like to play on those to put us off.
We can be tempted to say to Christ: I will follow you this far, but no further.
We get so far down the road, but then dig our heels into the ground. I can’t
give up X, Y or Z. I don’t have enough time to also do A, B and C for you. We
want to cling on to our old way of life. But just imagine now, you are not just
watching Bartimaeus, but you actually are Bartimaeus. Christ looks into your
eyes and says: “Once the hand is laid on the plough, no one who looks back is
fit for the kingdom of God. Come now, let us go.” (see Luke 9:62 & John
14:31b) And who are we to resist the Lord?
Curious about exploring things further? If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk