BREAKTHROUGH
(Open-ended,
Life-centred Explorations of the Sunday Gospels for Home Groups)
MK 10: 46-52...Sunday, October 29th, 2006...21st S. after
Pentecost
NOTES:
1] Jericho is only about 25k
from Jerusalem. 2] MT
(20:29-34) & LK (18:35-43) are interesting comparisons with MK. 3] Bartimaeus, blind and a beggar
stands in sharp contrast with others who've appeared recently -
the 'rich young ruler', & disciples seeking kudos. Jesus seeks as
disciples those who know they have nothing (the 'poor' or 'poor in
spirit' of the Beatitudes) but are ready to have their eyes opened,
& follow!
WARMING UP: Are we a noisy
person or more at the quiet end of the scale?
TREASURES OLD & NEW:
Identify God at work in anything this week?
ENTERING INTO THE STORY:
46-47 Can we identify any
'Jericho', some place where our eyes have been opened at some stage of
our personal pilgrimage? What was / is there about the setting,
atmosphere, those present, etc., that enables(d) the change to happen?
Is / was our 'Jericho' followed by some 'Jerusalem' with a 'Passion' of
some sort as a consequence of our turning & following Jesus or
persisting in following him?
Can we identify some point along life's way when or where we just had
to cry out (aloud?) to Jesus because we were so desperately in need of
'having our eyes opened'? Desperate for some kind of help? Desperate
for mercy in some form? If it's too hard to talk about, can we at least
identify why that's so?
48-52 Have we ever had the
experience of being told by someone else to 'keep quiet' about some
issue burdening us? Can we identify the motive(s) behind them telling
us to be quiet and / or us keeping quiet? On the other hand, are we
more likely to tell others to be quiet than encourage them to 'shout
out' that they have a need? Is making a noise about our needs of any
kind just too embarrassing? What makes it embarrassing? To whom?
Have we ever felt like 'crying out all the more' when others have tried
to shut us up about our situation? Is that what we actually do / did?
How good are we at discerning that others are 'crying out loud' - even
if it's silently? What about our ability to be like Jesus & move
towards people in need?
How do we feel when someone we know won't 'have
their eyes opened' at any price when we can discern they really need
some particular 'healing'? How caring are we / our church for members
who are actually blind, or at least visually impaired? Is this an area
we need to be doing something about to be true to Jesus & the
Spirit of the Gospel? Is there some way in which we could be acting out
'be of good courage' through helping someone visually or in any other
way impaired in Jesus' name? Do we ever fob off that kind of question
by playing up the importance of spiritual sight as against
physical?
Where are we along the way in working out the interplay between
physical healing & 'faith making us well' - in our own case or
others'? How do we feel when the most faithful people aren't made well?
Have we reached our own Jericho yet, that stage of life where we become
as enthusiastic a follower of Jesus as Bartimaeus does?
