Listening This Lent

Last week, both our men’s and women’s Mark Bible studies ended with the story of Bartimaeus, the blind beggar sitting by the roadside who heard that Jesus was passing by. While others tried to silence him, Bartimaeus cried out all the more. And when Jesus called him, he did something remarkable: he threw off his cloak, sprang up, and went to Jesus.

I can’t help but notice that Bartimaeus heard before he saw. In the noise of the crowd, in the press of competing voices, under the weight of social expectations, he recognized the presence of Christ and responded with bold trust. His cloak, possibly his most valuable earthly possession, was cast aside in an instant because his heart truly saw Jesus even when his physical eyes could not.

As we still have Ash Wednesday services fresh on our minds (and foreheads!), Bartimaeus gives us a beautiful picture of what this season invites. Lent is not about spiritual heaviness for its own sake. It is about holy attentiveness to the one who has extended mercy and grace. It is about cultivating, with whole life sensitivity, ears that can hear the Spirit even in the crowd and through the noise. It is about throwing off whatever dulls our response to our gracious King so that when he calls, our hearts are delighted to rise and run.

Ash Wednesday is meant to be a reminder of our mortality: “From dust you came, and to dust you shall return.” and yet we walk through these next several weeks moving toward Easter with resurrection hope. We know that the dust is not the end of the story. We look ahead to the day when, like our risen Lord, we too will spring up from death in full and final resurrection life. What we will one day enjoy completely, we now practice with the new spiritual eyes we have been mercifully given. We rehearse resurrection through faith-filled hope. We cultivate freedom through repentance. We train our ears to recognize His voice and to seek Him above all.

Let’s be a church body that prays for each other this season. May we hear Him! And in hearing Him, may we throw off whatever keeps us seated by the roadside when He is calling us forward into true life with the King.