Oct 28 Job 42, Mark 10:36-42 Sermon Notes

Oct 28 Job 42 and Mark 10:46-52 Two of our passages tell of men who get a new lease on life.Timaeus means honored or highly prized. Not surprisingly Job means persecuted, even hated.thins get better for both of them. In Luke we encounter the struggle not with a man born blind., Here the son of Timaeus has lost his sight.When he approached Jesus, this demanding , desperate man asks one word,in Greek, anablepo, that I regain my sight, that I see again. It is difficult not to have an attribute, an ability, but to know and lose it is more so, it seems to me.It’s one of the rough things about growing older because memory tells us about a version of ourselves that has faded into memory. For those of us who suffer with headaches, one of the worst is the so called rebound, when you’ve had some relief but then it comes back even worse than before. To lose seems to be more painful than not to have. I always say that the physical is a gateway to the spiritual in the gospels. What would it mean spiritually to see, to lose sight, and then to regain sight? In some respects, it is the religious story of many:raised in the church, falling away from the church, recovering the church. It is a sense of having a compass, losing it, and then finding one’s way again. Can suffering be a gateway to insight? Part of me says no, that it is a poor way to teach any lessons and threatens to destroy its victims. We have just skimmed a bit of the magnificent book of Job in the last month, but we do know that Job had everything and then lost it all. He fights with god about undeserved suffering and god responds with a grand cosmic tour. Now Job responds but more concisely than he has in his complaints. I am aware of few translations that are as widely different as trying to grasp Job’s words in our little passage. Usually it is repent in dust and ashes, as that he is sorry to have ever questioned god. It could be repenting of or from dust and ashes, in other words, he will live again. It could be that he has changed his mind concerning dust and ashes,. In other words he has a new view of human life and death in the grand scheme of things.He had it all, and then in a flash it was gone. so, i could certainly see him saying what's the point, what's the use, everything seems to be nothing but dust and ashes. Here, not only does he get his talk with god, but he is restored. I realize that the loss of his children will be a constant loss, but he does get another family. We are told of their beauty, with names for makeup and scents. I don't know about the lovely Mrs. Job, and his possessions return. Part of the multiple aspects of salvation is restoration. It is a wonderful thing to be restored to a good place. It could be health. I love when people who have knee replacements will speak of the first day in years when their foot hits the floor upon awakening and no pain greets their day. I am convinced that some couples like to fight only because they enjoy making up so much. After all of his struggles Job finds restoration. No, his children cannot come back, but he does get a new family and security again. (Jon van Nuys notes that the names are like the Kardashians). Sometimes it is a victory just to get up in the morning. sometimes we cna look back at how far we have ocme. soemtimes we look around an see a miracle.