Hey y’all, I have written another post for you over at A Side B Collective.
This past month, my friends have posted several reflections: one on navigating two (competing? conflicting? complementary? compatible?) understandings of sex, gender, and sexuality, one on the fecundity and generativity of love, and one on the sense of awe elicited by an experience of the recent total eclipse. I have enjoyed being a part of this community of writers, and am thankful for the pieces and perspectives they have offered!
This week, I explore a biblical passage that has meant a lot to me over the years—the healing of the blind man Bartimeaus—and suggest that it can be a helpful corrective to the “savior complex” that can so easily characterize pastoral ministry. Here is a few paragraphs to give you a taste:
We can understand the first lines of the Acts of the Apostles—in which the author claims that the Gospel of Luke was an account of “all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up to heaven” (Acts 1:1-2 NRSVUE, emphasis mine), implying Acts is an account of what Christ continued to do in the early Church—as descriptive of us as well. We are “other Christs,” continuing the ministry of Christ today. To this end, we can look to certain moments in the ministry of Jesus (such as, for instance, his appearance to two disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24:13-35) as illuminating models for our own pastoral ministry.
And yet, of course, we are not Christ—and a “savior complex” is a persistent and pernicious danger for the pastoral minister. So sometimes it is helpful to bring into clearer focus something we should always keep in mind: the way our ministry is unlike his, and the way we must always point beyond ourselves so that those to whom we minister seek Christ, not us. To that end, I propose the healing of Bartimaeus (Mark 10.46–52, parallels in Matthew 9.27–31 and Luke 18.35–43) as a helpful model for pastoral ministry, one in which minister and those ministered to can be represented by the crowd and Bartimaeus—who both regain their sight, but in different ways, and who both follow after Christ the true minister.
You can read the full piece over at A Side B Collective here. As always, I would love your thoughts! Has someone who has ministered to you exemplified the humility of the crowd, and if so, how did that affect you? Have you had a moment in your own ministry which required you to take a moment to refocus on Jesus and hear afresh what he had to say? Are there other biblical passages that strike you as especially helpful models for pastoral ministry?