Thursday in the Eighth Week of Ordinary Time, June 1, 2023

Mark 10, 46-52

As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, sat by the roadside begging. On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.” And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me.” Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you.” He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus. Jesus said to him in reply, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man replied to him, “Master, I want to see.” Jesus told him, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way.

Today’s Gospel Reading is taken from the middle section of St. Mark’s Gospel, which details the Lord’s last journey to Jerusalem.  As Mark tells it, Jesus has just spoken to his Apostles James and John about who would sit at his right and left in the Kingdom of Heaven.  Just after this, Mark abruptly declares, “And they came to Jericho” (Mark 10, 46).  Mark does not tell us what they did at Jericho but, in the very same verse when Mark says they came to Jericho he says, “As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd.”  So much we would like to know about what the Lord said and did in places like Jericho, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, the first city in the Promised Land to fall to the  Israelites under Joshua after their forty years in the wilderness!  We have to treasure all the more what we do have of the records of the Lord’s life and teaching!

But for St. Mark, the main event at Jericho was what the Lord did outside the city, and to highlight it he does not tell us what he did inside of it.  He begins very directly: “Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, sat by the roadside begging.”  Since Luke, who also tells the story, does not name the beggar whereas Mark does, we can conclude that Peter, from whose lips Mark drew his Gospel, must have known him.  He probably came to know him after the Resurrection as he began to preach the Gospel in Galilee and that the former beggar was now a prominent Christian.  Mark clarifies the beggar’s identity by adding “the son of Timaeus” for his Greek speaking audience who would not have known that “Bartimaeus” meant exactly that.  “On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, ‘Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.’ ”  The beggar addresses Jesus as the Messiah, “the son of David” who was going to restore the kingdom.  At the same time, he believes that Jesus can heal him — the Messiah promised by the Pharisees was not a healer.  We should notice that Mark uses the phrase “he began to cry out and say”.  This is a Hebrew construction not normally found in Greek literature.  Mark is thinking in Hebrew and writing in Greek.  He makes no attempt at a smooth Greek style.  That may be because he does not have the skill to accomplish that.  But his rough Greek is a sign of his ancient witness and to the freshness of his testimony to us.

“And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he kept calling out all the more.”  The crowd may have rebuked him because they deemed it unfitting for the Son of David to mix with a common beggar.  We might wonder why the crowd did not simply ignore him.  But it is customary for those who have a certain opinion of their worth to push down other who do not measure up to their standards.  As the Lord had said before entering Jericho, “You know that they who seem to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them” (Mark 10, 42).  Mark, who sees irony throughout the Lord’s life among us, probably saw it here too.  The members of the crowd who thought themselves such perfect believers are actually acting like the Gentiles.  But we see the beggar’s persistence, his perseverance, which is one of the most notable signs of the Christian: “He that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved” (Matthew 24, 13).  

“Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you.”  We see how fickle the crowd is, a trait common to crowds everywhere.  Or, not all in the crowd told the man to be quiet and these now encourage him.  It is like the devils who tell us to be quiet and not to pray, and the angels who urge us to do so and assist us.  “He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.”  Bartimaeus shows his readiness to follow Jesus by disposing of his one possession.  This contrasts with the rich man who would not follow Jesus because “he had many possessions” (Mark 10, 22).  He “sprang up” which reminds us of how the rich man came running up to the Lord.  Of course, the rich man slunk away from him when the Lord told him to follow him, but the beggar goes with Jesus.  “What do you want me to do for you?”  The Lord knows what he wants just as he knows what we want before we ask it.  But he wants the beggar and he wants us to cooperate in our own salvation and so he admonishes us to pray.  “Master, I want to see.”  The word in the Greek text is rabbouni, a transliteration of the Hebrew, meaning, “my master”, “my teacher”.  Mark does not translate the Hebrew word which Bartimaeus said into Greek but takes it directly into the text, just using Greek letters. “Go your way; your faith has saved you.”  The Lord replied in a similar way to the woman with the hemorrhage who thought only to touch his garment to be healed.  By quoting Jesus in these instances and not abridging his account, Mark shows the necessity of faith for salvation, of which these cures were signs.

“Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way.”  The beggar received his sight straightway with no time intervening between the words of the Lord and the reception of sight.  Mark does not tell us of the beggar exclaiming or of any reaction from the crowd, only that Bartimaeus  “followed him on the way”.  Just as Peter’s mother-in-law began to serve the Lord the moment he cured her from her fever, so now the beggar does not hesitate to follow the Lord.  He uses his health for the purpose for which it was given him.  When we use what we have for the purpose for which God has given it to us, then we too follow the Lord.