Thursday in the Eighth Week of Ordinary Time, May 30, 2024

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.

“Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, sat by the roadside begging.”  St. Luke, who relates the same event, does not know the blind man’s name, only referring to him as “a certain blind man” (Luke 18, 35).  St. Mark’s giving his name indicates that St. Peter, from whom St. Mark gained his information, knew his name, and this, in turn, suggests that Bartimaeus played a significant role in the Church during the time of the Apostles.  This is hinted at when Mark says, at the end of the Gospel Reading, that after he was cured, he “followed [Jesus] on the way”, as distinct from the many other whom the Lord cured and went their own way afterwards.  The cure itself takes place outside of Jericho, about eighteen miles from Jerusalem, the Lord’s destination.

“On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out.”  The Gospels are silent as to whether Jesus had visited Jericho previous to his last journey to Jerusalem.  Bartimaeus certainly knew of Jesus and that he had the power to heal.  He also must have heard the crowd talking about Jesus for him to know that Jesus was passing by.  “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.”  By the time Bartimaeus knows Jesus is on the road, the Lord would have passed him by and gone a little distance.  The blind man would have cried out with all his strength so that Jesus could hear him.  His cry was a plaintive, desperate one because this chance might never come again.  We should think about the plight of a blind man in those days.  Unable to work and apparently little or no family to care for him, he was reduced to begging so that he might eat, and probably sleeping outside in all weather.  Sores from exposure and lack of shelter covered him, and the smell from being unwashed filled the air around him.  His one possession was his irreplaceable cloak.  He calls Jesus “the son of David”, which the crowd, thinking that he was the Messiah who would restore Israel, called him.  But to call someone a “son” of someone also meant that he was taken from the same mold.  David had shown mercy to King Saul when Saul was in his power; Jesus would show mercy to the blind.

“And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.”  The crowd, believing that it is beneath the Lord’s dignity to mix with a wretched, blind beggar, calls on Bartimaeus to be silent as though it was their responsibility to do so.  They saw themselves as the escort of a king making his progress to his capital.  We should compare this to the Apostles attempting to prevent people from being their children to Jesus in Mark 10, 13.  “But he kept calling out all the more.”  Bartimaeus knows Jesus is growing more distant with every passing second.  His only chance to escape life-long misery is passing away.  It must have seemed to him that the iron prison doors, which had opened a crack, were slamming shut on him forever.  

“Jesus stopped.”  The Lord could have stopped the first time he heard his name called, but he elicits perseverance from the blind man and he gives this example to us to pray even when it seems too late for God’s answer to help.  “Call him.”  The Lord acts through others, involving them in the man’s healing so that they might see later how the Lord would act through them in preaching the Gospel.  “Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you.”  The crowd, instructed by the Lord, changes obediently to serve their Lord.  They even add their own consoling words, bidding him take courage.  “He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.”  His cloak would only have tripped him up as he hurried to the Lord and so he casts it aside.  We can think of how we must cast aside our former way of life in order to hurry to Jesus.  But even without the encumbrance of his cloak, Bartimaeus needed help in reaching the Lord.  Many hands would have assisted him as he made his way to the head of the procession.  “What do you want me to do for you?”  Now, it was plain to all that Bartimaeus was blind.  The Lord asks him this question in order to further involve the man in his own healing.  The Lord knows full well what it is we need but he wants us to ask him for it.  “Master, I want to see.”  In the Greek text, Bartimaeus calls Jesus “Rabbi.”  He acknowledges Jesus now not as a worldly king as the crowd does, but as a religious teacher.  “Go your way; your faith has saved you.”  We can compare the Lord’s response to the faith of Bartimaeus with the Lord’s response to that of the centurion’s servant (Matthew 8, 13) and the bleeding woman who touched him (Mark 5, 34), keeping in mind the words of Hebrews 11, 6: “Without faith it is impossible to please God. For he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and rewards those who seek him.”

“Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way.”  One moment Bartimaeus knew only darkness; the next was vibrant with bright light and color.  The newly sighted man marveled for a moment as the Lord resumed his journey, and then, instead of going into Jericho, he followed the Lord Jesus, making his “way” the Lord’s way.

We see the Lord in this Reading acting with majesty and with power, acting through those who were escorting him as though they were the servants of his palace.  He shows his power through a simple act.  And then he returns to the matter at hand, the journey to Jerusalem.

May our persevering faith so please the Lord that he will grant us our requests!