30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mark 10, 46-52
Ever heard of a child throwing a tantrum inside a supermarket and just won’t stop until you buy that Cadbury chocolate bar that the child wants? We have seen that sometimes inside the supermarket or sometimes inside the toy store, when your child wants a Lego set and they just won’t stop until they get what they want. And yet even though it is very annoying, you can commend these kids for knowing how to get what they want. Actually, if we have observed babies, whenever they’re crying it means that they want something, either milk, food or attention. So we can safely conclude that our brains are hardwired to be insistent and will try to get what we want.
In the gospel for today, we hear of a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, who is on the side of the road. Some Bible scholars suspected that because the gospel didn’t say that he was blind from birth it means there was a time that he had sight. They suspect that his blindness may have been caused by an eye infection, which could be transmitted by flies. During the time of Christ, hygiene was not that good, so these kinds of easily curable diseases were unfortunately common during his day. So Bartimaeus, once hearing that Jesus was passing by cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me.” The title “Son of David” is very important, as this is the title of the Messiah that the Jews were waiting for over thousands of years. People surrounding Jesus were trying to silence him. Some Bible scholars note that usually rabbis, whenever they travelled would have people surrounding them who wanted to hear them teach. So when Jesus was passing by Jericho, people wanted to hear him and because of the noise that Bartimaeus was making, these followers found it hard hearing what Jesus is speaking so they wanted to silence him. And yet, Bartimaeus could not be silenced until he got what he wanted. So, Jesus hearing his pleas, called for him and asked what he wanted. Obviously, Bartimaeus wanted see, so Jesus restored his sight. Then he became a follower of Jesus.
For us, it seems it’s just another miracle story of Jesus. Yet, we must realise that this is quite different. The fact that the blind beggar was given a name; he must have become an important person in Mark’s community. Secondly, the fact that Mark has given some detail to this miracle, it must have been important in Jesus’ life, as he was winding down his ministry as he was already on his way to meet his fate in Jerusalem. It is important to note that with Bartimaeus’ confession, the blind beggar saw what the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes and other people who had sight did not see and that was that Jesus is the “Son of David”.
So what can we get out of this very beautiful story? Let me propose three things. First, the insistence of Bartimaeus. For him, this was a golden chance to be cured by Jesus and even if he was being silenced by the crowd, he screamed all the louder. This may be his first and only chance to be cured and nothing can stop him from coming to Jesus.
Second, Bartimaeus knew exactly what he wanted. Bartimaeus wanted to see and that’s what he got. Lastly, after getting what he wanted he followed Jesus. We may not know what was his role as a follower of Christ. He may have seen Jesus enter into Jerusalem. He may have seen Jesus “cleaning” the Temple. He may have seen Jesus carrying his cross around Jerusalem. He may have seen Jesus die on the cross and he may have seen the risen Jesus.
Will we also follow the path of Bartimaeus? We may not be physically blind but we do need healing. We may not be screaming the name of Jesus but would we allow ourselves to be silenced? We may not be walking with Jesus like Bartimaeus did 2000 years ago but are we following him? Let Bartimaeus be an inspiration for us today and learn to follow Jesus all the way to his death so that we will also experience his resurrection.