27 October 2024 Pentecost 23
Job 42.1-6, 10-17; Psalm 34.1-8; Hebrews 7.21-28; Mark 10.46-52
Let me see again. We use that term ‘see’ to mean a lot of things in our general conversation.. In its simplest meaning it refers to physically perceiving with our vision. But when someone gives us information, or news, we might also reply with ‘Oh, I see’, meaning understanding. So while this man is apparently asking for his vision to be restored, might he also be making a deeper request for understanding. And Jesus’ question of Bartimaeus reflects the question he asked James and John last week ‘what would you like me to do for you’.
This is one of the few healing stories in our gospels where we are given the name of the person who was healed. Lazarus is the only other ‘named’ healed person, although you could count ‘Jairus’ daughter’, but we don’t know her name, only her father’s. And this healing story has other ‘unique’ elements in it. The name Bartimaeus is a mixture of the Aramaic ‘bar’ ‘son of’ and Timaeus which is Greek. So what was Mark telling us in this naming. Timaeus can be translated as ‘honour’, so was Mark telling us, not his actual name, but that this man was a ‘son of honour’. Except, he was blind, so he was outcast, not honoured. But this man, this outcast, is one of the few people in our texts to ‘see’ and ‘know’ who Jesus really is. Jesus, Son of David. Not even Jesus’ disciples recognised this in him most of the time. So although this man was blind, he could still ‘see’ who Jesus was
Some commentators, when speaking about this passage, speculate that there was more than one ‘healing’ or ‘sight giving’ by Jesus. This blind beggar was ‘unseen’ by the crowd, he was a nobody, and even though they tried to ‘shush’ him when he was repeatedly calling out, they still didn’t really ‘see’ him, they just wanted the noise to stop. And it was only when Jesus stopped, when Jesus ‘saw’ him, maybe when Jesus heard him being called ‘son of David’ and recognised that this man really ‘knew’ him and he told the crowd to ‘bring him’, that the crowd actually ‘saw’ him. It was only because Jesus stopped and called him that the crowd recognised this ‘nobody’ in their midst. And their words speak volumes to this. ‘take heart, get up, he is calling you’. Jesus first restores the sight of the crowd to the ‘unseen’ in their midst before he restores the sight of the blind man. And even when the man comes, Jesus doesn’t immediately heal him, he doesn’t make assumptions about what the man would want. He asks him. He allows the man to express his own desires for his life. ‘what do you want me to do for you’. He gives the man the opportunity to name his desires.
We are told that when the man was told Jesus had called for him, he ‘threw off’ his cloak, and went to Jesus. This cloak that was the man’s shield. He would have wrapped the cloak around himself at night for protection and warmth. In the morning he would have spread it on the ground and sat on it, it would have been the receptacle for the alms thrown to him. Yet, when he was called by Jesus he throws it off, he ‘sheds’ his identity, he ‘discards’ his security, and after his vision is restored he follows Jesus. He has been ‘reborn’, and his old identity is no longer needed.
This man follows this ‘Son of David’ into the City of David. This is the last story Mark gives us before Jesus reaches Jerusalem and enters the city for the final time, walking into the city where he will be arrested, tried, beaten, killed and then rise. This man follows Jesus and becomes one of those who witnessed his giving of himself for the sake of the world.
This story asks us many questions. Who is it I am not ‘seeing’ in my community; who are the ‘unseen’ people around me. Am I the one who is ‘unseen’, and what would I like Jesus to do for me. Am I able, am I ready, to express to Jesus my deepest desires, in the hope of healing. And what do I need to shed, or leave behind, after I am healed. This man did not return to his previous life after being healed, he walked on, following Jesus. Am I ready to leave my ‘disability’ my ‘blindness’ behind and walk into a new life with Jesus. Am I able to live into the new life Jesus gives me.