“Master, I want to see.” Mark 10:46–52

The healing of blind Bartimaeus raises many questions that we all face in our lives. Does God really love me? Is he listening when I pray to him? 

Mark tells us that Bartimaeus’ healing takes place while leaving the city of Jericho. It would be natural for Galilean Jews to detour around the Samaritan regions on the Jordan’s east side while on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and then to cross over the Jordan at Jericho journeying to Jerusalem. This may seem an incidental detail, but Jericho was the first city conquered in the “promised land” by Joshua. Could Mark be drawing our attention to this detail?

Mark recounts the actual healing of Bartimaeus with great simplicity. “Jesus told him, ‘Go your way; your faith has saved you.’ Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way” (10:52).  In Jesus’ previous healings in Mark, Jesus sends away the persons healed and tells them to keep quiet (1:44; 2:11; 5:19, 34; 7:29). While the “crowds” try to silence him, Jesus allows Bartimaeus to call him “Jesus, son of David,” and even allows him to follow him along the way.

The simplicity of the healing and the differences in Jesus’ response, suggest that in addition to being a healing narrative, this story is primarily about the “call” of Bartimaeus. We read that, “Jesus stopped and said, ‘Call him.’ So they called the blind man, saying to him, ‘Take courage; get up, he is calling you.’” (10:49). The verb “call” (phoneō) is repeated three times. The calling of Simon and Andrew (Mark 1:16) and James and John (1:19) at the beginning of Mark, is very similar.

I would like to suggest that Mark intends this narrative to be a kind of model for the call to discipleship or conversion. What does Bartimaeus' story teach us for our own life?

Mark introduces him as, “Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus” (10:46) deserves some comment. As St. Augustine astutely pointed out, telling us that he is “the son of Timaeus” (10:46) is unusual, and it likely indicates that Bartimaeus was once of high status, but has now been reduced to begging.

We need to recall that in the ancient world, becoming blind would be seen as a sign of losing favor with God. In some Jewish traditions, being blind made the person ritually impure and therefore, prevented Bartimaeus from entering Jerusalem the place of the sacrifice.

Relating these details to the call to discipleship, I would point out that Bartimaeus begins with complete humility. Everything he could boast about in his life is gone. He is in poverty, and he is blind.  Notice the conditions Bartimaeus begins with, humility, detachment, and attention to the fact that Christ is passing by.

 As Jesus has just earlier told his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Mk 8:34). Jesus warns them to not seek worldly gain, and not to be ashamed of him (Mk 8:36-38).

In order to reach Jesus, Bartimaeus must resist the crowd who initially tries to silence him. We might see this as a picture of persistence in prayer. We often experience distractions in our prayer. Mark tells us, “And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he kept calling out all the more, ‘Son of David, have pity on me’ (10:38). Bartimaeus then discovers that Jesus is listening. Jesus calls him and he responds with abandon. Mark tells us, “He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus” (10:50)

In our modern world, we often have questions in our hearts. “Is God really listening to my prayers?” “Does he care about me personally?” Many people feel that they will need to first clean up their life, before they believe God will be willing listen to them. They might think, “God does not want to talk to me because I’m not following him as I should.” 

With many saints, I believe that no one who spends time in conversational prayer with God will be disappointed. Our confidence about God’s love, flows from our knowledge of God’s heart for each one of us.

As St. Paul tells us,

God “chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1:4-5).

God’s own personal love for each one of us began before “before the foundation of the world.”

While responding to the call to discipleship will definitely change our life, Bartimaeus shows us that we can approach God now, just as we are. We can approach him in our brokenness and poverty. We can be vulnerable with God and often this very vulnerability is the key to beginning our journey of healing. Note it is through his personal healing encounter with Jesus that Bartimaeus is healed and transformed.

Jesus asks Bartimaeus what may seem like a strange question, “What do you want me to do for you?” Bartimaeus replies, “Master, I want to see” (Mk 10: 51). Like Bartimaeus, we each need to take responsibility for our personal spiritual blindness and ask God to give us his light to see the world around us.  

God has no spiritual grandchildren, only sons and daughters. We must each personally ask God for our sight.

Although we thank God for the faith of our fathers, which is a rich treasure for our faith journey, we need our own living faith (LG 41) found in a personal encounter with Jesus (Apostolicam Actuositatem, 4).

The fathers of Second Vatican Council remind us “the success of the lay apostolate depends upon the laity's living union with Christ” (AA 4) and that;

Such a life requires a continual exercise of faith, hope, and charity. Only by the light of faith and by meditation on the word of God can one always and everywhere recognize God in Whom "we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28), [and] seek  His will in every event... (AA 4)

As our own bishops have reminded us, conversion is, “the acceptance of a personal relationship with Christ, a sincere adherence to him, and a willingness to conform one's life to his" (National Directory of Catechesis, p. 48), or to put it more simply “Conversion to Christ involves making a genuine commitment to him and a personal decision to follow him as his disciple” (NDC, p. 48).

Beginning in humility and poverty, Bartimaeus searches for Jesus as we might in our prayer. He cries out, “Son of David, have pity on me.” Bartimaeus is not deterred by his poverty or the difficulties he faces. He persists in his prayer. He makes an act of faith trusting that God wishes to meet him on the way and in this encounter responds to the question, “What do you want me to do for you?” replies, “Master, I want to see.”

Lord, we ask that today you would open the eyes of the hearts of each one of us. Trusting in your love beyond our understanding, let us say, “Master, I want to see.” Then we shall follow him on the way.

THIRTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B 

Mark 10:46–52