lenten blog | March 23, 2024

Oh to see like blind Bartimaeus

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for March 23rd:  Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29; Jeremiah 33:10-16; and Mark 10:32-34, 46-52.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Being alone is not the same as being lonely, but a person can feel desperately alone in a crowd.  It is not the proximity of others that is determinative.  Isolation is the inability to connect with others.  Jesus is alone and isolated as he proceeds closer to Jerusalem.  On two prior occasions, Jesus had tried to prepare his followers by foretelling his suffering and death, and on both occasions he was met with incredulity.  His followers could not process what Jesus was trying to reveal to them.  They would not or could not let go of their own expectations of Jesus.  And yet, the inevitability of Jerusalem was getting closer and closer.  With each step forward along the road, Jerusalem loomed more imposing over Jesus, and the disciples’ intransience more disheartening.  Thus, “They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them [alone].”  (10:32)

The same Greek word is used here in vs. 32 to describe the amazement of the disciples as was employed to express their bewilderment at vs. 24 when Jesus had professed how hard it will be for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.  They are culturally unable to process the revelation of a crucified Messiah, and their bewilderment isolates them from Jesus and Jesus from them.  For the briefest of moments, Jesus had found solace in Peter’s testimony of “‘You are the Messiah.’” (8:29)  Then, that hope careened over the cliff of “‘Get behind me Satan!’” (8:33)  And Jesus continues to carry that wreckage with him as he climbs up the road to Jerusalem.

Even the more casual followers of Jesus sense that something is awry, and they are “afraid.” (10:32)  This group may simply be other Galileans taking the same pilgrimage route to Jerusalem for the Passover festival.  They may have an awareness of Jesus as a wonder worker and may entertain notions of a hoped-for powerful intervention by Jesus on behalf of the Jewish nation; and because of their determinedly traditional Messianic expectations, they are made afraid by this sense of foreboding that engulfs Jesus and the disciples.  And Jesus’ isolation grows deeper.

At this point in the text, Mark informs the reader that this amazed and fearful crowd passes through Jericho. (10:46)  Jericho is the last city before the traveling pilgrims enter the environs surrounding Jerusalem, which is but a day’s walk ahead.  A great deal of psychological drama had been taking place on the other side of Jericho.  It pulled us into the thoughts of Jesus, the disciples, and the crowd.  In that contemplative space, we are startled by Bartimaeus son of Timaeus.  Everyone in his or her own way is lost in his or her own thoughts.  Then blind Bartimaeus shatters this solitude, shouting, “‘‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’” (10:47)  Instinctively the crowd rebukes this intrusion and orders him silent.

I think it would have been understandable for Jesus to have not responded, to maybe not even have heard the plea as he was lost in the thoughts of his own troubles, but Jesus is Jesus.  He calls the blind man over.  Even when lost in the thoughts of his own desperate situation, Jesus makes time for blind Bartimaeus.  Jesus is contemplating giving everything he has as a ransom for the lives of others – others who cannot seem to understand, and yet Jesus still has the compassion to pause and heal Bartimaeus.

The healing is granted and Jesus tells Bartimaeus “Go.”  (10:52)  Just like so many others who had been healed by Jesus and simply went on their way, Jesus says to Bartimaeus, “Go.”  Here, though, something remarkable happens that maybe brought a bit of healing to Jesus the healer.  Bartimaeus stayed.  Bartimaeus followed Jesus “on the way.”  (10:52)

This may only refer to the road leading out of Jericho and on toward Jerusalem or “the way” may be a reference to the earliest iteration of Christianity (cf. Acts. 9:2; 18:25, 26; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22).  We often do not know who the people are who Jesus heals, but here we know his name, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, and that he is from Jericho.  This may well be an actual person familiar to the community of the Marcan church.  Bartimaeus may well have shared this firsthand account with the original people of this Gospel.  He had remained faithful to Jesus.  He became a part of “The Way.”  Bartimaeus saw Jesus’ psychological suffering and then most likely his physical suffering, and Bartimaeus knew that with all of this, Jesus still stopped to help him.  And Bartimaeus “followed him on the way.”

The Twelve could not assuage Jesus’ anxiety, but this blind beggar outside of Jericho saw what they could not, and I hope this gave Jesus hope.  I hope it made it just a little bit easier for the one prepared “to give his life as a ransom for many” as he was about to publicly, triumphantly and defiantly march into his enemy’s stronghold of Jerusalem.

We can imitate Bartimaeus’ insight and appreciation by walking with Jesus as the church community remembers again these fateful days of Holy Week that begin with tomorrow’s Palm Sunday Worship Service.  You are invited to join us whoever you are, and if you cannot or choose not to be with us in person, send an email to [email protected] for the Zoom login.
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.