Today’s gospel healing story is the only story that names a person healed, excluding Lazarus raised from the tomb. Bar means son in Aramaic. I first thought it could mean the son of Timaeus, a Greek man who was with Socrates before he was forced to take his life for corrupting the youth of Athens. If “timaeus” was borrowed from the Greek, it would translate as “honored one.” A second possibility is the Aramaic word means “unclean, impure, unchaste, or abominable.” One translator has used the second to name Bartimaeus, “Son of Poverty.” A case could be made for either, but I choose the second.
Bartimaeus’ name could be symbolic of the poor and those afflicted with blindness. He is a no-body in Jewish society, a sinner and unclean and abominable. Persons born with disabilities were not allowed in the Temple, nor were blind priests allowed to serve in the Temple. Bartimaeus was literally side-lined in Jewish urban life, moved to the margins of Jewish social life. He was on the road to Jericho when the crowds gathered on the road outside the gates of Jericho. That was the best place to beg for assistance. Have you noticed the places in society where the poor and the homeless beg for assistance? I have seen mothers asking for monies at the traffic light entrances to the entrance of the Empire Square Mall or homeless veterans with a sign pleading for help as I have come off a highway such as Lake St. in Pasadena. There are many others.
Now Bartimaus probably heard something about Jesus from those gathering to meet him. When he hears Jesus is passing by, he calls out to him: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
When he raised his voice (10:47), people were quick to remind him he was a no-body. The reaction of the crowd to Bartimaeus was to threaten him to keep quiet. “Shut up, blind beggar, sinner, abomination; you have no right to speak to the teacher.” Or perhaps one of Jesus’ disciples said, “You can’t approach him without first going through us. We are in charge and have to clear you first.” Disciples have become gatekeepers to Jesus, monitoring who had access or not, and they are not unlike the attitudes of many clergy who claim such power.
Have you ever noticed how people silence the poor or make them invisible? The poor are crying in our midst, and we pass them, unable to hear their cries or see them as people.
But Bartimaeus is persistent, he cries out louder, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” By calling Jesus the Child of David, Bartimaeus recognizes Jesus as a prophet, a person of power. The blind Child of Poverty forcefully engages the Child of David despite the crowds threatening him and shushing him. .
The mood of the crowd changes as Jesus calls him to be brought forth. Jesus asks him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man asks, “Rabboni (my teacher), let me see again.” Jesus heals him and says,”Go your faith has made you well.” Simple right, I end my sermon here. Wrong!
No there are three levels of meaning to this healing story.
My first point is a simple observation, often missed. When Jesus call him, Bartimaeus stood up, threw aside his garment, left the few coins he may have received from begging, and came to Jesus. He threw aside all he had to come to Jesus. These could easily been stolen. This reminds of the story in the same chapter I preached two weeks ago about the rich young man whom Jesus asked to sell everything he has and give the monies to the poor and follow him. A poor, blind man has greater faith than a pious religious man who refuses to give away his wealth and follow Jesus.
But have you ever notice in the stories of healing, Jesus never says, “God heals you,” or “I heal you.” Jesus speaks of having faith to move mountains. Albert Nolan, in his book, Jesus Today, writes,
…it is clearly faith in God, not only in the existence of God or even the power of God, but as Jesus saw it, faith in God as the loving and forgiving Father (Abba). Faith is a particular kind of consciousness, the consciousness of God, or the divine, as loving and caring for us. And that is why, the faith that Jesus speaks of includes trust. Jesus was able to do the things he did because he put all his trust in God. And the lives of others were transformed when they learned to trust God.
Secondly, Jesus’ healing of Bartimaeus becomes a critique of the crowd. Jesus criticizes the crowd who judge Bartimaeus that his parents have sinned against God and he carries the burden of their sins. He was named by them Son of poverty, unclean son, abominable child. Jesus explodes their shallow notions of sins. His healing says clearly, “You are the sinners in your judgment of the blind man. How dare you silence him for his speaking up and speaking with faith! You are completely wrong.” On other occasions, Jesus discouraged his disciples to judge blindness as punishment for sin. Humans during Jesus and other times have understood a baby born blind or any affliction was a curse, a punishment. Often parents would leave the infant exposed on the hillside to die from the element, starvation, or wild animals.
Bartimaeus has faith, he has placed his trust in God and Jesus. He is literally blind but his eyes are open in faith. For the Jews at this time, the heart and eyes are the seats of emotion; they are connected. Bartimaeus’ heart is wide open with faith, not blind. So he cries out to Jesus to bring healing to eyes to reflect the faith of his heart.
Jesus also chides his disciples as gatekeepers of access to himself. Bartimaeus does not have to access Jesus through them. He can speak up for himself, not through yourselves. He is an adult child of God with faith shining forth. There is no need for a go between faith and God. How often we silence the afflicted and the ill, treating them as children and attempting to speak for them. Jesus criticizes such behavior of muting the voices of the afflicted.
My third point is the location of the story in the gospel and Mark’s criticism of the disciples. Jesus’ journey starts in chapter 8, the healing of the blind man at Bethsaida. This is an example again of a Marcan sandwich, placing significant narration in between two stories of healing blind men. The two stories of healing blindness highlight the difference sight and blindness of among Jesus’ disciples.
Between the two stories, there are a number of occasions that the disciples who accompany him and are with him on a nearly daily basis are blind since they are unable to see truly who Jesus is and hiss mission. For example, Peter answers the question of Jesus, “Who do you say that I am?” He affirms that Jesus is God’s Christ, but when he Jesus predicts his passion and death. Peter denies, and Jesus responds: “Get behind me, you evil one.”
Or just before this story, the sons of Zebeedee ask him, “Teacher, grant us that we may sit, one of the right and the other on your left side, in your glory.” Jesus asks whether they can endure the baptism that he be baptized, in other words, his passion and death. Jesus’ disciples are irritated Jesus tells in very clear language:
You know that those who are considered rulers over he Gentiles lord it over them, and their great one exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your slave. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be a slave of all. For the Child of Humanity did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.
Mark wants to point out how blind are Jesus’ disciples to his teachings and understanding his mission. It seems that real blindness is among the disciples rather than the two men born blind and who are healed because of their faith. The blind men healed become models of discipleship and faith. Their eyes are opened, and this means that their hearts have become open to Jesus and God. It is a heart to heart trust and placing their hearts in the heart of God.
This brings us to today. What blinds us or the faith of hearts? What stops or prevents us from trusting Jesus in our discipleship?
Nolan notes that Jesus worked healing through steadfast faith in God:
He (Jesus) trusted God without hesitation or reserve. He could then quite confidently challenge others to trust God too. He encouraged, strengthened, and liberated people to believe that the impossible could happen. An example of this which would be the way in which he challenged the lame, the paralyzed, and the crippled by issuing a simple command, “Stand up and walk.” Empowered by his confident faith, people found that suddenly they could stand up and walk. In such circumstances, it seems that miracles do happen, that people’s lives are transformed. Healing becomes a reality.
The great miracle Jesus performed was to help facilitate people to trust that God was with them, to place their trust in God. Jesus’ faith in God was contagious, and that contagious faith enable the sons and daughters of poverty—the abominable, the sinner, the unclean, and impure to escape at the religious judgment and silencing of the crowds and religious elite.