The Last Sunday After Trinity, 27 October
Readings: Jer. 31.7-9; Heb. 7.23-28; Mk. 10.46b-52
Theme: The Faith of a Disciple
One thing that we continually notice when we study the scriptures is that their meaning is inexhaustible. Each time we come back to a passage, we notice something new that we had not seen before. This is because the scriptures are not simply ancient texts, though that they are that of course as well, but it is because they are inspired texts. When we read the scriptures, we encounter the living word of God for us here and now. This means that when we hear the scriptures, we are always in a conversation between God and ourselves. And, like all good conversations, there is always some movement in the discussion which we did not envisage and some new insights that emerge as we exchange with our dialogue partner.
In the case of the gospel for today there are so many layers to this discussion that it is difficult to know where to begin. Clearly, the passage is part of what we might call the ‘on the road with Jesus’ passages. It is part of the stories which St Mark is using to instruct us about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, a follower of the Son of God. For a number of weeks now, we have encountered passages of this type. Sometimes it is the disciples themselves who are the subject and at others it is the crowds, but the general lesson is that they are slow to lean and they resist the message of Jesus.
So, when we come to this wonderful and well-known passage of the healing of the blind man Bartimaeus, we are encountering a textbook lesson in discipleship. The passage begins with Bartimaeus sitting by the roadside and hearing Jesus. In other words, the road to discipleship begins by hearing the words of Jesus. Our encounter with the living word of God in the scriptures, as we heard a few weeks ago in our then second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews, ‘The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart’, is not simply an encounter with a text, but with a living person, the Word of God, Jesus himself, alive and active with us through the power of the Holy Spirit. Just like the encounter between Bartimeaus and Jesus, our encounter with Jesus begins with encountering the word of God. However, for this Word of God to be received, it needs to be accepted in faith. This is signified in the text by the words of Bartimaeus, ‘Jesus Son of David, have mercy on me!’ So, the scriptures are not simply pieces of information, they are the medium of a personal encounter with Jesus.
Interestingly, as soon as Bartimaeus makes his own declaration of faith in Jesus, he is told by the crowds to shut up. In other words, his journey of following Jesus starts with the resistance of others to it. ‘Many sternly ordered him to be quiet’. Yet, rather than sit back and acquiesce into silence, Bartimaeus fights back and shouts out to Jesus even more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me’. This expression, ‘Son of David’, is not in the text by chance. It is an indication that Bartimaeus is aware that this wonder worker, Jesus, is the messiah, the one whom Israel had been awaiting throughout its long history.
Such a declaration of faith by Bartimaeus clearly has a dramatic effect on Jesus, as it makes him stop in his tracks, ‘Jesus stood still and said, ‘Call him here’. It draws the attention of Jesus to him, so much so that it even changes the mood of the crowd who had formerly been so negative. Now the crowd encourage Bartimaeus and say to him to, ‘Take heart; get up, he is calling you’. In other words, the persistence of Bartimaeus has an effect on others. It causes them to change as well. The throwing off of the cloak by Bartimaeus is also not without symbolic importance. This is a symbol of Bartimaeus throwing off his old life as he now begins on another path in response to the call of Jesus. This new pathway begins by Jesus asking Bartimaeus what he would like him to do for him. The petition of Bartimaeus is a deceptively simple one. He would like to see again. Simple as this demand may seem, it contains within it a number of layers. First, we learn that Bartimaeus had once been able to see. In other words, he has lost the ability of sight at some point and he is coming to Jesus for him to restore it for him. We can consider this physical lack as also having a spiritual significance in the light of this allegory about discipleship. The physical loss of sight is also a code for spiritual blindness. Bartimaeus, realizes he has lost something and he wants it back. Sight, whether physical or spiritual, represents faith here in this story. Jesus recognizes this moment and this is why he is stopped in his tracks. This is the depiction of the journey of the disciple which begins in faith. It is the return of the faith of Bartimaeus in the messiah who is now present in his midst. Second we learn that Bartimaeus is a disciple through an indirect statement in the text. Bartimaeus calls Jesus ‘teacher’ and that means Bartimaeus considers himself to be a ‘disciple’ of Jesus, because a disciple is one who learns from a teacher. This is St Mark’s way of revealing to us the deeper meaning of the text; namely, that this is a model passage about Christian discipleship.
The effects of this faith in Jesus are two-fold. Faith heals Bartimaeus and this healing enables him to follow Jesus on the way. And, so it is with us. Our faith in hearing Jesus in the scriptures both heals us and enables us to be followers of Jesus. It is through the faith of Bartimaeus that this healing occurs, as Jesus says, ‘Go; your faith has made you well.’ So, inspired by the example of Bartimaeus let us pray that the Holy Spirit may place us on that same road looking out for Jesus and to hear the call of Jesus to us, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ We too need the same healing in order that we may be followers of the Lord and it is only the faith of the disciple which makes this possible.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.