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10/24 - 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time
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Dear Parish Family,
From Blindness to becoming a “Seer”
Jericho was one of the places that Jesus made a point to visit on his trips to Jerusalem. His last journey to the region before his trial and execution was no different. Jericho is about 15 miles northeast of Jerusalem near the Jordan River. It is known as one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world. It is also the first city that the Israelites conquered when they arrived in Canaan after their escape from Egypt some 1,400 years earlier.
Today, Jericho is located within the Palestinian territory known as the West Bank. The city’s current population is about 20,000, and the ruins of the ancient city lie among modern houses and hotels. At the time of Jesus, Jericho was known as an oasis city. In fact, Herod the Great built his winter palace near here because of its warm climate and freshwater springs. The Bible describes Jericho as the “City of Palm Trees.” Since Jericho catered to the rich and powerful during the time of Jesus, homeless outcasts often lined the roads in and out of town because it was a good place to encounter the well-to-do traders, political elites and pilgrims who tend to be generous as they travelled to the Holy City of Jerusalem.
In the Gospel narrative we meet blind Bartimaeus who will not stop yelling for Jesus to have pity on him, until Jesus finally calls for him. We can begin to study this passage from a humorous perspective. Why doesn’t Jesus go over to Bartimaeus? Why wait for the blind man to find his way to Jesus? By repeating this statement “Son of David, have pity on me” over and over, the beggar insists that Jesus owes the healing to him. By shouting it out ever more loudly, the clever beggar makes the entire crowd aware of Jesus’ debt to him.
On what basis does Jesus owe this apparent stranger anything? By addressing him as “son of David,” the beggar publicly identifies Jesus as Messiah. And when Bartimaeus does find his way to him, Jesus asks him what seems like the dumbest question: “What do you want me to do for you?” What on earth would anybody suppose Bartimaeus wants? He’s blind!
But Bartimaeus does not say to Jesus, “I want my sight.” He says, “I want to see.” To want sight is to want a capacity which can be used for all kinds of purposes, make money, go for a walk in the woods. But to want to see is to want the connection with reality that the exercise of sight makes possible. Wanting to see is wanting to know the true nature of reality, hidden in one way from a person when he is blind. It is also a matter of seeing the truth about things, or even of seeing the Truth himself. And when Jesus heals him and Bartimaeus can see, Jesus says that Bartimaeus’s faith has saved him. But why? What does Bartimaeus’s receiving his sight have to do his being saved?
Once we see what Bartimaeus asks for, the funny parts of the story make more sense. So, Jesus gives Bartimaeus all that he asks for. Bartimaeus sees not only the world around him but also his Lord. And in seeing Jesus, Bartimaeus accepts the Giver together with the gift of sight. Although Jesus gives Bartimaeus the option of going away, Bartimaeus stays by Jesus and follows him. This blind man follows Jesus in the “Way,” a technical term for Christian discipleship.
By setting this story in his Gospel right after the incident of James and John asks for honorable positions of power and Jesus contrasts the behavior of non-Judean rulers with those who hold authority in the ‘new kingdom’, Mark invites the reader further to reflect on the difference. The true disciple is cured of a spiritual blindness—that is, of seeing in Jesus only the miracle-worker and not the suffering servant—and follows him in the Way of the Cross.
With God’s blessings,
Fr Tom Kunnel C.O.