The Sightful Follower

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

THE SIGHTFUL FOLLOWER

Mark 10:46-52

46 Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus), was sitting by the roadside begging. 47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" 48 Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" 49 Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." So they called to the blind man, "Cheer up! On your feet! He's calling you." 50 Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. 51 "What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked him. The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see." 52 "Go," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.

NIV

This is the last of the healings we see that Mark records before Jesus enters Jerusalem for what we call the Passion Week. There is something interesting here in that Mark gives us the name of the person being healed. This may be the first time we have ever heard a person’s name who needed healing, and Mark uses it twice in a sense. First, he gives us his name as Bartimaeus and then as the Son of Timaeus.  The fact that his name begins with Bar, which is the word for son, and the rest of his name is the same as his father's. This may well simply mean it is a family name and nothing else. Yet why does Mark give us this blind man’s name when he has never given any other name of people who were healed, including blind men. There is also something interesting in that Bartimaeus called out to Jesus, Son of David. What else is interesting is that because this is the only time Mark gives us a name, and he also uses this parenthetical explanatory translation, as he has in the past. So then it would read, Son of Timaeus, (that is Son of Timaeus). Our scholars suggest that perhaps the reason Mark gives this name is due to the great literary dialogue of Plato where Timaeus is the narrator. We are told by our scholars that Plato in his work of Timaeus and elsewhere he famously contrasts the “seeing” the mere physical world while being “blind” to eternal truths. Could Mark have read this important work and uses this as a lesson for that same idea because of giving us this man’s name as the same in Plato’s work? Only a learned scholar might take the time to research and come up with a possibly plausible interpretation. The average reader would never find this concept, which we are, and thus our scholars may be making more of it than it should be. Yet, it is interesting to ponder. However, there is another translation of this fellow’s name which can be rendered as unclean. He is an unclean blind beggar who gives Jesus honor, by calling him Jesus, Son of David. This honors Jesus as Matthew does in his genealogy. He starts right out by saying this a record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham. Jesus is greater than David and Abraham and this Bartimaeus calls him the Son of David. But what is of interest for our lives are the two truths we can apply. First, when Jesus says to call him and he threw off his cloak and came, Jesus asked him what he wanted him to do for him. Well, actually there are three truths we can apply. The first being when this man was called to come to Jesus, he threw aside his cloak. Are we not to throw aside that which we were clothed with in our spiritual blindness? Second, are we not told to ask for that which we need? Although Jesus already knew Bartimaeus wanted to see, he asked him what he wanted Jesus to do for him. Jesus wanted him to ask to be healed, to ask for his sight. Then there is this possibility that Mark is again showing the difference between spiritual blindness and that once we meet Jesus we can see. However, the third truth we can apply has more to do with what happens with Bartimaeus. Jesus tells him to Go, that his faith has healed him. Well, actually there are fourth truths we can apply. The third being the need for faith to be healed. Doubt destroys faith, doubt hinders faith’s work. The simple faith of a child, as Jesus has pointed out to us before brings healing as we come to him and ask. What we see in the physical, or feel in the physical can hamper real faith. Although Bartimaeus knew his eyes could not see, he believed Jesus could make him see. The fourth truth is that the Son of Timaeus did not go, but he followed Jesus, and we would have to believe, he followed him all the way up to Jerusalem, and that he was not quiet about his being able to see. Instead of thinking of him as blind Bartimaeus, we should think of him as Bartimaeus the sightful follower of Jesus.