Blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10)

In Nomine etc..

    “Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside”. “Bar” means “son of” in Hebrew, and Timaeus comes from a Greek verb meaning ‘to honor’, so  the name means something like ‘son of honor’. This name, in other words, is a very interesting Hebrew-Greek hybrid. Greeks had ruled that part of the world since the time of Alexander the Great and were part of the population, as were Romans and many other ethnicities, to use a current word.

    Timaeus is also the title of a book, a dialog by Plato, which, according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, is an “account of the formation of the universe and an explanation of its impressive order and beauty. The universe, he proposes, is the product of rational, purposive, and beneficent agency. It is the handiwork of a divine Craftsman…” It is possible that the Evangelist knew this, and so includes this name in order to make a point about a relationship between ideas of the Greeks, and the revelation of God the creator to the Hebrews. Bartimaeus, after all, is blind, that is to say, he is in some way incomplete, and comes to sight, that is, to full understanding, in the presence of Jesus the Messiah.  Bartimaeus, Son of Honor, heir to Greek ideas about God and creation, comes to Jesus to reach full understanding.

    “He began to shout out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.’” The blind man, in other words, knows who Jesus is. He knows that he’s the Son of David, the promised Messiah. The Son of Honor recognizes the Son of David, even though he can’t see him. He has reached a depth of insight that allows him to perceive Jesus’s true nature. His blindness has helped him to develop his spiritual awareness, which in his case does not depend on physical sight. He knows, he is confident of what he knows, he trusts, and so he acts and calls on Jesus.

    The sighted people around Jesus are not so insightful or so aware. “Many sternly ordered him to be quiet.” Well, of course; he’s a blind beggar by the roadside, as unimportant and low status and ignorable a person as the crowd can think of, perhaps only a step or two above lepers and the like. Perhaps we ourselves feel a bit like this crowd around Jesus, when we ignore the beggars and the lost and the mad on our streets. In any case, Bartimaeus doesn’t let the blind crowd stop him; “he cried out even more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me’”. The blind man sees in Jesus not only physical healing, but the completion, the fulfilment of his spiritual journey, attainment of fuller understanding of the role of God and Jesus in creation, and in his own life.

    Jesus hears the call of the blind man. He doesn’t let the spiritually sightless crowd deter him. “Call him here,” he says. Notice at this moment that Jesus doesn’t call the blind man directly; he tells the crowd to do this. Jesus uses the moment to teach the crowd that they must pay attention to the call of the needy, the blind, those of low status, and truth-seekers. The crowd, like us, must learn to hear the calls of the blind and others, must be willing to learn from them, must be open to the possibilities that they present.

    “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” Jesus is calling all of us, to open up ourselves to his experience of God, which can be ours as well. The story even tells us how this works.

“So, throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.” Well, that describes it almost completely. We throw off our cloaks, all those routines and protections and beliefs and opinions and evasions and who knows what else, that prevent us from letting Jesus get through to us. As long as we wrap ourselves in our defenses, not even a miracle can get through to us.

    And there is still one more step. Jesus asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” He can’t help us if we don’t know what we want. We can’t help ourselves either, until we’re clear about that. Once we are clear about what we want, then we see. “My teacher, let me see again.” Bartimaeus, son, probably, of a Greek, is ready to see, and he does. The Messiah and a man with Gentile ancestry are ready to share in a vision of creation which Plato foresaw, and which Jesus represents. May we also hear Jesus’s call, throw off our cloaks, let him open our eyes, and ‘immediately regain our sight, and follow him on the Way.’ Amen. (27-28.X.18. Adv.)