– If you remember from the study we did this past summer on Mark 3-6, we have noticed that Mark invites us to question Jesus’s identity throughout his ministry in Galilee. As we read, we can come up with different kind of insights: Jesus as a teacher, Jesus as a savior, Jesus as a healer…And indeed, in Mark’s Gospel there are a lot of stories of Jesus performing acts of healing. This is where we are today, with one of the most famous healing, the healing of the blind man Bartimaeus.
When we look at stories of healing, there is a lot we can gather about Jesus: We learn that Jesus cared about people, that he wanted to help them, that he wanted to make them whole…That’s all important things. Yet, I am glad we have spent so much time on the whole Chapter 10 of Mark as we hear this last story, because if we hadn’t had a look at the context, we could certainly learn from this healing, but it wouldn’t take us much further than “Jesus performing another healing”, with the general conclusions we can draw from it. Having studied the whole chapter though, we can certainly go a little bit deeper wondering about this passage not only as “another of Jesus’s miracle” but pondering the significance of this very miracle: Why is it that Mark tells this story right here, right now? This is where I would like us to start today.
In this chapter 10, we have looked at three people / group of people coming to Jesus to ask something from him. The Pharisees who wanted to know if it was okay to divorce their wives, the rich man who wanted to know what to do to inherit eternal life and then James and John, Jesus’s very own disciples, asking to share in Jesus’s glory. Mark places the story of the blind man in the same context: He comes to Jesus, asking for something. What we have learned so far is that in this chapter all the people who came to Jesus came with the wrong questions – questions that revealed their preoccupation with self and their hardness of heart. They all left Jesus disappointed and frustrated.
And so what happens today is that we know that the story tells us something different: The man is granted his request. So this could tell us that he did something right, correct? What did he do? What did he say? Only this: He asked Jesus to have mercy on him and he asked to be able to see again.
Now this is interesting because there is a strong connection in the Gospel between sin and blindness – something that is very obvious if you read John’s Gospel who, as always, has the most extensive and comprehensive narratives about Jesus’s signs. Blindness is not, as the disciples first assume, a consequence of sin. Quite the opposite, in John’s Gospel (Chap 9) Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.” And Jesus says also to the Pharisees: “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains”. In a much condensed way, this is also what we find in Mark: The man asking for mercy is then made able to see. The chapter we have just read is about hardness of heart, which is the emotional name for what is the deeper reality of spiritual blindness. This chapter is about hardness of heart, spiritual blindness and the way to overcome it: By asking Jesus for mercy, for forgiveness, which in the Gospel is what enables us to be able to see (spiritually). Note that the man asks to be able to see “again” – which is sort of a way of asking to go back to the state of innocence or purity that has been lost. The man throw his cloak away: he is to be made new, to be “re-made” as God intended him to be from the beginning.
And so in the end we learn that’s the right question to ask, that’s the request Jesus wants to grant to all who want to be his disciples, the request that will finally make us well instead of leaving us disappointed and frustrated. Asking Jesus to set us free from the sins that blind us. As I think about it today, it seems to me that there are three main areas where we may want to ask for clarity:
– Jesus can grant us the ability to see ourselves. This may feel like something difficult to ask and a bit scary, but we would be wrong if we’d assume it’s only about asking God to be able to see our own sin – even if it’s of course part of it. Bartimaeus asks Jesus to “have mercy”: He asks for forgiveness and compassion in the same time, and we believe that God always reveals love and compassion as God shows us our sins. God helps us to understand our wounds, our story, the way our minds work… Maybe we need to ask God to be able look at ourselves with love and compassion too so we don’t have to be so tough with ourselves or ashamed of who we are. Self acceptance is the first action we can take to overcome the hardness of our hearts.
– Jesus can grant us the ability to see others in a different light. At the beginning of the story, Bartimaeus is only able to hear the people who are criticizing him, but then he hears also those who have for him words of encouragement. As he asks mercy for him, his vision changes of what he perceives in others. I’ve heard many times Christian saying that, when they have difficulties with someone, they ask God to be able to see those people as God sees them. This is a very good prayer. It shouldn’t be limited to ask God to be able to see what’s lovable in others though. It should also start with Bartimaeus’ prayer “Have mercy on me!”, acknowledging that the way we see others is often distorted by our own sin, or at least by our own issues. We see others through the lens of our own agenda, our past experiences, our assumptions, our personal prejudices or the prejudices of our social class, of our race. So repentance is at the heart of being able to really see others, seeing them for who they are instead of seeing them only in comparison with ourselves. As we ask for mercy on ourselves, we start to have compassion for others, and that’s another way to overcome the hardness of our hearts.
– Last, but not least, Jesus grants us to see God for who God is. A commentator of this passage notices how wonderful it is that the first thing Bartimaeus is able to see is Jesus’s face! He opens his eyes and he sees God truly manifested in the person of Jesus! In comparison, the mistake of the Pharisees, of the young man and of James and John is that they weren’t seeing the real God, they were looking for a God of judgment and a God of power. But here, as Jesus is heading towards Jerusalem, we know that Jesus will reveal through his passion a God who is to be found in holiness, love and giving of self. Our heart remains closed if we come to God only to fulfill our own agenda, but if we are open to God’s agenda, we overcome the hardness of our hearts.
– Conclusion: This story is the conclusion of Jesus’s different encounters but it is also a foretelling of Jesus’s arrival in Jerusalem. Anticipating the crowd, Bartimaeus lays down his cloak and acclaims the Son of David. We also have a glimpse of the meaning of the passion. Jesus manifests a God who “makes everything new” (Revelation) – as Jesus gave his new eyes to the man, in the same way God can place new hearts in God’s people – and that’s always the right thing to ask, even today.