The healing of the blind Bartimaeus

Our Gospel reading today brings us once more to the story of the Blind Bartimaeus, which you will find in Mark 10:46-52.

"46 As [Jesus] was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, sat by the roadside begging. 47 On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, son of David, have pity on me." 48 And man rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he kept calling out all the more, "Son of David, have pity on me." 49 Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." So they called the blind man, saying to him, "Take courage, get up, he is calling you."

50 He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus. 51 Jesus said to him in reply, "What do you want me to do for you?" the blind man replied to him, "Master, I want to see." 52 Jesus told him, "Go your way; your faith has saved you." Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way."

I have no doubt in my mind that our Lord Jesus Christ is a healer for he was sent to this world to save us from our sinfulness and from an afterlife of eternal damnation. But we need to know is why did Jesus heal the blind Bartimaeus? I believe that his blind man isn't just a plain ordinary man because the evangelist Mark even identifies him as the son of Timaeus. If you were really a nobody, who would even care to know who your father was right? But in ancient times, being born blind is considered a curse. This is why Bartimaeus was probably put out into the street by his family to beg so he could fend for himself. Even the people beside him didn't show any compassion to the blind Bartimaeus, telling him to keep quiet.

No doubt, like a lot of Jews in those days, Bartimaeus must have heard about the wondrous works of this Jesus of Nazareth... whom he must have believed could be the long expected Messiah... the one who was to be born from the House of David? Every devout Jew was expecting the coming of the Messiah... even blind beggars knew that!

But here was one blind man, who knew exactly how to address the Messiah... crying out loud... "Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!" It was the first time someone in the crowd addressed Jesus of Nazareth on his true lineage! I'm sure that even the disciples of Jesus did not realize this. But Jesus heard the cries of the blind man and as we know from this story, Jesus healed Bartimaeus because of his faith in our Lord.

What about you? When was the last time you called or cried out to our Lord Jesus Christ for help because you have faith in him? Or are we just too proud to ask? We do listen to a lot of Biblical stories and perhaps believe that we could no longer call upon Jesus because all those stories happened 2,000 years ago? If only you had a personal relationship with Jesus, only then would you know that he is still here with us today as he promised us..."I will be with you till the end of time." But then, we're too busy to give our time to our Lord Jesus right?

Many of us can see, but in truth we are so blind to the realities surrounding us... that we have so many sick, lonely or poor people within our midst and like those at the time of Jesus, we even rebuke people when they cry out for help. As Christians we are taught to be good Samaritans and to love our neighbor as ourselves... but do we really do this? Do we really live the life of a true Christian? Unfortunately, only a handful of Christians do.

If you want to know why Jesus has a special affinity for the blind, open your Bible to Luke 4: 16-21.

"He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written..."The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord." Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, "Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."

This incident happened in Nazareth, the hometown of our Lord and his neighbors and friends were surprised to know that this son of Joseph the Carpenter had acquired so much wisdom, it was unbelievable. Nazoreans didn't realize nor believe that one of them would become the Messiah. They looked down on themselves that they even rejected one of their own and ran him out of town because of their lack of faith. While they could see Jesus speak before them in the Synagogue, they couldn't see who he really was. You can say that they were just as blind as Bartimaeus. Pray that we too will not be blinded by the things around us even if we have good eyesight.

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