And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road

 

 Now they came to Jericho.  As He went out of Jericho with His disciples and a great multitude, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the road begging.  And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"  Then many warned him to be quiet; but he cried out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"  So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called.  Then they called the blind man, saying to him, "Be of good cheer.  Rise, He is calling you."  And throwing aside his garment, he rose and came to Jesus.  So Jesus answered and said to him, "What do you want Me to do for you?"  The blind man said to Him, "Rabboni, that I may receive my sight."  Then Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your faith has made you well."  And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road.

 

- Mark 10:46-52 

 

Yesterday we read that the disciples were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was going before them; and they were amazed.  And as they followed they were afraid.  Then He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them the things that would happen to Him:  "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles; and they will mock Him, and scourge Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him.  And the third day He will rise again."  Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Him, saying, "Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask."  And He said to them, "What do you want Me to do for you?"  They said to Him, "Grant us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory."  But Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you ask.  Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?"  They said to Him, "We are able."  So Jesus said to them, "You will indeed drink the cup that I drink, and with the baptism I am baptized with you will be baptized; but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared."   And when the ten heard it, they began to be greatly displeased with James and John.  But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, "You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.  Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant.  And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all.  For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

 

  Now they came to Jericho.  As He went out of Jericho with His disciples and a great multitude, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the road begging.  And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"  Then many warned him to be quiet; but he cried out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"  So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called.  Then they called the blind man, saying to him, "Be of good cheer.  Rise, He is calling you."  And throwing aside his garment, he rose and came to Jesus.  So Jesus answered and said to him, "What do you want Me to do for you?"  The blind man said to Him, "Rabboni, that I may receive my sight."  Then Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your faith has made you well."  And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road.  My study bible comments that restoration of sight to the blind was a sign that was expected to be performed by the Messiah (Isaiah 29:18, 25:4-5).  It was considered to be a power that God had reserved for God alone (compare to John 9:32).  Son of David is a messianic title, which shows that Bartimaeus had faith that Jesus was the Christ.  My study bible also says that there is a patristic interpretation with a spiritual orientation to this miracle.  Jericho was a low-lying city which was associated with sin (Luke 10:30, 19:1).  In the spiritual interpretation of this story, Jericho symbolizes fallen humanity.  That Christ passes through the city is an image of the Incarnation.  Christ restoring sight to Bartimaeus is a parallel to restoring humanity to glory, a kind of illumination.  Once the spiritually blind are made whole by Christ, human nature can can now follow Christ on the road to the Kingdom, which is symbolized by Jesus' subsequent entrance into Jerusalem (11:1-11).  

What is blindness, and how do we understand it?  Today we have scientific innovations that make correction of physical blindness (or degrees of blindness) something that no longer seems only possible to God.  But then again, at the time of Christ, to restore sight was a seeming impossibility, something unheard-of.  So the prophetic understanding that this would be a sign of the Messiah still stands within the context of the time of Jesus Christ.  But how shall we consider this story today?  Of course we understand Jericho as a place of peril, of sin and violence.  Jesus set the parable of the The Good Samaritan in Jericho for just such a reason; this road was a dangerous place to travel.  Even historically in the Scriptures, Jericho figured as a place of sin.  We also have to see, as my study bible pointed out, that Jesus must pass through Jericho to get to Jerusalem.  Just like for Joshua and the ancient Israelites, this city must somehow be conquered or passed through before Jesus can reach the holy city to establish His Kingdom.  So much depends upon how we think of that city and of Christ's Kingdom.  Jericho, the low-lying city, can even be thought of as akin to the time that Jesus will spend in Hades, the underworld, preaching the good news of the gospel to all who have passed, and linked to His time in the tomb prior to Resurrection.  In the earliest teaching documents of the Church, such as the Didache, and also prominent in Jewish tradition, is the understanding of the "two ways" of spiritual truth.  That is, the way of life and the way of death.  In a sense, the Incarnation of Christ is the story of the root of life itself (John 14:6), passing through the place of death, and by doing so, defeating death.  Bartimaeus as a blind man, symbolizes those without the light of Christ's truth and life, those who grasp in the dark for mercy for their afflicted condition.  But he is also the son of honor, for he is the "son of Timaeus" (as the name Bartimaeus means).  Timaeus has a Greek root, which means honor or worth, that virtue that is true substance and value.  Blind Bartimaeus knows that he is afflicted, but he cannot help himself.  He is also aware of the place from which his help will come, and shouts to Christ as the "son of David," the Messiah, the one who will restore the true Kingdom.  If we apply Bartimaeus' story to ourselves, we must see that he may mirror us in the sense that he knows he is diminished, afflicted, held back by something that is not his fault.  His sin or imperfection is all about what he can't see, and only Christ can restore that sight.  Jesus says, "Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going" (John 12:35).  When we know that for some reason our lives aren't working, when we seem to be running into dead ends, there is one place we go for illumination, for light to show us the path we need, the way of life that leads out of the way of death, and that is to Christ.  Let us note that the text tells us that Bartimaeus threw aside his garment to run to Christ when he was called.  It is symbolic that the past had been exhausted for him, nothing that had been tried before could help, and he was ready to toss aside his past for the future offered by Christ's life and light (John 1:4).  To get past death, we need the One who destroyed death by passing through it in order to give us an abundance of life, Resurrection.  When our past no longer works for us, when everything we know does not prepare us for the present affliction, let us turn to the One for whom there is no such thing as "hopeless," the refuge for all.  He who turns no one away will hear our cries for mercy.  But like Bartimaeus, let us cast aside the garments of the past, and follow Him on the road where He leads to the holy Kingdom of God.