Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!

 

 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 Jesus and His 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 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 the restoration of sight to the blind was a sign expected to be performed by the Messiah (Isaiah 29:18; 35:4-5).  This was a power God had reserved for Himself (compare to John 9:32).  Son of David is a messianic title.  As used by Bartimaeus, it shows that he had faith that Jesus was the Christ.  In patristic commentary, there is a spiritual interpretation given to this miracle of the restoration of sight.  Jericho was a low-lying city which was associated with sin (Luke 10:30, 19:1).  Here, my study Bible explains, it symbolizes fallen humanity.  Christ passing through Jericho therefore is an image of His Incarnation.  That the Lord restores sigh tot Bartimaeus is a parallel to restoring humanity to glory; the restoration of sight to the blind means they are able to "receive light."  Having been made whole by Christ, human nature can now follow Christ on the road to the Kingdom, symbolized by Jesus' subsequent entrance in Jerusalem, in the following reading (Mark 11:1-11).  

So what does it mean to receive one's sight?  Certainly most of us would think that to be deprived of sight is a deprivation indeed.  One may still have other sensory perception such as hearing and touch, and these indeed provide necessary input for good things in life, such as the hearing of music or the human voice, and the capacity to feel objects and touch, such as the handshake or embrace of another person, even the presence of a beloved pet.  But sight seems to be in a category of its own in terms of how much we rely on eyesight to tell us about the world around ourselves, to understand what is happening or to behold beauty as well as other things we perceive.  To "see" is used even as a metaphor for understanding, and in that context it is good to think about this miracle of sight for Bartimaeus.  Of course, one hastens to add, we do not want to minimize the achievements and good life of those whose sight is impaired.  But when approaching Scripture, it is wise to think in metaphors in order to understand its meanings.  In terms of blindness, the ancient world understood blindness to be a kind of darkness, in which quite literally the light of day was not perceived by the eyes.  It was understood as a condition in which light did not permeate the eyes; to see, on the other hand, was to be illumined, for light to enter the eye.  And therein we can understand the metaphor of sight, especially in spiritual terms of illumination, and understanding.  To receive light in metaphorical terms is to receive wisdom, to have one's eyes opened to something is to understand what one was ignorant of beforehand.  In this case, as Jericho symbolizes a sinful and fallen world, it is Christ who illumines the world by liberating us from the blindness of sin, Christ who helps us to see a better way, a better life -- and all the metaphors of light used in the context of the New Testament apply here.  John's Gospel in particular uses "light" to mean God and the life that the Son brings ito the world.  John's Prologue tells us, "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it" (John 1:4-5).  In John 12:35, Jesus says to the people, "A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going."  In yesterday's reading and commentary, we wrote about Christ's power of liberation and salvation, spoken of metaphorically as ransom, which liberates a captive.  In illuminating the eyes of Bartimaeus, Jesus also liberates one held captive to darkness, enhancing the metaphors we understand about the Incarnation and the healing power of the Incarnation itself.  God has become human so that we may see beyond our captivity to sin, to selfishness, to a sense that life is all about what we can grab, what pleasures we can chase, where love hasn't much meaning beyond possibly getting something we want.  This is the point of view of a world opposite to Jesus' view of greatness:  where to be great is to "lord it over" others (see yesterday's reading, above).  We can contrast Christ's expressions of compassion (including the healing of Bartimaeus) with one in which affliction is just one's tough luck, and there is no transcendent meaning for suffering whatsoever, where love does not mean care or kindness or sympathy, and there is no consideration for others.  This is a world of darkness, where meanings are absent, and where we are not called upon to find meaning in mutual love or expressions of community.  In spiritual terms, that a world where darkness covers beauty and goodness, where we are blind to expressions of love and compassion and the courtesies that sometimes make life bearable; that is, where material power alone is all in all and coercion is the only way of life.  The entire meaning of the Incarnation is love, and it is there in which we understand that God is love:  "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son . . . " (John 3:16).  Christ did not have to become human, did not have to heal or extend Himself to human beings, did not have to offer Himself on the Cross so that we might be healed and death defeated, did not have to suffer so that we are no longer slaves to the one who wants us to believe that a dog-eat-dog life is all there is.  What is illumination, and what is sight?  Let us dispel those who would teach us that bullying and coercion are all there is, and kindness or sympathy for victims or those left out is nothing.  A life without mercy is a life without Christ, and one missing the fullness of what it is to be a human being.   For He shows us the way of light through such a world, and it is the way of life abundantly.