Where is Bart?

‘… Take heart; get up, he is calling you.’ (Mark 10:49)

Mark 10:46-52 (Year B: Advent-5)

The current impasse

But where is Bartimaeus today? We may ask.  Is there someone who is begging for help nearby?  Next to you on the train and looking vacant but in the depths of despair?  Someone in your own family circle who does not know how to articulate what is going on inside their head?  Someone who is a work colleague but hiding deep wounds?  Someone on Grafton Street, Dublin and sleeping rough waiting to be moved on at 5.30am when the shopping street needs to be ‘cleared’ of unpleasant sights, sounds and smells before people arrive for work, commerce or pleasure? Someone fast asleep in a warm 24 hour internet café on Talbot Street, Dublin because that’s the only place to sleep and survive? A family from the Irish Traveller community seeking emergency accommodation after a recent tragedy? A young child grasping for life, warmth and nourishment as an adult carries her through muddy waters on the Czech-Slovenian frontier in October 2015?

Many stories about the blind, the lame, the leper or other outcasts of ‘respectable ‘, ‘law-abiding’ and ‘religious’ society abound in the New Testament. At a distance of 2,000 years we can cast a comfort blanket around these stories. Or, we can fill out a direct debit to some excellent charity struggling with a tide of human suffering in various parts of the globe. Or, we can wake up to the call to act today, now in my immediate circles of influence and relationships.

Stories from the past..

Two thousand years ago, Jesus came to give sight to the blind; to heal, to set free and to proclaim good news (Luke 4:18-19).   Today millions seek a ‘year of the Lord’s favour’ (Luke 4:19) and they don’t find it. The gospel writer, Mark, summarises the key points of Jesus’ ministry at the very beginning of his gospel and again in this short passage (10:46-52). It  concerns:

• Faith
• Repentance
• Healing
• Following
• Mission (being sent)

It seems fitting that Mark should remind his audience, again, of the foundational pillars of the Gospel as we move from a period of ministry of healing and preaching to a new phase in the final story of what was about to happen in Jerusalem.

A blind man – Bartimaeus –  was sitting by the road waiting for help. He had not given up because we are told he cried out for help to Jesus. Was he abandoned by his family? Did he have any family? Where did he come from and was he blind from birth? The fact that he was given a name by Mark might suggest that he became a disciple known among the early followers of Jesus?

We don't know for sure but we can assume that according to the cultural and religious norms of that time conditions of sickness or disability were often associated with sin. In other words, it was believed, that people who found themselves in such situations were paying the price for their own sin or that of their parents or forebears. A religion of ordinances, fines, punishments and restitutions was in full sway. This is the scene for what happened on the road from Jericho (or to Jericho if we go with the detail of Luke's gospel).

For Mark, the scene is set in Jericho as Jesus heads for Jerusalem for the end-game. A blind man is on the way. There is more than hint of the story of the Good Samaritan about this passage.  Loving the actual real person next to us in the present moment of life can be so blindingly obvious that it is the very thing we miss as we are 'busy' with our many petty goals and deadlines.  The cries of Bartimaeus and his presence might be seen as inconvenient, embarrassing and preventing our progress. But, Jesus senses someone in despair whom he can help there and then.

Bartimeus calls out in faith - 'Jesus, son of David have mercy on me'. This was a cry from the depths of his heart born of anguish, continuous affliction and, to cap it all, social stigma and the lowest of esteem. In this story the call to Bartimaeus comes through intermediaries before Jesus directly addresses Bartimaeus. Today, God uses people to extend a call to yet other people. Are we mediators of God's call to others or are we more like obstacles by the way we live and think and speak?

On being healed Bartimaeus begins to follow Jesus. And it reasonable to conclude that he was likely to have been among those sent by Jesus and that followed him 'on the road' (to Jerusalem and beyond). An interesting divergence in the same basic story is to be found in the account of Matthew (20:29-34) where it is said that two blind men were called and healed.  Matthew is concerned about the communal aspect of discipleship. Where 'two or three are gathered' there is the healing power of Jesus whether as when he walked on the waters or when he healed, here, on the road from Jericho or when on the cross surrounded by two accused thieves.

And so today..

On our journey through life we meet with people who are broken. Or, perhaps, we experience brokenness ourselves on the side of life's journey. The gospels assure us that in his risen body the Christ of God is never far from us. Indeed, through faith he lives in our hearts even when we seem to have no sense of faith or presence or reassurance of same.

And walking on the road with Jesus is the result of making our peace with the One who heals us where nobody else can.  There is a saying that 'seeing is believing'. However, in this passage of Mark we have a reversal of the normal sequence: 'believing is seeing' as Bartimaeus put his trust in God's power at work in Jesus whom he could not yet see. A light is lit in our souls when we trust in this power. The real Bartimaeus is found when we go out from our own prisons and discover the freedom of the Gospel. As St Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:6:

For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.