This final moment has a blind man in front of them, but can they see him? He is shouting for Jesus, but can they hear him? Is the man like a tree, walking to them? Are his shouts like the buzz of a mosquito? Do they not understand yet, even now, at the end of the journey?
Seeing without sight and following without knowing
Proper 25B | Mark 10:46-52
Blindness
Let’s travel back to chapter 8 in Mark. This chapter begins with the second big feeding. We all remember the Feeding of the Five thousand. In Mark, there’s a second feeding: this one of four thousand. And when they’re done, they get in a boat and leave. But before they can go, some Pharisees stop them and question Jesus. This leads to this pretty awesome exchange:
Now the disciples had forgotten to bring any bread; and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And he cautioned them, saying, ‘Watch out—beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.’ They said to one another, ‘It is because we have no bread.’ And becoming aware of it, Jesus said to them, ‘Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and fail to hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?’ They said to him, ‘Twelve.’ ‘And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?’ And they said to him, ‘Seven.’ Then he said to them, ‘Do you not yet understand?’
Did you catch that? “Do you have eyes, and fail to see?” This is Jesus’s way of saying Haven’t you been paying attention to what I’ve been saying? Can’t you tell that these people aren’t to be trusted? Don’t you see the problem? How will you see the Kingdom?
This issue of the disciples not getting the point, as we’ve established, is a constant the rest of the way. This is a big deal to Jesus. But there is something more here, I think than some exasperated teacher. This isn’t simple frustration, this is concern. Concern that they are missing what they will need for when stuff gets really serious.
The evangelist we call Mark is a master storyteller. So he follows this exchange about seeing and hearing with an even more fascinating story given that teaching.
They came to Bethsaida. Some people brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village; and when he had put saliva on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, ‘Can you see anything?’ And the man looked up and said, ‘I can see people, but they look like trees, walking.’ Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Then he sent him away to his home, saying, ‘Do not even go into the village.’
I love this story about this man from Bethsaida who was blind and can now see. My favorite part is that it doesn’t take at first. Jesus spits on his hands and rubs the man’s eyes and he’s all like “ta da! Well?” And the man can sort of see. Perhaps like some of us without our glasses: all fuzzy. But his response is evocative: “like trees, walking”.
Jesus is talking to the disciples about not being able to see and then here, restores the sight of this blind man and then, after the first healing he can only sort of see, so Jesus heals him again. “He looked intently” it says. These aren’t simply rich details of a stunning story, but part of how we come to understand Jesus. How we come to see.
Seeing
This healing story then leads into the Passion Predictions, the time of Jesus foretelling his death, the sequence of vignettes in which the disciples keep missing the point, keep failing to see what Jesus is getting at, where Jesus is trying to lead them. He’s trying to take them to the Kingdom of GOD, to see the Great Economy, and they keep seeing like this first man, like the people are trees, walking.
This gospel story, about Bartimaeus, a man significant enough to be named, but we don’t really know why, forms the bookend of Jesus’s journey to Jerusalem. And it is from here that they enter Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. It is from here that they end their journey and enter into the sequence we call Holy Week and ultimately, the Passion Jesus predicts and the Resurrection they fail to see.
This final moment has a blind man in front of them, but can they see him? He is shouting for Jesus, but can they hear him? Is the man like a tree, walking to them? Are his shouts like the buzz of a mosquito? Do they not understand yet, even now, at the end of the journey?
Jesus calls the man to him. The disciples call over, he wants you! they’re shouting. And what does the man do:
So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.
The blind man ditches his cloak, which means he’s kind of half-naked or maybe totally naked, and “he sprang up” he’s jumping up and he comes to Jesus.
OK, two things. The dude moves, right? He books it to Jesus. He doesn’t need his clothes, he’s not waiting around for him to change his mind or anything, he’s getting to Jesus!
And two, the blind man finds Jesus from a distance. When he’s still blind. No Good Samaritan is taking this stranger by the hand and leading him over to where Jesus is standing. This isn’t a compassionate moment of service by the disciples. This man finds Jesus himself. He doesn’t have eyes to see literally, but he has eyes to see Jesus spiritually.
Bartimaeus
Today, we’re concluding this arc in Mark in which Jesus is going to Jerusalem. And there is no wonder that the evangelist bookends this arc with stories of sight restored, of these men brought out of blindness. For they contrast the disciples, who remain in spiritual blindness, who fail to see what Jesus is showing them about the Kingdom.
Of course we fail to see the Kingdom around us. But we don’t want to, do we? This man’s blindness falls from his eyes like the walls of Jericho. So for us to see, is to look upon Bartimaeus with our own eyes to see. For this man who was blind does not do as the others, and run into town and tell the world about Jesus, but instead, he gets in line behind Jesus:
Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.
To the cross. That was Jesus’s call to the disciples in chapter 8, to take up their cross and follow Jesus on the way. The way Jesus is going is to Jerusalem: To the cross and to death. To resurrection and to new life.
For this man, seeing Jesus isn’t only gazing upon him with eyes, but to follow him as a disciple, calling him teacher; as one called to a disciple’s posture, walking behind him. Following him, not only to the easy, but to the brink of death and beyond.
Bartimaeus is so unlike the disciples. Not like Peter who tries to avoid the cross. Not like the disciples who were arguing over who was greatest. Not like James and John who only think they can handle where Jesus is leading them. Bartimaeus is following him there as a true disciple.
Seeing Jesus, like the new disciple, Bartimaeus, does is trusting Jesus. Finding him and following him. Not only to the easy places, but the hard.
This is so true as I look at our future and where we are headed as a congregation. This is true as we look to where we are going as a diocese. That there is a hard road ahead and our trust is in Jesus, that we follow him and trust in him that he knows the way. Even in the dark. That he is our light. Even when our eyes are glued shut with fear, it is Christ’s voice that calls us to him, that we might know his voice.
hat’s what I see. That’s the road I see. That we’re on the road from Jericho to Jerusalem. And do we do as the other disciples and scatter? Or is it Bartimaeus we see? He is the disciple we emulate, the disciple we look to so that we may better see the Kingdom. Here. As Christ is trying to show us. His eyes were opened. May ours be as well.
Leave a Reply