Mark 10:46-52 Bartimaeus the last disciple

Reading:  Mark 10:46-52

The healing of Bartimaeus is unique; there is nothing like it in the book of Mark. I know, it seems familiar; Mark has three stories of Jesus healing blind people, and there is a way that it strongly resembles when Jesus healed the man blind from birth in Jerusalem — but as far as Mark goes there is only one healing like it. I found three things unique in the gospel account: How the Blind man was introduced, how he addressed Jesus, and how he responded once he was healed.

If you notice, Mark’s gospel tells us that Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus was sitting by the roadside. Now, you’ve likely noticed that when Jesus heals people in Mark, a very common description is: “And Jesus healed many who were sick.” Sometimes, there is a longer description of the healing — such as the paralyzed man who was lowered through the roof when Jesus had a chance to go home, but it is rare that we can identify who was healed from the passage. Even when Jesus healed Peter’s mother in law, or Jarius’ daughter, the person who was left unnamed. Bartimaeus is the only person Jesus healed who was significant enough to be given a name.

As you might know, name-dropping is generally something you do with names that are familiar to the group. When this story was originally told, it is fairly safe to assume that people hearing the story when Peter told it in person would know who Bartimaeus was; this lead me to an observation that I find curious; I have no idea who this man was outside of the Biblical text. Usually when I see a name in the New Testament, I can find what Christian tradition has to say about the person; but as far as I can tell, Christian tradition is silent on this man. While Peter named the blind man healed in Jerusalem, Luke apparently edited the name out. Bartimaeus was important enough to name when the apostles were still preaching the gospel, but the reason has been forgotten; then again, perhaps the other two unique things in this story may offer us a hint.

The second unique feature of this story is when Bartimaeus calls out to Jesus, He cries out: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” When we see this, we see the blind beggar publicly saying something about Jesus that nobody else says; that he is the son, and perhaps the Heir of David. Peter might have recognized that Jesus was the Messiah privately, but this blind beggar publicly proclaimed who Jesus was while he was calling for mercy. He wanted to be healed, and he asked for healing — but he knew that Jesus was more than just a healer.

The final feature of this story that is unique is how the blind man responded to the healing. I’m going to get back to this idea in a little bit, but first, I want us to consider what happened when Jesus healed people. Generally, when Jesus healed people, after they got what they needed they went home, and presumably went on with their lives. Perhaps the best example is Luke 17, where Jesus heals ten lepers — he tells the ten to go and show themselves to the priests (so they can be accepted back into society.) All ten of them are healed, but only two return to Jesus to say “Thanks you.” While Jesus asks where the other 8 are, if I look at all the stories of healing, I get the idea that even 2 out of 10 coming back to say thank-you was an extraordinarily rare event. Once people get what they want, they go away.

Now, I know that this is much like the experience that we have in real life. If you talk with people who work with soup kitchens, or food pantries, or any number of aid charities, you will learn that you don’t get very many thank-you notes for your work. People know that you are there for those who need something, and they take what they need and go home. Whether we like it or not, this is the nature of things — the relationship is purely one of providing a service to someone who needs the service.

Many of us also know somebody who only calls when he or she needs something, but who is never there for us. This was the relationship Jesus appears to have had with almost everybody that he healed. Bartimaeus was different; he got up from where he was begging, and followed Jesus on the way. This is exactly what the disciples did — they left their familiar old life and followed Jesus. If I were to guess why Bartimaeus was named, I would guess it is because he was one of the disciples.

After this, there are no more stories of those Jesus healed in Mark’s gospel. We are now in the last week of Jesus’ life; immediately after Bartimaeus follows Jesus, Mark moves on to the triumphal entry. Bartimaeus follows Jesus on the way, but at this point the cross is only a week away. Bartimaeus knows something about who Jesus is, he does what disciples do right at the time when it was hardest to be a disciple and even the 12 were scattered. His story is one that I wish were not forgotten.


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