Jesus and his followers are almost to
Jerusalem, and Jesus going through Jericho performs the last miracle in the
Gospel of Mark before entering the Holy Week in Jerusalem. We come to the miracle of healing Bartimaeus’
blindness. There is so much that can be
said from this one little passage. How
Jericho is the city of Joshua’s conquest, how Bartimaeus calls out to the
Messiah (Son of David), how he was rebuked but still persistent, how Jesus
cures him and he follows the Way, casting off his only possession, his cloak, and
how this is the second healing of blindness in the Mark sandwiched containing
the apostles’ metaphorical blindness.
As Jesus was leaving Jericho with
his disciples and a sizable crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus,
sat by the roadside begging.
On hearing that it was Jesus of
Nazareth,
he began to cry out and say,
"Jesus, son of David, have pity
on me."
And many rebuked him, telling him to
be silent.
But he kept calling out all the
more,
"Son of David, have pity on
me."
Jesus stopped and said, "Call
him."
So they called the blind man, saying
to him,
"Take courage; get up, Jesus is
calling you."
He threw aside his cloak, sprang up,
and came to Jesus.
Jesus said to him in reply,
"What do you want me to do for you?"
The blind man replied to him,
"Master, I want to see."
Jesus told him, "Go your way;
your faith has saved you."
Immediately he received his sight and
followed him on the way.
~Mk 10:46-52
Here is someone new
to my Sunday Meditations to explain it, Professor Curtis Mitch from the St. Paul Center, the same institute Dr. Scott Hahn started and runs.
For a more pastoral
understanding to apply it to your life, Jeff Cavins has a short talk.
Sunday Meditation: "Jesus, son
of David, have pity on me."
John Michael Talbot’s “Surrender to Jesus” is
just so beautiful.
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