30th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Oct. 28, 2018
Mark 10: 46-52Salesians and Salesian Cooperators
Silver Spring, Md.
“Jesus
told him, ‘Go your way; your faith has saved you.’ Immediately he received his sight and
followed him on the way” (Mark 10: 52).
Christ Giving Sight to Bartimaeus (William Blake) |
I’m
struck by the word way in that final
verse of the gospel reading. It appears
twice, as you just heard, 1st in Jesus’ dismissal of Bartimaeus, then in
Bartimaeus’ action. The way that the healed man goes, the choice
that he makes, is the way of Jesus. Jesus
is on his way to Jerusalem, and as Mark has made clear to us readers, and tried
to make clear to the 12, he’s on his way to his passion and death.
In
a sense, Bartimaeus is ahead of the rest of Jesus’ disciples, whom he’s just
joined, following Jesus. As we’ve also
heard from Mark, the 12 apostles are following Jesus geographically from
Galilee toward Jerusalem, but they’re not following him in faith, in
understanding his message—neither his attempts to tell them what will be his
fate as the Son of David (10:47-48), that is, Messiah, nor his attempts to
convince them that they must be humble and must serve their brothers and
sisters.
We’re
not told that Bartimaeus understands all that either. Rather, it’s left to our imagination. We may read the verse as suggesting that he’s
following the way of Jesus wherever it leads—giving Jesus his full faith (“your
faith has saved you”). We also remember
that in the Acts of the Apostles, Jesus’ disciples repeatedly refer to his
teachings and to their belief in his resurrection as “the Way.” They are those who’ve finally grasped more
fully who he is and what he taught, and are trying to live as he taught, even
in the face of persecution. This is “the
Way”—to eternal life. And Bartimaeus
willingly chooses to make this way his way.
All
3 Synoptics record a form of this story.
All of them say that the healed blind man, or 2 blind men in Matthew’s
version, follow Jesus, but only Mark uses that telling phrase “on the way.” None of them, however, gives the healed man’s
personal name, which is a 2d point in the passage that strikes me.
Bartimaeus
means, as Mark tell us, “son of Timaeus” (v. 46). It’s not his own name. So in all 3 Synoptic versions, he’s
anonymous. In a sense, he represents all
who put their faith in Jesus Son of David, Jesus Christ; who experience
Christ’s healing, in any form that takes; and having been graced, choose to
follow him. He represents us if and when make a conscious choice
to follow Jesus, even to Jerusalem, whatever form our own share in his cross
may take. “Go your way; your faith has
saved you” is a choice put before us every day, never once and for all. For that faith to continue to save us, we
must continue to follow Jesus on the way.
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