Gospel of Sunday, 27 October: Mark 10:46-52
XXX Sunday Year B
46 And they came to Jericho. And as he departed from Jericho with the disciples and a large crowd, Timothy’s son Bartimaeus, who was blind, sat by the road begging. 47 This man, on hearing that Jesus of Nazareth was there, began to cry out and say, “Son of David, Jesus, have mercy on me!” 48 Many were shouting at him to keep him quiet, but he shouted louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
49 Then Jesus stopped and said, “Call him!” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take courage! Get up, he is calling you!” 50 He threw off his cloak and leaped up and came to Jesus. 51 Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do to you?” And the blind man to him, “Rabbi, that I may regain my sight!” 52 And Jesus said to him, “Go, your faith has saved you.” And immediately he regained his sight and took to following him on the road.Mk 10:46-52
Dear sisters and brothers of Misericordia, I am Carlo Miglietta, a doctor, biblical scholar, layman, husband, father and grandfather (www.buonabibbiaatutti.it). Also today I share with you a short thought meditation on the Gospel, with special reference to the theme of mercy.
(see Mt 20:29-34; Lk 18:35-43)
Just as the healing of the blind man of Bethsaida preceded Peter’s confession, so the healing of the blind man of Jericho precedes the proclamation of Jesus as King-Messiah by the crowds in Jerusalem.
The miracle of the healing of the blind man of Jericho is loaded with symbolic values. First of all, the episode takes place in the city where the journey of liberation from the slavery of Egypt to the Promised Land ended, an impregnable fortress that only a prodigy of God (Jas. 6) was able to make fall into the hands of the Israelites. And blindness, which causes man to live in darkness, is a real and allegorical infirmity.
Jesus light of the world
In the Bible God is light. The psalmist prays, “Let the light of your face shine upon us, O Lord” (Sl 4:7). Isaiah says that God “will cause the blind to walk in ways they do not know…, will turn darkness before them into light” (Isaiah 42:16); “He who walks in darkness, having no light, let him hope in the name of the Lord, let him lean on his God” (Isaiah 50:10). The great promise of the prophets was the arrival of the Messiah who would illuminate the darkness: “Arise, clothe thyself with light, for thy light cometh, the glory of the Lord shineth upon thee” (Is 60:1); at the arrival of the Christ “the sun shall no more be thy light by day, neither shall the moon shine brighter upon thee. But the Lord will be for you an everlasting light, your God will be your radiance” (Is 60:19).
Jesus is announced by Simeon in the temple as “a light to enlighten the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel” (Lk 2:32). John says of him, “There came into the world the true light, the one who enlightens every man” (Jn 1:9). And Jesus says of himself, “I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (Jn 8:12; cf. 12:46). Introducing himself in the synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus says he came “to proclaim good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed” (Lk 4:18). To the Baptist who asks him if he is the Messiah, Jesus makes him answer, “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind will regain their sight” (Lk 7:22). And at the end of time, “There will be no more night, and they will no longer need lamplight or sunlight, for the Lord God will enlighten them” (Rev. 22:5).
Faith is illumination
Paul, in the darkness of blindness, would find light again only after Ananias laid his hands on him, bestowing the Holy Spirit on him (Acts 9:1-19). The early church will often call baptism “enlightenment.”
In the healing of the blind man of Jericho, the faith journey of every man is symbolized: without God’s light, each of us is in a desperate situation, “blind, sitting by the way, begging” (Mk 11:46). The blind man is sitting: he does not have the ability to stand. He is not even on the road, but off the road: he is not involved in the movement that leads to Jerusalem, the holy city. He is not self-sufficient: he is begging. This is the situation of our world, pinned down by its problems, unable to find meaning in life, gripped by the darkness of anguish and fear, oppressed by misery and death; and we all beg life for some survival, dazed in entertainment, in the race for money, pleasure, power, alienating ourselves in a thousand frivolities: but in the end we find ourselves alone, by the roadside, in darkness…
The Path of Faith
Fortunately, “Jesus passes by” (Mark 11:47): it is God who takes the initiative, who comes to meet our misery, who comes down from his heavens to rescue us. God hears man’s desperate cry for help and intervenes to deliver him, even if he only senses his presence.
We note that the crowds who “pass through” with Jesus try to dissuade the blind man from resorting to him, indeed “they rebuked him that he might be silent” (v. 43): God is not there, and if he is there he cannot hear you, so it is useless to resort to him These are crowds who stand around Jesus but may not follow him: only the healed blind man will follow. They are the many Christians who want to follow the Lord in their own way, unbothered by the poor, the marginalized, the oppressed around the world who cry out their pain and anger. They are the prototype of a Church that is often … atheistic, that does not believe in God’s power, in his ability to work miracles.
To this crowd the blind man gives a great example of true faith. First, he sets out to listen to the Word: “Having heard” (v. 47). The first step of Faith is listening. Paul will speak of the “upakoè pìsteos” (Rom 1:5), the “obedience of faith,” that is, that faith which is identified with obedience. The Greek “upakoè” (from “up,” “under,” and “akoùo,” “listening”), as well as the Latin “ob-audire” (“ob,” “toward”; “audire,” “to hear”) and the Italian “udire-obbedire,” recalls listening. Listening is the active attitude of the person (Ex 33:11; 1 Sam 3:9; Is 8:9) and the people (“Shemah”: Deut 5:1; 6:4; 9:1) before God who reveals himself. “Faith depends on hearing (“akoè”)” (Rom 10:17).
The announcement the blind man receives is that “Jesus, the Nazarene, was there (”estìn“)” (v. 47). Only the historical Jesus, the poor carpenter who came from lowly Nazareth (Jn. 1:46), the one who will die crucified as an evildoer, is man’s unique salvation, God’s ultimate answer, the light that pierces our darkness.
But then perseverance is needed, insistence in seeking the Lord, without allowing ourselves to be discouraged (“But he cried out louder”: v. 48). And a personal, direct, trusting relationship with God must be sought: the blind man calls Jesus by name: and “whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved… In no other is there salvation; for there is no other name under heaven given to men in which it is appointed that we may be saved” (Acts 2:21-4:12).
The blind man asks Jesus for his love, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” It is the wonderful “prayer of the heart” that in Orthodoxy will become the sweet mantra that, repeated rhythmically on the breath, will become the “prayer of the heart” of so many saints.
It is a messianic title that appears 19 times in the synoptics, never in John, and connotes a glorious royal messianism. It is the only time such is hinted at in Mark’s Gospel. But now the times are fulfilled: the Son of Man is about to suffer, will be delivered, but it is the Son of David, the glorious Messiah, who will come, as the next chapter says, to judge all nations. To understand this mystery of the Son of David about to be delivered and die on the cross, we need God to do for us disciples some things.
First: that we open our eyes.
Second: that we rise, that is, that we rise inwardly: the verb in Hebrew indicates resurrection. We must move from a reality of death to a reality of life.
Third: we must throw off the cloak. There is in the Bible a whole theology of clothing: when we talk about clothing, that always behind a very important symbolism. The cloak is a sign of man’s dignity, it is a sign of man’s power: that’s why Jesus’ greatest disfigurement will be the stripping of his garments, which will be drawn by lot: it is God who has renounced all power, all dignity. The man who wants to understand the mystery of Christ must not only open his eyes, must not only stand up, but must throw away his symbols of power, of dignity, recognize himself naked before Lord, and have faith in him alone.
And Jesus “stops” (v. 49) beside the man; he does not, however, call him directly, but through the Church (“Call him here”: v. 49): the Church has the task of bringing a proclamation of salvation that is not its own, but has been entrusted to it. The Church should never turn people away from God, but always bring to him all the sick, the suffering, sinners, those who are “in darkness and in the shadow of death” (Lk. 1:79). The Church must be hope and deliverance for all people, no one excluded.
Jesus asks the blind man, “What do you want me to do to you?” (v. 51). This is the same question he had asked James and John: there the Apostles ask him for power and glory, and Jesus answers them, “You do not know what you ask” (Mk. 10:36-40). Here the blind man asks for enlightenment, and he is granted: “Ana-blèpho,” which we generally translate, “That I may see,” literally means, “That I may look up,” and it probably has theological significance as well, expressing a quest beyond mere physical sight.
Jesus answers him, “Your faith has saved you” (v. 52). We note that Jesus never said to anyone, “I have saved you,” but rather, “Your faith has saved you” (cf. Lk 7:50; 17:19; Mk 5:34; 10:52…); “Go, and let it be done according to your faith” (Mt 8:13); “Truly great is your faith! May it be done to you as you desire” (Mt 15:28). Jesus is the true Educator”: ‘e-ducare’ in fact means to ‘draw out,’ to ‘bring forth’ from the other. “In responding to those he met, Jesus looked for the faith present in the other, as if he wanted to awaken and bring out his own faith. For he knew that faith is a personal act, which each person must perform in freedom: no one can believe in the place of another! Jesus knew that sometimes there is an absence of faith in men, an attitude that astonished him and made him powerless to work on their behalf (cf. Mk. 6:6); he was also aware that there can be an unreliable faith in his Name, aroused by his performing signs, miracles, as the fourth gospel notes: “Many, seeing the signs he did, put faith in his Name; but Jesus did not put faith in them“ (Jn. 2:23-24), because man quickly becomes religious, but is slow to believe… Instead, Jesus sought genuine faith in those he met, and when it was present he could say, ‘Your faith has saved you’” (E. Bianchi).
The healed blind man “set out to follow Jesus along the way” (v. 52): the man who experiences salvation and deliverance, the man who finds in Jesus the meaning of his living and also of his dying, becomes the follower, the disciple, who makes his life a praise of the Lord and his goodness. Only those who have tasted the sweetness of the Lord can become his apostle and witness. So many times our missionary impetus is low because we have had little experience of his salvation, we have not been enthused by God, we do not tremble with joy for him.
We the blind are therefore called first to experience that only Jesus is the light that overcomes darkness. May we too then know how to follow him “at once” (“parakrèma”: Lk 18:43), with readiness and enthusiasm like the miracle worker in Jericho, lest we deserve the condemnation of those who “preferred darkness to light” (Jn 3:18-21)!
Happy Mercy to all!
Anyone who would like to read a more complete exegesis of the text, or some insights, please ask me at migliettacarlo@gmail.com.