----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Nivard McGlynn …
Subject: Bartimaeus
In today’s Gospel St Mark, (8:46-52), “Bartimaeus shouted all the louder”.
When we recognize the darkness of our own blindness, let us cry out with all our heart. “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!” The people ahead told Bartimaeus to ‘shut up’. The people ahead of Jesus are the crowds of bodily desires and the uproar caused by our temptations. Before Jesus comes into our hearts these disturb our thoughts by tempting us. They thoroughly muddle the words in our hearts as we pray.
We often wish to be converted to the Lord when we have committed some wrong. When we try to pray earnestly against the wrongs we have committed, images of our sins come into our hearts. They obscure our inner vision. They disturb our minds and overwhelm the sound of our voice. The more our heart's voice is attacked, the more firmly we must persist to overcome the uproar of forbidden thoughts. We must break in on our Lord's ears by our perseverance.
When we persist in our prayer, we fix Jesus to our hearts as he passes by. He stops and calls us into his presence to be healed of our blindness.
NJB 52 Jesus said to him, 'Go; your faith has saved you.' And at once his sight returned and he followed him along the road. | Vulgate 52 Iesus autem ait illi vade fides tua te salvum fecit et confestim vidit et sequebatur eum in via | KJV 52 And1161 Jesus2424 said2036 [5627] unto him846, Go thy way5217 [5720]; thy4675 faith4102 hath made4982 thee4571 whole4982 [5758]. And2532 immediately2112 he received his sight308 [5656], and2532 followed190 [5707] Jesus2424 in1722 the way3598. | DRB 52 And Jesus saith to him: Go thy way. Thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he saw and followed him in the way. |
(GILL) and followed Jesus in the way: that is, to Jerusalem. The Vulgate Latin, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, read "him", instead of "Jesus"; but the Syriac and Persic versions read neither. This man was an emblem of the people of God, before, at, and after conversion: before conversion; for, as he was blind, so are they; they are without any spiritual sight and discerning of God, as in Christ, as the God of all grace, as their Covenant God and Father; …
(Clarke) Mar 10:52 -
Followed Jesus in the way - Instead of τῳ Ιησου, Jesus, several eminent critics read αυτω, him. This is the reading of ABCDL, fourteen others, Coptic, Ethiopic, Armenian, later Syriac in the margin, two Persic, Vulgate, all the Itala, and Origen once. Jesus is the common reading; but this sacred name having occurred so immediately before, there could be no necessity for repeating it here, nor would the repetition have been elegant.
Verse 52 followed him along the road. Jerusalem Translation re-echoes along the road –the disciples, followers, Mk.9:34, 10:17,32,52.
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| Jericho Tell es Sultan from south |
(Navarre Bible) And immediately he received his sight and followed Him on His way." Following Jesus on His way. You have understood what our Lord was asking to from you and you have decided to accompany Him on His way. You are trying to walk in His footsteps, to clothe yourself in Christ's clothing, to be Christ Himself: well, your faith, your faith in the light our Lord is giving you, must be both operative and full of sacrifice. Don't fool yourself. Don't think you are going to find new ways. The faith He demands of us is as I have said. We must keep in step with Him, working generously and at the same time uprooting and getting rid of everything that gets in the way" ([Blessed] J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 195-198).
The Three Passion Predictions
in the Synoptic Gospels
Prediction Mark Matthew Luke Following
First 8:31 16:13-33 9:18-22 Peter’s Confession
Second 9:31 17:22-23 9:44 Transfiguration and Healing of Demon Possessed Boy
Third 10:32-34 20:17-19 18:31-33 Rich Young Ruler Dialogue
+ + +
Sacra Pagina The Gospel of MARK
inter pp 316-320
inter pp 316-320
The Healing of Blind Bartimaeus (10:46-52)
Verse 52: And Jesus said to him: “Go. Your faith has saved you.” And immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.
Notes
52.Go. Your faith has saved you: There is no healing word or touch here (compare 8:22-26). There is simply Jesus' declaration that Bartimaeus' faith has "saved" him-a verb (sozein) that can refer to both physical and spiritual healing (even "salvation"). See the same declaration by Jesus in the story of the woman with the flow of blood in Mark 5:34.
immediately he regained his sight: The healing is instantaneous and complete, in contrast to the gradual healing in Mark 8:22-26.
followed him on the way: The combination of the words "follow" and "way" suggests that Bartimaeus became a follower of Jesus and went up to Jerusalem with him (though he is never heard from again).
INTERPRETATION
The healing of blind Bartimaeus is on the surface a miracle story, but it is also, and more profoundly, a dialogue about faith. After setting the scene in 10:46 Mark narrates Bartimaeus' repeated cry in vv. 47-48: "Son of David, have mercy on me!" When Jesus summons him in v. 49, Bartimaeus rushes to Jesus in v. 50. Jesus elicits his request ("that I may see again") in v. 51, and in v. 52 declares him healed from his blindness ("your faith has saved you"), and Bartimaeus follows Jesus on the way up to Jerusalem.
The blind Bartimaeus displays prophetic insight. His choice of the epithet "Son of David" evokes Jesus' royal lineage as well as contemporary Jewish traditions about Solomon as a magician and healer. The beggar Bartimaeus here asks for more than money ("that I may see again"), and he gets even more than he asks for ("your faith has saved you"). Bartimaeus emerges as an exemplar of faith in Jesus and seems to accept Jesus' invitation to become his disciple.
As the conclusion of Mark's journey narrative the Bartimaeus episode in 10:46-52 is linked to the earlier healing of a blind man in 8:22-26 (which constitutes the beginning of the journey). Besides bearing witness to Jesus' power as a healer, the two accounts by their very position in Mark's outline have obvious symbolic significance.
Both texts are stories about blind men who receive the gift of sight from Jesus, and both feature a large amount of dialogue. In 8:22-26 there are ritualistic or even magical elements (use of spittle, laying on of hands), whereas in 10:46-52 there are no healing actions or words, and what stands out is the faith of Bartimaeus ("your faith has saved you"). In 8:22- 26 the healing is complicated and gradual, whereas in 10:46-52 it is immediate and complete. In 8:22-26 the man is sent home and told not to enter the village, while in 10:46-52 Bartimaeus follows Jesus on the way.
The Markan journey narrative has been primarily concerned with coming to see who Jesus is and what it means to follow him. At the outset Mark 8:22-26 reminds the reader how difficult it can be to see these things clearly, while at the end Mark 10:46-52 illustrates a clear-sighted faith in Jesus the Son of David as the agent of God's healing power and the enthusiastic and wholehearted response that he evokes from people of faith. More important than the restoration of Bartimaeus' physical sight is his spiritual insight into the person of Jesus.
The Bartimaeus story also serves as a bridge to the next phases in Mark's story of Jesus' public ministry: his teaching in deed and word in Jerusalem (chs. 11-12); his apocalyptic discourse (ch. 13); and his Passion, death, and resurrection (chs. 14--16). In Markan geography Jerusalem is the place where Jesus is rejected and put to death.
The way of Jesus turns out to be the way of the cross: the way of rojcc tion by his Jewish contemporaries, the way of betrayal by his own dis ciples, and the way of suffering and death at the hands of the Jewish and Roman authorities. Along the journey described in 8:22-10:52 Jesus has taught his disciples who he is, what awaits him (see 8:31; 9:31; 10:33-34), and what it means to follow him. Bartimaeus has received the gift of sight and sets out on the way of Jesus: the way that leads to Jerusalem.
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