Proper 25: Gospel, Mark 10:46-52                                       

Mark 10:46-52 

Jericho. The very name strikes careful Bible readers as the tag of a city that didn’t much deserve to exist. God took care of that. It’s history was that of spiritual darkness so it only stands to reason that our gospel reading for the week joins a “city of darkness” with a dear soul who lives in his own private shadows, Bartimaeus. Jesus is passing out of Jericho, in Jesus’ day more of a region than a set municipality. And as he leaves this one Bartimaeus, who has become aware of the great healing ministry of the carpenter of Nazareth, cries out to him.

Jesus, despite the people’s instruction for the blind man to be silent, stops. It is significant when a “walking teacher,” known as a peripatetic, stops. He takes note of the man for a couple reasons. He’s blind and therefore suffering to be sure. But the man in the dark shows that, at least to some degree, God’s light has begun to pierce his darkness. He calls to Jesus and calls him, “Son of David.” When you hear that label for Jesus, think HOPE. For that is what is loaded in that simple title. And the hope is that in this Jesus all will be made right.

Jesus asks a question that is earth-shattering in its forthright quality and its power: “What do you want me to do for you?” I don’t know how you see this question, but I am amazed by it. Think what the man could have answered. Teacher, I want to see the light of day. My take on his answer. What does anyone in the dark desire, but light? Jesus let’s the man know his faith is pointed in the right direction, because the object of his hopeful cries gives him sight.

And oh what light he saw before him that day. And from that day on. God be praised!