Marck 10: 46-52
In today’s passage, Bartimaeus shouts, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” How in the world does that blind beggar recognize what no one else can see, that the man on the road in front of him is indeed the Messiah? Although the crowd tried to make the blind man silent, he cried out again more loudly, “Have mercy on me.”
Jesus hears him this time and stops, asks the blind beggar, “What do you want me to do for you?” Oh, come on, Jesus. What the question is—what do I want? What does Jesus think he wants, a pair of sunglasses or a strong blind cane? Jesus wants to hear Bartimaeus say it, say exactly what he wants, exactly how much he believes Jesus can do. The blind man expresses his desire in six words—“My teacher, let me see again.” Then, Jesus replies, “Go, your faith has made you well.”
“Go,” Jesus tells him, but the blind man does not go anywhere. But he decides to follow Jesus’s way, the way the blind beggar chooses the road to Jerusalem in the company of Jesus, even though he seems not to understand the way where it will lead, which is the cross.
Like the blind man, we still want to make this story our own—to encounter Jesus, to be called to him by name, to find the words to tell him what we want, and to be healed, fixed, and made whole. However, the world seems too much for us—too much to see, to do, and to be. So, I wonder we often close our eyes not to see and not to face reality by shutting our eyes and remaining at the place where we are, seeking smaller, more private, and safer.
Maybe what we need the most is—crying out, springing up, and asking for our heart’s desire. And God still calls us to become a disciple and a messenger who can reach out and speak to others, “Take heart, get up, and God is calling you.”
As a believer, being able to see does not always mean that it is a beautiful thing. Rather, we often face and see reality—good along with awful and messy; the lovely along with ugly and broken—in ourselves, in everyone we meet, in the community, and in the world.
So, the question we have to wrestle with is, “Are we really willing to see or not?” Are we ready to bruise our hearts when we are able to see? Do we have enough people who still point their fingers in the right direction and deliver the message, “Take heart, get up, and God is calling you.”
Thanks be to God.