October 27, 2024 – Twenty-Third Sunday After Pentecost
Kahu Gary Percesepe
Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. ~ Mark 10:46
Mark frames a scene which disrupts an important ritual. The blind man sits, as usual, beside the road. He is blind but not deaf; he hears people, as usual, pass by, heading up to Jerusalem, not far from Jericho, a short steep climb up the road that can still be walked today. He has a beggar’s pitch, a practiced combination of words and gestures to draw attention to his need; travelers have their own rituals of engagement or avoidance, the ancient dance of charity.
This ritual smooths the social awkwardness between beggar and client. Rituals are like grooves in the road, showing us where to walk. Here is a beggar, doing what beggars do. The very existence of beggars, of course, is evidence of a broken social system, but the grooved road supplies rituals for avoidance or forgetting. Conscience is burned or salved with a few pennies.
Mark disrupts the scene by giving the beggar a name. The name is comical, for it repeats. Bar, in Hebrew, the son. Thus, verse 46: “the son of Timaeus, the son of Timaeus, a beggar, was sitting, as usual beside the road.”
He has come early perhaps, because he’s heard who’s coming, the shoot of the stump of Jesse, the father of David. When Bartimaeus adds “son of David” to the naming of Jesus, he stops Jesus in his tracks, disrupts the grooved ritual. This blind man sees a lot. Suddenly, it is Jesus’ disciples who are blind, for they have become the enforcers of ritual. They scold the beggar, try to silence him, they point out that this is not written in the church bulletin, that he is speaking too loudly, that there are no lines for him to speak, let alone cry out. But Bartimaeus will not be silenced. He has gained Jesus’ attention. The disciples are given instructions. Call him, Jesus says. The disciples, blind till now, offer encouragement to the beggar, Take heart, get up, he is calling you.
Jesus asks a strange question, “What do you want that I should do for you?” Isn’t it obvious, Jesus? But how often have we clung to our comfortable blindness, our charitable embrace of the status quo? The beggar’s cloak is all the man has by the side of the road, begging. But Bartimaeus astonishes us. He casts aside his means of living and with it all the rituals that keep the wealthy comfortable for dropping a few useless coins to keep beggars at bay. Bartimaeus springs up, goes to Jesus and says, “My rabbi, that I may see.” Jesus says, Go, your faithfulness has rescued you. BANG, son of Timaeus son of Timaeus the twice named man could see, and he began following Jesus on the Way.
His cloak behind him, his former way of life, gone. The pattern broken, ritual suspended, his faith has made him well, Jesus says. But where is his faith seen? He made no confession of faith, didn’t sign Billy Graham’s personal decision card, has embraced no doctrine, spurned the catechism class. No, none of that.
Bartimaeus shows us faith as a verb. He sprung up, he threw off, he gave up, he got up, he followed. His faith is seen in his actions. Faith that doesn’t get to its feet is empty. There is a word here for us, Keawala’i: Bartimaeus was not afraid to take a risk. He put all his money on Jesus. What is this church banking on? Doing nothing doesn’t change our situation. Worry and fear don’t change a thing. There comes a time for bold, decisive action. The best way to get hit is to stand in the middle of the road.
Our deeds follow us beyond the grave.
Which is where Jesus is headed on the Jericho Road. This is not merely a story of healing; it is a call story. Bartimaeus was a disciple of Jesus who followed Jesus on the way to the cross and that is why his name is doubly remembered in scripture. Mark contrasts him with the rich young ruler who departed last week in sadness for he had many possessions, blind, while the beggar who had nothing gladly springs up, throws off the tool of his trade; newly sighted, he follows Jesus on the Way.
I have this fantasy that Bartimaeus became an evangelist. In my fantasy, people inquire about his funny name and Bartimaeus would say “Yes, yes, but did you know that I was once blind?” Astonished, the people say, “Well, it certainly looks like you can see now!” Yes, yes, let me tell you about how that happened, walk with me on the road. You see, it all began one day when I met Jesus on the way…
And then I remember the relation between gift and debt: Bartimaeus, gifted with sight will soon fix his new eyes up on the hill where his savior hangs on a cross. The crucified God is what he sees. Yes, I believe he became an evangelist. Amene.