“Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.”
Jesus always responds to our desire for him. He seems especially receptive to those who go out of their way to see him, those who are willing to make a scene, and even to be looked down upon by others. The crowd is a perpetual phenomenon that makes approaching Jesus difficult. We might have to climb a tree to see him. We might have to keep calling out to him when we are told to be silent. We might be rebuked for being too childlike. Yet Jesus responds to those who refuse to let the crowds keep him from them. He preaches to the crowds, but his healing power goes out to those outliers who seek him with all their heart. The path to the Lord's power is humility that perseveres.
And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.
But he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me.”
Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”
So they called the blind man, saying to him,
“Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you.”
It is unfortunate that the crowd seemed to help not so much because those in it cared as because they feel like they should help. They realized that Jesus was apparently requesting the opposite of what they had been attempting in trying to keep Bartimaeus from bothering him, and, to their credit, they were at least able to perform an about face. For our part we want to be more like Bartimaeus and less like the crowd. We want to realize our desperate need for Jesus and act accordingly. We must be on guard against being so comfortable around Jesus that we see our role as a maintenance of the status quo.
Jesus said to him in reply, “What do you want me to do for you?”
The blind man replied to him, “Master, I want to see.”
The members of that crowd didn't realize that there was a way in they themselves were blind. They, and we to some extent are all like the Pharisees, of whom Jesus said, "you remain guilty because you claim you can see" (see John 9:41). In our complacency and desire for the status quo we necessarily substitute illusion for true vision. But what do we really see if we don't realize the depth of our need for Jesus?
Jesus told him, ‘Go your way; your faith has saved you.”
Immediately he received his sight
and followed him on the way.
The crowd was close to Jesus and believed that it was seeing him. Bartimaeus was at a distance, but he perceived the deeper truth of the identity of Jesus by faith. His unrestrained desire reached out to Jesus and Jesus responded. The faith that saw more deeply than sight also restored vision to his eyes.
The writer of Sirach knew that in this life we never see as much as we might see of God and his works.
Yet even God’s holy ones must fail
in recounting the wonders of the LORD,
Though God has given these, his hosts, the strength
to stand firm before his glory.
It is even likely that by comparison to what remains unseen the things we do see are but a small percentage. That there is so much more for us gives us good grounds to have the very same desperate desire of Bartimaeus, the very same willingness to do all we can to direct our gaze toward the light of the world, Jesus Christ, and to see everything else in that glorious light.
The Most High possesses all knowledge,
and sees from of old the things that are to come:
He makes known the past and the future,
and reveals the deepest secrets.
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