Blind Bartimaeus and Psalm 13

This Sunday we come to the story of Blind Bartimaeus. It is so easy to place the story in isolation and miss so much of what is going on. The key to understanding what is happening is to place the gemstone of this story into the golden setting of the rest of the Gospel of Mark. This is the last story before the triumphal entry into Jerusalem which would mark the beginning of the week in which Jesus would be tortured, crucified, and ultimately raised from the dead. In other words, this was the week in which God himself would pay with his own blood the price for our sin and disobedience. He would take upon himself our punishment and give us graciously his own perfect righteousness. In contrast to what Jesus was doing, we see the spiritual blindness of the disciples who constantly bicker over which of them was the greatest. The light and love of Christ are also contrasted with the darkness and sin of the world he came to save. In many ways, Blind Bartimaeus symbolized the spiritual blindness and darkness of the world that Jesus was about to save.

Christ and the Pauper or Healing of the Blind Man – Andrey Mironov, 2009.
CC BY 4.0

We also tend only to see Bartimaeus only on this day that is recorded in chapter 10 of Mark’s Gospel. We don’t think about what it must have been like to be him on every day of his life leading up to this one. What must it have been like to live in darkness on the dirty streets of Jerusalem? What would it have been like to not only be blind but have people assume your blindness was because of your sin or the sin of your parents? In other words, every day Bartimaeus lived with the frustration of blindness, but also the shame of sin. The irony of the Gospel is that even the disciples are shown to be “blind” and sinful not because the eyes in their head didn’t work, but because the eyes of their heart were filled with darkness to the salvation Jesus was about to bring and the ways of the Kingdom of God.

One can hear the thoughts of Bartimaeus that he must have spoken on almost a daily basis in Psalm 13. “How long will you utterly forget me, O Lord? How long will you hide your face from me? Consider and hear me, O Lord my God; give light to my eyes, that I sleep not in death!” But this Psalm of lament does not end in despair. Nor does the tale of Bartimaeus. The Psalmist cries out from his darkness, “But my trust is in your mercy, and my heart is joyful in your salvation!” —Psalm 13:5 So too, Bartimaeus cries out, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” The Lord hears such cries and answers them with his healing and salvation.

The challenge is not just that we celebrate the healing of Bartimaeus or of the Psalmist, but that we also see our need for a savior, we see our need for Jesus. When he lifts up his countenance upon us can we cry out, “Have mercy on me, Son of David, give light to my eyes and my heart, that I will not sleep in death?” Can we recognize our spiritual blindness and our moral bankruptcy? In humility can we see our need for a savior? Perhaps the physical blindness of Bartimaeus was that which allowed him to really see the truth and in humility cry out to Jesus. May we be as fortunate.

†Bishop Mark