Mark 10:46-52 tells the story of Bartimaeus who was blind.  He heard Jesus passing and wanted to be healed. He called out but he was shushed by those around him. He shouted louder. Jesus heard him and called him. The persons then said take heart he is calling you. Bartimaeus threw off his coat sprang up and went to Jesus. Jesus asked him what did he want and he  answered to see.  

There is a lot to unpack in this story. There is the crowd’s response and Bartimaeus’ responses to the crowd and to Jesus. Are we blind too and in what ways?

The healing of Bartimaeus is the last healing recorded by Mark.  After Bartimaeus was healed he became a disciple of Jesus and went with him to Jerusalem. When Jesus does something good for us do we follow him closely or do we go back to our old ways till the next time we need healing or another favour?

There was a crowd around Bartimaeus and he was not conforming to what was expected of him.  He was making a noise wanting to be heard.  They thought he should shut up.  Do you think they thought he could not be helped? That Jesus would not notice him?   In 21^st century Jamaica we would have done the same thing. We would have thought that he should shut up and keep in his space.  Who was he that he should be disturbing those around him.

I am reminded of the blind persons I used to see playing the accordion or harmonica and persons dropping coins in their pan. I wonder if that was something Bartimaeus would have done. For those who were shushing him, he was already broken, so what did he hope to accomplish with calling on Jesus.  He had no friends like the man who was let down through the roof in Luke.  He only had himself to rely on.   So Bartimaeus shouted louder.  He paid no attention to the crowd.  He knew what he wanted and went for it. 

Bartimaeus’ determination to be healed, to make better for himself is seen in his response to Jesus hearing him.  The passage says “And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you. So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus”.  All of a sudden, the crowd notices Bartimaeus because Jesus a man of importance notices him.  Before he was a nobody, a person whose status was not important. Do we behave in a similar manner?  We keep others down instead of helping them up? We pay no attention to the little people around us. The physically challenged, the unfortunate, the ones who have been hit down by life and see no way of standing up again, those who eek out an existence dependent on the mercy of others to live.  

Maybe we feel that we are like Bartimaeus.  Hit down by life’s challenges and see no way out.  The people around us crowd us out.  They overshadow us and at every step of the way as we try to be noticed and stand on our feet, they shut us up. They keep us down instead of helping us.  But Bartimaeus was not deterred and we who feel that we have been marginalized and shushed should not either. 

The passage says Bartimaeus flung of his coat and sprang up. When he was called he rose to the occasion. Many times we are in a space where we feel handicapped but when called out to make a change we remain in the same space, because we are afraid of being that better person.  We believe the crowd and what they say about us. We never throw off our coat and come for healing.

Today is the day Jesus is calling you to come out of your little space into a larger one of abundant love and life, where opportunities abound. You just have to come and see.  Bartimaeus was bold in coming forward for healing and we too must be bold in coming to Jesus, to have our needs met. We must not be afraid of the crowd but boldly call out and affirm our right to dignity. We do so as the strength of God pilot us; the power of God preserve us; the wisdom of God instruct us; and the hand of God protect us. May the way of God direct us; the shield of God defend us and the host of God guard us against the snares of evil and the temptations of the world. Where God is all is well, all will be well. All manner of things will be well.