30th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2024
Jeremiah 34:7-9 Hebrews 5:1-6 Mark 10:46-52
The Gospel today may prompt us to ask ‘have I heard it before? Indeed, there are two accounts of Jesus curing blind men, in the Gospel of St Mark. The first one is that of the Blind Man at Bethsaida. His friends had taken him to Jesus. The Lord touched him and he was partially cured. But Jesus wanted to make sure that the man understood what was happening to him. He ‘looked intently at him’ – he engaged him and healed him of his blindness. The Lord had prompted an act of Faith from the blind man.
Today’s Gospel reading has the story of another blind man and there is another description of Faith. This man, Bartimaeus, just happened to be sitting on the roadside as Jesus passed by. He was blind. He heard the commotion. He had heard about the preacher from Galilee. So, he gave it a try. “Jesus, Son of David have mercy on me”. The crowd tried to keep him quiet. They thought he might be an embarrassment to the town. But he persisted “Jesus, have mercy on me”.
It is a lesson for us in Faith and Prayer. His faith was not based on religion or experience – it was a sort of opportune Faith! When we are desperate we will believe more easily. His Prayer can teach us a little more. He calls out to Jesus and does so a second time, despite the efforts of the crowd to keep him quiet. His prayer is a prayer of Praise as well as of petition. “Son of David, have pity on me”/ “Rabbuni, Master, let me see again”. Jesus notices him. Jesus responds to his petition because of his act of faith. And having been cured he followed Jesus.
Between these two incidents, involving the blind men, St Mark’s Gospel shows us Jesus forming his disciples. Over the last seven Sundays we read how the Lord revealed himself to his disciples. We witnessed Peter, on behalf of the disciples, declaring that ‘You are the Christ’. Jesus gets them to express their Faith in him and teaches them that if they want to be disciples they must give up everything. He reveals that he would be betrayed and killed. They were to have the innocence of children and be servants to one another. Their reward for being faithful would be eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven.
During these teachings and revelations the eyes of the disciples were opened in a different way. The eyes of their souls were able to see and they could express their Faith in Jesus as Lord and Master.
Once again, Jesus showed what an effective teacher he was. He used the blindness of the eyes and his curing of that blindness to illustrate how we can be blind in so many different ways.
“Seeing is believing!” Jesus is getting us to open our eyes to recognise him, even in our own world.
Lord, let us recognise the signs of your action in our lives, in the lives of those around us and in the wonders of our world.