The story of Bartimaeus

May 26, 2016 Thursday, 8th Week in Ordinary Time 1st Reading: 1 Pt 2: 2-5. 9-12Gospel: Mk 10:46-52
As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar, Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth passing by, he began to call out, “Son of David, Jesus, have mercy on me!” Many people scolded him and told him to keep quiet, but he shouted all the louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called the blind man saying, “Take heart. Get up, he is calling you.” He immediately threw aside his cloak, jumped up and went to Jesus.Then Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said, “Master, let me see again!” And Jesus said to him, “Go your way, your faith has made you well.” And immediately he could see, and he followed Jesus along the road.

D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life
Experience)

When the disciples called over Bartimaeus at the request of Jesus, “he immediately threw aside his cloak, jumped up and went to Jesus” (verse 50). This is not the first time we read about cloaks in St. Mark’s Gospel. In Mark 2:21, the word cloak appears in Jesus’ teaching about the impropriety of sewing a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. In Mark 5:25-30 a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years got cured after she touched the cloak of Jesus. In Mark 6:56 people begged Jesus to allow them to touch even just the fringe of his cloak. At the Transfiguration (Mark 9:3) the cloak of Jesus became dashingly white, and at Jesus entry to Jerusalem (Mark 11:7-8) people spread their cloaks on the road for him. Mark 13:16 is an apocalyptic advice for a man in the fields not to turn back to fetch his cloak. During the Passion (Mark15:20) soldiers removed the purple cloak from Jesus and clothed him in his own clothes. At the foot of the cross (Mark 15:24) Roman soldiers drew lots over Jesus’ cloak.

“Cloak” took special significance in the hands of Bartimaeus who set it aside when Jesus called for him. The act was a fitting symbol of setting aside the old man. The circumstance of blindness reinforced the symbolism of that spiritual encounter where Bartimaeus saw Jesus with the eyes of faith. Faith empowered him to proclaim Jesus as “Son of David.” The spiritual vision of Bartimaeus stood in stark contrast with the ‘blindness’ of the Apostles who were still preoccupied with where to sit in the kingdom of heaven even while escorting Jesus to Jerusalem to die.

We ‘see’ Jesus in the Eucharist we celebrate. Are we willing to set aside our old cloaks as Bartimaeus did?– (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email:[email protected].

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