Reflections from your Co-Pastors
May 27, 2021
The Gospel of Mark - 10: 46-52
Jesus went all through Galilee and beyond trying to teach people a new way of living. A way that welcomed the outcast and included the marginalized. A way that gave new life to the hopeless and created a new order in which no one was left behind. But no matter what he did, the people around him had a hard time seeing what it was that Jesus envisioned.
Yet, here is Bartimaeus, a blind man, sitting by the roadside begging. A large crowd is approaching, and he hears that Jesus of Nazareth is among those passing by. He cannot see when Jesus is going by, so all he has to bring attention to himself is his voice. He begins to cry out, "Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!" Many in the crowd rebuke him and ask him to be silent, but Bartimaeus cries out all the louder, "Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!"
Bartimaeus, though blind, still was well aware of who was passing by. He knew that Jesus was the Son of David, the promised Messiah of the lineage of King David. Jesus was the fulfillment of the prophecy of the seed of David. "Son of David" was a Messianic title. Being referred to as "Son of David" meant that Jesus was the long awaited Deliverer, the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies.
Bartimaeus, despite his blindness and all its connotations of spiritual ignorance, sees the royal dimensions of
