Reflection on the Word for the Sunday of October 24, 2021
THE LORD ENLIGHTENS US - Mark 10:46-52
10:46 They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside.10:47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" 10:48 Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" 10:49 Jesus stood still and said, "Call him here." And they called the blind man, saying to him, "Take heart; get up, he is calling you." 10:50 So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. 10:51 Then Jesus said to him, "What do you want me to do for you?" The blind man said to him, "My teacher, let me see again." 10:52 Jesus said to him, "Go; your faith has made you well." Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.
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The scribes and Pharisees often demanded signs from Jesus, saying that if you show us a sign, and by that they meant a miracle, then we will believe you. This gospel account creates a little controversy as well, because according to the Jewish tradition there is no need for the Messiah to perform miracles in order to be acknowledged as the real Messiah, because the Messiah aka the Christ is not a miracle worker, but rather a king.
In the contemporary belief system the Christ was required to reestablish the Royal House of King David and to repel the Roman invaders from the land of Israel.
Kings, even the anointed ones, and in theory, all Kings of Israel and Judah were anointed ones, they were not required to perform miracles. The men, who performed miracles, were the prophets. Thus, when the scribes demanded miracles aka supernatural signs from Jesus in order to believe him, it meant, that only then we will believe you, that you are a prophet, sent by God.
It is written in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 21, that exactly this was what the crowd believed that Jesus was a prophet. When "Jesus entered into the temple of God, and drove out all of those who sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the money-changers' tables, and the seats of those who sold the doves. All the city was stirred, saying, 'Who is this?' The multitudes said, 'This is the prophet, Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.' "
Paradoxically, the Roman government legally received him as king, as a Royal threat to the empire, labeling him on the cross, as the king of the Jews. Interestingly and characteristically he didn't do any miracle regarding his kingship, but the one he foretold the scribes and the Pharisees, when they demanded a miracle of him, by saying, that "Teacher, we want to see a sign from you."
He answered them in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 12, that "an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and there will no sign be given them, but the sign of Jonah, the prophet. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
The biblical prophets perform miracles as rare events, called signs, serving as reminders of the invisible, but ultimate presence of God the Almighty, who is the only king of the universe, and the sole owner of the creation. These signs were called miracles, supernatural events, including foretelling the future, resurrecting the dead, healing the sick, defeating armies, multiplying the food, and so on.
However, not even the prophets performed miracles 24/7 or 365 days a year, because miracles were not the rule but the exemption, and most of the time they served not as ultimate game changers in social life or in political life or in warfare, but the signs of the presence of God the Almighty among the people.
Many deeds of the prophets contained a direct, visible message from God, that God is our Rock and Liberator, our Redeemer and Provider, based on analogical events between Earth and Heaven, as also the Emerald Tablet says, that as above so below, as below so above, the miracles are the work of the One, as all things were from the One.
Just as God was able to free the people with a strong arm from Egypt, the house of slavery, and take the people to the Promised Land, so God is able to free us from the slavery of sin, and take us into Heaven. As God was able to resurrect some people from death on Earth, so God is able to give us eternal life above, in Heaven.
In the case of the blind, some self-appointed people of self-importance could say, that with the healing skills of Jesus and by the Biblical obligation of the love of your neighbor Jesus should have opened an optometrist clinic to heal the blind 24/7 or at least in regular office hours, and occasionally paying a home visit to the shut-in blind people or giving roadside assistance to blind beggars on the streets or along ancient trade-roads. On the other side of this obligation even the Christ King should not have missed the millions of PR opportunities that could have served the Gospel, they also could say.
However, even in his life, miracles were not the rule but the exemption, and they served rather as signs than a factory reset of sins and punishments, or a sudden general relief of post-flood sufferings and regular fate of the fallen human nature.
Also, healing or curing the lame, the deaf and blind required a channeled connections where God is the healer, Jesus is the channel and the faith in the sick or the peers is the connection, as it is written in the Gospel of Matthew that he did not do almost any miraculous healing in his own hometown, because they did not believe in him.
Thus, the scribes wanted divine signs in order to believe. However, it does not work that way. You must believe first, and after you will be given signs, and you will see miracles. Even just to recognize such ordinary miracles like the sunrise, you need faith, then how much more faith we need to experience the extraordinary miracles like the unexplained healing of the sick, or the unexpected turning of the wheel of fortune. Also the scientific wisdom itself is among the miracles, as science is based on the observation of the creation and on the observation of the laws the creator gave the Universe to operate as a Swiss watch.
Thus, giving back the vision to the blind Bartimeus was a prophetical act speaking the sign language, that as God is able to restore the physical vision in people, so God is also able to open the eyes of our hearts, one by one, and community by community.
It did not happen in an assembly line style, but at that particular time and place it happened only to Bartimeus, who had to assert repeatedly that he wants to speak with Jesus, calling him the Son of David, which is a title of the Messiah.
It was the leap of faith from the blind man, and Jesus answered him that "Go; your faith has made you well." And Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.
May God, the Almighty Healer, heal the nations on Earth, as we pray, that may our Master, Jesus Christ be the channel of the power of God for us and in us, as we beg for faith and enlightenment every day.
May the Lord open our eyes in our hearts in order to see the invisible, about what Apostle Paul said, that “faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen.” AMEN
