Master, I want to see. The healing of Bartimeus, the content of today’s Gospel Reading, took place as Jesus was making his final entry into Jerusalem where he was to perform his last act (his self-offering on the cross). Having ‘taken leave’ of the fields where his ministry was characterized, to the most part, by working of signs, he was going to be more of a teacher than a wonderworker as he made his descent into Jerusalem. It was important for Jesus to make the shift because this particular phase of his mission is characterized by the gradual unfolding (revelation) of the mystery of his identity. Jerusalem was the place where Jesus was destined to perform his last and most important sign (cf. Luke 13:33). But in order for Jesus’ final act to achieve its desired goal (reconciling the world to the Father), it was imperative for the world to know and embrace him. The healing of Bartimeus, though itself a miracle (act), took place at this particular point because of the central role it plays in the on-going revelation to the world of Jesus’ identity. The teaching role that the healing of Bartimeus serves is accentuated especially when read in light of the two episodes that precede it, namely, the rich young man (cf. Mark 10:17-31) and the ambition of the siblings John and James (cf. Mark 10:35-45).
In contrast to the three characters in the said two preceding episodes, Bartimeus was not expected to portray an awareness of Jesus’ real identity such as he did. Blind and confined to the side of the road where he spent his days begging, Bartimeus did not enjoy the societal “privileges” that could have allowed him to come to the knowledge of Jesus. He could not even afford to have his own name! He was living in the shadow of his father by whose name he was known (Bar-Timeus, son of Timeus). As such, very little was "expected" of him. Yet, he is the one through whose eyes those who were with Jesus got a glimpse of Jesus’ true identity as a giver and restorer of life/wholeness. When Jesus inquired of him what he wanted, he promptly responded: "that I may see." Whereas the rich man had wanted to know what to do so that he could inherit eternal life, and whereas the two siblings John and James had wanted to share in Jesus' glory in his "kingdom," Bartimeus simply wanted to see. He simply wanted he gift of sight. He had heard about Jesus from what others had told him, and when the opportunity presented itself, he knew best to ask for the one thing that he needed most: the ability to see. He wanted to be restored to wholeness. He wanted to be fully alive, something for which he must have yearned for a long time. Having lived his life as a poor beggar, Bartimeus might have wished to be granted wealth and fame, the things that he couldn’t have had the privilege to enjoy as a blind beggar, so that he too could take his rightful place in the community. He might have wanted to ask for revenge for those who might have mistreated him as he lived his days by the roadside. However, he didn’t ask for any of those. Jesus had come to gift his brothers and sisters with the fullness of life (cf. John 10:10). Bartimeus recognized this fact, and it is this that he asked of Jesus.
Whereas Bartimeus might have simply wanted Jesus to gift him with physical sight, for Mark the evangelist, his healing was both symbolic and significant. Mark portrays those who had heard and witnessed Jesus' teaching and mighty deeds as deaf and blind because of their slowness to understand and recognize the person that Jesus was. The rich young man, who might have had the advantage of learning the prophets and the prophesies about the Christ, refused to be led by Jesus to that eternal life that he had enquired about. James and John (and the other disciples, for that matter), who were privileged to hear and walk beside Jesus, were slow to understand who he was. It was the unlikely poor Bartimeus who did recognize in Jesus the path to fullness of life (eternal life). He recognized that Jesus had the power to lead him to the fullness of life by restoring him to wholeness. And it is for this that he went.
Bartimeus becomes for us, together with those who had accompanied Jesus, witnessed his mighty deeds, but were still slow to fully recognize him, an “eye-opener.” Like him, we too need to recognize our blindness and approach Jesus with a request to have our sights restored. For it is only with our sights restored that we can clearly see Jesus and be moved to follow him just as the healed Bartimeus did.