As a long time high school teacher it was always awesome when that one student in the room who seemed to always be somewhat off kilter managed to be the first one to achieve an insight. While I often wondered what had happened to enable this breakthrough, the fact that it happened was always inspiring.
There is a blind man named Bartimaeus begging by the road near Jericho when Jesus comes by. As a blind person Bartimaeus would have little credibility and no social standing within the community. He would be dismissed as an outcast by most and regarded as a sinner by the religious elite.
As Jesus is coming into town a crowd begins to assemble along the roadside and Bartimaeus just happens to be in the mix. While shunned by them he manages to stand his ground and as Jesus approaches he cries out: “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.”
Where did this man – this outcast son-of-a-sinner – get this insight? Did he just shout out the musings of the crowd assembled there to see Jesus or did he arrive at his own insight?
Clearly he makes the crowd uncomfortable as they try – and fail – to silence him.
Why do they want to suppress the realization that Jesus is the Son of David? Does anyone else in this crowd wonder, too, if Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to challenge the Roman hegemony of Israel and restore the kingdom? Are they afraid that maybe he is, or have they been disappointed by others in whom they had placed their hope.
In the ancient Scriptures a person with the boldness and courage to withstand the crowd and proclaim loudly the insight of faith is called a prophet. While the age of prophecy is very specific to the ancient Israelites, each age has its prophets. While it can often be hard to tell the difference between a bore, an irrationalist, and a prophet, it is the endurance and the truth of the insight that stands as the proving ground.
It is never easy to be the prophet, and it is reasonable to assert that when one presumes to be a prophet that the chances are pretty high that it is the musings of a bore or an irrationalist.
A true prophet has much more to risk than to gain. Bartimaeus, although he has nothing and is accounted for nothing, still has much to lose by putting it all on the line. He might be blind and forced to beg for sustenance, but he has no skill, and nothing and probably no one to fall back on. His identity is as “the blind man who sits by the road to Jericho.” Whatever alms he received were given grudgingly by those who felt some pity for the man.
He uses this pity to his advantage as he called upon Jesus – but he does not need Jesus’ pity, and he certainly does not want Jesus to give him spare change.
He knows what the crowd does not. Jesus is indeed going to Jerusalem to inaugurate the Kingdom, but not the Kingdom of Israel. The son of David is going to announce the Kingdom of God – calling Israel back to its roots, and usher in the messianic age.
Bartimaeus must know that the prophet Isaiah foresaw this time, when the “Good News” would be proclaimed, and the messiah would bring sight to the blind, and announcing a year of favor for the poor. Bartimaeus seeks that Kingdom, and the mercy that comes with it, knowing that his very identity and livelihood is at stake.
Bartimaeus, the blind prophet, sacrifices who he is for the sake of announcing the Kingdom to the world. We need the courage to do the same.
Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.