The Healing of Bartimaeus

AM Psalm 137:1-6(7-9), 144 • PM Psalm 42, 43
Exod. 10:21-11:8 • 2 Cor. 4:13-18 • Mark 10:46-52

The healing of Bartimaeus is the last miracle which Mark records, and it takes place about a week before Jesus’s death. At the time it was believed that illness and disability were punishments because of someone’s sins; and, therefore, Bartimaeus was considered insignificant and unworthy of Jesus’s time. But Jesus always responds with compassion to those who cry out to Him, especially the marginalized of society. Jesus does not tell Bartimaeus to be quiet about the miracle, as Jesus wants His identity as the Messiah to be known as He heads toward Jerusalem and His death.

In Mark, Jesus looks on His disciples as being spiritually blind in their unwillingness to see Him in messianic terms. We, too, can be spiritually blind, looking on wealth, power, and possessions as signs of God’s favor.

On a personal note, it was vital for me—like Bartimaeus—to cry out for God’s help in the darkest hours of my substance abuse. God was always there, nurturing me back to recovery and long-term sobriety.

As with Bartimaeus, it is incumbent upon me to tell my story of God’s grace and my redemption.

Written by Christopher Koppel

Christopher is happy to be spending his senior years in Fayetteville, with his husband, Dennis, and his pooch, Milo.